Is it just me or is Washington DC extremely underrated as a city?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by The North One

lol in what world is Seattle underrated? It's been an insanely over-hyped darling for decades.

Next up we're gonna hear about how "underrated" Nashville and Austin are, LOL!

But it's clear from this thread that different people have different understandings of the word "underrated".

I would never consider media-darling cities like DC or Seattle to be underrated, but that's just me.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Yeah, Seattle is a great city. It's also probably one of those underrated cities. If I ever had to leave the Bay, I'd probably pick Seattle to move to. Very similar to the Bay. An nice blend of mild climate, proximity to nature, and decent levels of urbanism.

That was my impression. I had just moved to the Bay area and then flew up to Seattle (for the first time) to meet my wife for a long weekend and it struck me as a cleaner, greener SF. Similar vibe and aesthetic.

[iheartthed]

Of the cities that have hosted a season of the Real World, Philadelphia is the only one that can legitimately be described as underrated.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by steely dan

next up we're gonna hear about how "underrated" nashville and austin are, lol!

I would never consider media-darling cities like dc or seattle to be underrated, but that's just me.

+1

[PhillyRising]

I like DC. I find it to be a very manageable place to be...it's not overwhelming like New York can be...the Metro is easy to use and navigate. Yes...it doesn't have a skyline being this is a skyscraper page but it's scale is fine. Obviously the western side of the District is nice and the eastern side is has been historically where the issues have been. I do hate driving there...much easier to take Amtrak there and use the Metro than driving.

Also.....third base or so at Nationals Park used to be a gay nudie go go bar...the pitchers mound was a bathhouse, first base was probably the porno theater and the home dugout was probably where the drag bar used to be...all if there in the 90's when it was fun to go down there even though it was surrounded by vacant crack houses it was sketchy AF.

[Xing]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

I just moved from DC after having lived there for twenty years. DC is a fantastic city but, unfortunately, in recent years the murder and violent crime rate is higher than the national average and while the murder rate has been declining nationwide the past two years, it is still higher in DC.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md...ting-violence/

Paywall for your link, but I can read the headline. it’s comparing the year with only post-millennial years.

Are we comparing it to NYC and Boston?

I lived there in the early 90’s. Kids were killing kids over shoes. There was a list of murders reported daily on the news.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-...ties-in-the-us

https://getsafeandsound.com/blog/mos...ty-in-america/

https://realestate.usnews.com/places...ngerous-places

https://bestdiplomats.org/most-dange...ies-in-the-us/

https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar...s-study-finds/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._homicide_rate

https://www.security.org/resources/m...gerous-cities/

Where is DC on these lists? I’m not carefully selecting them. These are literally the first to come up.

Chicago is another city people seem to think is dangerous. It’s only come up once, and it was at the bottom.

So, I have no clue where you guys are getting this idea, unless the local media there is overhyping it. Maybe the crime rate is coming “dangerously” close to 2001, but that’s still much lower than its peak.

[llamaorama]

Maybe DC has a high crime rate just because it has an outsized share of the region's public housing? It's probably safer and the residents better off than if you had an equivalent geographic concentration of a low income demographic in say, Baton Rouge? That's purely a guess, I don't know the answer.

I can just look at a Google Maps at see that Anacostia and Brentwood are the only areas with an appreciable concentration of the characteristic looking old-school low rise projects, or those 1990s Clinton Administration era welfare reform style apartment/townhome complexes with street grids and too much parking that signal they are government owned. Then the rest of greater DC/VA/MD is supposed to be an HCOL area so there might not be a lot of affordable apartments that offer things like second chance leases for people who have an eviction record or a felony.

Whatever, I haven't been to DC since I was in high school and did a "meet your congressman" trip in the early 2000s. It was completely fine then and I thought it was a really nice modern city.