[MD] Forest Glen quality of life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Traffic is bad on Georgia and walking along it is not pleasant. The nearby shopping centers are not that nice. The schools are not good if you're going private.

Ignore the hater
I live in That area, And no Georgia Avenue is not walkable but the interior neighborhoods are very much so. We have Getty park and have Sligo park off of Forest Glen and Dameron. And there are back ways to get to the places that you want to go either somewhere up in Wheaton or go down Forest Glen go to seminary and go up to Aldi’s, Snyder, CVS, dry cleaners.
No the neighborhood is not walkable really for those things but it’s an easy five minute drive to them .
The schools are good, neighborhood is diverse and friendly.
We are in Forest Estates and have a neighbor that does a big to do for the holidays, big display for Halloween and a runs a Holiday train at Christmas.

[Anonymous]

Forest Estates is a nice neighborhood

[Anonymous]

If you’re interested in going to places without your car, you might want to consider a home closer to Sligo Creek Parkway than Georgia Ave. Sligo Creek has a trail, and the parkway is now closed to cars on the weekends, making it great for biking. There are also now protected bike lanes on University that connect to Sligo Creek. You can now bike relatively safely from the Forest Glen area to shops and restaurants in downtown Wheaton.
You might also want to consider buying a place a little further north of Forest Glen. We live in Glenview, and have been very happy with the neighborhood. Our neighborhood feeds into Glen Haven Elementary, which has a relatively high FARMS rate, but still gets excellent reviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re interested in going to places without your car, you might want to consider a home closer to Sligo Creek Parkway than Georgia Ave. Sligo Creek has a trail, and the parkway is now closed to cars on the weekends, making it great for biking. There are also now protected bike lanes on University that connect to Sligo Creek. You can now bike relatively safely from the Forest Glen area to shops and restaurants in downtown Wheaton.
You might also want to consider buying a place a little further north of Forest Glen. We live in Glenview, and have been very happy with the neighborhood. Our neighborhood feeds into Glen Haven Elementary, which has a relatively high FARMS rate, but still gets excellent reviews.

Thanks for the suggestion. My primary goal is to be walkable to the metro. I think we are going to concentrate our search on the east side of Georgia Ave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at moving to Forest Glen from a more urban setting in close-in NoVA. Forest Glen seems to fit our work transportation needs fine for now.

I like the feel of the neighborhood, but having to drive everywhere (except the metro) seems like it would be draining. In my current location I have several restaurants within close walking distance, and a convenience store within walking distance in case we are out of milk. We currently go days without using our cars. What’s the traffic like on Georgia Avenue? How aggressive are the drivers? Other feedback? How do drivers react to cyclists?

Otherwise, it seems like there’s a lot of green space and like a very pleasant place to raise a family.

Georgia Avenue is hell on earth! I live 2 blocks off this dispiriting ugly morass of shady businesses (wig shop or pawn shop anyone?). It is an eyesore to say the least and traffic utterly sucks. Walking along it or crossing it is dangerous and unpleasant. I live in a house worth $1M+ and try my best to pretend it doesn’t exist. Unfortunately it never seems to go away…despite decades of plans for revitalization.

Well that was a stupid place to buy an expensive house. If you wanted to live in a nice area without wig shops and pawn stores maybe silver spring isn’t where you should have invested.

Since when are wig shops "shady"?

[Anonymous]

I live on the east side of GA (a bit under a mile to the metro) and love it. Neighborhoods are McKenney Hills/Carroll Knolls. Much of the housing stock is on the smaller side (just under 2K square feet including finished basement) but there have been some on the market recently that have been nicely renovated and if you’re able to be a little patient there are bigger places which come to market from time to time. Walk to the metro and multiple parks. Walk to historic Kensington when it’s not the middle of the summer (I think it’s about a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half if you cut across Homewood Park). There is a way to walk to Wheaton that avoids GA but I admit I’ve only done it a handful of times. Prices are still surprisingly affordable and elementary schools (Flora Singer and Oakland Terrace) are well loved. Newport Mill is a little weaker but getting better and Einstein is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live on the east side of GA (a bit under a mile to the metro) and love it. Neighborhoods are McKenney Hills/Carroll Knolls. Much of the housing stock is on the smaller side (just under 2K square feet including finished basement) but there have been some on the market recently that have been nicely renovated and if you’re able to be a little patient there are bigger places which come to market from time to time. Walk to the metro and multiple parks. Walk to historic Kensington when it’s not the middle of the summer (I think it’s about a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half if you cut across Homewood Park). There is a way to walk to Wheaton that avoids GA but I admit I’ve only done it a handful of times. Prices are still surprisingly affordable and elementary schools (Flora Singer and Oakland Terrace) are well loved. Newport Mill is a little weaker but getting better and Einstein is great.

