Upper NW DC the "Suburbs"?
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Anonymous
The OP's post is hardly a rant. The ranting came later from other posters. |
Anonymous
So are claiming to be more urban because you are closer to downtown? |
Anonymous
+1 Who cares what word describes where you live. If you’re close to things, but live in a neighborhood with homes, good for you, you’re probably urban. But the names don’t matter. Just enjoy where you live and who cares where you live or what defines your area. Some of the people here are so insecure. |
Anonymous
+2 I was just talking about this with a friend, though, as we have a good friend living in DC who does make a big deal about it. I think it probably is because of the DC school system; it is so much worse than those in the close in suburbs, people (such as our friend) use the argument of “urban living” as a justification for living there and throwing money at privates, when it would probably make financial sense to move to MD/VA and have possibly more of a walkable lifestyle. Personally, I find the “urban/suburban” argument on par with the suv v minivan debate - at a certain point you just don’t care what people think and do what works for you. And sometimes I dream of living in the true suburbs out in Reston or Chantilly and having space from the neighbors! |
Anonymous
So is your good friend living in DC doing what works for them? |
Anonymous
| My 7000 square foot house on about a 30,000 sf lot is in NW DC and I don’t care what you call it. It’s PERFECT. Close to our school, close to downtown and close to our clubs. |
Anonymous
Again there are almost no DC suburbs that are as walkable as DC itself is. Even the neighborhoods that border on each other are much more walkable on the DC vs the MD side. And your other argument isn't a great one either. All I hear about when we get together with our friends in Montgomery County is how many kids are crammed into each classroom. And at least in DC our kids aren't getting hit by cars every day trying to get to and from school. |
Anonymous
The downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring neighborhoods are just as walkable and metro-accessible. |
Anonymous
This was a horrible accident. I have to say that super early start time for middle school and having the kid on a bus are 2 of the many reasons we won't be moving to suburbs where one of us works. Btu also, not because suburbs would be so bad but rather because we are very happy where we are tight now. |
Anonymous
Sure but those neighborhoods have relatively few single family homes in them (at least very few actually within walking distance of the Metro) and are also small but very dense and really more comparable to downtown DC than the single family home neighborhoods in DC. But there is also way more traffic in those neighborhoods (again comparable to downtown DC and not a more mixed use DC neighborhood). Most of Arlington can fairly be compared to DC in my opinion - fairly open street grid, lots of retail corridors, lots of not just Metro stops but also bus routes to get around, pretty short commute to downtown, access to a mix of parks and libraries via a means other than driving. There are pockets of this in Maryland - near downtown Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Rockville where there are Metro stops and retail and the neighborhoods are somewhat walkable and you could even argue places like Mt. Rainier, Kensington, downtown Gaithersburg where there are MARC stops or proximity to downtown but in MD they really are pretty small pockets where a few thousand people might live in a county of over a million people now. And no except for the edges that are near Friendship Heights or Bethesda I'm not really counting any of the 18 or whatever neighborhoods that make up all of the misc Chevy Chase neighborhoods which are nice places to live and walk within but not really well connected to much of anything unless you are going to drive which is what most people do there. |
Anonymous
And it’s in the suburbs. Most suburban people love their situation. |
Anonymous
Oh please. The schools in Upper NW DC are just as good if not better than close in burbs. |
Anonymous
You sure about that? Look at rankings. The MoCo schools--despite all of their problems--blow the DC schools out of the water. And if you're going to attack Niche's credibility, please provide specific criticisms and provide evidence to back up your assertion that the Upper NW DC schools are as good if not better than the close in burbs. Here's the link to Niche's ranking of DMV public elementary schools: https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-public-elementary-schools/m/washington-dc-metro-area/ DCPS schools rank as follows: Yu Ying -- #2 Edgewood (another charter) -- #83 KIPP DC (charter) -- #87 Haynes (charter) -- #90 Roots Charter -- #97 LA Montessori Charter -- #116 Mundo Verde Charter -- #127 Two Rivers Charter -- #128 Stoddert -- #175 So you don't get to a non-charter DCPS ES until #175. That's below plenty of not only close-in MCPS schools, but schools in the outer burbs of MoCo, Prince William County, Loudoun, Fairfax, etc. An upper NW ES like Eaton--which I'm sure you think is better than the suburban schools--is #191. |
Anonymous
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Oh and don't cite diversity because, as we know well, the burbs have plenty of schools with diversity and higher FARMS rates.
Take a school like Rachel Carson ES. It's in the outer burbs (Gaithersburg). It has a 20% FARMS rate. It ranks #56, well above all the DCPS charter schools other than Yu Ying, and certainly above the non-charter DCPS schools. |
Anonymous
SUV vs Minivan is a debate important to this person. Says a lot. |