Living in Capitol Hill...Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that this is probably going to anger some people, but I don't understand the draw to living in Capitol Hill. Yes, the homes are historic. Yes, there are many beautiful renovations, but apart from that, it has to be one of the most DEAD areas of DC. You walk around and it's like no one lives there. It's a ghost town on weekends and holidays. Yes, Eastern Market can get fairly lively, but the area as a whole doesn't have the feeling of a living, breathing, neighborhood.

Am I missing something? Can someone enlighten me?

The hill is sort of the happy medium between urban walkable and a family friendly neighborhood. You can easily walk to the food and shopping on H street, eastern market, union market, etc. Downtown is an easy bike or bus commute (or metro in certain places) commute. But it is a bit less dense and therefore more "neighborhoody" than logan or dupont. Tons of young families with strollers, kids riding bikes, etc.)

It's not for everybody. It's not a suburb, but it has a few suburban qualities. It's not shaw, but it has a similar number of restaurant openings and chances to not get in a car while drinking.

If you can't imagine raising a kid in logan, but also can't imagine doing it in Bethesda, then you end up on the hill.

Interesting. This is the first time I hear that about the Hill. I've never thought of it as suburban in the least. What you are saying above is how I usually think about neighborhoods WOTP.

I like Capitol Hill, and we seriously considered buying there. I grew up in a big city in Europe and Capitol Hill feels most like home to me. But I just couldn't get past the street crime, which I'm just not used to from the European cities I've lived in. Also, schools are an issue, past elementary. But if you can make the schools work and can psychologically live with the level of crime and grittiness, then I imagine it's a great place to raise a family.

Lol yeah, we're really living on the gritty, crime-ridden streets on the Hill! Come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a real estate agent, I LOVE Capitol Hill. When the first child turns 4, people flee to Arlington and McLean, and I'm there to welcome them to the land of safety, parking, yards, parks and blandness. Ca-ching!

huh, the 300 children at my Hill elementary school would seem to bely that notion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that this is probably going to anger some people, but I don't understand the draw to living in Capitol Hill. Yes, the homes are historic. Yes, there are many beautiful renovations, but apart from that, it has to be one of the most DEAD areas of DC. You walk around and it's like no one lives there. It's a ghost town on weekends and holidays. Yes, Eastern Market can get fairly lively, but the area as a whole doesn't have the feeling of a living, breathing, neighborhood.

Am I missing something? Can someone enlighten me?

The hill is sort of the happy medium between urban walkable and a family friendly neighborhood. You can easily walk to the food and shopping on H street, eastern market, union market, etc. Downtown is an easy bike or bus commute (or metro in certain places) commute. But it is a bit less dense and therefore more "neighborhoody" than logan or dupont. Tons of young families with strollers, kids riding bikes, etc.)

It's not for everybody. It's not a suburb, but it has a few suburban qualities. It's not shaw, but it has a similar number of restaurant openings and chances to not get in a car while drinking.

If you can't imagine raising a kid in logan, but also can't imagine doing it in Bethesda, then you end up on the hill.

Interesting. This is the first time I hear that about the Hill. I've never thought of it as suburban in the least. What you are saying above is how I usually think about neighborhoods WOTP.

I like Capitol Hill, and we seriously considered buying there. I grew up in a big city in Europe and Capitol Hill feels most like home to me. But I just couldn't get past the street crime, which I'm just not used to from the European cities I've lived in. Also, schools are an issue, past elementary. But if you can make the schools work and can psychologically live with the level of crime and grittiness, then I imagine it's a great place to raise a family.

Lol yeah, we're really living on the gritty, crime-ridden streets on the Hill! Come on.

Maybe things have changed. We were looking in 2008/2009. Back then we were only considering places walkable to Eastern Market. Safety was "block by block" as our agent explained. I didn't like that concept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that this is probably going to anger some people, but I don't understand the draw to living in Capitol Hill. Yes, the homes are historic. Yes, there are many beautiful renovations, but apart from that, it has to be one of the most DEAD areas of DC. You walk around and it's like no one lives there. It's a ghost town on weekends and holidays. Yes, Eastern Market can get fairly lively, but the area as a whole doesn't have the feeling of a living, breathing, neighborhood.

Am I missing something? Can someone enlighten me?

