I agree with everything Levi said here. Recommending a neighborhood is tough because everyone has a different opinion of what "safe", "convenient", "suburban", and "downtown" mean. All the areas he mentioned are nice, and he is 100% correct about the amount of development being done to rejuvenate areas. There are a lot of up and coming places, and prices are soaring not only in town but further and further away from town as well. Be warned that traffic is pretty bad if you live outside of DC. Though all the areas he lists are definitely nice, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown, and Vienna are all too suburban for me (but that's just me). Aside from Germantown, you can metro from any of them (though you'll most likely have to take a bus or drive to get to the Gaithersburg metro and could easily end-up doing the same in Vienna or even Arlington, depending on where in those areas you live). Gaithersburg and Germantown are REALLY suburban but as he said, if you're looking to buy a big house, don't be surprised if Germantown is as close to DC as you can afford. Even then - I've recently seen 2 bedroom condos in Germantown going for $350K +. If you want to give us a better idea what you are looking for, we could certainly give you better suggestions. As Levi said, salaries here CAN BE nice and high, and real estate prices ARE ALWAYS high (unless you don't mind living 30 or 40+ miles from DC. You'll find that most jobs are concentrated in the downtown DC, Pentagon/Arlington, and NOVA (Northern Virginia - more towards Dulles) areas though there are a lot of companies in Bethesda, Rockville, and other areas. I have a hunch Arlington is probably what you're going to be most interested in, since you said you want a safe and fun area that's not downtown.
~Simon Simon Horwith CIO, AboutWeb - http://www.aboutweb.com Editor-in-Chief, ColdFusion Developers Journal Member of Team Macromedia Macromedia Certified Master Instructor Blog - http://www.horwith.com Wallach, Levi wrote: >Wow. I'm not sure if I agree with everything you list, but I think a lot of >neighborhoods in and around DC have gone through an incredible amount of >change in the last 5-10 years. Lots of development both within the city as >well as out very far in the suburbs. Friends of mine keep moving farther out >in order to be able to afford bigger houses for growing families. So it's a >double-edged sword. The DC area has had lower unemployment in general than >the rest of the U.S. (I believe it's around 3-3.5% right now) mainly due to >the large amount of government and government-related jobs, although there are >certainly a fair share of purely technology or non-gov't related companies out >there. But this also means that the cost of living is higher. More people >have more income and what with the interest rates the housing market has been >out of control. Not quite as high as New York, but not that far away either! > >I would say your two best places to learn more about the area, its >neighborhoods current events, etc., etc., is http://www.washingtonpost.com/ >(The major newspaper here - they also host washingtonjobs.com), and >http://www.washingtonian.com/ (the major local magazine which has lots of >great resources and info about the area). Good luck! I've lived in Rocville, >Gaithersburg, and Germantown Maryland, Adams Morgan in DC, Arlington, and >Vienna Virginia. My personal favorite of these, and where I live now is >Vienna, although there are many other cool areas that I wouldn't mind living - >Clarendon, Takoma Park, Old Town Alexandria, Falls Church City, etc. Most of >these places, though, are pretty pricey, at least to live in the better parts >of them. As far as safety, well, there are good and bad areas throughout, >although probably the worst crime areas are Souteast and Northeast DC - >although the Capitol Hill area is in Southeast and that's been doing really >well. It's not all cut and dry is all, but you will get a much better picture >by just driving around and talking to people who live in various parts of the >area... Good luck! > >Levi Wallach > >Blog: twelveblackcodemonkeys.com >DVD Review Site: dvdmon.com >Pictures at: http://wallachexpressions.smugmug.com/Photos%20by%20Levi > > > >From: Simon Horwith >Sent: Fri 1/21/05 4:02 PM >To: CF-Jobs-Talk >Subject: Re: DC Jobs - What the... > > >I lived in the DC area for 5 years before moving to London and now I'm >back again. I like the DC area. In terms of nightlife - if you like >clubbing, dancing, and/or drinking, DC is really good. There aren't >quite as many places for that stuff as in New York City, but it's close >(and usually cheaper, too). The best areas to go for that sort of stuff >depends on your taste, but most likely you're going to want to hang-out >in the Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle areas. Georgetown has a few >bars/clubs that are fun as well. There are many very large nightclubs >more downtown - closer to chinatown. There are also some nice bars in >VA, though not much in terms of clubbing/dancing there. If you're into >museums and culture, DC