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This idea was provoked to me by a friend of mine who moved to DC for law school. He says that he really enjoys the city, its political environment and what it has to offer.
He does say it has some drawbacks however. One of the top aspects he described was, as he put, "I meet many people but everyone I meet is from somewhere else. No one is actually from here it seems."
He went to say how he prefers New York and, though also has many transplants, because you can find native New Yorkers to a degree.
I know much of this could be relative because all large cities have transplants, but he really emphasized that DC is different because the city itself is artificially created for the federal government. Therefore, the nature of work often moves and it is hard to keep someone in the city to form a strong generation of natives.
This is at least from what he told me, I have only visited DC once so it is hard for me to get a feel for what he said. Could someone elaborate and give truth for this or is he overlooking certain aspects?
It depends on where you hang out and the crowds you travel in. All the time I meet people who grew up in DC proper or at least the nearby suburbs like Arlington, Alexandria or Silver Spring. Of course I meet tons of transplants too.
For sure there are a lot of transplants here, but to me, that is a positive, not a negative. I moved around as a kid and moved again as an adult. I don't identify with any one region or culture. I find places with strong local culture a bit hard for me to fit in because you're surrounded by people who have been hanging out with the same people since grade school and have all sorts of memories, experiences and sports loyalties that I just can't relate to.
For example, I've hung out in Pittsburgh and Boston and they are great cities, but I always feel like an outsider there because I just don't care about rooting for the Steelers or the Sox or other local traditions.
DC certainly has its share of local traditions and local sports fanatics but it's not as widespread or all-encompassing as in a lot of other places. For example, I like go-go music, I think it's cool, but a large number of DC area residents have never even heard it, I would guess. If you like it, you can enjoy it, but if it's not your cup of tea, it's not in your face and you can avoid it. Good luck avoiding talking to somebody about the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
I also enjoy constantly meeting people like me who have lived all over and we can talk about and compare and contrast different parts of the country (and world, even).
Last edited by stateofnature; 01-03-2015 at 01:50 PM..
It depends on where you hang out and the crowds you travel in. All the time I meet people who grew up in DC proper or at least the nearby suburbs like Arlington, Alexandria or Silver Spring.
For sure there are a lot of transplants here, but to me, that is a positive, not a negative. I moved around as a kid and moved again as an adult. I don't identify with any one region or culture. I find places with strong local culture a bit hard for me to fit in because you run into people who have been hanging out with the same people since grade school and have all sorts of memories, experiences and sports loyalties that I just can't relate to.
For example, I've hung out in Pittsburgh and Boston and they are great cities, but I always feel like an outsider there because I just don't care about rooting for the Steelers or the Sox or other local traditions.
DC certainly has its share of local traditions and local sports fanatics but it's not as widespread or all-encompassing as in a lot of other places.
I also enjoy constantly meeting people like me who have lived all over and we can talk about and compare and contrast different parts of the country (and world, even).
Interesting perspective on the sports aspect of DC culture. I am in Wisconsin and sports fandom often dominates a lot of conversation. I do enjoy sports, but I do not want it to dominate my social conversation like it does here. (Packers and Brewers mostly)
Define "here"? I suppose you mean from within the city limits? I do not know of anyone from DC itself, but I don't believe the people from DC end up in my social circles - I actively search for an international crowd. This is just my thoughts, but the natives from DC I would think are the poor and some of the working class, whereas most of the middle class moved out to the suburbs... the middle class in DC are generally recent grads and young professionals that have flocked in... and the rest are well to do higher ups and other internationals generally not from the area.
DC is a very international city so even though I am from farther out in Maryland, I still consider myself from the area when asked. DC never seemed foreign to me... I feel much worse living in Virginia. 0:-)
It's obvious some of the 'new residents' don't know anything about the city residents that are born and raised there and don't care to know. There are residents born and raised who are middle, upper middle, wealthy, poor and workin class that live thru out DC.
It's obvious some of the 'new residents' don't know anything about the city residents that are born and raised there and don't care to know. There are residents born and raised who are middle, upper middle, wealthy, poor and workin class that live thru out DC.
it's obvious some of the 'new residents' don't know anything about the city residents that are born and raised there and don't care to know. There are residents born and raised who are middle, upper middle, wealthy, poor and workin class that live thru out dc.
One of the top aspects he described was, as he put, "I meet many people but everyone I meet is from somewhere else. No one is actually from here it seems."
Seems like he has limited himself to a narrow social circle. Certainly, the 237,000 people (37% of DC's population) that were born in DC and currently also living in DC as of July 2013 would disagree with the statement that "no one is actually from here". This statistic came from the US Census Bureau itself.
And, here's the kicker. DC is not terribly out of alignment with other major cities as far as the above metric. Going from memory from past research, both Seattle and San Francisco have less percentage of their population that were born and living there than DC does here.
As a DC native myself who also lives in DC, I find this topic coming up a lot in my social circles. And, the thing about me is that I don't keep to one set of people. I hang out with my fellow DC natives as well as the new folks, internationals, etc.
But, I think some people are quite ok with being ignorant of some things and ok with believing that no one is from here (listening to others' nonfactual statements on the subject matter is quite easy it seems) because people are being lazy about it or even purposely want to be lazy about it. While I think I have developed a strong bond with my transplant friends and they really like me as a person and I like them to shreds, I don't see a particular strong calling from them to meet more DC natives. I think it comes down to comfortability and people liking to be around their own kind. I think that is what really prevents many of the transplants from getting to know some DC natives. I mean, how hard would it be for a transplant to get to know one or two or three of those 237,000 DC natives (one native for every 2.7 people living here folks) that are living in the same neighborhoods and same city they are living in? Quite hard, it seems. And, to make this fair, this goes for both sides of the racial divide. White to Black and Black to White. Some blacks here have the same issue about going outside their circles.
Last edited by revitalizer; 01-03-2015 at 10:29 PM..
That's what young yuppies think who don't travel outside their own circles think. Same as the characters on Friends thought Manhattan had no black people.
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