It's not just capitol hill it's most of DC. Most of DC is neighborhoods with little or no retail. I would only live there if I worked on capitol hill. Otherwise there are plenty of other areas that have much more retail that is actually walk-able including many town centers in the suburbs.

I think people choose where they live for commute/being close to job above everything else, then walk ability, and then schools (but not everyone has kids)

Is retail really your metric for where you live if you have kids, though? And I'm trying to imagine the suburban town centers that have MORE retail than the Hill. Where I live on the Hill, I'm a 15 minute walk away from Trader Joes, Safeway, Harris Teeter, independent book, game, and toy stores, cafes, and any number of restaurants, hair salons, gyms, CVS, etc etc. The selection of clothing stores is limited I guess but if you really needed something there's H&M and Ann Taylor at Union Station. When I want a full panoply of clothing stores, I get on the Metro and go to Pentagon City Mall, easy peasy.

+1

There might not be a ton of clothing stores, but the Hill has a decent amount of retail, plus coffee shops, restaurants, and grocery/drugstores. You can run a large number of errands without getting in the car.

[Anonymous]

We moved back to DC when our son was 3 and we wanted to be somewhere close in. We considered capitol hill but were priced out of the immediate neighborhood around eastern market. The houses we were left with were in surprisingly quiet neighborhoods. As another poster said, there was a lot of stuff within 15-20 minutes walk or a short metro ride. We would google satellite houses on the market and were surprised that the closest retail was 10 or more blocks away. But we preferred stuff within a 5 minute walk. From experience, we know that if things are 15-20 minutes walk away, we just won't go as much. We ended up off 14th street and it's a very good fit for our family. I can see how other people would be happier with quiet. We preferred being in the busy mix of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved back to DC when our son was 3 and we wanted to be somewhere close in. We considered capitol hill but were priced out of the immediate neighborhood around eastern market. The houses we were left with were in surprisingly quiet neighborhoods. As another poster said, there was a lot of stuff within 15-20 minutes walk or a short metro ride. We would google satellite houses on the market and were surprised that the closest retail was 10 or more blocks away. But we preferred stuff within a 5 minute walk. From experience, we know that if things are 15-20 minutes walk away, we just won't go as much. We ended up off 14th street and it's a very good fit for our family. I can see how other people would be happier with quiet. We preferred being in the busy mix of things.

interesting. where did you buy off of 14th street that was more affordable than the Hill and still had a good IB school? Currently, I think the Hill would be more affordable than 14th st area, but not sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a real estate agent, I LOVE Capitol Hill. When the first child turns 4, people flee to Arlington and McLean, and I'm there to welcome them to the land of safety, parking, yards, parks and blandness. Ca-ching!

huh, the 300 children at my Hill elementary school would seem to bely that notion.

I don't need 300, I only need about 14 to round out my business for the year.

[Anonymous]

I live on the Hill, closer to H Street. I realize my neighborhood isn't perfect and there are legitimate things to complain about. But not being walkable or lively enough are not among them. Other than a cute outfit for myself or my tween kids, there is pretty much nothing I'd need to buy that I can't walk to. And even at 6 am there are people walking on every block. I know this because that's when I go for my runs. It's like you didn't actually visit the Hill.

[Anonymous]

Beauty feeds the soul

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that this is probably going to anger some people, but I don't understand the draw to living in Capitol Hill. Yes, the homes are historic. Yes, there are many beautiful renovations, but apart from that, it has to be one of the most DEAD areas of DC. You walk around and it's like no one lives there. It's a ghost town on weekends and holidays. Yes, Eastern Market can get fairly lively, but the area as a whole doesn't have the feeling of a living, breathing, neighborhood.

Am I missing something? Can someone enlighten me?

The hill is sort of the happy medium between urban walkable and a family friendly neighborhood. You can easily walk to the food and shopping on H street, eastern market, union market, etc. Downtown is an easy bike or bus commute (or metro in certain places) commute. But it is a bit less dense and therefore more "neighborhoody" than logan or dupont. Tons of young families with strollers, kids riding bikes, etc.)

It's not for everybody. It's not a suburb, but it has a few suburban qualities. It's not shaw, but it has a similar number of restaurant openings and chances to not get in a car while drinking.

If you can't imagine raising a kid in logan, but also can't imagine doing it in Bethesda, then you end up on the hill.

