Great cities have a soul. They have a set of dominant values and priorities that shape conversations, influence ambitions and attract like-minded people to live and work there.
![[Image of man with megaphone]](http://www.blakejennelle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/speakout-296x300.jpg "[Image of man with megaphone]")
New York’s soul is, without a doubt, capitalism. It’s flavored by a countercurrent of artistic and creative ambition, but it’s capitalism’s influence that you feel everywhere.
L.A.’s soul is entertainment, with all the vanity, opportunism and dazzling innovation that comes with it. Las Vegas, its neighbor to the east, is built around indulgence, with simple vices made digestible and nonthreatening for everyone from fraternity brothers to their grandparents.
Philly’s soul is harder to capture. I have some thoughts on it but they are still too murky to share.
Last weekend, with all this in mind, I went to Washington DC to get to know the soul of its startup scene. Startups there are immersed in a city of advocacy, where idealists flock to make change and cynics flock to take advantage of things as they are.
So what does this climate of advocacy mean for startups and innovators in Washington DC?
The short answer is, I don’t know. I spent just one short weekend there, which is long enough to notice a few things but not long enough to be confident in any of them.
So why write at all? Read more…
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