I am planning a move to DC in the next weeks and trust all of you more than most, so...

What is the messenger situation like? How little will I get paid? Can I find my way from A to B without knowing the city well? etc.

Where should I live? I rather live in DC than the surrounding areas, I like loud music, and appreciated both cheap beer and rent.

If you have a place for me to live or work send me a PM. I'm just trying to settle in and pay rent for now.

I apologize if you find this message completely off topic and a waste of your time.

i live in arlington, right outside of dc. as in, basically across the street.

hmmm, i don't know about cheap rent in dc... i know in arlington you can get a decently-low-end for $800, maybe less. a single room around $400 a month...

you aren't moving into the cheapest place in the world, lemme tell ya. as for jobs, there's a good number of bike shops in the area. i work at a small one out in vienna, but that's 13 miles west of the city. *cough*weneedmechanics*cough*

i actually don't know a whole lot about how popular messengers are, relative to other cities. if you're in the city for a few hours and you keep your eyes open, you'll spot a messenger, but they're not EVERYWHERE.

Not a messenger, but I ride in the city daily. Commute from Northeast to 15th and Eye, and bomb around town most days after work. Compared to other big cities, DC is more of a village...the central business district is pretty small. The forefathers were fond of European cities, so there are many traffic circles and diagonal streets that can be confusing at first. It was designed as a fort city, so easy navigation was far from a priority. More of a liability, in fact. That being said, it's pretty easy to learn your way around. Especially on a bike. And traffic isn't as dense as a New York or a Chicago, so going from A to B is a breeze. Just watch out for the occasional motorcade.

There is a good sized messer community here. With the Government comes law firms, lobbyists, muckrakers, etc. These guys love messengers...when they need something delivered. Once they are in the limos, they just want to run you down. Also, other than rain and humidity, the weather isn't bad for riding year round. I haven't ridden the train to work--save four occasions--in the past two years.

As far as living cheap in the District...good luck. Prices are ridiculous. Loud music or not.

Do you work at Spokes?

*edit: when I say cheap, I mean relatively. I grew up outside of NYC so DC seems like a steal to me.

i live in columbia heights, which has some of the cheapest rent in north west dc. but that isnt really saying much, my room mate and i pay 1200 for a 2 br apt. Its about 700 square feet and my bed touches 3 sides of my room. Its pretty darn tiny.

real estate prices are getting supper crazy around here, so keep an eye out. If you need an room you can have mine for 2 months in June, ill be movin out early

as for cheap beer, DCs not too good for that either

im probably not the one to talk about this with, im pretty bitter when it comes to dc...


...thats why im moving to Philly in june

ok, screw all that.
look for a group house. you can easily get away with living with other messers/vegans/whatever for $500 a mo or so. It's out there. Some of the group houses are listed on City Paper (www.washingtoncitypaper.com) classifieds and some on craigslist. Most affordable group houses right now are in Columbia Heights or Shaw or the farther reaches of Mt Pleasant.

Lots of messer co's here. I would suggest stopping folks who are riding about and asking 'em-- they all have a lot to say about their work. The holy grail is to work for Bega, but you won't get hired there unless you have like 3 -4 years experience, incl. winters (i.e. if it doesn't snow where you're comin' from, that doesn't count).

Ciity Bikes in Adams Morgan gives messers a 5% discount and has lots of friendly stuff like a water cooler and a free local phone. Most of the staff is ex-messers and can clue you in, too. I actually think they're still hiring too.

OK I won three DC messenger races so I think I can comment here.

Rooms: My grandmother lives 10 minutes from DC by bike in Arlington. She has a cluttered house with lots of tennants. I lived there for 8 years. If you can deal with the clutter, the rent is dirt cheep and she has a room available. You can PM me about that. The only downside other than the above is that it is just a little too far to come home for lunch. When I lived in Adama Morgan I could go home for lunch, but the rent was about $700 more a month...

The only way to make real money in DC as a messenger is to have your own clients. The work is sporadic due to the Congress. In=busy. Out=slow. Bring a paperback with you. There are lots of companies, sometimes you can get a guarentee if you're experienced.

But you can do okay working for other people...You have to work hard and work long hours to make good money. Broadly speaking in addition to Bega Services/DC Courier, QMS (quick messenger service) is ok, although some people don't like the owner, and you have to do volume, but they have the work, ususally. Some people like Laser. Some like Apple. If you can learn to route yourself properly, and deal with free call, Washington Express is it. There are lots of other companies, I worked for Zoom for a long time.

