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Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

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Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#101

Post by bradendouglass »

RyanGWU82 wrote: post #73
m0nastic wrote: post #64

I'll throw in my comments about Washington D.C./Northern Virginia. I've lived here about ten years (first five in Northern Virginia, the past five in downtown DC) Pros: 1.) The tech community here is actually quite good. It definitely feels like it's gotten better since I've lived here. There's no shortage of smart folks working on cool things, even if they are a little more spread out geographically. 2.) While I wou…

I used to live in Washington and I thought it was a great place for a semi-foodie like myself. There are certainly some great "uber-expensive" restaurants there, but there are a lot that don't break the bank. Matchbox, Heritage India, Jaleo, Luigi's, Old Glory... I loved the pizza at Armand's (Chicago-style) and 2 Amys (Neapolitan). Northern Virginia dining could be hit-or-miss, but the Great American Restaurants cha…

I travel a lot to the DC area and although I am with the both of you when it comes to the paltry food selection, I think 2 Amys is probably one of the best pizza places (non chains ) south of Maryland. In general the food is pretty "dingy" in DC.

However, you are never too far from a good slice of apple pie and cheddar cheese.

Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#102

Post by raster »

yellowbkpk wrote: post #8

Meanwhile, here in Minneapolis (really could apply to any upper Midwest city like Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, etc.): Pros: - If you like seasons, you get them. - Excellent beer. Many bars. Great nitelife. - Clean. No poop on the streets, even in the worse parts of the city. - Great public transportation (except Milwaukee). - Cheap rent (2BR for $1500 along the river with a view of the skyline) - Many excellent CS de…

I'll just pipe in for Milwaukee's tech scene. We've been holding BarCampMilwaukee every year since 2006. We also have Web414, a monthly meetup of web nerds, as well as more specific meetups for Drupal, Ruby, .NET, PHP, as well as Web Design Meetups. There are occasional DevHouses and Hacker House events, as well as co-working space and Milwaukee Makerspace is opening this month. I'm not as familiar with Madison but there's a scene there as well. They just had their 3rd BarCamp in August, and Web608 is a sister group to Web414. There's Ignite Madison and probably more, but I don't even live there.

If you want a tech scene to happen, you need to WORK to make it happen. Or just complain about it and move to a city where someone else has already done all the work.

Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#103

Post by steveklabnik »

akgerber wrote: post #77
steveklabnik wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest ones: * Oakland is where Pitt is at. It's got tons of college kids running around everywhere, with tons of bars and places to eat. * Shadyside is where all of those kids go after they graduate. It's where I'm sitting right now. More families, but still a bunch of stuff to do. Can be expensive (oh wait, you're coming from NYC/SF, it's dirt cheap, nevermind) if you don't look around. * CMU is located on the…

Punks have abandoned the South Side & live in Bloomfield and Lawrenceville now. Both are older Italian neighborhoods. The South Side is full of bros at night. You can seriously buy decent houses for well under $100k.

There's still some holdouts in the flats, but you're right, it's not really the 'punk neighborhood.'

I have a friend who bought a fixer-upper for $10k in Polish hill, and another who bought an abandoned house in Larimer (actually nicer than you'd think... both the house and the neighborhood, then again, I have a high tolerance for this) for $5k.

Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#104

Post by matrix »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #70
m0nastic wrote: post #64

I'll throw in my comments about Washington D.C./Northern Virginia. I've lived here about ten years (first five in Northern Virginia, the past five in downtown DC) Pros: 1.) The tech community here is actually quite good. It definitely feels like it's gotten better since I've lived here. There's no shortage of smart folks working on cool things, even if they are a little more spread out geographically. 2.) While I wou…

I was just in DC for the first time last weekend and thought Pizzeria Paradiso in Dupont Circle was, all things considered, pretty tasty. I don't think it's as good as Via Tribunali here in Seattle, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Excellent choice. A tip to other would be visitors to DC: Pizza Paradiso has a beer list that would impress any serious beer aficionado, and it worth going to just for that. And unlike a lot of places with a good beer list, the beers are fresh and the list changes regularly.

