I haven't figured out how people raise children in DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the "must live 20016" poster is deciding which DCPS middle/high combo he/she wants to attend. Come on, suburb bashers, which combo other than Deal/Wilson will YOU send your kids? If the answer is, "I'll just go private," then you lack any understanding of what the sub-300k set faces. (That, and complaining about gangs in Fairfax/Montgomery whilst ignoring problems with DCPS is just rich.)

12:10 raises a good point. I think we can try and split up the various areas in DC into a variety of "clusters."

My theory on DC and its suburbs:
1. Wealthy SFH nabes that are still fairly urban: upper NW, McLean, parts of Bethesda, North Arlington
2. Wealthy SFH nabes that are pretty rural: Great Falls, Potomac, Poolesville
3. Dense urban wealthy: Dupont, Georgetown, Old Town Alexandria, innermost Bethesda, Orange/Blue Line Arlington
4. Dense urban poor: SE DC, inner Prince George's, West End Alexandria, South Arlington, inner Silver Spring
5. Urban crunchy: Takoma (Park), Del Ray, College Park
6. Rural crunchy: Glen Echo, Middleburg
7. OK-but-generic suburbs: Centreville, Chantilly, upper Silver Spring, Burke, Springfield
8. OK-but-generic suburbs surrounding some historic core: Vienna, Herndon, Fairfax, Rockville, Gaithersburg
9. Wealthy exurbs: western PWC, Lake Ridge, western Howard, Loudoun (ex-Sterling)
10. Not wealthy exurbs: the rest of Eastern PWC, Sterling, outer Prince George's
11. Separate cities which got swallowed by exurbs: Winchester, Front Royal, Warrenton, Leesburg, Fredericksburg, Frederick, Annapolis.

I am LMAO - we live in Woodside Park (inner Silver Spring) and the house down the street, listed at $1.6M, just sold. Urban poor indeed.

[Anonymous]

I've been laughing all day about "tax dollars to Baltimore." Does PP not know that Baltimore is not the capital of Maryland?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:48, I'm dying to know where you'd live if you could.

"As far as the PP who mentioned "shallow" and "weather" in the same sentence: I want to know where you score your crack, because I could use some of that while living here with the likes of you. "

That's me, I stand by my statement. And I intend to retire here too, so there

how positively dull

Not dull to me, and that's all that matters. Care to share where you'd rather live and retire? Nah, didn't think so.

I like change and adventure...Belize, Malta, New Zealand. The possibilities are endless.

OMG! I love fantasizing about moving abroad. My neighbors recently moved to New Zealand with their 11 year old daughter and love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the "must live 20016" poster is deciding which DCPS middle/high combo he/she wants to attend. Come on, suburb bashers, which combo other than Deal/Wilson will YOU send your kids? If the answer is, "I'll just go private," then you lack any understanding of what the sub-300k set faces. (That, and complaining about gangs in Fairfax/Montgomery whilst ignoring problems with DCPS is just rich.)

12:10 raises a good point. I think we can try and split up the various areas in DC into a variety of "clusters."

My theory on DC and its suburbs:
1. Wealthy SFH nabes that are still fairly urban: upper NW, McLean, parts of Bethesda, North Arlington
2. Wealthy SFH nabes that are pretty rural: Great Falls, Potomac, Poolesville
3. Dense urban wealthy: Dupont, Georgetown, Old Town Alexandria, innermost Bethesda, Orange/Blue Line Arlington
4. Dense urban poor: SE DC, inner Prince George's, West End Alexandria, South Arlington, inner Silver Spring
5. Urban crunchy: Takoma (Park), Del Ray, College Park
6. Rural crunchy: Glen Echo, Middleburg
7. OK-but-generic suburbs: Centreville, Chantilly, upper Silver Spring, Burke, Springfield
8. OK-but-generic suburbs surrounding some historic core: Vienna, Herndon, Fairfax, Rockville, Gaithersburg
9. Wealthy exurbs: western PWC, Lake Ridge, western Howard, Loudoun (ex-Sterling)
10. Not wealthy exurbs: the rest of Eastern PWC, Sterling, outer Prince George's
11. Separate cities which got swallowed by exurbs: Winchester, Front Royal, Warrenton, Leesburg, Fredericksburg, Frederick, Annapolis.

I am LMAO - we live in Woodside Park (inner Silver Spring) and the house down the street, listed at $1.6M, just sold. Urban poor indeed.

Yes, this person is FOS! We sold our poor house in S. Arlington for $950,000!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I was at a party recently and I heard someone's MIL mention that people are "friendly" here. The whole party responded in riotous laughter - literally! That is part of the issue, OP. As far as comparing this area to any other, you simply can not. If not only for the high concentration of those who think that D.C. is the be all and end all. Do you really want to know where they are coming from? Probably not. Holy sh*t! Let them think the rest of the nation and world sucks and that this must be heaven on earth (egads!). Then we won't have to deal with them when we vacation or retire

Glad to know that I must be delusional because I find people nice here (and yes I have lived in other states). I am a genuine nice person. I smile, say hi and treat random strangers with kindness and you know what? People are friendly right back. I live in an apt complex and know the majority of my neighbors. Crazy enough we get together once a week to play trivia and recently started getting together to hang out by the pool. Granted I am crazy talkative but honestly I think you can find nice people everywhere...you might just have to make the first move.

