DC & Minneapolis residents please help

[mblax10]

I've been out of college for nearly 2 years now and have decided I'm ready to relocate. After considering many possible cities DC/N.Virginia/Maryland & Minneapolis/St.Paul are my two finalists. I've weighed a lot of the pros & cons of each area and they're very close in my mind. Some of the bigger factors in my decision are:

-I have friends in both areas, but my college roomate and my sister (who knows lots of people) live in the DC area.
-DC has a much higher cost of living. I will probably be renting for 6 months to a year and than buying a condo. Rent in the DC area appears to be around twice as much as Minny. It also looks like it may be pretty tough to find anything in DC for under 200K.
-Salaries look to be pretty similar giving me a lot more purchasing power in Minny.
-I really enjoy live Go Fish. Canterbury is 20 minutes away from Minny. Atlantic City is 3 1/2 hours from DC.
-My girlfriend (who is long distance now) would probably move to DC if I did. There's no way she's moving to Minny.
-I like snow and cold and don't like it when it gets much hotter than 90 degrees.
-Jobs seem to be a non-issue with my work experience, I shouldn't have a hard time finding one in most cities.

I'm not looking for anybody to weigh the above factors for me, I've already done that. Instead, what factors am I missing? Tell me a thing or two about your city I haven't considered that may sway my decision.