Moving to DC Area from Westchester, NY, Want a Different Vibe...Where Should We Definitely Avoid?

[Anonymous]

Educated, smart people -> everywhere in the DMV, Can’t go wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you and the rest of DCUM will hate this, but if you really want economic diversity you can't also buy in the very top rated school zones. Rich people already did. That is the reality of the DC area. If you live in a top school zone with a million dollar house, where are your kids going to experience this diversity?

I'd consider: Rockville, as recommended; Annandale; Hyattsville, College Park, or Greenbelt (all close together); Bowie.

I live more than an hour outside DC because my spouse works in our town and our housing budget was too low for DC (so my commute stinks), but I send my kids to schools that are not the "best" in the county. They're still pretty good, but more diverse and in a walkable area near our downtown. There are always tradeoffs.

PS Silver Spring might work too.

OP. Yeah I didn't mention "top-rated" schools in my post, because I know that higher ratings don't mean better schools. This competition to "win" at school and get "the best" for your kid, whatever that means, is part of what I'm hoping to avoid. My oldest actually did better in a lower-ranked school before we moved to Westchester, and we liked it much better there too.

We also moved from Westchester and I think you will be surprised at how weak the Montgomery County schools are in the lower grades. Elementary schools here are a mess and the county-wide system doesn’t help since even the highly ranked ones have poor curricular choices. If your kids are older than elementary, the schools do get better in the upper grades.

We live in Chevy Chase and we moved from Larchmont. People who have never lived in Westchester think they are similar, but they actually have very little in common. The two metro areas are just organized very differently and populated with very different people. That isn’t a knock on either place, but I would be careful to make one-to-one comparisons. I think you will like the vibe here. There are lots of people with interesting jobs and people from all over the place, both domestic and international transplants, so everyone is looking for new connections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Educated, smart people -> everywhere in the DMV, Can’t go wrong.

This is a joke, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you and the rest of DCUM will hate this, but if you really want economic diversity you can't also buy in the very top rated school zones. Rich people already did. That is the reality of the DC area. If you live in a top school zone with a million dollar house, where are your kids going to experience this diversity?

I'd consider: Rockville, as recommended; Annandale; Hyattsville, College Park, or Greenbelt (all close together); Bowie.

I live more than an hour outside DC because my spouse works in our town and our housing budget was too low for DC (so my commute stinks), but I send my kids to schools that are not the "best" in the county. They're still pretty good, but more diverse and in a walkable area near our downtown. There are always tradeoffs.

PS Silver Spring might work too.

OP. Yeah I didn't mention "top-rated" schools in my post, because I know that higher ratings don't mean better schools. This competition to "win" at school and get "the best" for your kid, whatever that means, is part of what I'm hoping to avoid. My oldest actually did better in a lower-ranked school before we moved to Westchester, and we liked it much better there too.

We also moved from Westchester and I think you will be surprised at how weak the Montgomery County schools are in the lower grades. Elementary schools here are a mess and the county-wide system doesn’t help since even the highly ranked ones have poor curricular choices. If your kids are older than elementary, the schools do get better in the upper grades.

We live in Chevy Chase and we moved from Larchmont. People who have never lived in Westchester think they are similar, but they actually have very little in common. The two metro areas are just organized very differently and populated with very different people. That isn’t a knock on either place, but I would be careful to make one-to-one comparisons. I think you will like the vibe here. There are lots of people with interesting jobs and people from all over the place, both domestic and international transplants, so everyone is looking for new connections.

I’d love to hear your explanation of the differences. I’m sure they’re different, but I’d also hazard a guess that the list of places that are more like Larchmont than Chevy Chase is is very, very short.

[Anonymous]

OP, you sound like us! Very similar values. We live Capitol Hill-adjacent though, and yards are rare around here. If you can handle the commute, I recommend Silver Spring, especially Wheaton. Very diverse with large immigrant populations. Good proximity to city amenities in both DC and downtown Silver Spring. Schools are very good but without a lot of the hyper-competitive, Ivy League obsession you see in other parts of MoCo. But also lots of access to parks and hiking, plus many areas are close to community pools that can be a great source of recreation and socializing in the summer.

That’s where we would move if it wasn’t a bad fit for our commutes. Or further out in Howard County, which has a lot of similar features. But sounds like you want/need to be closer to DC which I obviously get.

You might also look at PG county, though talk to locals about school choices. Something that put us off there is that many people send their kids to magnets and immersion schools there, so there is less emphasis on a neighborhood school, which is important to us. And how we wound up where we did (our kids go to JO Wilson and we love it).

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Do your kids love it too? What about middle & high school? Under 25% proficient in maths and ELA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington

You are not getting .25 acre in Arlington for under 3m

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Educated, smart people -> everywhere in the DMV, Can’t go wrong.

This is a joke, right?

How is this funny? It’s not inaccurate. You wouldn’t expect a country’s Capital city and surrounding areas to have an educated population?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP one big different between Westchester and the DC area is that many more people in the suburbs here send their kids to private schools. That is both good and bad but it does mean that that crowd likely won't be in your social orbit, which is likely a plus for you.

