Schools cause PoP to leave Petworth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe he sold because he realized that Petworth is at the height of the market now. Cash out, plain and simple.

Correct, PoP bought in 2003 for 207k. Sold for 700k. Sitting on about a half-mil in profit.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4110-4th-St-NW-W...shington-DC-20011/485208_zpid/

You don't seriously think that 12 years of depreciation and inflation results in a true 1/2 mil in profit? If so, I have some timeshares in Fl. I'd like to sell you.

economists...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if you hadn't gotten into a good charter?

NP. In a hot immersion charter. Live in CH (zoned for Tubman). We'd have moved, but for the charter. Guess what. We're still moving. Charters aren't the saviors y'all think.

This could be my wife, but for the unfortunate "y'all." My kids spent 5 years in an excellent charter, but as middle school approaches, we needed to make a change.

We're moving as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm just jealous he can afford a place in Van Ness as a blogger. I wonder how much PoPville pulls in...

Buying 12 years ago, he probably made a killing from selling his home. Petworth prices are insane --not sure why people are buying when school aren't great.

Not to mention - they are all the exact same house. The trendiness of Petworth makes no sense, so it's probably all for the best if the "Prince" has abdicated.

Interestingly enough, while *most* of Petworth is the same rowhouse design, PoP actually lived in one of the rare bungalows. I will disagree about the trendiness though - I've lived there for 6 years, and it's really a great neighborhood. it's the right mix of diverse, hip, transit accessible, green living space, the right number of amenities, and space/$. It's unique in that aspect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe he sold because he realized that Petworth is at the height of the market now. Cash out, plain and simple.

Correct, PoP bought in 2003 for 207k. Sold for 700k. Sitting on about a half-mil in profit.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4110-4th-St-NW-W...shington-DC-20011/485208_zpid/

You don't seriously think that 12 years of depreciation and inflation results in a true 1/2 mil in profit? If so, I have some timeshares in Fl. I'd like to sell you.

economists...

Seriously. When I say a half-mil in profit, i really meant a half-mil in his POCKET...depending on how much he may have borrowed against the house to do work on it, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an eye-opening read for me. I commented on the PoP post about his decision to move, simply suggesting that if I were in his position I'd go a step further and move either to North Arlington or Bethesda because he's essentially moving to the suburbs for schools and the schools in North Arlington and Bethesda are better, especially after elementary schools. Others may disagree, but this is hardly a rude or acerbic observation.

He deleted the post.

Now I understand why every comment on his post about moving was so supportive . . . really pathetic, if you ask me. He lost this reader.

why do car-less rowhouse dwellers persist with this baloney? Does it threaten your own authentic bonafides to accept that a lot of Red Line Ward 3 is as close to downtown as Petworth is, with far more walkable commerce and -- because of apartments -- greater population density?

Or maybe you guys have just never left your neighborhood. That is also possible.

+ a million.

I posted earlier about how I am much more accessible to my job, commerce, and my kids' school in Van Ness than I was in Petworth. It's actually just this attitude that drove me out of Petworth. The reverse-snobbiness was ridiculous.

I think the only difference is that a lot of Red Line Ward 3 that is so close to be walkable to everything is also incredibly expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You'll all missing my point. As I said, you can disagree with my view that he might as well have moved to N. Arlington/Bethesda. But to delete the post? Really? Lame as fuck.

Right, and that's what we are doing, disagreeing with your view. Are we not allowed to do that?

I don't care what he chooses to delete from his own website. I do care when people spread biased and inaccurate views about my neighborhood just to prove your own hipness.

I totally care that he deletes posts that merely disagree with his opinion. For the casual reader, it gives a completely skewed sense of "the community"'s feelings and point of view.

He tries to pretend he's a "journalist," but he relies a whole hell of a lot on just posting press releases--and skewing the comments to be in line with his point of view is selling false pretenses.

I wish more people would see behind the curtain on him. But I am guessing that, despite his efforts, his move to the Van Ness area--one of the most soulless parts of the city, even for upper NW--is the beginning of the end of PoPville, even if it takes a while. (Two little kids will eventually get in the way, too.)

Journalist is a funny term for PoP. He's more of an aggregator of a LOT of information. When he writes something where an actual opinion is formed, it's usually poorly written and poorly argued. The value in his blog is really in how prolific he is - he publishes a TON of information. The majority of the actual blog's value is in the comments section - which are an awesome nightmare. The race baiting on the blog is out of control though - it's almost as if he wants to incite gentrification and race arguments with 1/3 of his posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You'll all missing my point. As I said, you can disagree with my view that he might as well have moved to N. Arlington/Bethesda. But to delete the post? Really? Lame as fuck.

Right, and that's what we are doing, disagreeing with your view. Are we not allowed to do that?

