Kensington vs. Bethesda?

[Anonymous]

Trying to decide b/w new home in Kensington (Parkwood section or Chevy Chase View) and one in Bethesda (Alta Vista/Wyngate). Schools, of course, are a large factor, but we are not chasing 'the best' or 'the highest scores'. We are a fairly liberal, down to earth family who values education, but will never put our children in the race to the top--Rather, let them be who they are with encouragement and guidance.

With that said, which town do you feel might suit our lifestyle? Both meet criteria as far as commutes. Our impression is that Kensington is more diverse, 'earthy', but still strong family values. Bethesda seems more intense, less diverse of course, and competitive over-the-top schools.

Feel free to dispute our 'impressions'. Just looking for a good home to raise our kids and make good neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Honestly -- I don't think there's that much difference. I have friends in both neighborhoods and both are the way you describe yourself. Both neighborhoods are mainly in the WJ cluster (some of Kensington may be BCC), so schools aren't an issue. If I were in your situation, I'd be thinking about which commute was a little better, looking for a house/block that I liked more.

KP and Wyngate both seem like great schools with lots of parent/family involvement. I don't think you can go wrong either way.

[Anonymous]

I'd got with Kensington Parkwood. The arts curriculum seems wonderful - people I know who go there, love it, and its a very good school. Wyngate has always gotten high, high marks, however. Both feed into No. Beth. MS and WJ. If I were you, I'd go with the house you like best - either because of commute, cost or size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trying to decide b/w new home in Kensington (Parkwood section or Chevy Chase View) and one in Bethesda (Alta Vista/Wyngate). Schools, of course, are a large factor, but we are not chasing 'the best' or 'the highest scores'. We are a fairly liberal, down to earth family who values education, but will never put our children in the race to the top--Rather, let them be who they are with encouragement and guidance.

With that said, which town do you feel might suit our lifestyle? Both meet criteria as far as commutes. Our impression is that Kensington is more diverse, 'earthy', but still strong family values. Bethesda seems more intense, less diverse of course, and competitive over-the-top schools.

Feel free to dispute our 'impressions'. Just looking for a good home to raise our kids and make good neighborhoods.

Your impressions are spot-on. I've liked most of the people I know who live in Kensington. I can probably say the opposite of Bethesda. Mind you, I live in Bethesda and am one of those intense, competitive types that infests the place. Would love to have you as a neighbor in Bethesda! But you'll be much happier in Kensington.

[Anonymous]

Big difference between parkwood and Chevy Chase View. Many families (but not all) in parkwood send their kids to the local public schools. MOST families in CCV send their kids to Holy Redeemer (the local church and catholic school). Most of the families in CCV grew up in that neighborhood and went to HR --- some of those who can't afford CCV buy into Parkwood. Generally speaking, the folks who go to HR (and those who live in CCV and attend the parish) are super conservative republicans. The Washington Post did an article about local politics in the county a couple years ago noting that most of the county is blue with the exception of a red dot smack dab in the middle of CCV (the article noted the neighborhood and the HR connection). I would think that a liberal family that didn't plan to attend HR (the school or the church) might not feel conencted to the community in CCV.

[Anonymous]

Both schools are good. I think Kensington Parkwood is a little smaller than Wyngate. Kensington Parkwood also has the Arts Integration. Kensington on the whole may be more diverse than Bethesda but you have the split between Kensington feeding into WJ and Kensington feeding into Einstein. To some extent, there is a direct relationship between the school cluster and the housing prices and the elementary schools are neighborhood schools (not some strangely drawn boundary that mixes it up) so chances are you could be in a town that is more diverse as a whole, but don't see it in your local school. That said, if you did things outside the school but still town based, Kensington would be more of a mix than Bethesda.

Also, to be honest, if you tell people you live in Kensington - there either aren't as many preconceived notions than if you tell people you live in Bethesda. It is sort of strange to me to be honest because before I moved to Bethesda, I had mostly grown up in less than affluent areas and when I was on my own, I lived wherever I could afford the rent and still manage to save money. So it's weird to feel like the same person, but have people that don't really know me assign all sort of assumptions when they hear I live in Bethesda.

As for people in one town versus another, I was talking to my husband the other day about diversity and schools and feeling more welcome at one preschool versus another with our kids. The diversity itself was all over the board - one was mostly white but recently had been diversifying more and more, another was very diverse, the other was mostly African-American. So much of my feeling of welcome came from people just going out of their way to be friendly. If they have the attitude that we all have something in common with our kids going to this school and making eye contact to say hello. If all the teachers go out of their way to know all the kids and parents (even of kids not in their class) that goes a long way. So bottom line is finding the block where the neighbors are all friendly, or the community is connected by YMCA or swim club, or maybe the neighborhood preschool, or maybe it's the religious base where you find the connection. What neighborhood has the active listservs?

[Anonymous]

I'm not the OP, but am also interested in this as I'm looking in the same areas, for a kid-friendly neighborhood. How would you characterize Rock Creek Hills as a neighborhood and the folks who live there? We're also "liberals" who want a great education for our daughter, but don't want to deal with a super competitive, high pressure school atmosphere, just to instill a love of learning. We plan to do public schools.

