Suggestions on good places to live near Columbia, MD?

[Anonymous]

I am living on the Wharf right now, and I love it. However, I might need to live closer to Baltimore for work. Columbia, MD seems to be a good halfway point between Baltimore and DC since my husband works closer to DC. Where is a good place to live near Columbia? My husband and I like to go out to eat and theater. I like to play tennis and I am training for a marathon now. So, I like having safe places to run. I am not from the area so any neighborhood suggestions are appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Columbia is a horrible commute to/from dc. Live in Baltimore and he takes the train.

[Anonymous]

If you don't care about schools, any part of Columbia is great. Merriweather has a ton of options to eat out now. Columbia has a vast trail system to run and HoCo striders is great if your looking for a group. Commute to Baltimore is not bad, but the closer you get to Baltimore, the further you get from DC. If you care about schools, I'd look in the River Hill or Centennial school districts. Marriotts ridge is a good school too, but its in the boonies for those that need to commute.

[Anonymous]

PP again. If you live close to the MARC station in elkridge, it'll work for both of you. It depends on how many times a week you need to be at work.

[Anonymous]

Can you be more specific about where the "closer to Baltimore" and closer to DC" locations are? Look at MARC and commuter bus routes because I'd give different advice depending on which highways and which bus and commuter train lines you'd potentially be using.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you be more specific about where the "closer to Baltimore" and closer to DC" locations are? Look at MARC and commuter bus routes because I'd give different advice depending on which highways and which bus and commuter train lines you'd potentially be using.

https://www.mta.maryland.gov/transit-maps

[Anonymous]

It's really hard to find a place to live that you love. Over my life there aren't many places I have loved, but I'd give anything to go back to those days for that time. If you love the Wharf, are you sure you can't make this work with the train to Baltimore from Union Station?

xoxo,
Agent X

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't care about schools, any part of Columbia is great. Merriweather has a ton of options to eat out now. Columbia has a vast trail system to run and HoCo striders is great if your looking for a group. Commute to Baltimore is not bad, but the closer you get to Baltimore, the further you get from DC. If you care about schools, I'd look in the River Hill or Centennial school districts. Marriotts ridge is a good school too, but its in the boonies for those that need to commute.

Nonsense, the schools in Columbia are good as well. You just named the three high schools in HoCo with the lowest number of students from poor families. And yeah, living in Columbia and sending your kids to Atholton > living in the Marriotts Ridge district in some cheap McMansion next to cow poop smelling farmland and being 1 hr+ from civilization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you be more specific about where the "closer to Baltimore" and closer to DC" locations are? Look at MARC and commuter bus routes because I'd give different advice depending on which highways and which bus and commuter train lines you'd potentially be using.

https://www.mta.maryland.gov/transit-maps

I think PP was asking for the locations of OP and OP's husband's jobs.

[Anonymous]

Maple Lawn would be one place to consider.

And there are a number of places that are close to the Columbia Town Center and the lakefront businesses that would work. There are a number of apartments and condos on the loop right outside the mall, so you can walk over to the mall area to dine and shop.

There are places in Hanover, MD that are walking distance to the Arundel Mills mall and all of the restaurants and businesses surrounding the mall. Just be warned that this also includes the casino there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maple Lawn would be one place to consider.

And there are a number of places that are close to the Columbia Town Center and the lakefront businesses that would work. There are a number of apartments and condos on the loop right outside the mall, so you can walk over to the mall area to dine and shop.

There are places in Hanover, MD that are walking distance to the Arundel Mills mall and all of the restaurants and businesses surrounding the mall. Just be warned that this also includes the casino there.

A friend of mine lives in Hanover. If you're going to go out there, stick to the Arundel Preserve area of Hanover--around where the CVS/Wawa/Maiwand Kabob/Starbucks/luxury apartments/etc are. That's the very desirable part of Hanover, and there's a very diverse housing stock around there. Everything from apartments to townhomes to multi-million dollar single family homes. Kind of feels like a mini Rockville Town Square. There's good neighborhoods in other parts of Hanover as well, but they're not as walkable to those amenities as the Arundel Preserve folks are.


