Well, we’ve just moved from SF to the DC area, so I guess I should comment somewhere with our thoughts on the decision. To be honest, I think Boston is objectively mostly better for us than DC, but personal reasons—our own family—are overwhelming the other ones.
On specific points:
Industries—Boston and DC are similar on this axis, I would say, depending on whether you count government as one industry or many (since there are many jobs in DC that come out of government).
Programming jobs—Boston is much better. DC has lots of programming jobs, but they mostly pay less and/or are for the military.
Walkability overall is probably a bit better in Boston.
Natural disasters—mostly the same. No blizzards in Maryland/DC.
Governance—I don’t feel all that qualified to comment. Maryland is probably similar; DC has governance problems due to its unique position as the nation’s capital, which makes it illegal for it to govern itself in a few ways.
Queer and poly friendliness—I’m not sure how this shakes out. I think Massachusetts is pretty friendly to being gay specifically, but perhaps less tolerant of other kinds of weirdness. When visiting, as someone who grew up in DC, I do feel the “Puritan” vibe a bit. But it’s complicated. DC also has pressure to appear “normal,” much more so than anywhere on the West Coast. I think in general the Northeast loses here, but maybe not by as much as you’d think. (In my experience, lots of folks who say “The Bay Area is the only place I could live, because of the queer-friendliness!” have only been to two places: the Bay and the Midwest or Utah. The Northeast is more like the former than the latter, IMO.)
Multi-unit houses—Boston definitely wins here. There are a few options in e.g. Takoma Park, but DC in general isn’t great for this.
Schools—Complicated. Montgomery County has very good schools, but housing prices are unfortunately very closely correlated with school districts here.
Airport—DC has not one but three major international airports, one of which is accessible by train, another which will be accessible by train in the next couple years, and a third which has a solid bus corridor.
Medical care—Not sure, probably similar.
Weather—Maryland summers are hotter, but winters are much less inconvenient, though perhaps less beautiful—much less snow. YMMV on this. Personally, I strongly prefer East Coast summer to West Coast non-summer. If you’ve lived your whole life on the West Coast, I predict there are shades of green you have literally never seen.
Dance and music—Boston wins at this, although the DC area scene is not shabby either. IIUC, Glen Echo is the largest weekly contradance in the country and probably the world, with typical attendance of over 300. And the Spanish Ballroom is very beautiful. But, we certainly can’t compete with the sheer variety and popularity of traditional dance and music in Boston.
Housing—DC seems to be somewhat cheaper. We live in exactly the type of 2-bedroom apartment you mentioned, walking distance from the subway and 30 minutes to downtown, and are paying about 1.8k for it. The pandemic doesn’t seem to have affected prices as much here, since it’s a smaller city with less tech industry. (Plenty of ‘essential’ workers in government.)
Urban-to-rural continuum—That sort of exists here, but DC pushes prices up for a much further radius than Boston does. So you don’t get as much of a discount for being rural.
But, for what it’s worth to anyone considering this area: we’re most likely here for the long haul, and we have a habit of making meetups and building community wherever we go. I suspect having a few solid, unmoveable pillars like Jeff and Julia in a community helps keep it stable despite upheaval. We hope to be similar pillars wherever we end up.
Well, we’ve just moved from SF to the DC area, so I guess I should comment somewhere with our thoughts on the decision. To be honest, I think Boston is objectively mostly better for us than DC, but personal reasons—our own family—are overwhelming the other ones.
On specific points:
Industries—Boston and DC are similar on this axis, I would say, depending on whether you count government as one industry or many (since there are many jobs in DC that come out of government).
Programming jobs—Boston is much better. DC has lots of programming jobs, but they mostly pay less and/or are for the military.
Walkability overall is probably a bit better in Boston.
Natural disasters—mostly the same. No blizzards in Maryland/DC.
Governance—I don’t feel all that qualified to comment. Maryland is probably similar; DC has governance problems due to its unique position as the nation’s capital, which makes it illegal for it to govern itself in a few ways.
Queer and poly friendliness—I’m not sure how this shakes out. I think Massachusetts is pretty friendly to being gay specifically, but perhaps less tolerant of other kinds of weirdness. When visiting, as someone who grew up in DC, I do feel the “Puritan” vibe a bit. But it’s complicated. DC also has pressure to appear “normal,” much more so than anywhere on the West Coast. I think in general the Northeast loses here, but maybe not by as much as you’d think. (In my experience, lots of folks who say “The Bay Area is the only place I could live, because of the queer-friendliness!” have only been to two places: the Bay and the Midwest or Utah. The Northeast is more like the former than the latter, IMO.)
Multi-unit houses—Boston definitely wins here. There are a few options in e.g. Takoma Park, but DC in general isn’t great for this.
Schools—Complicated. Montgomery County has very good schools, but housing prices are unfortunately very closely correlated with school districts here.
Airport—DC has not one but three major international airports, one of which is accessible by train, another which will be accessible by train in the next couple years, and a third which has a solid bus corridor.
Medical care—Not sure, probably similar.
Weather—Maryland summers are hotter, but winters are much less inconvenient, though perhaps less beautiful—much less snow. YMMV on this. Personally, I strongly prefer East Coast summer to West Coast non-summer. If you’ve lived your whole life on the West Coast, I predict there are shades of green you have literally never seen.
Dance and music—Boston wins at this, although the DC area scene is not shabby either. IIUC, Glen Echo is the largest weekly contradance in the country and probably the world, with typical attendance of over 300. And the Spanish Ballroom is very beautiful. But, we certainly can’t compete with the sheer variety and popularity of traditional dance and music in Boston.
Housing—DC seems to be somewhat cheaper. We live in exactly the type of 2-bedroom apartment you mentioned, walking distance from the subway and 30 minutes to downtown, and are paying about 1.8k for it. The pandemic doesn’t seem to have affected prices as much here, since it’s a smaller city with less tech industry. (Plenty of ‘essential’ workers in government.)
Urban-to-rural continuum—That sort of exists here, but DC pushes prices up for a much further radius than Boston does. So you don’t get as much of a discount for being rural.
But, for what it’s worth to anyone considering this area: we’re most likely here for the long haul, and we have a habit of making meetups and building community wherever we go. I suspect having a few solid, unmoveable pillars like Jeff and Julia in a community helps keep it stable despite upheaval. We hope to be similar pillars wherever we end up.
Thank you for writing up your reasoning, and for being such reliable organizers! :)