We’ve just been over how Philadelphia found some local pride and rejected the Brooklyn Flea, but we can always count on other cities’ boosters to try to make their city Brooklyn’s little brother, probably to the annoyance of the rest of the population. Now, in a move that will allow Philadelphia and New York City residents to make fun of Washington, DC, together, Andrew Sullivan said this while announcing his return to the district:
I miss the increasing vibrancy of the city – which somehow doesn’t make it harder to live in. I miss the oases of quiet and the energy of a new emerging city that is both a second Brooklyn and a global hub of media and politics.
Oh, Andrew. Your city is a…well, it’s perfectly adequate place to live if you want to live somewhere that isn’t another place. But the point of this post isn’t to rag on DC. It’s to say once again that not every place has to be Brooklyn. Nor should they want to be. DC has Go-go music and Ben’s Chili Bowl, the hilarious Dan Snyder City Paper lawsuit and the kind Congressional access that lets you throw eggs at Mitch McConnell.
Be proud of that! Don’t insist that a few craft cocktails and a Brooklyn Flea outpost makes people think of your city as ‘the next Brooklyn.’ Even the dude from Brooklyn Flea knows not to put the Brooklyn name on the DC flea. Second-tier cities have no identities, real cities carve theirs out and proudly flaunt it.
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“I miss the oases of quiet and the energy of a new emerging city that is both a second Brooklyn and a global hub of media and politics.”
Oh, honey, no. Just no. DC =/= a second Brooklyn. I’m a Brooklyn native who worked in the District for 3 years, so I would know.
DC definitely has its own vibe just like Philly has its own vibe. People can try to compare them to Brooklyn, but people should ultimately realize that it would be like comparing apples and oranges.