I don't care what he chooses to delete from his own website. I do care when people spread biased and inaccurate views about my neighborhood just to prove your own hipness.

I totally care that he deletes posts that merely disagree with his opinion. For the casual reader, it gives a completely skewed sense of "the community"'s feelings and point of view.

He tries to pretend he's a "journalist," but he relies a whole hell of a lot on just posting press releases--and skewing the comments to be in line with his point of view is selling false pretenses.

I wish more people would see behind the curtain on him. But I am guessing that, despite his efforts, his move to the Van Ness area--one of the most soulless parts of the city, even for upper NW--is the beginning of the end of PoPville, even if it takes a while. (Two little kids will eventually get in the way, too.)

You clearly know nothing about the neighborhood. If by "soulless" you mean lack of trendy restaurants, OK, but there is a lot of community spirit. Just spend some time walking around and you'll run into kids, families, older people, dogs, etc. Just this week we were eating dinner on the patio of Guapo's (yes, I know you think Guapo's is horrible) and we chatted with two neighbors walking by, then ran into a family from school walking to Blue Moo, then got home and met our new neighbors who just moved in with kids. It took us an extra hour to get home just because we kept running into people we knew.

Trendy coffee shops and hipster bars is not what gives a community a "soul." It is the people who live there, and we are more concerned with hanging out and being friendly then with agonizing over the lack of new sushi joints. Meanwhile, my friend who lives in Columbia Heights and actually sends his kids to the local school barely knows anyone on his block and never interacts with schoolmates outside of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:C'mon people. Despite what he said on his blog, I am sure that the last year's spike in violent crime, including some notable incidents in Petworth (several daytime shootings with people and children walking around), played a role in their decision to move.

I do not see why you would be sure. As he stated, he has been there 12 years, and it is certainly safer now than it was 12 years ago. And the schools issue is quite enough for a move to make sense - Occam's Razor suggests no need to speculate on other motivation.

People move due to crime when they have kids, not when they're single 20 somethings. He has a 2 year old and baby on the way - I think it's highly likely that consideration of safety was equally as important as school choice.

Plenty of single people move because of crime, and plenty of parents live in neighborhoods that some people consider unsafe (obviously including Petworth) Given those facts, and the fact that DS explicitly said it was not about safety, I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he was telling the truth.

I agree. He doesn't want to dump on Petworth as being unsafe, at least not by explicitly stating so. But he has no problem dumping on Bruce Monroe, a school which he's never had a child enrolled and he likely knows little to nothing about the school as a parent of an enrolled student. That rubs me the wrong way. He could have left the school question open the same way he did on neighborhood safety.

How is he dumping on it? He didn't even specify the school. I have a lot of problems with that blog, even besides the blindly pro-gentrifier perspective (such as the way he never makes a phone call to find out the answers to questions people pose, just puts the question up and lets people click through the comments to find some useful information), but I don't think saying he's moving for better school options is unfair or unreasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You'll all missing my point. As I said, you can disagree with my view that he might as well have moved to N. Arlington/Bethesda. But to delete the post? Really? Lame as fuck.

Right, and that's what we are doing, disagreeing with your view. Are we not allowed to do that?

I don't care what he chooses to delete from his own website. I do care when people spread biased and inaccurate views about my neighborhood just to prove your own hipness.

I totally care that he deletes posts that merely disagree with his opinion. For the casual reader, it gives a completely skewed sense of "the community"'s feelings and point of view.

He tries to pretend he's a "journalist," but he relies a whole hell of a lot on just posting press releases--and skewing the comments to be in line with his point of view is selling false pretenses.

I wish more people would see behind the curtain on him. But I am guessing that, despite his efforts, his move to the Van Ness area--one of the most soulless parts of the city, even for upper NW--is the beginning of the end of PoPville, even if it takes a while. (Two little kids will eventually get in the way, too.)

Journalist is a funny term for PoP. He's more of an aggregator of a LOT of information. When he writes something where an actual opinion is formed, it's usually poorly written and poorly argued. The value in his blog is really in how prolific he is - he publishes a TON of information. The majority of the actual blog's value is in the comments section - which are an awesome nightmare. The race baiting on the blog is out of control though - it's almost as if he wants to incite gentrification and race arguments with 1/3 of his posts.

This might be the definition of irony - someone posting a comment on DCUM that the comment section of another website is an awesome nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Here at DCUM, the criticism of the newest wave of hipster gentrifiers has always been they're too weak-willed to stay in their "transitioning" neighborhoods a little while after they become parents. Rather than work hard to make the neighborhood more school-age-friendly, they bolt for the suburbs. So, the self-anointed "Prince" of Petworth did essentially the same thing by moving to a longtime white enclave in D.C.; perhaps he believes his blog can continue despite his latest carpetbaggery; we will see. But the criticism of him and his choices are appropriate, considering the context of longtime criticism of gentrifiers who do exactly the same thing. Pray tell, what makes the "Prince" so different that it is inappropriate to point out what looks to be his self-evident sameness?