Zoned for Meade HS for right now, but the superintendent is recommending that area to be redistricted to the new high school that's opening up on the Papa Johns Farm next fall, so that could be a game changer for the area as well. My friend's kids are in elementary now, but she says that many of her neighbors with high school aged kids who planned on doing private indicated that they would do public HS if the rezoning to the new school goes through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't care about schools, any part of Columbia is great. Merriweather has a ton of options to eat out now. Columbia has a vast trail system to run and HoCo striders is great if your looking for a group. Commute to Baltimore is not bad, but the closer you get to Baltimore, the further you get from DC. If you care about schools, I'd look in the River Hill or Centennial school districts. Marriotts ridge is a good school too, but its in the boonies for those that need to commute.

Nonsense, the schools in Columbia are good as well. You just named the three high schools in HoCo with the lowest number of students from poor families. And yeah, living in Columbia and sending your kids to Atholton > living in the Marriotts Ridge district in some cheap McMansion next to cow poop smelling farmland and being 1 hr+ from civilization.

Funny. I always thought Columbia had really crappy badly built housing. The stuff built by Rouse in the 70s and 80s is aging badly. Ellicott City and Clarksville is a notable step up.

Columbia doesn't have the best schools in HoCo = straight from the mouth of the head of planning at Howard County government to me at a conference.

OP would be better moving to either downtown Baltimore or staying in DC and commuting. Not clear where the offices are for her or her spouse as they make all the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't care about schools, any part of Columbia is great. Merriweather has a ton of options to eat out now. Columbia has a vast trail system to run and HoCo striders is great if your looking for a group. Commute to Baltimore is not bad, but the closer you get to Baltimore, the further you get from DC. If you care about schools, I'd look in the River Hill or Centennial school districts. Marriotts ridge is a good school too, but its in the boonies for those that need to commute.

Nonsense, the schools in Columbia are good as well. You just named the three high schools in HoCo with the lowest number of students from poor families. And yeah, living in Columbia and sending your kids to Atholton > living in the Marriotts Ridge district in some cheap McMansion next to cow poop smelling farmland and being 1 hr+ from civilization.

Funny. I always thought Columbia had really crappy badly built housing. The stuff built by Rouse in the 70s and 80s is aging badly. Ellicott City and Clarksville is a notable step up.

Columbia doesn't have the best schools in HoCo = straight from the mouth of the head of planning at Howard County government to me at a conference.

OP would be better moving to either downtown Baltimore or staying in DC and commuting. Not clear where the offices are for her or her spouse as they make all the difference.

First of all, River Hill HS *is* a Columbia school. River Hill is a neighborhood in Columbia, and about 1/8 of high schoolers in Columbia attend RHHS. Clarksville is a mere zip-code, and some parts of it fall under Columbia--River Hill being one of those parts. Second of all, Atholton HS is easily one of the best high schools in HoCo, and it is located in Columbia. Atholton ranks higher than both Mount Hebron and Howard High Schools, both of which are in Ellicott City. It's not too far behind Centennial either, the crown jewel school of EC. Probably 1/3 of Columbia teens attend either RHHS or Atholton, and plenty more are zoned for Howard HS in EC. To say that Columbia has bad schools is ridiculous. Even the lower ranked schools in HoCo are better than schools in many other counties, and the only difference is that they have higher FARMS. Hammond HS is ranked low among HoCo schools, yet they send the most students to ivy-league universities.

We will have to disagree with neighborhoods as well. People who live in developments near cow shit in cheaply built $1.3M homes with brick fronts and ugly vinyl sides have no place to look down upon the only people in Howard County who live in semi-walkable neighborhoods near civilization and amenities. Maple Lawn and Columbia are the only areas in HoCo with redeeming characteristics, and Columbia will only get even better with the downtown plans in the future. There is nothing redeeming about the housing in Clarksville. Clarksville, Glenelg, and Marriottsville are just exurb number 23747383884 in the DMV where people who can't afford Potomac or Bethesda go to get a cheap McMansion. It's another Olney, Davidsonville, Clarksburg, Boyds, Ijamsville, Gambrills, Mt. Airy, Monrovia, Laytonsville, etc. There is nothing unique or redeeming about it at all, and in two decades, it will peak just like Potomac did (Bethesda is more popular now). Columbia has a music scene, several nice parks, nice neighborhoods, walkability, etc that make it more unique compared to other suburbs.