The city is a grid, so you get the numbered streets and lettered streets right off the bat. The state streets, and the weird little one block streets can take awile, not to mention all the one way streets. But once you get that figured, you can move real smoothly. Get a map and keep it with you. After about three years, you won't use it much, but you'd be surprised how often you get an obscure address that you've never seen before.

It is a good town to ride fixed in, there aren't many or long hills. I rode 46x16 for a long time, now I'm more of a spinner and I'm on 44x17. Just don't lose your chain coming down Consititution on the house side.

nope! smaller shop

ahhhh... i know. cool.

As others have suggested, look at Columbia Heights or Shaw for places to live. Though a little further (just past Columbia Heights), you can find good deals in Petworth, too.

As for working as a messenger, get to work early (around 8am) and be prepared for a long day. The Summer is going to be slow, especially when Congress is out of session. Also, a lot of people try to get messenger jobs in the Summer, so work can be pretty scarce. You'll need to stay with a company for a while, and work year-round, to really get a decent amount of work/money (though if you're looking to make lots of money, messenger work probably isn't really the way...).

bega and dccourier??? hahahahahahahahahahahaha
try 3 tags a day.
bega now works as service manager in chevy chase city bikes... dccourier is run by a crew of muppets... i wasted my whole last summer trying to help them out... qms are ok, laser are better if you can work with a crackhead dispatcher...
there's a place in se dc which is ok, heaps of line standings etc...

beer? lucky bar downtown - say hi to chris for me, common share south side adams morgan - cheap and nasty, asylum is ok, toledo lounge is good...

accomodation - pay heed to the previous posts... but i know of somewhere free if you wanna get a std...

yeah i just left dc from working as a messer a few months ago.

i started off and stayed at laser. i think its a good deal coming from sheyot companies in philly. you get over 3 bucks a tag, and my first day i made 60 bucks. never made less than 60. when i started i was easily making 400 bucks a week, but that is working at least 50 hours a week. its gonna be hard now cuz weather is warming up.

i know everyone out there is talking about gettin in a group home, i dont know the situation there, but i shared a two bedroom apt in alexandria and i payed 500 a month. i know its not the messer way, but i would say look for an apt to share near crystal city or something. i saw an add on craigslist for someone who needed a room filled and it was 475 a month and they have free computers/internet in the building. then just metro it in every morning (they will give you sheyot but who cares).

if your making 400 a week, you can easily swing 500 for rent unless your addicted to crack or somethin like that. fixed is great cuz there are no hills. the city is a breeze to learn, i loved it there after messing in boston. everything is numbers and letters and no tag will usually take you more than half a mile away.

i dont know where cheap food it because i lived off of highly sugar-ized home made corn bread, oatmeal for breakfast, and i brought a thermos of coffee everyday to work for the slow times. dont worry about water, most buildings have water fountains.

stay away from messers sittin the farag park drinking beer all day. o yeah, and get a streetwise map, i would say its one of the best.

o and one thing i noticed, a biiig aside, condoms are cheap, like 5 bucks for a 12pack wehn they go on sale. i was in san fran for a while and they were double that.

hope this helps

There is a somewhat recent thread (which I won't search for, but you can) that covers most of DC's neighborhoods and places to go.

Rent in DC, like in any other city, varies wildly by neighborhood. In some areas you'll pay well over $2000 for a small one-bedroom, in other areas you'll pay $1200. It just depends where you want to live and what's important to you. I've lived in the city for 13 years, and before that 5 in the suburbs as a kid. Even the closest-in suburbs (old town, rosslyn and around, chevy chase) are a bitter pill to swallow if you want anything vaguely urban (and vaguely urban, by the way, is all you'll ever get here, even in the most built-up parts of the city). If you don't panic when you start looking, and if you remain patient, you should have no trouble finding a decent place in the district. Don't give your tax dollars to Virginia.

Wait, why was this thread revived? Christ, it's over month old.

it's revived because we're all playing "i love my city."

ok, i was playin' "i love my city."

and because anyone who tells you that living in VA is "no big deal" is a LIAR! think about your drinking and biking interest-- would you rather trek home over bridges and crap or just roll a couple blocks?