The Hill has a special vibe because it's essentially the only neighborhood in DC that's urban, walkable, reasonably high-density (by DC standards) but family-oriented and stable. Logan, Dupont etc. are beautiful but so transient and peopled by renters. The Hill feels like a place where families live for a long time. There are many amenities in walking distance, and with some effort and commitment, a family can organize a nice lifestyle for themselves. Schools were a stumbling block until recently but now there are decent elementaries. Middle and high schools are still a problem but it's not unique to the Hill.

Having said this, I don't think walking to H Street for groceries is an easy walk from the Hill proper, and walking to Union Market is definitely not.

[Anonymous]

And yeah, it's pretty lively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that this is probably going to anger some people, but I don't understand the draw to living in Capitol Hill. Yes, the homes are historic. Yes, there are many beautiful renovations, but apart from that, it has to be one of the most DEAD areas of DC. You walk around and it's like no one lives there. It's a ghost town on weekends and holidays. Yes, Eastern Market can get fairly lively, but the area as a whole doesn't have the feeling of a living, breathing, neighborhood.

Am I missing something? Can someone enlighten me?

The hill is sort of the happy medium between urban walkable and a family friendly neighborhood. You can easily walk to the food and shopping on H street, eastern market, union market, etc. Downtown is an easy bike or bus commute (or metro in certain places) commute. But it is a bit less dense and therefore more "neighborhoody" than logan or dupont. Tons of young families with strollers, kids riding bikes, etc.)

It's not for everybody. It's not a suburb, but it has a few suburban qualities. It's not shaw, but it has a similar number of restaurant openings and chances to not get in a car while drinking.

If you can't imagine raising a kid in logan, but also can't imagine doing it in Bethesda, then you end up on the hill.

The Hill has a special vibe because it's essentially the only neighborhood in DC that's urban, walkable, reasonably high-density (by DC standards) but family-oriented and stable. Logan, Dupont etc. are beautiful but so transient and peopled by renters. The Hill feels like a place where families live for a long time. There are many amenities in walking distance, and with some effort and commitment, a family can organize a nice lifestyle for themselves. Schools were a stumbling block until recently but now there are decent elementaries. Middle and high schools are still a problem but it's not unique to the Hill.

Having said this, I don't think walking to H Street for groceries is an easy walk from the Hill proper, and walking to Union Market is definitely not.

You mean the "only neighborhood in DC" for people who frequent DCUM. There are many others neighborhoods in DC like that, but they aren't favored by the MC to UMC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is it so fucking hard for people to understand that other people don't value the same things that you do?

I don't live on Capitol Hill, but I assume that some people like the architecture, appreciate that it's close to where they work, and find that there's enough to walk to, including stores, restaurants, Eastern Market, etc. I don't need to be able to walk to a thousand shops. If I can walk to a grocery store, a pharmacy, and a couple of restaurants, I'm good! They might *like* that it's quiet. They might like that the yards are small, because they don't want to maintain a big yard. They might love that they can walk to work, which they wouldn't be able to do from places like Georgetown (which is much more expensive) or Old Town Alexandria.

A-fucking-men.

[Anonymous]

We moved recently from Capitol Hill to Chevy Chase MD, so you can see that we decided that the few things we could get in the suburbs (bigger house, local public schools K-12) were important to us. However, we loved living on the Hill as a family. We knew most of our neighbors in a way I don’t think we ever will in CC, we have a bigger yard, which may be nice when we have teens, but it’s much harder to get to playgrounds so my kids spend less time outside. We live walking distance to Friendship Heights, but the walking distance retail on the Hill is the same or better. Our CH house was around 1.4M but we had to pay 2.1M for a house the same distance to retail and the metro, so many people can’t get the same lifestyle as you can get on CH because they are priced out.

[Anonymous]

I've lived on the Hill since 1991. I moved there because Eastern Market was the closest I could get to something like Pike Place Market (even if not very close) and I was homesick for Seattle. And I could afford to rent (and later buy) there. The neighborhood has changed as my life has changed -- from Hill staffers living in group houses, to families with younger and now also older children. My only complaint is that the housing costs have gone up so much/so quickly that I can't afford to move out of my two-bedroom house into a slightly bigger 3-bedroom. As my child has gotten older, I have an even keener appreciation for the level of density and mass transport access -- my kid can walk places on her own and have a level of independence that she couldn't have in a car-dependent neighborhood,

Your needs might be different.