Arlington / Washington DC Area

[Tuerny]

I am currently attending school in the Orlando, Florida area and will be graduating by the end of the summer.

I have been considering a number of job prospects that are in the Washington DC / Arlington area, and I was wondering if the esteemed posters on this board who live/have lived in those areas could tell me what areas are like.

I am particularly interested in culture, crime, standard of living, things to do, etc. Oh and of course what the gaming scene is like.

If any of you have any suggestions, ideas, or just general stories to tell, I would greatly appreciate it. I would prefer to be well-informed before I start applying to some positions in a place I have never visited.


Thanks,
Jesse James Dean

 

[fba827]

DC area ..

Hmm.. well, if you plan on being in the suburbs, you need a car. Whereas if you live in the city itself, parking and driving hassles may not be worth it if you don't mind taking the metro (subway). Compared to Orlando... driving in DC is a MUCH different experience... (I think DC is 4th ? worse in US traffic)

Lots of cultural areas.. lots of rundown areas ... lots of nice areas... very diverse over all

If you're bringing family (or plan on having a family up here) schools should be a big consideration. School systems in the suburbs are MUCH better than in the city. Montgomery County (MD) and Fairfax County (VA) (and I think Howard County (MD)) to be specific as having very highly regarded schools.

The economy and job market of the DC area is ranked as one of the most stable (if not the most stable) in the US. (This is due in no small part to the presense of government agencies that have their standard business dealings/cycles regardless of recession or boom).

I know none of that is helpful information, but that's all I have the chance to say at the moment -- I need to run to work. But I have one or two links to other (much older!) threads on this same/similar topic saved at home that I can link in here later...

Gaming community? I lead too sheltered of a life it seems.. supposedly there is a good one here. I just don't get out enough to actually find it.

blah blah blah.

 

[fba827]

Here is one thread I could quickly find ...

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60297

obviously, the topic in the thread shifts a lot.. but it gives some insight if you ignore the quibbles.

 

[The_Gneech]

D.C. overall is Lawful Evil, with fairly large populations of Lawful Neutral and Neutral Evil. All other alignments are represented, however.

There is a lot of really nice stuff here, 85% of which is in the Smithsonian Institution. However, traffic is awful and weather is worse. (Although, if you are currently in Orlando, it will seem very familiar except that we get icestorms in February, which Orlando generally doesn't.)

I live in Reston/Herndon, not too far away from Game Parlor, and it is a very, very nice store indeed. Also, I'm looking to diversify my gaming group.

Real estate prices are through the roof ... and renting is even MORE expensive. However, if you have a degree in anything, you can probably get a pretty good job fairly quickly. And if you don't, well, there's always work at Starbucks.

While everything is oriented towards English, working knowledge of Spanish would be very handy; less handy but still valuable would be Korean or Vietnamese. The whole area is extremely diverse in terms of racial distribution.

Inside D.C. itself or Alexandria, a car is superfluous (and in fact more of a burden than an asset). In the suburbs, life without a car is expensive, difficult, and time-consuming. (As in, so expensive that it's cheaper to get a car.)

There is a decent private sector here, but you have to dig to find it. Almost all non-retail types of jobs are in government contracting. (Contracting, not working directly for the government -- those jobs are hard to get because they generally involve very little real work and are impossible to get fired from except during an administration change, so once somebody has one, they keep it 'til they die.)

If you're a political junkie, you'll be in heaven.

That's about all I can give you without a more specific question to answer. Drop me a note if you'd like.

-The Gneech

 

[Psion]

I am currently attending school in the Orlando, Florida area and will be graduating by the end of the summer.

I have been considering a number of job prospects that are in the Washington DC / Arlington area, and I was wondering if the esteemed posters on this board who live/have lived in those areas could tell me what areas are like.

I am particularly interested in culture, crime, standard of living, things to do, etc. Oh and of course what the gaming scene is like.

If any of you have any suggestions, ideas, or just general stories to tell, I would greatly appreciate it. I would prefer to be well-informed before I start applying to some positions in a place I have never visited.

