Help me understand Columbia Heights

[Anonymous]

I used to live in CH. I liked walking around the neighborhood because it is diverse, interesting, and a lot of hustle and bustle in the commercial corridor(s). I find that Giant, Target, Payless and IHOP are incredibly useful at times, but I also like the local businesses along 11th Street and 14th Street (restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries). I liked being a 10 minute walk from both options. I also liked being an easy walk to metro, and being able to bike to downtown in 30 minutes or so. I don't live in CH anymore, but I wish my current neighborhood had a plaza area like that that spray park at 14th and Park. I'd walk my kid over there every day I wasn't working!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lived in Columbia Heights before I got married. (Harvard Street, right near All Souls.) Absolutely loved the area. But it was dangerous. My now husband's tires were slashed outside my house.

I wish I had bought back then. I would live there in a heartbeat if I could afford private for kids.

I'm the PP above you, and I'm perfectly happy to have my mind changed. Can you explain to me the appeal of Columbia Heights, especially with kids?

I live in Columbia Heights with a 4 year old.

There are still many low income people living in the area. They live in the houses they've always lived, which are often right next door to the $500k+ renovations that you see on Trulia. There are also a fair number of homeless people. I talked to one guy this winter who pointed out that there used to be several rooming houses on 14th Street north of the splash park. He remembered staying there when the weather was bad and he could afford it. He said that he has lived in the neighborhood for more than ten years and wasn't going to move out just because some white people moved in. It was actually a neat conversation for me as a young white woman who hadn't seen what the neighborhood looked like prior to 2007 when I moved to the area. There are a lot of people with kids who live in apartment buildings in the area - not the luxury apartments by the metro, but off 14th Street, where you maybe won't see them if you're just there to get brunch and go shopping.

The best explanation I can offer for why the houses are so expensive is that they are fairly large and many of the things on the market are recently renovated. They are within walking distance of many amenities, which raises the price.

I love where I live. I understand that there are a lot of people who don't approve of "chain restaurants" or big box stores, but that's hardly all there is. You CAN go to Five Guys for a burger, or you can go to Acre 121 next door. You CAN go to IHOP for breakfast, or you can go to the Coupe on 11th Street. I don't really consider Pete's to be a crappy chain restaurant - despite having multiple locations - but we really only eat there if we're getting carryout. For a sit down pizza dinner, it's Red Rocks.

As for the things that are great about CH with kids for our family, here's a list:

- DD's DCPS (OOB, not Tubman, but only because that's where we got in) is walking distance.
- she goes to ballet at the dance studio at 14th and Monroe
- the farmer's market has a guy who paints faces on Saturday mornings
- the fountain at the plaza in the afternoons
- many parks within easy walking distance that we go to regularly enough to have "park friends"
- a lot of kid-friendly restaurants (the Coupe, the Heights, Meridian Pint, Red Rocks, and le Caprice in particular)
- swimming lessons at the Washington Sports Club OR the YMCA down 14th Street are both easy to get to (as in, we can walk there)

I've lived there for almost 5 years and have not experienced any crime directly. I know people who have had their cars and houses broken into, but that has not happened to me. Having homeless people around does not bother me, except in so far as I wish that poverty and homelessness didn't exist at all. Certainly the old drunks do not make it impossible for me to enjoy living where I live.

[Anonymous]

OP, it's city living, with all that implies. Some people take to that, others don't. Personally I'd move there in a heartbeat if I could afford it.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who lives in a beautiful newly gutted townhouse that is next to one of the original owners. The original owner can't keep up with maintenance and whenever it rains it floods my friend's walls. The city won't do anything either.

[Anonymous]

Simple. There is a difference between those who own and those who rent. Due to rent control, the people who were in Columbia Heights ages ago still get low/subsidized rent. And there are homeless in all parts of the city - Cleveland Park, downtown etc....given they have no homes, it's not like it matters which neighborhood they're in nor is it indicative of housing in the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's city living, with all that implies. Some people take to that, others don't. Personally I'd move there in a heartbeat if I could afford it.

+1

I loved living in Columbia Heights. But even when I was aged, I was living in a group house, cause I couldn't afford my own place. The guy I married doesn't love urban living as much as I do, with all the ups and downs that come with it, so we live somewhere that's a compromise for both of us. Less urban than I'd like, less quiet than he'd like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Columbia Heights used to be a very poor neighborhood with very high crime and basically no white people. In the 80s and 90s it was primarily a Latino neighborhood. In the 2000s, white people started moving in gentrify. But some of the old-timers are still around.

It is still a very poor neighborhood with very high crime, just more white people.

[Anonymous]

I just find it absolutely hilarious than virtually every thread about Columbia Heights on DCUM winds up discussing violent crime, notably murder. That should give you some idea of where things stand...and this kind of thing is still ongoing.

[Anonymous]

Looks like I live in one of the hottest real estate neighborhoods. Someone likes Columbia Heights.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/where-we-live/wp/2014/06/17/the-three-hottest-d-c-neighborhoods-for-condos-and-townhouses/?tid=hpModule_34d54128-919e-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239&hpid=z13

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who lives in a beautiful newly gutted townhouse that is next to one of the original owners. The original owner can't keep up with maintenance and whenever it rains it floods my friend's walls. The city won't do anything either.

Well, she should have the necessary repairs done to the neighbor's roof and just pay for it. Or, she can pay for recurring damage to her own house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of idiot would spurn an IHOP?

CH is a good neighborhood if you are the type of self-absorbed yuppie who is good at pretending that your poor, resentful neighbors don't exist or as excited about an overpriced restaurant as you are. Otherwise it's just a very awkward, odd, somewhat dangerous place to co-inhabit.

Bless you sir. I am an empty nester looking to move to DC, and I love walking around CH. I feel good about life when I am there. I don't mind the chains, and like indie places that abound. If I lived there I would commute by metro or bike to work - might even consider going car free. I don't mind some poor people around (though I do not want to be the only person of my race or SES around, which did make me feel uncomfortable looking EOTR) For the restaurants, you ought to try using groupon.

My only gripe is that its kind of pricey per square foot.

But if more people would only listen to you, I could afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just find it absolutely hilarious than virtually every thread about Columbia Heights on DCUM winds up discussing violent crime, notably murder. That should give you some idea of where things stand...and this kind of thing is still ongoing.

the cited incident happened over two years ago.