"Get your ass to DC..."

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

I'm a Maryland product through and through -- lived here my whole life, still live here today. But I absolutely love DC. I can't get up there enough.

The Bullets were actually in Baltimore at one point.

The Bullets never were physically in DC.

So in my opinion...

Baltimore > Washington DC

[DCsOwn]

@pancakes33: We actually do have uberswanky bars and clubs for young black people of some renown and we're adding top flight restaurants pretty quickly too, but you're right that they have those same bars/clubs/whatever else in LA PLUS an ocean, perpetual sunshine, innumerable celebrity denizens and the infrastructure that caters to them and a marketing arm that covers a sizable portion of the U.S. Oh yeah, and they have a perennial championship contending franchise to go along with all of that.

I LOVE DC, had a chance to live permanently in San Fran (the most beautiful city in North America if you ask me) but decided to take a job back here and start and raise a family here because I honestly love the people, the zeitgeist pervading the city, the historical significance of the city and work done here, the legal market, the cultural relevance and contributions made here and more, but from a superstar BASKETBALL players perspective, the only city comparable to LA would be NYC, and there might be a gap between those two places.

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

It depends who I am talking to. If I'm on the West coast and somebody asks me where I am from I will say "the DC area". If I'm in Charlottesville, VA I'll say "Northern Virginia".

Arent you the same kid who said you never set foot inside a DC nightclub before the year 2010?

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

Born and raised here, I don't and have never followed the "DC area" thing. Sorry, but if you don't live in the city, you live somewhere else. It isn't the DC "Area". If you live in Hyattsville, you live in Maryland, don't attach yourself to DC. I've got friends who live in Arlington who say they live in the DC area, you may live outside DC proper, but you live in Virginia, your license plate is a Virginia tag, your driver's license is from the state of Virginia. You live in Virginia, there is no DC anywhere near there.

Rafa. If you don’t take the DC metropolitan area into consideration when thinking of DC it's a huge mistake. DC is the only city I've ever lived in which I'm convinced would sink into the abyss without it's surrounding burbs. Tiny land mass, poorly educated residents, extremely low income, one of the highest rates of public assistance.......doesn't exactly attract business.

DC proper has a population of 600k, with some of the lowest test scores and mean income in the entire nation for a major city. The "Metro Area" however is around 6 million, and when injected with that variable the test score and mean income equations suddenly vault DC near the top on the continent.

I haven't lived in DC for 8 years now, but when I visited not much had changed. It's a city of near 3rd world level poverty, and world class office buildings staffed mostly by suburbanites. When I lived in DC, when I needed to do any serious shopping.....I drove or took the metro to the suburbs. It's typically the opposite in most cities in which I've lived. Sucks, but is true.

Kudos to Leonsis for turning "Chinatown" from a crack infested hellhole in the mid 90s into what it is today. Shocking change. Just needs to happen to about 35% more of the city to be considered much more than an office park.

Believe it or not but there was actually a time when you could do all of your serious shopping inside DC without having to travel to the suburbs. Hard to believe now. I know.

[DMVleGeND]

^Durant was actually born in DC though, wasn't he? I thought I read that on his wiki page, but in any event, and I mean this as no disrespect to Rafael122, but the post you quoted made no sense anyway. The "DC area" is just short-hand for the DC metro area, so anyone within the DC metro area is absolutely entitled to say that they are from the DC area, whether they're from Wheaton or Fairfax.

Like me, Durant was born in DC, but was basically raised in MD his whole life (PG County to be specific).

I agree w/ you on the whole DC area thing though.

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

I get that, but it irks me when someone says they're from DC but they live in Silver Spring. YOU'RE FROM MARYLAND! I get outsiders don't really know much about the surrounding are and it may be easier for them to just say DC, but it's still wrong.

Just my two cents anyway. Its not something that keeps me up at night.

Did you know that both Arlington and Alexandria were a part of DC years ago?

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

I think you meant to say "kudos to Abe Pollin". He is the one that turned Chinatown around.

Do you think they might eventually just stop calling it Chinatown and call it something else entirely?

They might as well by now at this point.

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

Yeah, I was about to say... Abe Pollin turned Chinatown around.

NoMa (Eckington, Bloomingdale, etc.) are turning things around nicely. H st NE is nice, as is U st NW.

Getting pretty close to that 35%, I think.

Yes it is only a matter of time until there is literally a CVS store on every single block in DC.

[DCsOwn]

^Durant was actually born in DC though, wasn't he? I thought I read that on his wiki page, but in any event, and I mean this as no disrespect to Rafael122, but the post you quoted made no sense anyway. The "DC area" is just short-hand for the DC metro area, so anyone within the DC metro area is absolutely entitled to say that they are from the DC area, whether they're from Wheaton or Fairfax.

Like me, Durant was born in DC, but was basically raised in MD his whole life (PG County to be specific).

I know all about Durant's history, I was just offering up a potential explanation of why someone who doesn't associate himself with the "area" at large might still claim Durant as a native, if that's what he in fact does (born in the city, raised just outside of it).

