DC/DMV more similar to Atlanta or Metro New York?

[King of Kensington]

Is DC more similar to Atlanta or does it share more in common with ACELA corridor metro NY?

[If my soul was made of stone]

I'd say Atlanta, if only because DeKalb and Prince George's Counties are quite analogous.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The development patterns of Metro DC mirror Atlanta in many ways.

[Roll Roons]

I would say Atlanta, due to the fact that both metros have large black populations and are currently seeing a lot of transplant growth. Like the Atlanta metro, a lot of DC suburban counties, especially in Virginia, are just exploding, while the growth in the NYC metro is now much slower. Atlanta also appears to be becoming inelastically blue at all levels, much like the DC area, while ticket splitting for downballot Republicans is still fairly common in suburban areas like southwest Connecticut and North Jersey.

Also what makes the DC area somewhat unique is that there are virtually no conservative or Republican-leaning parts of it. Of the country's big metro areas, you could really only say the same of the Bay Area and maybe Boston and Seattle.

[King of Kensington]

If Atlanta were the national capital would it be any less educated or liberal than DC?

[ilikeverin]

In development? Yeah, maybe Atlanta, sure, although the broader DMV has been able to slow its sprawl considerably (especially) thanks to increased density in NoVa. But temperament? NYC all the way.

[Non Swing Voter]

How are most people voting Atlanta? DMV is literally part of the Acela corridor and the people are extremely similar to the people who live in metro New York.  Northern Virginia is basically Connecticut and suburban Maryland is basically northern New Jersey. 

[King of Kensington]

Yes, could just as easily have been set in Potomac, Maryland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d2RlyAz6VQ

[Non Swing Voter]

Yes, could just as easily have been set in Potomac, Maryland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d2RlyAz6VQ

When is the last time you've been in Maryland, Virginia, or DC?

[King of Kensington]

Last year.  Why?

[Non Swing Voter]

Last year.  Why?

Trying to compare the Sopranos to an uber wealthy tiny area of suburban DC seemed either completely disingenuous or as though you have a lack of understanding of the area.

Anyways, DC metro people are much more similar culturally to NYC metro people and both are part of the Acela corridor.

signed - someone who has lived in all three locations ur asking about and who currently lives in the DMV.

[King of Kensington]

I guess they share an "elite liberal" culture?  But DC is more "elite liberal" than NYC area is.  It's also a relatively generic transnational culture.  

NYC's distinctiveness is more in its ethnic and working class communities which spread through NE Corridor proper (Boston to Philly) but not in DC.  NYC has basically no edge cities or boomburbs while half of DMV is post-1980 suburbia.  Transplants make up a very small % of Metro NY population, while DC and Atlanta were transformed by transplants.  

PG County is a lot more like De Kalb County than any suburban DC county is like Long Island or Westchester or suburban NJ.  

Yes MD is a D state like NY but I don't put much weight in voting patterns in determining culture.  Pretty much everywhere in the USA where there's lots of college grads and lots of minorities is D.

Though on the other hand, DC is closer to NY, has better transit than Atlanta and was never part of the Deep South.  So a bit of a bizzaro NE Corridor/New South hybrid?

[vitoNova]

The only reason Atlanta is Democratic is due to the blacks.

The DC area--like NYC--is liberal due to the blacks AND the whytes. 

When I was in college, I flew down to ATL to visit buddies who were stationed at McPherson (as it was shutting down) and the only memorable thing I remember is going to one of those Medieval dinner shows.

Unlike DC and NYC, there is no "downtown life" in Hotlanta.  It is one boring-ass town. 

[Adam Griffin]

 

[King of Kensington]

The only reason Atlanta is Democratic is due to the blacks.

The DC area--like NYC--is liberal due to the blacks AND the whytes. 

When I was in college, I flew down to ATL to visit buddies who were stationed at McPherson (as it was shutting down) and the only memorable thing I remember is going to one of those Medieval dinner shows.

Unlike DC and NYC, there is no "downtown life" in Hotlanta.  It is one boring-ass town. 

Whites are a lot more monolithically D in DC than in NY. 