Jesse, you are (potentially) moving to the DC area? You must commute to my game. I demand it! (Okay, it's over an hour drive, but two of my players have done it in the past, and I used to DM a game in Alexandria.)

If you haven't picked out a house yet, you could live in Clinton or Waldorf and you'd be closer to my game.

 

[Oni]

Well having lived there I can tell you that everything is expensive as heck. Everthing from groceries to gas cost more than anywhere else I've lived. I lived in Alexandria for several years, and my parents still reside there (I'm away at school), and every year the traffic problems have become noticable worse, I've never been in a place that I disliked driving so much.

On the flip side, there is alot going on there, plenty of museums and events and wonderful resturants and nightspots. So if your prone to boredom, there is always something to do.

The pace of life there is very hectic though, and personally after I graduate I'm going to try to avoid going back for any length of time.

 

[The_Universe]

The game scene here is pretty big, bigger than where I am originally from, anyway. I live in Alexandria, which is alright, but whoever told you that price of living here is REALLy expenive is under-exaggerating. Cost of life is staggering. Be warned.

The further out from DC you get, the cheaper things get (mostly) which is balanced out by how inconvenient it is to live any distance from the city, itself.

Government and Government-related work is definitely the stock-in-trade, here, although in order to do a lot of it, you'll need an advanced degree. Hence, a lot of people here are in part-time MA programs (like me!).

In short, I like it here. My wife likes it here. But it's WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY expensive.

So you know.

--Kennon

 

[Endur]

First three rules of living in the DC area.

1. You want a car.
2. You want a car.
3. You want a car.

Yes, it is conceivable to survive downtown DC if you live in DC and you work in DC and you never leave DC.

But assuming you want to go to the suburbs for gaming (Game Parlor, etc.), you will need a car.

DC itself is a small city. A little bigger than Orlando. Like Orlando, most people live and work in the spread out suburbs.

Oh, yes, the cost of living in the DC area is dramatically higher than Orlando. Not as expensive as San Francisco or Manhatten, but close. All the lobbyists and government contractors drive the prices up.

 

[TiQuinn]

The first thing I quickly discovered when I moved out to the D.C. area was the necessity for a security clearance, at least in the database development arena. If that's a barrier that you don't have to deal with, all the better. I can't really comment on the cost...I moved here from San Francisco, so this is paradise for me.

The Metro is THE way to get around D.C. itself. If you live in D.C., or work there (as well as Arlington), it's worth taking Metro as opposed to driving. However, if you live a good hike away from the Metro (I live in Loudoun County and commute into Arlington), you gain very little from using the Metro to commute. Time spent waiting at stations, looking for parking, sitting on the train adds up to the same time spent in the car. It's also not like you can actually find a seat on the trains at 5 PM on a work day. Prepare to feel like a sardine.

Game Parlor rocks. Both the Chantilly and Woodbridge stores. Probably one of the best selections of games you'll find, and they also provide tables for gaming there. If you're looking for a game, the DCRPG group on Yahoo is a good resource, as well as the folks here on ENWorld. The bulletin boards at Game Parlor also usually have notices from people looking for games/players.

 

[Tuerny]

Jesse, you are (potentially) moving to the DC area? You must commute to my game. I demand it! (Okay, it's over an hour drive, but two of my players have done it in the past, and I used to DM a game in Alexandria.)

If you haven't picked out a house yet, you could live in Clinton or Waldorf and you'd be closer to my game.

Actually, I am more in the "I see a few potential jobs I would like to apply for in the area and I want to see if living in the DC region would drive me insane" phase. So, no I haven't picked out a place to live yet. Though I was enraptured with looking through apartment ads for Arlington and Alexandria this evening.

I also compared costs of living in Waldorf (Clinton wasn't an available option) with that of Orlando and it seemed pretty reasonable... Though I think I would have to actually check out the area before I made any final decisions on where I wanted to live.

You wouldn't be running Arcana Unearthed by any chance?

And an hour commute isn't thaaat bad. I think. What day do you play on?