Do you mean the west side of Georgia Ave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live on the east side of GA (a bit under a mile to the metro) and love it. Neighborhoods are McKenney Hills/Carroll Knolls. Much of the housing stock is on the smaller side (just under 2K square feet including finished basement) but there have been some on the market recently that have been nicely renovated and if you’re able to be a little patient there are bigger places which come to market from time to time. Walk to the metro and multiple parks. Walk to historic Kensington when it’s not the middle of the summer (I think it’s about a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half if you cut across Homewood Park). There is a way to walk to Wheaton that avoids GA but I admit I’ve only done it a handful of times. Prices are still surprisingly affordable and elementary schools (Flora Singer and Oakland Terrace) are well loved. Newport Mill is a little weaker but getting better and Einstein is great.

Do you mean the west side of Georgia Ave?

Gah, what a typo! Yes!

[Anonymous]

Agree that Georgia sucks but the drivers are no worse than anywhere else
Agree that you will be in your car more than you are now, wherever that is
But!
Lots of green space- beach drive/Rock Creek Park, Sligo, Wheaton regional park
Schools are good
Housing is affordable
People are friendly
Diversity is good- housing mix
Great eats in Wheaton (5min up the road) plus the convenience of Ducks, Macy’s, Target etc
Nice downtown for teen kids in Silver Spring- movie theater, ice cream, events and fairs et
Commerce right there on Georgia though does suck- not at all commensurate with the housing. Supposedly going to be redeveloped but it will be years away
No one agent “owns” that area. We’ve used Ann McClure and she’s fantastic.
Get on the Glenwood pool waiting list now, even if you don’t have kids, you may someday and will wish you’d done it (3+year list)
Welcome!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at moving to Forest Glen from a more urban setting in close-in NoVA. Forest Glen seems to fit our work transportation needs fine for now.

I like the feel of the neighborhood, but having to drive everywhere (except the metro) seems like it would be draining. In my current location I have several restaurants within close walking distance, and a convenience store within walking distance in case we are out of milk. We currently go days without using our cars. What’s the traffic like on Georgia Avenue? How aggressive are the drivers? Other feedback? How do drivers react to cyclists?

Otherwise, it seems like there’s a lot of green space and like a very pleasant place to raise a family.

Georgia Avenue is hell on earth! I live 2 blocks off this dispiriting ugly morass of shady businesses (wig shop or pawn shop anyone?). It is an eyesore to say the least and traffic utterly sucks. Walking along it or crossing it is dangerous and unpleasant. I live in a house worth $1M+ and try my best to pretend it doesn’t exist. Unfortunately it never seems to go away…despite decades of plans for revitalization.

Wtf is your problem with the wig shop? You can’t say stuff like that out loud, okay? Keep it to yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at moving to Forest Glen from a more urban setting in close-in NoVA. Forest Glen seems to fit our work transportation needs fine for now.

I like the feel of the neighborhood, but having to drive everywhere (except the metro) seems like it would be draining. In my current location I have several restaurants within close walking distance, and a convenience store within walking distance in case we are out of milk. We currently go days without using our cars. What’s the traffic like on Georgia Avenue? How aggressive are the drivers? Other feedback? How do drivers react to cyclists?

Otherwise, it seems like there’s a lot of green space and like a very pleasant place to raise a family.