Anyway, DC and PG are about as closely bound culturally as a city and suburb can be, so I have no issue with any pride being taken in a local kid from either place.

Also, and this isn't directed at you DMVlegend, but can we stop pretending like DC doesn't have multiple, high-end shopping districts inside its borders including the world famous Georgetown shopping district? I was in Paris and had a model there tell me that she loved DC when she was in town at the "Fashion Night Out" festival they had there a while back. Someone from halfway around the world, in perhaps the fashion capital of the world, spoke glowingly about shopping in DC, but we don't have enough to satiate a few people from suburban wherever the ****? Come on now. We also have malls (although generally speaking huge, all-encompassing malls ARE a suburban construct since cities generally just have shopping districts), appliance stores, hardware stores, pretty much anything you need you can buy here, so stop with the bull moaning about being unable to shop in the city. Drake was in town shopping a few weeks ago ffs.

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

I think you all meant kudos to the artists, galleries, the Shakespeare Theater, and even Hecht Co., all of whom invested in that downtown area prior to the Wizards' arrival. (And I'm probably overlooking some others that helped pave the way.)

I lived and worked and walked through Chinatown for years. It may have looked crack infested from inside your limo Induveca, but I was repeatedly unable to purchase any. I had better luck in Lafayette Park. It did have better Chinese food back then, but now I know how to say Fuddruckers and CVS in Chinese.

OK, I'm tired. Take over WTA.

Lafayette Park definitely had more character back in the day.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I think you all meant kudos to the artists, galleries, the Shakespeare Theater, and even Hecht Co., all of whom invested in that downtown area prior to the Wizards' arrival. (And I'm probably overlooking some others that helped pave the way.)

I lived and worked and walked through Chinatown for years. It may have looked crack infested from inside your limo Induveca, but I was repeatedly unable to purchase any. I had better luck in Lafayette Park. It did have better Chinese food back then, but now I know how to say Fuddruckers and CVS in Chinese.

OK, I'm tired. Take over WTA.

monte, do they still play chess in Lafayette Park?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

@rafael122: I used to feel exactly as you did about people outside of the actual city limits telling people that they were from DC (I grew up on 14th and Clifton back when the city was what the city once was), but I really don't care at all about it now. Now-a-days there is so much cross-pollinization between the three parts of the metro area (dc, southern maryland and northern va), that a lot of the cultural distinctions have faded. The City's affluence has risen tremendously and it's attracted tons of people from all over the metro area and country really, many former residents of the District have been displaced and moved to suburban neighborhoods around the city, people utilize and frequent sites all over the metro area and really, there's just a lot more interconnectivity in contemporary DC metro life than there was in the past.

Plus, I've lived in and traveled to a bunch of different cities (lived in San Fran, Chicago and Ann Arbor before moving back here, had extended stays in Paris and London), and people generally view regions of the country or a country more in terms of metro areas than cities anyway. How many people have you heard of that are from suburban Atlanta or the Dallas area that just consider themselves products of that area? Culturally, they really are pretty much just like the people from those cities (the people native to that area I'm speaking of, and obviously I'm generalizing a bit), and technically they are from Dallas or Atlanta. Just the Dallas and Atlanta metro area and not the city proper.

I have to confess, if I weren't from PG County, I wouldn't want to be near there.

DCsOwn, I spent a year in Monterey, CA. I liked Seaside and Carmel by the Sea, but things were pretty slow there for me at that point in my life. Oakland would have been a little more my speed than SF back then.

I also spent a year in Michigan. Spent a while in Flint and have family there. My mom lived for a while in Detroit and I have a lot of family there, too. That area has nothing on DC IMO. Visited Windsor, Ontario, and noticed it was about a billion times cleaner and very quiet and peaceful. I did like the people I met there. Not as aloof as NorCal types.

I lived in Columbus, GA for a while. That area is like Atlanta's illegitimate sibling. It's nice and peaceful and pretty boring but in a good way. If you heard about the little league fight that went on viral video a couple weeks back; that park is about a mile from the house I lived in. My kids played in that league. I prefer that to DC because life is SLOW there. Now that I'm old, slow is cool.

My favorite part of what Hawaiian's call the mainland, is Texas. I absolutely love Austin, TX. College town with lots of good music, entertainment, and the area around Lake Travis is where I would have wanted to live before moving here. Dallas is really spread out, just like San Antonio. What I like is for a big city the traffic isn't bad. I like Dallas.

The DMV is home, but I've been a lot of places, some that I like better. Where I am now is home to me, but I hate that the houses are so small and everybody is right up on top of each other. Otherwise, give me decent weather and a beach and I'm happy. I have seen enough folks like me, monte.

But to get back on topic, DC has a LOT to offer for a young, NBA player. Anyone interested in politics, history, the federal government, the military, especially the law, and many other careers would be happy to come to DC. Life outside the court would never be boring.

I liked the area when I was in my 20s. Tiny, I liked the mean streets back then.

[payitforward]

Oh yeah, well I'm from Chicago, spent the first 27+ years of my life there, and your problem is you guys aren't.

