Those that have moved from DC to Baltimore...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Similarly, my friends who have moved outside the city public system have found their kids behind initially, particularly in writing and math. Telling people that the Baltimore City school system is great, IMO, is inconsistent with the truth, and not what most people here believe. The curriculum and facilities really are behind both the privates and county publics. Your claim that these factors don't matter isn't really credible to me.

Were your friend's children in Roland Park elementary or one of the other "good" public schools? I know of several students who have gone from Roland Park elementary into Gilman, Bryn Mawr, and Friends and not been behind in their writing and math.

Those children were considered gifted in the public school, however, and are average in their private. Perhaps a non-gifted child would struggle more?

Yes, they were otherwise what would be the point of mentioning it the context of those schools. Nearly all in-district students are in what you called the "gifted" track, which would just be normal curriculum elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you regret it or are you happy? We are thinking about making the move for jobs and for a better cost of living. We have two small kids here in DC (Arlington) but feel like, even though we make good salaries, it will never be enough financially to get what we want in this area. It seems that you need to make $300k at least to live comfortably as we'd like (house in a safe neighborhood in the city or Bethesda/N Arlington, walkable, not totally in need of major renovations). We feel like living here will mean we continue to scrape by and don't have extra money to take family vacations, pay for enrichment for our kids, etc. Baltimore is appealing because of the job offer and also for the lower cost of living. It seems one can live in a pretty area such as Roland Hill in the city, but real estate is much cheaper. I think we could even afford private elementary school there, which we could never do here in the DC area.

Anyway, does anyone have thoughts, particularly those that have made a similar move?

Roland park is not very similar to Bethesda/Arlington. Its more like McLean/CCMD some parts of NWDC. Towson is more similar to Arlington/ Bethesda.

Roland Park isn't anything like McLean. The homes are older so the comparison would be to Cleveland Park and CCDC, but less expensive and less safe. The equivalent of McLean in the Baltimore area is probably Lutherville/Timonium.

Roland Park reminds me of the eastern part of Falls Church City (Hillwood and E Broad Streets) in feel

[Anonymous]

Sorry I know this is an old thread. Anyone’s kids go to riderwood elementary, ridgley middle, dulaney high cluster? We are thinking of moving back from moco to be closer to family but the houses in lutherville are 800k. We’re having trouble moving back as we like both areas. Has anyone moved there from moco?

[Anonymous]

It’s 2019 and I’m now considering moving to Baltimore. I work in foggy bottom have a three year old and I’m a single mom. Baltimore time and time again has been magnificent price wise. Is anyone else living in Baltimore and commuting into DC? I have price tunnel vision and the affordability is amazing but I’m not sure if I should be considering something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s 2019 and I’m now considering moving to Baltimore. I work in foggy bottom have a three year old and I’m a single mom. Baltimore time and time again has been magnificent price wise. Is anyone else living in Baltimore and commuting into DC? I have price tunnel vision and the affordability is amazing but I’m not sure if I should be considering something else.

I would never, ever intentionally lengthen my commute by that much, particularly with a 3yo, as a single parent, and in a region where commutes are only getting longer.

If I were in this situation I’d live in a 2br condo in DC and put my kid in free PK3. There are lots of other permutations but I would NOT consider moving that far out with a young kid. My coworkers who’ve done that have usually not had kids and even then, most didn’t last long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s 2019 and I’m now considering moving to Baltimore. I work in foggy bottom have a three year old and I’m a single mom. Baltimore time and time again has been magnificent price wise. Is anyone else living in Baltimore and commuting into DC? I have price tunnel vision and the affordability is amazing but I’m not sure if I should be considering something else.

I would never, ever intentionally lengthen my commute by that much, particularly with a 3yo, as a single parent, and in a region where commutes are only getting longer.

If I were in this situation I’d live in a 2br condo in DC and put my kid in free PK3. There are lots of other permutations but I would NOT consider moving that far out with a young kid. My coworkers who’ve done that have usually not had kids and even then, most didn’t last long.

You'd move to a city whose mayor just resigned by text message and whose only major university just had to hire their own private Blackwater to combat crime in the city?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s 2019 and I’m now considering moving to Baltimore. I work in foggy bottom have a three year old and I’m a single mom. Baltimore time and time again has been magnificent price wise. Is anyone else living in Baltimore and commuting into DC? I have price tunnel vision and the affordability is amazing but I’m not sure if I should be considering something else.

The commute will KILL YOU. I would never in a million years move to Baltimore while still working in DC. NEVER. You will regret it. My DH worked in Baltimore, and we live in Rockville. It was still a crappy commute, but much better than Baltimore to DC (even with public transportation). Plus, Baltimore is very very insular. It is very hard to break in---very hard.

[Anonymous]

we live in baltimore and it’s fine but our commutes are short. I would never commute to foggy bottom five days a week. If you telecommute 3-4 days a week then maybe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, I fear that so many of the people posting here haven't lived in Baltimore for a while.

