Montgomery County Friendly Close-in Neighborhood w/ walkable school

[Anonymous]

We are very happy with the family-friendly Wyngate neighborhood. If you choose your house on the side West of Old Georgetown Road, your kids could both walk to the elementary school and the middle school. (Wyngate and North Bethesda...fyi, the high school is Walter Johnson which will require a bus/car ride) We are not within a very close walk to stores but we are within a close walk to the Medical Center metro and a healthy walk to either the Wildwood shopping center with Balduccis, CVS, Starbucks, etc. or downtown Bethesda. But don't count on this walk as a regular walk as some of the other neighborhoods previously listed. I think that choosing a family-friendly neighborhood that allows your kids to walk to both elementary and middle school is worth not having the very short walk to restaurants, but that is just my preference. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at Garrett Park proper - not so walkable to restaurants, but lots of kids walk to school and all the neighbors know each other. When all the WF stuff gets built then will be walkable to restaurants. Also, definitely walkable to Grovesnor Metro. And the public school is very good.

Yeah a long ass walk. She can do better in the neighborhoods behind NIH.

Walk to Grosvenor is one mile. Walk to White Flint development is the about the same depending on where you are in the neighborhood. There are neighborhood cut-throughs and paths that are faster than walking to Wisconsin.

Neighborhood is very friendly and active and lots of kids walk to Garrett Park ES

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much! This is all super helpful as we start our search. We're currently in DC and I'm not at all familiar with the neighborhood names or schools in Montgomery County so this is a very good start!

East Bethesda and West Chevy Chase sound like a good place to start-- so am I right in saying that would be Bethesda Elementary, Chevy Chase Elementary, Westbrook and Somerset?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You might like East Bethesda. You can walk to Bethesda Elementary (though a lot of parents choose to let the kids ride the bus instead). But the best part is that the kids can walk to high school. (BCC) And you can walk to town, and NIH.

East Bethesda is the neighborhood South of the Naval Medical Center (Jones Bridge Road) and North of East West Highway. (and East of Wisconsin.) I think a poster above referred to it as "town of Chevy Chase" and some maps list it as Chevy Chase, but the neighborhood is called East Bethesda, and the mailing address is Bethesda. As a poster above suggests, you might also like the neighborhood that feeds into Somerset.

PP to whom you refer. Town of Chevy Chase and East Bethesda are different. E. Bethesda is just N. of BCC between EW and Jones Bridge Road and Wisc and CT. Town of Chevy Chase is S. of EW to Bradley, but also between Wisc and Ct. South of Town of Chevy Chase is Chevy Chase Village -- from about CC Country Club to the Circle. Some of the area west of CC Circle is actually zoned for Somerset.

OP, you will want to look at the boundary maps, which are available here -- http://gis.mcpsmd.org. You can look up school district by cluster or school. Or you can input specific addresses.

FWIW, the zoning for middle school will be changing at some point for CC and maybe some of Bethesda ES -- it is unknown which neighborhoods will go to the new middle school set to open in a few years. Could also change for Somerset and Westbrook, but that is less likely due to their greater distance to the new middle school site.

[Anonymous]

The neighborhood around Westbrook Elementary School

[Anonymous]

Wyngate is a nice walkable neighborhood but I wouldn't consider it walkable to stores or restaurants or the Metro unless you like really long walks....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:West Chevy Chase -- Feeds into Somerset. Nicely positioned between Bethesda and Friendship Heights metros.

And walkable to neither on a regular basis.

[Anonymous]

I would look at the Westbrook neighborhoods around Westmoreland Circle area. Many of the houses there are pretty pricey, but they occasionally have something in your price range. It is a little further away from the traffic of Friendship Heights but is still walkable to it via sidewalks.

We looked at some neighborhoods that were closer to Friendship Heights but they had tiny houses and narrow, windy streets and no sidewalks.

IMHO this is one of the best places on the DC border and would be my top recommendation if you are commuting to DC. If you have a job in Bethesda or somewhere else in MoCo, I agree with PPs that the neighborhoods around the downtown Bethesda metro could also be a really nice option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West Chevy Chase -- Feeds into Somerset. Nicely positioned between Bethesda and Friendship Heights metros.

And walkable to neither on a regular basis.

I grew up in that neighborhood and walked to elementary school and to Norwood Park, and once I was in middle/high school, walked home every day from the Friendship Heights metro which I took to school, and walked or biked to shopping and jobs both in FH and Bethesda. It's a fantastic neighborhood. Plenty of people who live there now walk to one or the other on a regular basis. FH was a 15-minute walk from where I was and I was closer to Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Another vote for Wyngate. I walk to the metro just about every day (most people don't know but you can walk thru NIH, and can get a long term visitor pass to avoid security if you donate blood). Not many restaurants you can walk to, unless you could the Community Store BBQ truck, but the neighborhood is very friendly and many kids walk to school

[Anonymous]

FLORA SINGER!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FLORA SINGER!

I'm sure Flora Singer is very nice, but a walkable location it is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FLORA SINGER!

I'm sure Flora Singer is very nice, but a walkable location it is not.

walkable to my house
(teehee)

[Anonymous]

How are apartments in Kensington/Garrett Park? I'd love to find a 2br under $2k. We don't need hardwood floors, stainless steel, or any such frills; just working appliances and no pests.

[Anonymous]

Garrett Park apartments - you should look at the boundary map and focus on Tuckerman Lane - some of the condos / apts there go to Garrett Park, and others to Kensington Parkwood.