Google the Sutherland Lounge, Teresa's, and The Burning Spear.

[montestewart]

Oh yeah, well I'm from Chicago, spent the first 27+ years of my life there, and your problem is you guys aren't.

Google the Sutherland Lounge, Teresa's, and The Burning Spear.

aren't transplanted Chicagoans?

[montestewart]

I think you all meant kudos to the artists, galleries, the Shakespeare Theater, and even Hecht Co., all of whom invested in that downtown area prior to the Wizards' arrival. (And I'm probably overlooking some others that helped pave the way.)

I lived and worked and walked through Chinatown for years. It may have looked crack infested from inside your limo Induveca, but I was repeatedly unable to purchase any. I had better luck in Lafayette Park. It did have better Chinese food back then, but now I know how to say Fuddruckers and CVS in Chinese.

OK, I'm tired. Take over WTA.

monte, do they still play chess in Lafayette Park?

The park's pretty sanitized these days, other than the 24-7 anti-nuclear vigil, which has morphed into a scaled down, quaint curiosity and photo-op for tourists. I haven't seen a chess player there in a while.

[DANNYLANDOVER]

Born and raised here, I don't and have never followed the "DC area" thing. Sorry, but if you don't live in the city, you live somewhere else. It isn't the DC "Area". If you live in Hyattsville, you live in Maryland, don't attach yourself to DC. I've got friends who live in Arlington who say they live in the DC area, you may live outside DC proper, but you live in Virginia, your license plate is a Virginia tag, your driver's license is from the state of Virginia. You live in Virginia, there is no DC anywhere near there.

Hey Rafael, you claim that you don't lose any sleep over this, but come on, I have friends and family who live in the city and they say the same things. I live in Landover, but was born in a hospital in DC (just like pretty much everybody from around here), my parents work in DC, our local radio and TV stations are DC based. I think the relationship between DC and the surrounding counties (PG & MoCo) is similar to that of Baltimore City and Baltimore County. If you lived here in PG, you'd probably claim to be from DC too. Also, without the surrounding suburbs, DC would be no better than that hellhole called Baltimore

[mohammed10]

I can see good arguments for all the guys you list except Fredette. At this point I see Eddie House as his upside. The other guys(and maybe even Jordan Crawford) have some hope of being a decent option as an NBA starter.

The words Jordan Crawford and starter should never be used in a sentence together, unless you are talking about the D league

[willbcocks]

Born and raised here, I don't and have never followed the "DC area" thing. Sorry, but if you don't live in the city, you live somewhere else. It isn't the DC "Area". If you live in Hyattsville, you live in Maryland, don't attach yourself to DC. I've got friends who live in Arlington who say they live in the DC area, you may live outside DC proper, but you live in Virginia, your license plate is a Virginia tag, your driver's license is from the state of Virginia. You live in Virginia, there is no DC anywhere near there.

Hey Rafael, you claim that you don't lose any sleep over this, but come on, I have friends and family who live in the city and they say the same things. I live in Landover, but was born in a hospital in DC (just like pretty much everybody from around here), my parents work in DC, our local radio and TV stations are DC based. I think the relationship between DC and the surrounding counties (PG & MoCo) is similar to that of Baltimore City and Baltimore County. If you lived here in PG, you'd probably claim to be from DC too. Also, without the surrounding suburbs, DC would be no better than that hellhole called Baltimore

I think it all depends on the context. I've been overseas a long time (Australia, Japan, China, Philippines). Whenever I talk to locals I say I'm from DC (this translates better) and will be more specific if they ask questions. When I talk to Americans I think I usually say DC area, but probably just say DC sometimes. If I talk to any other foreign service officers, I say Arlington, Virginia, because coincidentally that's where our training headquarters is based, making it appropriate to be specific.

I found it strange when I was in college (UVA) and suddenly found that I was from "NOVA," or Northern Virginia, which I had never considered as my geographic identity. Before college, depending on the context, I would think of myself as from Arlington, the DC Area, or Virginia.

This is the only situation I would consider offputting. The rest are just people getting bent out of shape for no reason.

Dude: I'm from DC.
Me: Hey, I grew up in Arlington, where exactly are you from?"
Dude: DC
Dude's Friend: He's from Springfield.

[dobrojim]

I have to confess, if I weren't from PG County, I wouldn't want to be near there.

You might or might not be interested to hear that I lived in Oxon Hill
before it was called Fort Washington out past the end of Fort Foote Rd.
Our family moved there in 1966 when I was 9, then later moved to
Herndon 2 years later when my father got a job in Reston only to lose
that job less than 2 years later. He ended up with a miserable commute
for many years going from Herndon to Suitland where he worked for NOAA.

I went to Fort Foote ES for 2 years.

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

At this point I dont think even I would want to come here and play if I was a professional basketball player and that is saying a lot because I was born and raised here and I love this place more than life itself but I ABSOLUTELY HATE WHAT THIS PLACE HAS TURNED INTO NOW so I would choose to play somewhere else instead.