Anyone sick of being looked down on for living in PG?
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Anonymous
Please tell me more. About to move to PG and we love spending time outside. |
Anonymous
| We moved from Montgomery county to pg county. It was not the best choice. We live in an upper middle class African American, city, so not the "hood." Even then, there is not much diversity when it comes to ethnicity. Everyone in the neighborhood is black. The school is made up of 95 percent African Americans. My child asks why there aren't any white children in her grade. There is no good shopping mall for teens to hang out at. There are only strip malls. People ride around in bmw's yet send their kids to the crappy public schools. You can drive around, end up on one street that is very sketchy, then the next street, it's very farm like with actual farms and then the next street over, it is city like. It is just very odd. Sure you get a McMansion for a better price out here but you end up compromising on everything else. |
Anonymous
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We live in the Gateway Arts District and what we love: local amenities for the family & kids are great, we get to walk everywhere on the weekends - to the cafe, to the local dance studio, for groceries, to the park, to the library. We really don't have to drive on the weekends and that's awesome. We also love how family friendly, and just generally friendly, the neighborhood is. When we go to the neighborhood kids' dance class, most of the families walked there too - it's genuinely friendly, not competitive & judgy. Commute to work is nice too.
What I don't love: Some of the residents seem to have missed the third/forth/fifth? wave of feminism that announced to the world that street harassment is not acceptable. I grew up in a time when people didn't get it why it's a problem but most places I go now, it seems like the world has woken up a bit in that regard. But not PG. I just hope that PG residents catch up before my daughter has to start dealing with it. |
Anonymous
Yikes. Where do you live? We moved from Aspen Hill to Greenbelt, and had the opposite experience. |
Anonymous
The bolded. I'm sure I'd find friends in lots of different places around DC, but I love not having to worry about being judged (too much) by other families for our parenting decisions. There are still a few judgy moms around, but most of them are wonderful, down-to-earth people. FWIW, we live in Greenbelt and send our kids to private Catholic school. I think our school pyramid is actually very good/excellent, but we wanted Catholic for our family. What I don't love: I wish people in PG were more active in local government/policy. It doesn't seem like enough people care about County administration to really follow local elections and policy, so we end up with lousy, non-visionary leaders. |
Anonymous
I'm on my phone so can't link to specifics, but check out the website for PG parks and recreation--Watkins Mill, Montpellier, and Dinosaur Park are our favorites. There's also Greenbelt Park, Patuxtant National Wildlife Refuge, and Jug Bay, all with lots of trails, public programs, and acres of open space. While I'd love to see more economic development in the county, the lack of development has left SO much beautiful open space--mainly in the Northern and Western areas of the county. If you enjoy spending time outside, there are lots of good local options. |
Anonymous
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Yes I'm sick of it but I have a 15 min commute door to door in zero traffic. We have a huge house that we could never afford in MoCo or NoVa and have fantastic neighbors. The people are WAY more friendly. (My DH and I are both white)
My kids go to one of the higher rated public elementary schools but I do worry about middle and high school down the road. As far as getting back to nature I find PG parks are under utilized and less crowed than those in other parts of the Metro area. Watkins Park is a favorite of ours but all the of many county parks are great, especially the southern part of the county. We can also get to the Bay in about 30 min  The classes offered by the County Parks and Rec are also very good and don't fill up as fast as other counties.
I usually ask folks who are negative about PG if they have actually ever spent time in the county and often the answer is no, so I chalk it up to ignorance. I'm laughing all the way to the bank! |
Anonymous
| I also wish that residents were more active in county government etc. I think if more residents got involved in community forums etc that the school board and the county government would be on notice that people aren't going to take it anymore. |
Anonymous
Yeah, there are definitely parts of the county that are like that. However, there are many parts of the county that are not like that. In particular, northern PG County (Bowie, Laurel, Greenbelt, Beltsville, Glenndale) are very different. This part of the county, while still majority minority, is far more diverse. There is a black majority, but large hispanic and white minorities with a small Asian minority mixed in. We have found it to be pretty diverse. Bowie Town Center and the newly rebuilt Town Center at Laurel are both the new style outdoor malls. Not great places for the teens to hang out in the cold weather, but still an option. Bowie Town Center has a separate building that is the food court and it has screens with music videos playing. In Laurel, when the weather is nice, Laurel Lakes is a nice placed to hang out and it is across the street from the new Town Center shopping mall, so they can hang there. Greenbelt has Beltway Plaza which is an actual older style indoor mall. What part of the county do you live in? |
Anonymous
| I live in Hyattsville and am super happy. I have 2 kids in pg county schools - we got lucky on lotteries. I love my neighborhood and that it's becoming more and more vibrant and liveable. I agree with the poster above who called it a "black people tax." That's exactly what it is. |
Anonymous
| Could live in Windsor Castle in Berkshire and still have people looking down on you. Ain't no escape from the vitriol and vehemence of assholes - you could live on the f%king moon and there'd still be a pack of pricks looking down on you from Mars making crude comments about all the craters in your community. Don't let the haters get to you. |
Anonymous
Thank you! |
Anonymous
I have done that commute from close in Fort Washington as I have offices there and in the Dulles corridor. It is about 30 min with the hotlanes. I had a flexible arrival time also so I often was leaving at 9 to arrive by 9:30. I also did this commute before hotlanes...it was a breeze until the Robinson terminal area all the way to Tysons which was a parking lot...but the hotlanes solve this issue. |
Anonymous
| PG is on the upswing. It finally has a good, seeming ethical county executive who is cleaning up and reforming county government. PG definitely reached its low point with Jack Johnson and his cash-stuffed--in-bra Councilmember wife. Longstanding pay to play had made the county a laughingstock and caused serious businesses to stay away. |
Anonymous
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I'd say in south county Accokeek is the most diverse...maybe Brandywine also. Accokeek was also the wealthiest part of PG county. South county has plenty of nature to enjoy also and also lots of open space...not sure how the prior comment about North county qualifies as having more when South county clearly has more rural areas. Fort Washington Park, Piscataway Park, Watkins Park, marinas and smaller parks along the Potomac waterfront. I love being near the water and the beautiful views of it from many parks in South county.
There have been many citizens groups in South county that have fought to preserve some of the rural nature including fighting the Natl Harbor but we see how that turned out. Heard of the Moyaone Reserve in Accokeek? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/22/AR2005072200971.html |