[Del Tachi]

The obvious answer is Atlanta, as D.C. is historically and culturally part of the South.

[King of Kensington]

The WWC is basically nonexistent in Atlanta/Fulton County, similar to DC and the Beltway.  Blacks outnumber a very affluent white minority in the city propers and both have had Black mayors since the 1970s.

[pikachu]

I guess they share an "elite liberal" culture?  But DC is more "elite liberal" than NYC area is.  It's also a relatively generic transnational culture.  

NYC's distinctiveness is more in its ethnic and working class communities which spread through NE Corridor proper (Boston to Philly) but not in DC.  NYC has basically no edge cities or boomburbs while half of DMV is post-1980 suburbia.  Transplants make up a very small % of Metro NY population, while DC and Atlanta were transformed by transplants.  

PG County is a lot more like De Kalb County than any suburban DC county is like Long Island or Westchester or suburban NJ.  

Yes MD is a D state like NY but I don't put much weight in voting patterns in determining culture.  Pretty much everywhere in the USA where there's lots of college grads and lots of minorities is D.

Though on the other hand, DC is closer to NY, has better transit than Atlanta and was never part of the Deep South.  So a bit of a bizzaro NE Corridor/New South hybrid?

Generally agree with the DMV being more similar to Atlanta more than Metro NYC for a lot of the reasons listed, but idk I fully agree with the first and last points. I do think that DC's elite culture (or at least the white elite culture) has a bit of a Northeastern lean; e.g. if you look at the state demographics for a lot of the private colleges in the area, there's definitely a bend towards the BosWash states and while athletic conferences are a bit of dumb way to group regions these days, imo they give an idea of where these institutions view themselves. For GU/GW/American/Catholic, that's definitely to the north.

On the last point, DC's Metro system wasn't created until after WW2 in tandem with freeway development and is a essentially a hybrid metro/commuter rail system to get commuters from the suburban counties into the district. In this respect, its development has a lot more in common with MARTA than the NYC subway, which was developed prewar and under a different paradigm.

[King of Kensington]

True DC and Atlanta both built up their transit systems in the 70s. 

[King of Kensington]

Between Boston/NYC/Philadelphia I'd say Boston is the most "liberal elite" of the three.  But it's hard to say Boston and DC are "culturally similar" really beyond the superficial IMO.

[vitoNova]

MARTA is trash.  Despite it being literally on Fort Mac's front door, nobody used it to go into Atlanta on a Fri/Sat night.  In fact, I recall it closing its doors like at 11pm every night.  This was pre-Uber. Even on weekends.  Lame.

The DC Metro/NYC subway is vastly superior.  

[beesley]

Atlanta is much more similar at face value. Metro New York is too unique to be realistically compared to another American city, not even LA I'd argue.

[GregTheGreat657]

Culturally more similar to Atlanta, but politically more similar to NYC.

[Hope For A New Era]

You can't tell me Loudoun isn't just a bit of Douglas County Colorado that got lost

[Хahar 🤔]

I tend to describe Atlanta to people as Los Angeles if it had the demographics of Washington. No part of the country west of the Susquehanna is much like New York at all. The choice here is obvious.

Unlike DC and NYC, there is no "downtown life" in Hotlanta.  It is one boring-ass town. 

It may be true that Atlanta is boring if you are white.

MARTA is trash.  Despite it being literally on Fort Mac's front door, nobody used it to go into Atlanta on a Fri/Sat night.  In fact, I recall it closing its doors like at 11pm every night.  This was pre-Uber. Even on weekends.  Lame.

The DC Metro/NYC subway is vastly superior. 

When I left the DC area for good and moved back to Georgia in 2018, I had precisely the opposite experience. WMATA trains stopped running at midnight every night (including on weekends), which meant that any time I went anywhere I had to start looking at my watch at 11 PM and excuse myself early or else risk getting stranded. The chilling effect this had on social life was obvious. MARTA trains, by contrast, never stop running before 1 AM, and often I've been able to leave rather later than that and hop on a train. From the standpoint of public transportation alone, leaving the DC area was liberating.