Devin Mullins <twifkak / comcast.net> wrote:
<snip/>

Franfurt / Main in Germany seems a pretty good match:

> I'll provide a little about DC, in fairness to y'all, and maybe as a
> template.
> 1. The housing market here is ridiculously expensive. I think it might
> be going down a *little* soon, but yikes, it's high.

Same there although in Germany it's more common to rent instead of buying.

> 2. It's probably because high tech jobs are in high supply here. Gov't
> contracting is the name of the game, and while you probably won't be
> using Agile methodologies to build the Next Big Thing, you'll at least
> have a fairly well-paying and steady job.

SAP is around the corner and there are a lot of banks - a lot jobs with good 
pay.

> 3. Weather's not fantastic. Temperate climates. Warm for its latitude
> because of some sort of wind thing. Generally pretty cloudy during the
> Spring/Fall, though, due to its proximity to the water.

Weather is quite ok I'd say: it's fairly friendly (certainly more friendly 
than in Paderborn where I live) and you have a *lot* nice countryside around 
it.  If you love motorcycling that's definitely a plus.

> 4. Traffic sucks. Combine that with the fact that you can only afford
> to live in the boonies and you've got a recipe for un-fun.

Public transportation is above average - and you're close to the biggest 
airport in Germany (and one of the biggest in Europe I believe).

> 5. Entertainment is pretty decent, if you don't mind the traffic it
> takes to get there. We've got the Kennedy Center in DC, Nissan
> Pavillion out west in Warrenton, VA, all sorts of jazz, bars, etc.
> and DC is obviously a pretty popular place for artists to include as
> part of a national/regional tour. We've got fantastic museums and art
> galleries, many of which are free.

There's a lot of cultural activities going on (Staatsoper, fairs of all 
kinds) and also subcultural activities (I'm going to a trash film festival 
each year for example).

> 6. There's a very good variety of decent restaurants, and some very
> good ones. Of course, for any genre X of food, there's apparently
> some city Y that produces better X. Oh well. :)

I would believe that you got plenty of good restaurants although I'm no 
expert for Frankfurt.

> 7. It's a big, suburban region. You're not going to see any "sense of
> belonging" to the DC area, in people. You're not going to find that
> 'cept for probably way in the city (where it's urban), or way out
> (where it's rural, in which case you'll find the annual Nokesville
> festival, or whatever).

Same there.  Plus there's a huge US community there because of the Army 
(although I believe this is going to change a bit in the future).

> 8. I may be full of it.

Unlikely (yet). :-)

Kind regards

    robert