Comments on: DC Mythbusting: No One is From DC

By: DC Mythbusting: To Rent or To Own » We Love DC

DC Mythbusting: To Rent or To Own » We Love DC — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:01:14 +0000

[...] to another edition of Mythbusting! A while back, we tackled the myth of DC being home to a transient population, and found out that the District doesn’t really deserve its reputation for no one being from [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:54:46 +0000

It’s kind of like traveling. When you’re a traveller, you usually end up meeting way more travellers than locals.

By: Mari

Mari — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:18:32 +0000

I had looked at the 2000 census for DC and something like 20 some odd percent of whites were natives and well over half of African American DC residents were natives.
I don’t know a lot of white natives under the age of 45. More over the age of 50 clustered in dowdy neighborhoods west of the park. So it seems to reason that if you are a white 20 something living in Columbia Heights, hanging out with a bunch of other 20 somethings in NoVa and east of Conn Ave, and no having deep personal conversations with your older or ethnically different co-workers, yeah. You’re not going notice a lot of DC natives.

And kodak, if you were living in a dorm April 1, 2000? Were you living alone? If you were in a group house one of your roommates might have answered the census on your and other roommates behalf. I did it on my roommate’s behalf. I asked her questions and filled out the form.

By: DCBlogs » DC Blogs Noted

DCBlogs » DC Blogs Noted — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:39:30 +0000

[...] Among the most pernicious myths about DC is that there are no native Washingtonians. We Love DC is tackling this misperception as part of their on going DC Myth Busting Series. [...]

By: kodak

kodak — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:13:59 +0000

How does the census actually take place? I never provided any information in the 2000 census. How do they decide who to contact?

By: brittany

brittany — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:23:22 +0000

Based on personal observation, it seems like there are more people from the DC metro region living in San Francisco than people from San Francisco.

Washingtonians should try developing a distinctive accent the way they have in Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, etc. That way people will recognize us townies from the get-go, as well as providing a convenient shorthand for local parody (a la Baltimore).

By: ab11

ab11 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:59:22 +0000

im surprised you didnt look at number of people who live in dc now but are originally from md or virginia or people who live in md and va but work in dc and tell people they live in dc. to me that is what i have always taken the whole “no one is from dc” to mean, that everyone is from md and va.

By: sophiagrrl

sophiagrrl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:53:05 +0000

I’m not sure the census data is so irrelevant. The reputation for transience is much older than 10 years. It’d be interesting to look at census data over a series of decades to see if this hold out over a generation. I’d hazard that a lot of native borns/long-term residents left the city during the 60-70s (both black and white) and perhaps there is a sense of a trend toward permanence again.

It’d be very interesting to see migration trends in DC and the inner-burbs on an 8 year (election cycle) cycle. I’ve always heard that Dems move into the District and Republicans move into the burbs. I’ll bet that not shown in data, but it’d be a neat question to put to the data.

By: u street girl

u street girl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:35:38 +0000

I think people see New York as Manhattan – therefore the idea no one is a local – but New York is also Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island – where plenty of families have been living there for generations. It’s the same with DC, as others have mentioned above, if you think of Congressional staffers, non profit people, interns – DC can be transient. But there’s a whole other culture to DC where people are born and bred.

By: mapgirl

mapgirl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:49:18 +0000

People who say that no one in DC is from DC are not traveling the right circles. There are areas that invite transiency, like being a congressional staffer, grad student, think tank employee, etc. Then there are those that don’t. (Think Deanwood and Brookland where the same folks have been living on the block for 30 years.)

I’ve lived on and off, in and around DC for most of my adult life and for a short while in San Francisco. I would say that SF has *way* more people not from SF than DC does. Sure, like SF, it’s hard to find someone who graduated from a DC public school, born in the city, etc. But what constitutes a local? Living in 1 spot for more than 12 months does not a local make.

FWIW, in Philadelphia, it’s not just the African-Americans who never leave. I know plenty of Asian- and white Americans there who couldn’t be bother to go to college out of state. There’s a neighborhood provincialism there that goes way way, way, back to your great-grandparents living on a block where everyone was from the same town in Palermo. It’s what gives some neighborhoods their charm.

By: SG

SG — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:38:48 +0000

I’m from here- so are my brother, sister, mom, etc. We’re all still here. None of them are active on blogs, or are “out and about” as much as the transients, who all seem to run in the same circles. Basically, we already have our friends and social networks. We’re friendly, but we don’t have the same need to go out and make friends as do transplants, who must work hard to start from basically scratch and inevitably meet other transients. It’s just very different circles, for better or worse. And it’s like that everywhere.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:16:22 +0000

Basically this says to me, poor people don’t move around a lot. So cities, that have a fairly high poverty level, especially African-Americans (hello Philadelphia!), aren’t going to have at least a base rate of people that are born and bread in one single place. I’d suspect Chicago and Detroit and Pittsburgh are even higher.

The transient job hoppers are specific to a larger middle and upper middle group of professional-class workers.

By: Dan Miller

Dan Miller — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:10:51 +0000

“They may not be the people in your social circles, but they’re here.”

That is the kicker, isn’t it? I’d love to see a decent number of responses to these questions from the readership of We Love DC as opposed to the whole city population.

By: sarahlucy

sarahlucy — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:37:48 +0000

interesting. i never would have figured the born in dc percentage to be that high, and i’m a third-generation washingtonian! i was born in dc, but raised in silver spring – i still say i’m “from” dc, though. i lived in new york too, and am maybe even more surprised that their percentage is even higher.