[Anonymous]

I am native Columbia person and I commuted to dc on the bus and the Marc train. I made it work. I love Wilde Lake, Clemens Crossing, hobbits Glen and parts of River Hill neighborhoods. I would say any HoCo school is fine, but River Hill and Atholton are probably ranked the highest in Columbia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't care about schools, any part of Columbia is great. Merriweather has a ton of options to eat out now. Columbia has a vast trail system to run and HoCo striders is great if your looking for a group. Commute to Baltimore is not bad, but the closer you get to Baltimore, the further you get from DC. If you care about schools, I'd look in the River Hill or Centennial school districts. Marriotts ridge is a good school too, but its in the boonies for those that need to commute.

Nonsense, the schools in Columbia are good as well. You just named the three high schools in HoCo with the lowest number of students from poor families. And yeah, living in Columbia and sending your kids to Atholton > living in the Marriotts Ridge district in some cheap McMansion next to cow poop smelling farmland and being 1 hr+ from civilization.

Funny. I always thought Columbia had really crappy badly built housing. The stuff built by Rouse in the 70s and 80s is aging badly. Ellicott City and Clarksville is a notable step up.

Columbia doesn't have the best schools in HoCo = straight from the mouth of the head of planning at Howard County government to me at a conference.

OP would be better moving to either downtown Baltimore or staying in DC and commuting. Not clear where the offices are for her or her spouse as they make all the difference.

First of all, River Hill HS *is* a Columbia school. River Hill is a neighborhood in Columbia, and about 1/8 of high schoolers in Columbia attend RHHS. Clarksville is a mere zip-code, and some parts of it fall under Columbia--River Hill being one of those parts. Second of all, Atholton HS is easily one of the best high schools in HoCo, and it is located in Columbia. Atholton ranks higher than both Mount Hebron and Howard High Schools, both of which are in Ellicott City. It's not too far behind Centennial either, the crown jewel school of EC. Probably 1/3 of Columbia teens attend either RHHS or Atholton, and plenty more are zoned for Howard HS in EC. To say that Columbia has bad schools is ridiculous. Even the lower ranked schools in HoCo are better than schools in many other counties, and the only difference is that they have higher FARMS. Hammond HS is ranked low among HoCo schools, yet they send the most students to ivy-league universities.

We will have to disagree with neighborhoods as well. People who live in developments near cow shit in cheaply built $1.3M homes with brick fronts and ugly vinyl sides have no place to look down upon the only people in Howard County who live in semi-walkable neighborhoods near civilization and amenities. Maple Lawn and Columbia are the only areas in HoCo with redeeming characteristics, and Columbia will only get even better with the downtown plans in the future. There is nothing redeeming about the housing in Clarksville. Clarksville, Glenelg, and Marriottsville are just exurb number 23747383884 in the DMV where people who can't afford Potomac or Bethesda go to get a cheap McMansion. It's another Olney, Davidsonville, Clarksburg, Boyds, Ijamsville, Gambrills, Mt. Airy, Monrovia, Laytonsville, etc. There is nothing unique or redeeming about it at all, and in two decades, it will peak just like Potomac did (Bethesda is more popular now). Columbia has a music scene, several nice parks, nice neighborhoods, walkability, etc that make it more unique compared to other suburbs.

When I worked in Columbia most of the hard-core Columbians were always distrustful of River Hill. Being the newest village and more expensive with bigger housing, it was also the least Columbian village and didn't have the mixed demo ethos of the older villages. Columbia has virtues but most people wanting bigger and newer and nicer housing are going to be looking mostly outside Columbia.

OP hasn't come back and this thread is useless until she tells us where she and her spouse are working.