Georgia Avenue is hell on earth! I live 2 blocks off this dispiriting ugly morass of shady businesses (wig shop or pawn shop anyone?). It is an eyesore to say the least and traffic utterly sucks. Walking along it or crossing it is dangerous and unpleasant. I live in a house worth $1M+ and try my best to pretend it doesn’t exist. Unfortunately it never seems to go away…despite decades of plans for revitalization.

Wtf is your problem with the wig shop? You can’t say stuff like that out loud, okay? Keep it to yourself.

Of course you can say stuff like that out loud, it just makes you look bad.

[Anonymous]

Sharing because it's interesting - much of the area west of Georgia Avenue was redlined in the 1930s (meaning it wasn't allowed access to government-backed loans because of the presence of Black and Brown people), several areas east of Georgia Avenue were more White and therefore allowed access to government-backed loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at moving to Forest Glen from a more urban setting in close-in NoVA. Forest Glen seems to fit our work transportation needs fine for now.

I like the feel of the neighborhood, but having to drive everywhere (except the metro) seems like it would be draining. In my current location I have several restaurants within close walking distance, and a convenience store within walking distance in case we are out of milk. We currently go days without using our cars. What’s the traffic like on Georgia Avenue? How aggressive are the drivers? Other feedback? How do drivers react to cyclists?

Otherwise, it seems like there’s a lot of green space and like a very pleasant place to raise a family.

Georgia Avenue is hell on earth! I live 2 blocks off this dispiriting ugly morass of shady businesses (wig shop or pawn shop anyone?). It is an eyesore to say the least and traffic utterly sucks. Walking along it or crossing it is dangerous and unpleasant. I live in a house worth $1M+ and try my best to pretend it doesn’t exist. Unfortunately it never seems to go away…despite decades of plans for revitalization.

Well that was a stupid place to buy an expensive house. If you wanted to live in a nice area without wig shops and pawn stores maybe silver spring isn’t where you should have invested.

Since when are wig shops "shady"?

Because ~~black people~~ shop there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at moving to Forest Glen from a more urban setting in close-in NoVA. Forest Glen seems to fit our work transportation needs fine for now.

I like the feel of the neighborhood, but having to drive everywhere (except the metro) seems like it would be draining. In my current location I have several restaurants within close walking distance, and a convenience store within walking distance in case we are out of milk. We currently go days without using our cars. What’s the traffic like on Georgia Avenue? How aggressive are the drivers? Other feedback? How do drivers react to cyclists?

Otherwise, it seems like there’s a lot of green space and like a very pleasant place to raise a family.

Georgia Avenue is hell on earth! I live 2 blocks off this dispiriting ugly morass of shady businesses (wig shop or pawn shop anyone?). It is an eyesore to say the least and traffic utterly sucks. Walking along it or crossing it is dangerous and unpleasant. I live in a house worth $1M+ and try my best to pretend it doesn’t exist. Unfortunately it never seems to go away…despite decades of plans for revitalization.

Well that was a stupid place to buy an expensive house. If you wanted to live in a nice area without wig shops and pawn stores maybe silver spring isn’t where you should have invested.

Since when are wig shops "shady"?

Because ~~black people~~ shop there.

It also looks terrible- the metal roll down shutters. I also hate the psychic with the flashing sign and sandwich board on the sidewalk. I just don’t get why Georgia doesn’t look like Connecticut or Colesville. Why are there multiple empty store fronts (by the bagel shop and in the CVS strip) - empty in the one case for years! When the shopping centers on Colesville have Chipotle and TJoes. I have heard it’s because of the turn restrictions, which the redevelopment would change. There are also at least five store front churches in the stretch from 16th to FG. It just looks ugly. I don’t have a problem with the wig shop per se, but it would be nice to have a coffee shop in the mix, too! Instead it’s the pawn shop, wig shop, psychic, dog trainer, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Which agent sort of “owns” Forest Glen? I know there are a few agents were I currently live that know about houses coming on the market well in advance. Who is that person in Forest Glen?

I don’t know about “owns” but we used Catherine Soffronoff and thought she was great. She has over a decade experience working (and living) in the neighborhood and seems to have her finger on the pulse in the way a non-local probably would not.