[Anonymous]

I love living in Chevy Chase View and also think the homes in Rock Creek Hills are lovely. But I think you should take a good hard look at the commute. Unless you work in Bethesda, Silver Spring or upper Northwest, the commute from this area can be kind of long (unless you're commuting in off hours). With the country clubs along Connecticut and then NIH and the Naval Hospital along Wisconsin, there are only two significant East/West thoroughfares between CC Circle and Kensington -- E/W Highway and Jones Bridge Road. The whole area can really lock up during rush hour (esp. Connecticut and Wisconsin in those areas). It think it will only get worse as Walter Reed is relocated to the Naval Hospital site. If I worked at NIH, it would be a dream commute, but going downtown (or even just driving to the metro in Bethesda) can really take hours off of my life on bad days. If I had to do it again, I'd probably buy south of that area, or west of it.

[Anonymous]

I largely agree that you can't go wrong. I live in the Alta Vista neighborhood (Wyngate ES). It's decidely not pretencious in our little quadrant between Wisconsin and Old Georgetown. You have a lot of NIH and Navy Medical families, a relatively small number of new builds (and the $$ that comes with it). There are a bunch more new builds on the other side of Old Georgetown Road, which supplies most of the Wyngate families. I do think that those families are impacting the snot factor a bit. Nonetheless, this is not the Whittman cluster. I love the conveinance to I 270 and the Metro. I personally wouldn't give up the walk to metro to move to Parkwood. However, I will say that some of the coolest mom's I know are moms in KP. Seems like a fabulous neighborhood. But for the metro, if I were shopping today, I'd definately wident my search to include Parkwood.


I'd love to have you as a neighbor!! There are lots of new families moving in.

[Anonymous]

Not sure where 16:35 lives or commutes to, but as someone living close to Rock Creek Hills I think she's got it a bit wrong. From where I am, a bit south of Rock Creek Hills, getting downtown is a snap. Without traffic 15-20 minutes to Dupont; with traffic it's never more than 45 at the absolute worst. It's the east-west traffic that is killer, but there are lots of means of minimizing that via side roads. I don't mean to under play the traffic issue - it's the reason that we opted to put our kids in daycare downtown near our offices rather than downtown Bethesda - but just to emphasize that the commute between DC and this area is really quite easy.

[Anonymous]

Speaking of Rock Creek Hills, if you commute by Metro there's one traffic light and no traffic between Rock Creek Hills and Forest Glen. Or walk to MARC and take a 20 minute train ride to Union Station. I try to avoid going west to the Bethesda/Grovesnor metro stations, adds unnecessary time and aggravation.

[Anonymous]

How is Rock Creek Hills in terms of being kid-friendly and sense of neighborhood and type of people (if there's a generalization)? Commute not an issue since I don't go downtown.

[Anonymous]

To 8:20, this is 16:35 -- I'm just a touch north of RCH. I agree that getting downtown in the mornings isn't too terrible (though the stretch on Connecticut from Saul to the Beltway can really back up, so I avoid it). It's the evenings that are completely unpredictable. I can dash from near the White House up to Chevy Chase Circle in about 20 minutes on a good night, but from there to the Beltway, it's anywhere from 15 - 40 minutes. I've had more 70-90 minute commutes home over the past few years than I care to remember, even varying with coming up 16th, going through the Park, etc. It's just unpredictable. But I think that's just becoming this whole region in general -- one snarl-up somewhere can really mess up your drive -- but that stretch up to the Beltway seems to back up more often than not for me this past year.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, I learned from the KP principal that they are losing/have lost one first grade teacher (grade in which we are interested) so the grade 1 classes are going to be 28+. I know it's a 'popular' number for MCPS, but I fear it will be a shock and huge adjustement coming from a K with only 19/20 kids per class.

Are all the area Kens & Beth schools averaging that number for the lower grades?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I largely agree that you can't go wrong. I live in the Alta Vista neighborhood (Wyngate ES). It's decidely not pretencious in our little quadrant between Wisconsin and Old Georgetown. You have a lot of NIH and Navy Medical families, a relatively small number of new builds (and the $$ that comes with it). There are a bunch more new builds on the other side of Old Georgetown Road, which supplies most of the Wyngate families. I do think that those families are impacting the snot factor a bit. Nonetheless, this is not the Whittman cluster. I love the conveinance to I 270 and the Metro. I personally wouldn't give up the walk to metro to move to Parkwood. However, I will say that some of the coolest mom's I know are moms in KP. Seems like a fabulous neighborhood. But for the metro, if I were shopping today, I'd definately wident my search to include Parkwood.


I'd love to have you as a neighbor!! There are lots of new families moving in.

OP, I live on the west side of Old Georgetown in one of those new builds (please, save your sweeping generalizations pp), but would have made a different choice if I had a do-over. While very convenient to everything, we would have widened the search knowing what we now know about how over-crowded Wyngate has become. Nearly a dozen modular classrooms may solve homeroom space, but not the space shortages throughout the rest of the school. The library, media center, lunchroom, gym, etc. are still the same yet serve vast numbers of students. Visit. Look out back at the field/playground. The school runs and tests very well, but I can't help think that to keep this order with the crowding, that this may come at the expense of kids just being kids and socializing/having a bit of fun.

That said, we were recently in the Parkwood neighborhood near the school. What a beautiful neighborhood! The setting against the park is lovely and the homes/yards look first rate. Grovesnor Metro is right around the corner, the bike paths in Rock Creek Park are readily accessible from the homes, and the redone playground at Beach & Cedar is a hit with the youngsters. I don't know anyone at the school, but I've read the above accolades and those + curb appeal = check into it.