Joshua Bell and Are We Really New York-Esque

The Washington region is rich. In fact, the three most prosperous large counties in the United States are in the Washington suburbs, according to census figures released yesterday, which show that the region has the second-highest income and the least poverty of any major metropolitan area in the country.

But how rich are we in culture? The Wa Post did an amazing study of that by putting a man who is known as the best American classical musician in the Metro as a busker. The reporter told the head of the Ken Cen about the effort and when Slatkin heard it was Joshua Bell he said, "NO!!!"

As a woman in the study said,"It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," Furukawa says. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?"