[RightGeek]

Born and bred city guy flees Washington D.C. for the country. You really need to read the whole thing to get the full impact.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Interesting read.

I had heard that, before all the troubles anyway, that Washington was experiencing a lot of “gentrification”, and that the city was experiencing a building boom as new condos were built and old housing was renovated.

[Morpheus2009]

So DC has people defecating on the roads and sidewalks too? Wow, something is really wrong with people, considering I learned to use a toilet many years ago as a toddler.

[DugwayDuke]

“... sloganeering calls for “diversity” or “justice” are all just exhausting, not to mention intellectually vapid and morally bankrupt.” and my current favorite “We’re all in this together.” Anytime someone tries to sell you on the collective, they desire you to do something that isn’t in your self-interest.

[TalBlack]

I haven’t moved that far from DC geographically—only about 60 miles—but it might as well be another country. Deer at dawn and stars at twilight.

He ran. Well its simple and its quick but sooner or later someons’s gonna have to not run.

It dosent take balls to not run, it takes BRAINS. Where ya gonna run to that they can’t follow? He bought himself some time...maybe.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I trace my last name to a Huguenot settler in New Netherlands in 1664. My patronymic great-great grandfather commanded the a precinct in lower Manhattan during the draft riots. I was born in Manhattan, and raised in Queens. I punched my ticket out of New York as soon as could buy a car.

[Old Student]

I got the impact when I left the Los Angeles area in 1973. Some people are slow learners. I’ve been in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area now for a bit over 24 years. Big City amenities, small town atmosphere. The whole state is still less than 4 million people, versus the 12 million or so in LA alone now. And when some folks started that crap here, they got arrested and charged with terrorism. Our County DA said “This is Not Seattle – We’re Not Putting Up with This Lawlessness Here”

OKC and the OKC area is not perfect. We have crime. Roads are not what I’d call great, nor even good. But there are a lot of good restaurants. Cultural events abound. Maybe not as many good museum’s as I’d like, but again, not bad.

[palmer]

From the article: But I’ll gladly tolerate sirens and car horns in exchange for a new restaurant on the corner.

I won't.

For major league sports, performing arts, museums, and bars, I will put up with the occasional crazy guy on the street, metro derailment, or gridlocked traffic because an intersection is blocked by some group “raising awareness” about something or other.

The traffic is always gridlocked, the sports teams are on their knees, afraid of the Wuhan flu, beholden to China. The "performing artists" are leftists who hate America, and the museums are houses of anti-white propaganda.
That leaves bars.

My conclusion: the author spent a lot of time at the bar.

[cherry]

good posting...

[CptnObvious]

He says he is a no-kids, well to do citizen of DC and that they need him because of the DC taxes and his spending money no longer done in DC. He's right.

Well to do citizens of the big democRATic cities are probably fleeing for their lives as we speak. Taking their income and taxes away from these cities.

Consider this, COVID, Protestors and the normally awful crime rates and it is going to be very bad for these cities for a very long time to come.

[Tacrolimus1mg]

Bowser. Any coincidence she’s got the name of an iconic video game villain?

I don’t think so. I think she watched someone play Super Mario one day and went, “I’m going to do that!”

[Tacrolimus1mg]

This is exactly how I feel, and I’m not smack dab in the middle of all of the chaos in Chicago.

Ideally, I’d like a minimum of five acres (20+ if I’m truly being ideal), a house just big enough for me, my husband and my dog, and maybe a guest room, with a large garage for tinkering. Wooded would be great, but I’ll also take anything I can get. As far from the road and other people as possible.

Even the suburbs here are bonkers. There really are no words for how things are going.

[BlueLancer]

Outstanding article ... thanks for posting.

[sphinx]

The author is venting, and he vents his way past a couple of obvious questions. Leaving the city and leaving the metro area are two different questions. Leaving the metro area is contingent on your job. We've been talking for a couple of decades now about the potential of the internet to reconfigure the geography of the workplace. For some people, it will. The author here sounds as if he can mostly work from home. He is the founder of Power the Future. I am not familiar with this group, but from its webpage, it seems to be on the right side of the energy wars, pushing back against the green luddites. Fine. But from the sound of it, he's a webpage warrior who can work from anywhere. He probably needs to be close enough to DC to get into town regularly for meetings and events; zoom just ain't the same thing over time. If he didn't have to walk his silly dog, he probably only needs to get dressed and shave once a week.

