Best City For Singles - Washington DC?
I recently read an article from AOL voting Washington DC to be the best city for singles in the US, and I only half-agree, depending on what you want as a single person. The decision from AOL was made by different stats, such as high amount of young singles in the city, growing of "creative class", high amount of night life (such as number of bars and clubs per capita), etc. But I’m guessing the person who came up with the conclusion of Washington DC being the best city for singles, either never lived in DC for more than 2 weeks, or wasn’t single when s/he lived in DC.Although I mostly stay in the suburbs (Northern Virginia), but I go to DC to party/hang out/drinking after work or on weekends here and there, and below are my experiences.
Work culture of DC: DC is full of hard-working young single professionals, who put in 50-60 hour work weeks to get ahead in his/her career. I’d like to think that as a group, young professionals in DC are probably the most ambitious people there are in the country. But the majority of those people sees DC as a "stepping stone" in their career, nobody I know was "raised in DC", most people moved to DC for work, and probably will move onto other parts of the country after DC "launches their careers". Knowing that, singles remain single for that specific reason. It’s nice to find a "nice girl who will move anywhere with you", but that just doesn’t happen, especially when the "nice girl" also has her own career to think about, probably just as seriously as guys do or more.
Social aspect of DC: Due to how much young professionals care about their own career, they care about each other’s just as much. When meeting a new person, and playing the 20 questions game that everyone likes to play so much (sarcasm), I often hear the question "so what do you do" before hearing "what do you enjoy doing", that just sums it all up for the social culture of DC. I’m sure it happens in all major cities in the US, but none as blatant as DC. I’ve always found southern girls are nicer, easier to talk to, and don’t automatically think you’re a threat when you ask them for directions. In downtown Charlotte, if I need directions, almost everyone stops when I say "excuse me", vs about one out of three people stopping in the city of Washington DC.
So statistically, AOL might be right in their stats, but they didn’t evaluate why. There’s a reason why DC has an extremely high amount of single professionals (population percentage wise), because a lot of singles want to remain single, and the "DC Culture" isn’t to the advantage of the ones that don’t. Lots of bars mean young people can have a great time in the city on weekends or after work, but it also means people have less motivation to "find a boyfriend/girlfriend" because they always have something to do. Dating definite is a lot more common than relationships, that might be a factor why DC was picked "best place to live for singles", but personally, as a single guy, I’d much rather live in a society where people are friendly, both singles and people that’re in relationships, instead of a society where people are defined by their jobs or status. But if you're single, want to stay single, and mostly stay/hang out with your clique of friends (like I currently do), then I guess Washington DC just might be the right place for you.
posted by Paul Zhao | 5/31/2007
6 Comments:
Man, DC sounds like it really sucks. There's nothing I hate more than the culture that thinks there is nothing wrong with working more than 40 hours a week.
There are only two reasons to have a job: personal satisfaction and to get enough money to do the stuff you and your family enjoy. If you're working 60 hours a week, chances are that neither are being satisfied. I pity people like that....
Well, Andrew, I think people work 60 hours a week for "personal satisfaction" and for the money. A job that demands you to work 60 hrs a week has to make pretty good money, and in a city where you're defined by your job, and holding a prestigious one, that's "personal satisfaction".
I don't agree with you at all. DC may have its fair share of ambitious people, but to say that its the most workaholic city in the country is absurd. How about New York, Chicago, Charlotte, Boston, and their banking contingents? I guarantee that you'd be hard-pressed to find many people working those types of hours in DC. I am 25, and only know a handful of people that work more than 40 hours a week. Keep in mind the sheer quantity of people in the DC area that work for the federal government: they are generally prohibited from requiring overtime. The vast majority of my friends work absolutely no more than 40 hours a week, and probably spend nearly as much time in bars as they do behind a desk.
Moral of the story: dont listen to this guy. He clearly doesn't get out enough.
Nah, DC isn't the most "workaholic city" in the country. I don't know about the other cities mentioned, but Charlotte has a more slack work culture due to the southern culture. By what I understand, NYC and LA are the most workaholic cities in the US. But with most professionals, DC is the city that a person is defined most by his/her job. I don't know any people that work for the government, but I DO know many people that work for agencies that are associated with the government (government contracting), and most of them DO work 50+ hours a week.
The post was just my own perspective, I guess you and I hang at different places and meet different types of people.
DC really sucks. I read all these great stats about DC and moved here from Boston to find out that DC really has nothing to offer except a decent job, lots of traffic, high cost of living (high % of singles can't afford an apt and have to rent rooms), snobbish and obnoxious singles. The women in DC are very beautiful but I found them boring.
I think most people in DC can "afford" 1BR apartments, but most don't because it's better off sharing. Isn't housing supposed to be 1/3-1/2 of your monthly post-tax income? At the average 1BR apartment rate of about $1200/month, well, you can do the math.
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