Catonsville has some serious crime issues. I know a few people who live there *now* and one of them was robbed a few months ago. The other one had an attempted robbery on their home a year ago.

As for Towson, it doesn't not connect via public transit with the city. So if you're looking for something walkable with public transit (like Arlington and Bethesda), Towson is not it. Neither is Roland Park. Roland Park is very suburban. Except unlike DC suburbs, there isn't much in the way of public transit. Basically, in Roland Park, you can walk to a grocery store, but that's about it.

Mt. Washington has charm, but it's very small. Again, it's only walkable in the sense that you can walk to a few shops. It has a light rail station, but the light rail only links up to certain areas of the city, and the light rail is not as safe as the metro, especially after dark.

Just trying to give you the straight story.

You can go from Baltimore city to Towson on public transportation. My 78 year old mother does it once a week.

[Anonymous]

Baltimore is the murder capital of the country. Yeah Baltimore!

[Anonymous]

Baltimore was too dangerous, so I moved to Detroit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s 2019 and I’m now considering moving to Baltimore. I work in foggy bottom have a three year old and I’m a single mom. Baltimore time and time again has been magnificent price wise. Is anyone else living in Baltimore and commuting into DC? I have price tunnel vision and the affordability is amazing but I’m not sure if I should be considering something else.

I live in Baltimore and commuted to VA for the first 4 years of my kids life. I now work in Baltimore city. I would not recommend commuting. I would recommend moving here if you can get a job in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Baltimore is the murder capital of the country. Yeah Baltimore!

Well, the sad truth is that Baltimore is so deeply segregated that all the murders and murderers will never set foot in any place this poster will live. First off, do not move here if you will be working in dc. That’s just crazy. Secondly, it’s a pretty safe place if you live twenty minutes or so from the city center. The murderers are lazy, some of them don’t have cars, and the public transport
Is bad. So as long as you have a certain physical distance from “Wire-Ville” you are pretty safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
That's a nice statement, but it just isn't accurate. Talk to your friends about the curriculum, number of students in the classroom, and facilities --no comparison between even the "best" schools in the city and the schools in the county. Mt. Washington, which is consistently touted here as a wonderful school doesn't even have a playground for its K-2 school. Classes are overcrowded at RP, Mt. Washington, and other "good" schools because the community can't fill the classroom, so kids are bussed in until the class is deemed "full."

I tend to agree with others who say Roland Park and Mount Washington are good schools. I have relatives attending both and their parents are more than satisfied.

You still failed to address the important point, do kids from Roland Park and Mount Washington with decent parents end up in a similar place in life as kids going to privates or to schools in the count? I think this was an interesting point raised. If they do all tend to end up in a similar place then issues of class size etc. are kind of moot. Do you know of academically inclined Roland Park or Mount Washington kids who were unable to get accepted into competitive colleges? I only happen to know one graduate of Roland Park and they are currently excelling at Hopkins.

Here is a link to the Baltimore crime map the city has plenty of crime, but in Roland Park there does not appear to be a problem http://www.baltimorepolice.org/your-community/crime-map

Am I missing something here?

Yes you are, you are missing the point that it's not just the destination, it's the journey to getting there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
That's a nice statement, but it just isn't accurate. Talk to your friends about the curriculum, number of students in the classroom, and facilities --no comparison between even the "best" schools in the city and the schools in the county. Mt. Washington, which is consistently touted here as a wonderful school doesn't even have a playground for its K-2 school. Classes are overcrowded at RP, Mt. Washington, and other "good" schools because the community can't fill the classroom, so kids are bussed in until the class is deemed "full."

I tend to agree with others who say Roland Park and Mount Washington are good schools. I have relatives attending both and their parents are more than satisfied.

You still failed to address the important point, do kids from Roland Park and Mount Washington with decent parents end up in a similar place in life as kids going to privates or to schools in the count? I think this was an interesting point raised. If they do all tend to end up in a similar place then issues of class size etc. are kind of moot. Do you know of academically inclined Roland Park or Mount Washington kids who were unable to get accepted into competitive colleges? I only happen to know one graduate of Roland Park and they are currently excelling at Hopkins.

Here is a link to the Baltimore crime map the city has plenty of crime, but in Roland Park there does not appear to be a problem http://www.baltimorepolice.org/your-community/crime-map

Am I missing something here?

Yes you are, you are missing the point that it's not just the destination, it's the journey to getting there.

"Good schools"

You sure do have a low standard. For Roland Park On 62% are proficient in English and 58% proficient in Math? That's a D and an F.

The situation for Mt Washington is even more abysmal. 44% proficient in English and 36% in Math. Those schools are FAILURES.

nobody with any money who cares about their kids would send them there.

Plus those schools are nearly all black and white. It's not like ESL can even be used as an excuse.