Does anyone else hate Bethesda?

[Anonymous]

We’ve lived here for 3 years and dislike the area. Everyone said Bethesda was amazing - great schools, easy commute to DC, nice DT. What we’ve found is that most people in our neighborhood send their kids to private schools, so the great schools don’t seem to matter. The commute to DC is good, but the only option is driving unless you live in or near the congested DT area near the metro.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you picked the wrong neighborhood for you.

[Anonymous]

Oh, great, we haven't had a Bethesda-bashing in a long time. The last wealthy neighborhood to get tweaked last week was only Chevy Chase!

OP, you should have done your due diligence. We moved to Bethesda 10 years ago for the public schools, and picked an area walkable to downtown where practically everyone sent their kids to Bethesda Elementary, Westland and BCC. During the pandemic, half of those families switched to private (mostly Sidwell, St Albans, Landon). This means now we're 50/50 in our neighborhood, which is perfectly fine.

[Anonymous]

Bethesda is ugly

[Anonymous]

Yes, I grew up there. I moved to Arlington, and I'm so much happier here.

[Anonymous]

Five years ago, I think the nicer parts of Bethesda were 75/25 or 80/20 public/private enrollment. During the pandemic, many families moved their kids to private and have kept them there. I suspect the pendulum will swing back to public in a few years.

[Anonymous]

Sell your house OP. Market is tight and could use more inventory. Find someplace that makes you happy.

Heck, post your house here and you’ll probably find a buyer.

[Anonymous]

I’m honestly unclear on the OP’s complaint. What are you trying to solve forB

[Anonymous]

I don't like it either. Much less community than DC. No one plays after school at the elementary school or middle school -- or on the weekend. I knew we weren't walking distance to stores, but thought it would be OK. It is blah.

[Anonymous]

I live in Fairfax. Hate everything in MD

[Anonymous]

I grew up there and it was good enough. Private schools were barely on my radar back then, except a number of foreigners would attend FIS or Holton. Otherwise, they’d have to pay for public.

I don’t think I’d want to live there now as I don’t want my kids growing up with the affluenza.

It’s materialistic now and lots of Botox.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I grew up there. I moved to Arlington, and I'm so much happier here.

hahahaha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up there and it was good enough. Private schools were barely on my radar back then, except a number of foreigners would attend FIS or Holton. Otherwise, they’d have to pay for public.

I don’t think I’d want to live there now as I don’t want my kids growing up with the affluenza.

It’s materialistic now and lots of Botox.

I'm a middle aged woman living in Bethesda and no one I know does Botox or any other age-related intervention. My circle is not afflicted by affluenza, as in, they don't buy their kid a Jeep at 16, they don't run around covered in designer brands, they don't look down on others who live elsewhere. We save our money to pay for whatever college our kids can get into, or pay for expensive nursing homes for our parents. That's where the money goes!

It's pathetic when people just slap labels on neighborhoods and write them off. Morons think east MoCo is unsafe and gang-infested, they think Bethesda-Chevy Chase is full of rich snobs, upper county is full of hicks...

The stupidity is just mind-blowing.

[Anonymous]

We moved to upper NW and go to downtown Bethesda pretty frequently for restaurants, shopping, etc. It's actually much better than I thought it was. Like there is decent retail and good pedestrian areas. Sure a bit corporate, but no more than Rosslyn or Clarendon or whatever suburban downtown you pick. I still prefer DC, but understand why people move to Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve lived here for 3 years and dislike the area. Everyone said Bethesda was amazing - great schools, easy commute to DC, nice DT. What we’ve found is that most people in our neighborhood send their kids to private schools, so the great schools don’t seem to matter. The commute to DC is good, but the only option is driving unless you live in or near the congested DT area near the metro.

Confusing…why didn’t you live walking distance to DT if that was important. I know plenty of people that moved inbounds for Whitman, Churchill and those schools and are happy, but knew they were giving up the convenience of walkability to lots of shops and restaurants.

There are great schools…but there are plenty of parents that just won’t send their kids to public schools even if they were zoned for the best public school in the country.