Yes, it really depends on the neighborhood you live in. Some are quite friendly. Also there's a lot of DC folks whose families moved up here from the south and brought a southern friendliness with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been laughing all day about "tax dollars to Baltimore." Does PP not know that Baltimore is not the capital of Maryland?

I'm not that PP, but I don't believe she was talking about the location of the Maryland Comptroller. Rather, she was bemoaning how much the taxes paid by the wealthy Maryland suburbs of DC subsidize urban Baltimore.

Did you really not get that? Yeesh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love it here. I have a 6 mile commute that on a good day is 15 minutes and, a bad one, about 45. On average 25 minutes. I pay a little over $1600 a month for daycare for my twin toddlers. Daycare is a block and a half from my office. I have a 3 bdrm condo in a working class neighborhood that should turn around in a 5 - 7 years.

.

I'm really curious what neighborhood this is.

I'm the quoted poster. I live near Mt. Vernon and work in Old Town Alexandria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been laughing all day about "tax dollars to Baltimore." Does PP not know that Baltimore is not the capital of Maryland?

I'm not that PP, but I don't believe she was talking about the location of the Maryland Comptroller. Rather, she was bemoaning how much the taxes paid by the wealthy Maryland suburbs of DC subsidize urban Baltimore.

Did you really not get that? Yeesh.

I thought the same thing. So, really, the poster was just being elitist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ewwww, Cleveland... I grew up there... Ewww, just ewwww.

I never heard of an apt in DC w/o a washer/dryer, central a/c, etc. Maybe you haven't looked at any since the 90ties but things have changed.

NP - Grew up near Cleveland and lived there for awhile and really liked it. But I have grown to love DC nevertheless. Probably because I moved to the neighborhood that reminded me more rather than less of Cleveland. Yes, I know I sound crazy. But there's "down to earth" in DC. You just have to look for it and you don't have to look far.

What neighborhood?

I moved from Georgetown to Hill East. I know lots of folks on DCUM prefer Georgetown and that's fine. It just wasn't for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been laughing all day about "tax dollars to Baltimore." Does PP not know that Baltimore is not the capital of Maryland?

Did you not read the rest of my post? In MD most of your tax dollars go to support a city you don't live in; Baltimore. In DC even if my tax dollars are wasted in the city it is still the city I live in and I can still rationalize it. How can a Bethesda family rationalize all their taxes going to Baltimore? You can't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ewwww, Cleveland... I grew up there... Ewww, just ewwww.

I never heard of an apt in DC w/o a washer/dryer, central a/c, etc. Maybe you haven't looked at any since the 90ties but things have changed.

NP - Grew up near Cleveland and lived there for awhile and really liked it. But I have grown to love DC nevertheless. Probably because I moved to the neighborhood that reminded me more rather than less of Cleveland. Yes, I know I sound crazy. But there's "down to earth" in DC. You just have to look for it and you don't have to look far.

What neighborhood?

I moved from Georgetown to Hill East. I know lots of folks on DCUM prefer Georgetown and that's fine. It just wasn't for me.

Ward 7, represent!

[Anonymous]

I disagree with the posters who keep saying you have to be wealthy to enjoy living here. You need a comfortable income for sure, but check out the private school forum and you can clearly see wealth doesn't offer happiness here, and I actually think it can make life a lot more complicated. I also don't know that many people making $350K or more who can leave work at 5:30 like DH and I can either.

We make enough to afford a nice but small home close in, afford two kids in high quality daycare, and have enough for retirement/savings/college, plus be able to shop at Whole Foods and not have to stress if we buy lunch at work etc. It's a sweet spot in my opinion.

And to the person wondering why people keep mentioning jobs as a pull here vs. ability to be outside in the summer, you must not work. We work sane hours, but still a large chunk of our time is spent at work or doing work (roughly 40-45 hours a week) so yeah, it's key that we enjoy how we spend our time. If you want to go live in a ski resort town and teach lessons and work at the ski shop to fuel an active lifestyle, that's great, but that's not for me. I went to grad school and worked my ass off early on to find out and pursue a field I'm passionate about. And I'm lucky that I can earn money doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:48, I'm dying to know where you'd live if you could.

"As far as the PP who mentioned "shallow" and "weather" in the same sentence: I want to know where you score your crack, because I could use some of that while living here with the likes of you. "

That's me, I stand by my statement. And I intend to retire here too, so there

how positively dull

Not dull to me, and that's all that matters. Care to share where you'd rather live and retire? Nah, didn't think so.

I like change and adventure...Belize, Malta, New Zealand. The possibilities are endless.

Even when you're 80?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been laughing all day about "tax dollars to Baltimore." Does PP not know that Baltimore is not the capital of Maryland?

Did you not read the rest of my post? In MD most of your tax dollars go to support a city you don't live in; Baltimore. In DC even if my tax dollars are wasted in the city it is still the city I live in and I can still rationalize it. How can a Bethesda family rationalize all their taxes going to Baltimore? You can't.

Many of my tax dollars support people I don't know, programs I don't agree with, and causes I find absurd. And yet, I'm fine with this - because we live in a system that subsidizes people and things in ways determined by the democratically-elected legislature.

Your objection to supporting the urban poor in Baltimore is further evidence of your elitist mentality.

[Anonymous]

i want to move to Portland.