is terriffic - all of the national museums are >here.... it'd take you over a year of spending every single weekend in a >museum to see them all. There are also a lot of nice monuments, govt >buildings to tour, and parks. It's a terriffic city, really. You'll >most likely want to stay in North West DC - the rest of it can be nice >but you're much more likely to end-up in bad neighborhoods/dangerous >situations in those areas. > >Places to live: if you don't want to be downtown and also want to be in >a good and convenient location, Arlington, VA is good... so are some of >the neighborhoods in MD like Bethesda and Silver Spring. There are more >nice neighborhoods I would also recommend if you don't require being >walking distance to the Metro. I like being in extremely convenient >locations personally.... yesterday my wife and I found out our offer on >a condo was approved, so it looks like I'm going to be living in the >Logan Circle area - very convenient to Dupont Circle as well as >downtown. I used to live in Arlington, in the Courthouse/Clarendon >area, and that's a very hip, young, safe, and fun place to be. It's >also very convenient to getting into the heart of DC. Old Town >Alexandria and it's vecinity isn't as convenient a location to get to DC >from, but it's also not really inconvenient and it is really pretty and fun. >Living conditions are good - it's a booming city with good property and >fun stuff to do. It's expensive - that's definitely a negative. Well, >the city itself isn't really more expensive than any other, but real >estate is. If you're looking at buying, property tax in some areas can >be pretty high - particularly in Montgomery County, MD. You don't have >to worry about crime as long as you're in NW DC, Montgomery County, MD, >or Arlington VA along the metro. Some other areas in VA and MD are also >really safe, especially (obviously) as you move further away from the city. > >Regarding the job market - obviously, security clearance does help. The >Federal Government is probably the largest single user of CF (if you >consider all of the Federal govt. it's own entity). DC also has a VERY >large number of associations.... most of them also use ColdFusion. >These account for the majority of the jobs. This was also the center of >the dot com boom - certainly on the East Coast, anyway, so there are >still a decent number of companies here that do consuting and >contracting. Even if you don't work for the govt. or an association, >you'll probably be doing development on applications for them. Being >the East Coast dot com capital also means that there are still several >start-ups in town, though obviously a large number of them did disappear >when the bubble burst. Don't worry aif you don't have clearance... >therre's plenty of work without one and you may end-up working for a >company or on a contract that gets you one. If you have the opportunity >to get clearance, seize that opportunity... there's far more work here >that requires clearance than there are people with clearance, so you'll >be EXTREMELY marketable - even in this market. I don't have clearance >but hope to have an opportunity to get it sometime soon. > >There are a lot of places to look for jobs and houses/apts. but your >best bet is washingtonpost.com. The washingtonpost.com website for jobs >is actually http://www.washingtonjobs.com. > >Hope that answers all of your questions? DC is a really cool place to >live (and has a great job market) - if you have any other questions, >feel free to ping me. > >~Simon > >Simon Horwith >CIO, AboutWeb - http://www.aboutweb.com >Editor-in-Chief, ColdFusion Developers Journal >Member of Team Macromedia >Macromedia Certified Master Instructor >Blog - http://www.horwith.com > > > > >K Edwards wrote: > > > >>Based on the previous topic and the fact the Atlanta CF job market leaves >>much to be desired, I invite any and all DC based companies to post or send >>me available job opps. I am a very experienced CF'er along with many other >>web related skill sets, and I would consider moving to DC if I could find the >>right opportunity. >> >>Seems to me many jobs I see in DC or VI require a security clearance which i >>don't have and I would guess the type of job that is not much fun, being >>government type work. Could be wrong but let us know. >> >>Not being from DC I would like to know what you DC'ers thought about the area >>like what is a good, central, accessable, interesting, affordable, fun, etc.. >>place to work and live. Not the far out subburbs and prob not downtown, but a >>happy medium and what to look for in that town in terms of good (living >>conditions, etc) vs bad (traffic, crime). >> >>In essence, what the hell is going on in DC with CF work these days and >>should the rest of us want to be there? >> >> >> >> > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:11:2231 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/11 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:11 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.11 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
