I like Capitol Hill but worry about High School.

[Anonymous]

Folks, the OP is literally free to love whatever they do without having their post hijacked by a wounded crew who wants them to know that something else is just as good.

I see many differences between CH and Bethesda. I live in one of them, and I could live happily in the other. But I could totally see someone prefer CH and ask a reasonable, if uninformed, question about high school prospects. (Though yes OP, if you're not trolling, just search the forum.)

[Anonymous]

I’m the PP who lives on the Hill and now I’m very confused. OP, you’re just now learning about charters? You think Upper NW seems more like the Hill than close-in suburbs? Have you ever been to Chevy Chase DC? Tenleytown? These are lovely, quiet neighborhoods that feel like suburbs.

The weird thing is that for once, no one on this thread is trashing the city or the burbs. Except OP, who doesn’t seem to be familiar with either.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know where the $80,000 figure is coming from. SFS is something like $53,000/year, isn’t it?

[Anonymous]

I liked Cap Hill, too, when single. When the children came, we moved to Virginia. Great schools, etc. etc. so you can "meh" or "eh" all you want but if you are going to stay on the Hill for high school, you need to go private and that means driving or sending young kids on metro (which I would't do). It's a life choice you have to make

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I liked Cap Hill, too, when single. When the children came, we moved to Virginia. Great schools, etc. etc. so you can "meh" or "eh" all you want but if you are going to stay on the Hill for high school, you need to go private and that means driving or sending young kids on metro (which I would't do). It's a life choice you have to make

Why are in in this forum if you reside in Va?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I liked Cap Hill, too, when single. When the children came, we moved to Virginia. Great schools, etc. etc. so you can "meh" or "eh" all you want but if you are going to stay on the Hill for high school, you need to go private and that means driving or sending young kids on metro (which I would't do). It's a life choice you have to make

Young kids are in high school?
14/15 year olds are fully capable of riding Metro alone.

[Anonymous]

We moved from Capitol Hill to upper NW last year and now that we’ve moved, I can’t believe we waited so long. We liked the Hill for all the reasons you mention, OP, plus the proximity to everything and the super easy commute, and it took us a couple of years after we’d outgrown our house to finally move. Now our kids can play outside in our yard, we’re a short walk to school, an awesome park, a grocery store, a few restaurants, our kids are actually in school (which would not have been true at our old school on the Hill), and in our neighborhood we see a sight that we never saw on the Hill - teenagers! While the Hill is teeming with babies and young kids, teens were like unicorns. Now they’re everywhere. We’ve had to get used to driving more, but that is a small price to pay for a big improvement in our kids’ lives in terms of school and everything else. Wilson may not be perfect, but our kids are young and a lot may change by the time they get to HS. But the view ahead to HS here seems much rosier than on the Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved from Capitol Hill to upper NW last year and now that we’ve moved, I can’t believe we waited so long. We liked the Hill for all the reasons you mention, OP, plus the proximity to everything and the super easy commute, and it took us a couple of years after we’d outgrown our house to finally move. Now our kids can play outside in our yard, we’re a short walk to school, an awesome park, a grocery store, a few restaurants, our kids are actually in school (which would not have been true at our old school on the Hill), and in our neighborhood we see a sight that we never saw on the Hill - teenagers! While the Hill is teeming with babies and young kids, teens were like unicorns. Now they’re everywhere. We’ve had to get used to driving more, but that is a small price to pay for a big improvement in our kids’ lives in terms of school and everything else. Wilson may not be perfect, but our kids are young and a lot may change by the time they get to HS. But the view ahead to HS here seems much rosier than on the Hill.

OP never mentioned why she liked Capitol Hill other than she is “city folk” and “museums” on a subsequent post.

She derided places for being cookie cutter even though they were more urban the Nw neighborhoods she is considering.

We are just asking to actually specify what she is looking for besides “city cool” and “good high schools” and not deride other places she seems to know nothing about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I liked Cap Hill, too, when single. When the children came, we moved to Virginia. Great schools, etc. etc. so you can "meh" or "eh" all you want but if you are going to stay on the Hill for high school, you need to go private and that means driving or sending young kids on metro (which I would't do). It's a life choice you have to make

Why are in in this forum if you reside in Va?

Are you new to DCUM? There’s a forum called Recent Topics, and honestly I thought this was a real estate post, definitely reads like one. -DP

[Anonymous]

OP- if you are lucky in the lottery or can afford private, or are willing to bet on getting into walls, you stay. If not you move or settle for eastern. We rolled the dice for many years staying, and now are forced to move, because Elliott hine doesn’t meet our standards (neither does eastern). The vast majority of our friends had better options because they were luckier or have more money. Leaving is sad but the reality for some. Good luck! We will miss the hill immensely.

[Anonymous]

OP - I was in a similar boat and we recently moved from DC to Bethesda. It was hard to leave the ability to bike to multiple museums for free, or walk to amazing restaurants, etc... But as others have cited, ultimately the yard and the schools pushed us over. I will admit that I really do like it here But having lived in the city for some time, I am steadfast that we WILL still go to the museums, baseball games, etc... even though we are a bit further away. So, my point is that, just because you aren't in the city, doesn't mean that you can't still enjoy what the city has to offer (commute depending of course)!

And, yes, upper NW is just as far away from downtown as many suburban areas.

[Anonymous]

This Hill dweller doesn’t even know that Eastern is in NE? I’m thinking troll.

[Anonymous]

We live in Capitol Hill. The terms on our street (who aren’t unicorns in the sense that there are like 6 families with them on a one block street) go to Latin (multiple), Basis, SWW (multiple), Duke Ellington and private (SJC and NCS).

[Anonymous]

^teens not terms, obviously

[Anonymous]

You can just rent in Bethesda for 4 years. Think of it as living abroad and then move back when your kid is done with high school