I don’t think you’re all that familiar with Westchester. People pay through the nose for school taxes there to send their kids to the public schools. It does not have the same private school culture that this area does.

Exactly - I am very familiar with Westchester, having family in Scarsdale and grew up nearby. In DC the kinds of people like the ones OP is describing (and that she would like to avoid) send their kids to private schools. In Westchester, those people tend to send their kids to the excellent public schools, so OP has to interact with them.

Apologies. I misread your post. I realize we share the same opinion.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP, former Hudson Valley transplant here!
(born in Brooklyn, moved to Rockland at 15 & then lived in Carmel until 28, before moving down here).

I have to say, I really love it down here.
When I first moved here, my fiance at the time (now husband) moved us to downtown Bethesda, which was fantastic since you could walk everywhere you needed to go.
We stayed downtown for a few years and bought a home off of Old Georgetown Rd.

I still love it down here, and we love raising our family here.
There are beautiful areas, deep, rich diverse culture & interesting educational sites in a ton of places in the DMV area, you just have to know where to go (newsflash: Bethesda's not the place for that deep, rich diverse culture, lol).

My only complaint really is the awful congestion & the drivers... oh, the drivers.

If you're on the beltway and put on your directional (to let the drivers in the next lane over know that you're planning on entering their lane) plan for them to speed up not to let you in.

I've never lived anywhere where drivers due that more often than the DC area... they actually speed up NOT to let you in once you've indicated you're going into their lane (even if they're 30 feet back!).

You'll be fine wherever you go, glad to have another transplant!

[Anonymous]

We moved from NY and I know exactly what you mean. We live in Kenwood Park (Bethesda) and it’s very culturally diverse. The lots are a lot bigger than some Bethesda neighborhoods. I would avoid Wood Acres. It has a mini-Martha Stewart vibe. We are in the Whitman district and have been extremely happy with our schools (Bradley Hills, Pyle, Whitman). At the end of the day, everyone who can afford to live here is “rich” but we have easily avoided any kind of country club feel by hanging out with a lot of international families. World Bank, Embassies, IMF, International journalists, etc. They couldn’t care less about old money and social status. And they’re way more fun than some of the socialite types. One thing to note is that there is A LOT of money in DC, but there’s a difference between money in the bank and money in the driveway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved from NY and I know exactly what you mean. We live in Kenwood Park (Bethesda) and it’s very culturally diverse. The lots are a lot bigger than some Bethesda neighborhoods. I would avoid Wood Acres. It has a mini-Martha Stewart vibe. We are in the Whitman district and have been extremely happy with our schools (Bradley Hills, Pyle, Whitman). At the end of the day, everyone who can afford to live here is “rich” but we have easily avoided any kind of country club feel by hanging out with a lot of international families. World Bank, Embassies, IMF, International journalists, etc. They couldn’t care less about old money and social status. And they’re way more fun than some of the socialite types.
One thing to note is that there is A LOT of money in DC, but there’s a difference between money in the bank and money in the driveway.

I'm the PP right before you and I totally agree.
All of our closest friends are also transplants who were recruited to NIH from other states and other countries.

They have a value & appreciation for family that's FAR above anything else (but especially more so than money).
They require money to live, but they don't place a heavy value on it, it's especially not the end all be all. It's so refreshing.

As far as the bolded, it's as the old saying goes:
"Money talks, wealth whispers". 😁

[Anonymous]

Oakland Terrace neighborhood of Silver Spring

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Hey OP, former Hudson Valley transplant here!
(born in Brooklyn, moved to Rockland at 15 & then lived in Carmel until 28, before moving down here).

I have to say, I really love it down here.
When I first moved here, my fiance at the time (now husband) moved us to downtown Bethesda, which was fantastic since you could walk everywhere you needed to go.
We stayed downtown for a few years and bought a home off of Old Georgetown Rd.

I still love it down here, and we love raising our family here.
There are beautiful areas, deep, rich diverse culture & interesting educational sites in a ton of places in the DMV area, you just have to know where to go (newsflash: Bethesda's not the place for that deep, rich diverse culture, lol).

My only complaint really is the awful congestion & the drivers... oh, the drivers.

If you're on the beltway and put on your directional (to let the drivers in the next lane over know that you're planning on entering their lane) plan for them to speed up not to let you in.

I've never lived anywhere where drivers due that more often than the DC area... they actually speed up NOT to let you in once you've indicated you're going into their lane (even if they're 30 feet back!).

You'll be fine wherever you go, glad to have another transplant!

Rockland County is not comparable to Westchester, for many, many reasons. Carmel is in Putnam County.

[Anonymous]

Kalorama is the answer. Might not be financially diverse but it is culturally diverse and folks are very well educated. It’s also is filled with very interesting and especially accomplished people. Not a bunch of big law first generation successful striver wannabes of different backgrounds but folks with real accomplishments on an international level.