Comparing and Contrasting DC and New York

By: Gemma Bush

Over Thanksgiving break, rather than heading back home to Ohio, one of my WAIP roommates and I decided to head to New York and spend a couple of days seeing the Big Apple! I had never been to New York before, and I had a lot of fun. One of the many perks of being in DC is that cool cities like New York and Philly are only a relatively short bus ride away, whereas in Columbus they'd be much less accessible.

View from top of empire state building in NYC

Read on for my take on DC vs. NYC!

Food:

Both DC and New York have a ton of great food. I would say that DC seems a little heavier on chains, whereas in New York you'll see a lot of singular little restaurants, though both of them have some of each, of course. New York's Chinatown is a lot bigger and more intense, and you can find more amazing Chinese food in New York in general than you can in DC. New York is also the place for amazing bagels, great New York pizza, and delis that tend to serve giant piles of meat between two slices of bread with nothing else on the sandwich. The first two are delicious. The latter is frankly weird. DC is more the place for great Ethiopian food, and really yummy chains that you can't find in Ohio, like Roti, Sweet Green, Shake Shack, and many more. 

Public transportation:

In a contest between the DC metro and the New York subway, I'd say that the metro wins hands down. Metro stations AND trains are newer, cleaner, and better smelling than those of the subway! And that makes a big difference in overall appeal. Also, the metro is much better staffed as far as someone being around to help you at each station if something goes wrong with your card. When we were using the subway in New York, things kept going wrong with my roommates' card and there was never ANYONE around to help. There's just no staff at a lot of the stations, only machines. Also, interestingly, the subway is much shallower than the metro (meaning the metro is much deeper underground.) This is because in DC buildings can't be taller than the Washington monument, so they often have to build down, forming extensive basement sections. In New York, they don't have that going on, and can just build skyscrapers and have a shallow subway. 

Weather:

New York is MUCH COLDER than DC, between the fact that it's further north and the fact that being among the tall buildings mean you get like three hours of actually being in the sun as opposed to the shade per day. If you go there for a weekend, bundle up!

Overall atmosphere: 

I'd say that DC is less overwhelming, but New York is more fun. New York was a blast for the three nights I was there, but at the end of the trip I was honestly ready to head back to my "quiet little" DC. New York is just so crazy! People yelling and lights flashing all the time, never knowing if the next block is going to smell like yummy food or trash, and people dressed in all sorts of zany fashions. But you can't see a Broadway show in DC (not ON Broadway, at least), and you can't get authentic New York bagels, or see Macy's at Christmastime, or Times Square, or go to the top of the Empire State Building. For me, New York is a lot of fun for a weekend, but DC is a more sustainable place to live.