I don’t like the traffic (but you might not need a car). Also, I don’t like the fact that this is the city where there are more protests than any other place, so the city often has a sections closed. It’s also pretty expensive to live here.

What I like…
This city has a small feel, people are nice, and there’s a lot to see. You might even bump into a politician!

I get parking tickets EVERYTIME I go there, if that’s reason enough to detest that city.

Parking and driving can indeed be a hassle, though not as bad as New York. Public transit is reasonably good throughout the metro area, though.

The best thing about DC is all the free stuff! Almost all of our museums and cultural stuff are free, with the exception of major theater (and even then we have Shakespeare in the Park). You won’t find another city with as much cool free stuff to do!

Don’t like the cost of living one bit. Public transportation is really good, at least from my point of view. I also love the sheer amount of things there are to do in this city. Cost of living’s a major downside to being here though.

If you love politics, it is the place to be. My favorite neighborhood is Adams Morgan – eclectic. The cost of living is a big deterrent. But if you can afford a place near public transportation, I think the Metro is very accessible. Oh, if you’re from up north, the summers can be unbearable.

I agree that the cost of living is high. That is one of the major downsides. And we lived right in the District, so grocery shopping was a hassle since there were no stores within walking distance to our apartment and we did not have a car. We sometimes lugged groceries on the metro until we found a place that delivered.

The public transportation is excellent. I lived there for 3 years and did not have a car the entire time. I was a member of Zipcar, which lets you rent cars by the hour, so if I ever needed one I got it through them. It was no trouble at all.

The biggest pro is that there always seemed to be something to do. Museums (a large number of which are free), parks, great restaurants, interesting day trips – I don’t think I was ever bored while I was there.

Living in Nairobi now, I miss the museums and the public transportation. I look forward to our eventual return to DC for those reasons.

As several people have mentioned, parking tickets are terrible here. Even if you have the proper neighborhood sticker and park legally, you’ll still get tickets.

There are good, affordable restaurants here, especially if you’re willing to go out to Northern Virginia. Many opportunities to find Thai and Vietnamese cuisine—the real deal, not Americanized mall fare.

I agree with everything people have posted. The cost of living is very high and the traffic (if you have a car) is awful. But if you take public transportation and live near a grocery store, then it’s not bad at all.

I like DC because it offers a lot of what larger cities have like great restaurants, music, museums…whatever you feel like doing. But it still feels like a small enough city that you always seem to bump into the same people if you want to.

I like that there are no skyscrapers! The city is easy to get around with Metro (not with a car!). People come and go (from all over the world) so you meet a variety of folks. The spring in DC is the best! So many great museums here are FREE!

What I don’t like is the cost of living and the fact that it’s not a blue collar type town. I am really drawn to that in major cities. It also lacks that large artistic community that you see all over some other cities.

If you like clubs, I believe they have some good ones here.

Amazing metro system, crazy street setup, but once you learn the grid vs the diagonals it’s actually pretty easy.

The electronic music scene is pretty rich here, as Thievery Corproation is based here and Eric Hilton runs 3 or 4 great clubs around the Dupont Circle area.

I used to live in Arlington but now live downtown. There’s a very big difference in attitude only 5 miles apart.

The biggest downside to me is that DC is like LA, except instead of the film industry, it’s politics. And sometimes, that’s ALL people wiill talk about. The phrase “waddayoudo?” is pretty much the first word out of anyone’s mouth, and can make the dating scene quite mind numbing, as it can translate to “should i sleep with you to get a better job or make a connection?” Not all of DC is like this, but it’s hard to avoid.

I’ll have to agree with most of what has been said. The traffic is terrible but the Metro is great. There’s always something to do in the city and lots of it is free. But the cost of living in DC is very high and the suburbs aren’t much better.

I have to agree with “Chug”. The traffic can get pretty bad. i take the train 99.9% of the places i go though. Being a D.C. native (currently residing in MD); I can tell you from experience that i’ve found D.C. to be one of the most interesting places i’ve been so far. i spend alot of my time in downtown D.C. visiting museums and other attractions. and at night adam’s morgan is a pretty fun place to hang out. there’s always something to do in D.C. that’s mostly why i like it. if you want a place where you’ll probably never get bored, i think D.C. would be one of those places.

I have to compare my experience living in DC years ago, vs. Seattle which is where I live now. I found the city can be pretentious and materialistic, in a stuffy sort of way. It’s less obsessed with money like say in NY, but more with power, and to a lesser extent, celebrity. Like a previous poster said, it can get abit nauseating hearing constant talks about politics, networking, and power trips. Not every social circle is like that, but I remember a conversation about whom got invited to which Inaugural Ball that just about made me sick. It just has an air of pretentiousness about it, and a more down-to-earth person may not enjoy it as much.

However, everything others have said about the upside is true, it’s just a matter of personal wants. I do find that the art scene is less grass root but more about the art establishment.

I moved here for law school as well, and as a political junkie, I love a lot about the town. I don’t have a car, so I don’t really notice traffic problems- the Metro goes wherever I need to go and it’s pretty easy to get a cab (even if it’s a little pricey) if you’r ein hurry or it’s a late night.

In my opinion, I wouldn’t have gone to law school anywhere else- the internships I’ve had here never could’ve happened anywhere else- the Pentagon, the Kennedy Center ,on the Hill, K Street, etc. Everyone you meet is doing something interesting on a national level.

As for the rest of life, I love the fact that you can get anything here- every kind of food, stuff from around the world, dive bars to local bookstores. You can have experiences no one else gets a chance to have- dinner at embassies, large protests on the Mall, sitting in on the Supreme Court or confirmation hearings- all for free.

As for complaints, well, it ain’t cheap. But neither is life in any major city- my friends in NYC actually think I have the better deal money-wise.

I’d be glad to help if you have more law school related questions as well…

You can plan on sitting in traffic on the Beltway for hours every day.

You can plan on a high crime rate – that is slowly even creeping out into the suburbs of VA and MD.

You can plan on an extremely high costs of housing – whether renting or buying.

You can plan on lots of areas that are not well maintained (litter, etc.) and an excessively high rate of homeless not only now in the city proper but moving out into the outlying areas.

There is always a lot of road construction.

Winters can be harsh but the snow-plows are always out in full force.

I lived there for three years and, as you can probably tell, I’m glad to no longer be there . . .