I can understand why New Yorkers are so hostile. Once upon a time, New York was a unique, cosmopolitan ideal of the good life that attracted the brightest lights from the boonies, people like Mary McCarthy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Robert Rauschenberg. But the truth is that New York has squandered its urban exoticism. Washington, on the other hand, has strangely resisted this pop-culture ubiquity. It has no Disneyfied Times Square-like theme park.
Chain stores are surprisingly sparse within the city limits.
In other words, if you're a Washingtonian who craves a truly exotic, stimulating environment, stick around. At least that's what I'm telling my friends. In 1987, Henry Fairle wrote about the idiocy of life in New York, Washington, and every other American city. Franklin Foer recalled his youth as a black nationalist in DC's Upper Northwest neighborhood. He last wrote for TNR about W.'s Catholic roots .