You Gotta Comment?!?
Yet Another DC vs. New York Comparison: (It drives me crazy the way the Washington Post every few weeks will compare Washington to NYC. The stories fallow a few different themes: 1. DC is filled with bumpkins, Manhattanites are cool because.... 2. A new shop, restaurant etc. has opened here and we are now becoming so cool that we are like NY... 3. It's so weird up in NYC because people are doing the following... )

Ok here is another comparison. With regard to real estate, in New York, the chicken follows the egg; But in DC, the egg follows the chicken.

Let me explain. In New York city, neighborhoods often get revitalized, trendified when a new restraurant or nightclub opens. Once the public percieves the area as exciting and "up and coming" as signified by some hot cuban-chinese fusion place, then new people start to live there.

Here in D.C. The opposite seems to be true. Only after the neighborhood has been established do the restaurants follow. Why is that? Crime is one reason. The most isolated neighborhoods in DC often are the most crime ridden. Murderers and drug dealers don't encourage entrepenuers to seek out a neighborhood. Once the market is established by condos, only then do restaurants etc. open.

Furthermore, Washingtonians generally are not an adveturous bunch. In DC something becomes trendy when everyone is doing it. For years, U Street was perceived as dangerous and scary. Now U Street is "trendy" because houses sell for up to $1m. And only of late have "high-end" restaurants begun to open, i.e. Creme, Al Crostini etc.

Wrapping this up, a hot restaurant in NYC might signal a neighborhood where real estate prices are low, but in Washington it might signal an over appreciated real estate market.