Lemmings gonna lemming, far as I can tell.

[Anonymous]

I'm just sick of people saying that "hipsters" move to Petworth because it is trendy, instead of the reality that normal people move to Petworth because it is affordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm just sick of people saying that "hipsters" move to Petworth because it is trendy, instead of the reality that normal people move to Petworth because it is affordable.

Prince is lucky he had enough money to stay in D.C., rather than move to Reston or Gaithersburg, which is what the normals tend to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You'll all missing my point. As I said, you can disagree with my view that he might as well have moved to N. Arlington/Bethesda. But to delete the post? Really? Lame as fuck.

Right, and that's what we are doing, disagreeing with your view. Are we not allowed to do that?

I don't care what he chooses to delete from his own website. I do care when people spread biased and inaccurate views about my neighborhood just to prove your own hipness.

I totally care that he deletes posts that merely disagree with his opinion. For the casual reader, it gives a completely skewed sense of "the community"'s feelings and point of view.

He tries to pretend he's a "journalist," but he relies a whole hell of a lot on just posting press releases--and skewing the comments to be in line with his point of view is selling false pretenses.

I wish more people would see behind the curtain on him. But I am guessing that, despite his efforts, his move to the Van Ness area--one of the most soulless parts of the city, even for upper NW--is the beginning of the end of PoPville, even if it takes a while. (Two little kids will eventually get in the way, too.)

You clearly know nothing about the neighborhood. If by "soulless" you mean lack of trendy restaurants, OK, but there is a lot of community spirit. Just spend some time walking around and you'll run into kids, families, older people, dogs, etc. Just this week we were eating dinner on the patio of Guapo's (yes, I know you think Guapo's is horrible) and we chatted with two neighbors walking by, then ran into a family from school walking to Blue Moo, then got home and met our new neighbors who just moved in with kids. It took us an extra hour to get home just because we kept running into people we knew.

Trendy coffee shops and hipster bars is not what gives a community a "soul." It is the people who live there, and we are more concerned with hanging out and being friendly then with agonizing over the lack of new sushi joints. Meanwhile, my friend who lives in Columbia Heights and actually sends his kids to the local school barely knows anyone on his block and never interacts with schoolmates outside of school.

I'm laughing that you think I know nothing about that neighborhood.

And "Van Ness" does tend to refer to a very specific stretch of Connecticut Avenue, right by the--gasp!--Van Ness Metro station. That area has been *soulless* for 40 years now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm just sick of people saying that "hipsters" move to Petworth because it is trendy, instead of the reality that normal people move to Petworth because it is affordable.

Seriously. I don't understand the bitter people on here who wants to hold Dan Silverman to staying in Petworth.

people - get a life. He moved to Petworth in his 20s, likely beacuase that's what he could afford. Then he started a blog about Petworth and surrounding neighborhoods. It doesn't take away his right to live where he wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:C'mon people. Despite what he said on his blog, I am sure that the last year's spike in violent crime, including some notable incidents in Petworth (several daytime shootings with people and children walking around), played a role in their decision to move.

I do not see why you would be sure. As he stated, he has been there 12 years, and it is certainly safer now than it was 12 years ago. And the schools issue is quite enough for a move to make sense - Occam's Razor suggests no need to speculate on other motivation.

People move due to crime when they have kids, not when they're single 20 somethings. He has a 2 year old and baby on the way - I think it's highly likely that consideration of safety was equally as important as school choice.

Plenty of single people move because of crime, and plenty of parents live in neighborhoods that some people consider unsafe (obviously including Petworth) Given those facts, and the fact that DS explicitly said it was not about safety, I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he was telling the truth.

I agree. He doesn't want to dump on Petworth as being unsafe, at least not by explicitly stating so. But he has no problem dumping on Bruce Monroe, a school which he's never had a child enrolled and he likely knows little to nothing about the school as a parent of an enrolled student. That rubs me the wrong way. He could have left the school question open the same way he did on neighborhood safety.

How is he dumping on it? He didn't even specify the school. I have a lot of problems with that blog, even besides the blindly pro-gentrifier perspective (such as the way he never makes a phone call to find out the answers to questions people pose, just puts the question up and lets people click through the comments to find some useful information), but I don't think saying he's moving for better school options is unfair or unreasonable.

Everyone knows it's Bruce Monroe and he was rezoned out of Powell. That's a given. People's reasons for moving are never a given unless they actually STATE it's because of schools, which is what he did.