Back on topic, I found DC area to be not particularly geared towards startups. There is a lot of IT/software business in the area, but it's overwhelmingly about government contracts. It's not like SF or Seattle where real products and companies are getting invented, built, funded, etc every day.

While DC is an interesting place to live for a short while, I can't really recommend it as a destination. The traffic is horrendous. The climate is weird (how a place can be so sticky and humid in summer, and so bone-chillingly cold in winter, I'll never know). The culture is not especially geared towards entrepreneurial types. And it's expensive.

Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#105

Post by jeffclark »

techiferous wrote: post #45
CharlesPal wrote: post #25

No talk of Boston and just a mention of New York? It does not make much sense to compair technology/startup cities and totally leave out the East Coast.

Cambridge, Mass is definitely a nerd mecca. There's a lot of technology and startup action over here. And it's a wonderful city to live in (very walkable, nice architecture, low crime, clean, diverse).

...and full of damn hipsters, let's be honest.

Great place to drink or work until you head back across the river to sleep :)

Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#106

Post by wwortiz »

wyclif wrote: post #96
enjo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

THIS is where I draw the line. Best beer scene? Really? That's insane. If Boulder does anything right, it's the fact that it's in the center of the beer capital of North America. Avery, Great Divide, New Belgium, O'Dell, Left Hand, and a ton of smaller breweries are within 30 minutes of Boulder. They hold the Great American Beer Festival (see #1 http://allaboutbeer.com/live-beer/culture/2008/05/the-growle... ) in Den…

Colorado does have some great beers. I'm a big fan of Fat Tire and the other New Belgium beers.

If you like fat tire you should try 90 shilling from from Odell Brewing Company (if you can find it). I find fat tire really depends on what batch you get and how lucky you are for how good it is but 90 shilling is consistently good.

As are most of the other beers from Odell, I personally like their Cutthroat Porter.

Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#107

Post by silentbicycle »

matrix wrote: post #31
jfb wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, the best beer in the country comes from Kalamazoo, Michigan. http://www.bellsbeer.com/

I'm a huge fan of Bell's (and am currently missing it terribly), but to be fair I feel there are better breweries out there - granted, not many, but they do exist.

Yes, and several of them are in Michigan.

Bell's is great, but so are Founders and Short's. (New Holland isn't bad either, but kind of second-tier in comparison.)

Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#108

Post by cmelbye »

dangrover wrote: post #60
yellowbkpk wrote: post #8

Meanwhile, here in Minneapolis (really could apply to any upper Midwest city like Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, etc.): Pros: - If you like seasons, you get them. - Excellent beer. Many bars. Great nitelife. - Clean. No poop on the streets, even in the worse parts of the city. - Great public transportation (except Milwaukee). - Cheap rent (2BR for $1500 along the river with a view of the skyline) - Many excellent CS de…

Is the public transit really that great? I was looking at the Wikipedia article and it looks like you guys just have one light rail line and some commuters. Can you actually get to all the places you need without a car?

The public transit is terrible. There's one light rail line.

Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#109

Post by ohashi »

m0nastic wrote: post #64

I'll throw in my comments about Washington D.C./Northern Virginia. I've lived here about ten years (first five in Northern Virginia, the past five in downtown DC) Pros: 1.) The tech community here is actually quite good. It definitely feels like it's gotten better since I've lived here. There's no shortage of smart folks working on cool things, even if they are a little more spread out geographically. 2.) While I wou…

Where are you finding out about all the events in the DC area? I just moved back here after 8 years and feel like I know nothing about what's going on locally. I am signed up for DC Startup Digest, any other suggestions?

Re: Joe Stump: Your city sucks (And so does mine)

#110

Post by strick »

m0nastic wrote: post #64

I'll throw in my comments about Washington D.C./Northern Virginia. I've lived here about ten years (first five in Northern Virginia, the past five in downtown DC) Pros: 1.) The tech community here is actually quite good. It definitely feels like it's gotten better since I've lived here. There's no shortage of smart folks working on cool things, even if they are a little more spread out geographically. 2.) While I wou…

>Oh, and there isn't a single good pizza place in a 30-mile radius of the city.

Have you tried z-pizza or Lost Dog Cafe? If not, give them a try. Lost Dog has a fabulous beer selection as well.

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