
That was going to be my question, what are the schools like in Brookland? Bunker Hill "used" to be really good, but this was 20 years ago. I don't hear much good about it or Brookland Elementary these days, so where are parents sending their kids to school? |
From what I hear, as DD is only 2 and hasn't started school yet, most of the parents are doing charter schools. Stokes is in the neighborhood, as is Hope Charter School , and Yu Ying. There is also Two Rivers, which is over by Galludet, not far. |
OP here. Thanks for the point about schools. The fact is, none of the neighborhoods we can afford would put us in bounds for very good to excellent schools. What we plan to do, if we cannot find and invest in a parents network similar to the one that made Peabody such a great choice for in bounds kids, is to suck it up and pay for private school for a few years of K and elementary while trying the lottery system at Peabody and the other good schools. I understand St. Marks is *only* 8 grand a year... ![]() |
Have you looked in Park Place or Michigan Park, kinda close to Brookland, solid neighborhoods. |
We looked a few houses in Michigan Park -- I was a little bit less satisfied with the walkability and thought it didn't seem quite as nice as Brookland. Our agent was also concerned about resale values. We haven't ruled out Michigan Park, but then again it's also getting a little bit further out than I'd like to go -- need to be close enough to the HIll to get there in 15-20 minutes tops in ccase I have a last minute meeting in order to preserve my work from home privelege. What is Park PLace? I haven't heard of it. |
Park Place is right on the corner of Michigan and North Capitol, across from VA hospital. It is a gated community with condos and townhouses. |
OP, what did you ultimately decide? |
I live in Brookland and love it. There is crime but that's the city. Live close to the metro- the closer, the nicer. The east side of the metro is much better than Edgewood, to the west of the metro station. |
OMG it's you again. NP here. OP, I live in Michigan Park (1 block from brookland, even lower crime but greatly reduced walkability to shops, etc, if that concerns you). I LOVE the area. When we were looking at houses in brookland, woodridge and Michigan Park, this poster posted this same thing. Crime can happen anywhere in the city. If you want a real view of crime look at the crime stat sites. Someone is going to tell you a story about getting held up in any and every neighborhood. It happens. Let me tell you, it's not happening all the time in brookland. I'm on all the listservs, including the MPD5 listserv. I hear about every incident. They are not frequent. When I lived on the Hill, there was about 5x the amount of crime. (we were nearer to the atlas district / hilleast). I love the Hill by the way, so that's not a diss. There is some crime happening in two places near brookland that it is fair to point out. First, there have been an increase of muggings around the metro, mostly late at night. Be mindful in that area. Second, if you are a biker, the Met Branch trail is awesome but there has been a considerable uptick in crime in the area between rhode island and NY avenue (not brookland, but nearby). We LOVE brookland and are huge boosters for the place. If you're interested in expanding beyond brookland, you might consider Michigan Park as well. (Note that there's a big difference between michigan park and North Michigan Park). Parts of Woodridge are also fantastic. Good luck - and hope to see you at the playgroups! ![]() |
O.M.G. Dumbest and funniest post award goes to me. I just responded to my own post from years ago and just called out the person who talked about the woman getting held up. LOL! I'm a total dunce! I clearly need to read more carefully. It's funny, I was halfway through writing another response about the schools when the post I was responding to started sounding more and more familiar....I looked and sure enough it was my old post. So, to answer your question: We moved to Michigan Park and love it. And we're in the midst of helping to reenergize the in-bounds school. Huge brookland area boosters here. I highly recommend it! |
I wonder if the lenders see that the DC market could fall out too. |
Keep in mind that the original post is more than two years old. That was an ENTIRELY different housing and lending market then. Stop scaring people. |
I get tired of these out of date anectdotal stories that supposedly prove how awful various east side neighborhoods are. My husband was held up at gunpoint in Glover Park-so what? Point is that Brookland, H St, and various neighborhoods have changed so much in the last 10 years. It is really apples to oranges.
OP, I wanted to recommend Eckington to you-which is my neighborhood. it is not quite as cheap as it was 2 yrs ago, but an easy commute to the hill (where i work). In the 650k range I think you can still get a giant victorian row house that should appraise better than H St, which unfortunately has better location but the quality of construction is not as good (H st area has lots of foundation issues and houses w/o basements built directly on the dirt, from what i have seen). Good luck! |
Thanks! I now have closure. We are looking for a house. We are torn between Somerset, MD and Brookland (and yes totally aware these are two totally different neighborhoods!). Leaning towards a Brookland house and gut remodel but we will decide when we hear about where my son gets into for K in the Spring. |
I don't live in Brookland, but I am a native of the area, I have looked in Brookland in the past, and my DH went to grad school at CUA for about 10 years. As long as I can remember, Brookland has been "up and coming." From my perspective, the problem is that it has never really gotten there. That's cool if you don't want to live in Chevy Chase or whatever, but I think you need to be totally realistic about the schools and the safety in the neighborhood, as well as the property values over the long haul. Periodically people get lulled into a sense of security and then something like the shooting at Colonel Brooks' Tavern a few years back happens. It will never be Bethesda. Some friends of ours lived in the neighborhood when they were both in grad school at CUA and when they would take their small child to the park, there were needles there. So just bear that all in mind, ride the metro in the area, and walk the neighborhood before you make a decision. |