If I were coming to the DC area today with this kind of profile, I'd probably opt for an outer ring suburb too. Get an hour out of town and you can find any number of perfectly gracious small towns, not yet fully absorbed by the Borg. I'd probably opt for somewhere reasonably close to the end of the metro line, or MARC or VRE, to make it easy to get into city when needed without fighting traffic.

This doesn't work if you have to come into the office, which most still do. The question then becomes central vs. suburban. That's a pick your poison question. The worst solution in my book is to buy a long suburban commute. Those people are spending four to six hours a day in their cars, and a lot longer if someone in the DMV has a flat tire or fender bender and the region gridlocks. Again. For the nth time this week.

For an office worker as opposed to a home worker, the only good reason to live in the far suburbs is if your employer is a beltway bandit and you work in a suburban office park. If that's the case, live in the 'burbs, close to your work, and whatever you do, don't buy a commute that forces you to cross a river. There are nice neighborhoods all over the metro area. Find one near your work. The way to live decently in any major urban area is to live mostly within a good neighorhood and its environs.

It would be interesting to know what part of DC this author is fleeing. From the tone of his article, it sounds as if he's in a still-transitioning area. It also sounds as if he's a night owl; my advice would be to euthanize the %#@! dog and be home at a reasonable hour. I live on Capitol Hill and it's pretty safe, but wandering around on foot at 1 a.m. is probably not a good habit to get into. The H Street corridor on the northern edge of the Hill has become a happening place with a lot of nightlife; the areas to the north including Trinidad and Carver Langston are still transitioning, and there is a problem with predators targeting drunk yuppies staggering home in the wee hours. The author mentions Barracks Row (8th Street S.E. opposite the Marine Barracks), which is fine, but there is a a city "social services" center left over from pre-gentrification days that draws some loitering on 8th street near the Eastern Market metro station. That center needs to be moved; it no longer reflects the neighborhood and is drawing its clients from elsewhere in the city (but they hang around pandhandling or dozing in the branch library, having nothing else do do with their day). As far as gangs of teenagers causing trouble right after school dismissal, that hasn't been a problem on the Hill since Hine Middle School was closed years ago (and replaced by a large, very upscale residential building with groundfloor retail including a Trader Joe's). So I wonder what part of town he's frequenting. But wherever he is, he should get rid of the dog and be at home at 1:00 a.m., or Uber back if he's out late.

DC continues to gentrify rapidly. This will continue because suburban traffic is a nightmare and will only get worse. (No, the roadbuilders cannot solve the problem; the roadbuilders haven't yet caught up with the 1980's and they fall farther behind every year.) Neighborhoods that were considered no-go areas a few years ago are flipping fast. I lived through the Capitol Hill gentrification miracle and have war stories to share, but that's now old history. Neighborhoods like Petworth, Shaw, Trinidad, Ivy City, Langdon, Eckington, Brentwood, U Street-Cardozo, Columbia Heights, etc. are now changing so fast that it makes your head spin. Even Anacostia ain't what it used to be. It is fun to watch. But don't be out walking your little dog at 1 a.m.

[nicollo]

Why do I put up with having to stick my fingers into my dog’s throat to unchoke chicken bones someone discarded on the sidewalk

Amen, brother.

[FLT-bird]

That’s the thing about leftists. They just can not leave you or anybody else alone. They know best not only how to live their own lives but how you should live yours. They’re not the least bit shy about using force to back up their designs for your life either. That is, after they have systematically stripped you of any power to defend yourself.

This is why they must be resisted at all costs.

[nicollo]

It took 14th St. corridor almost 40 years to recover from the ‘68 riots.

Forty years.

And it only came back becuase of gays who didn’t worry about the schools b/c they don’t have children.

Who will save the ruined cities next time?

[sergeantdave]

The sack of Rome by the Visigoths will be repeated in DC, especially if Biden is elected. The deep state has no idea what’s waiting for them. They are that stupid.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*good article ping*

[nutmeg]

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