Capitol Hill families - If you moved to NW or burbs for school, do you have any regrets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is quintessential DCUM. A bunch of rich people who can afford $1M+ real estate arguing about where to live and p*ssing on places the majority of folks can't afford.

I can't believe you would slum it at $1m! You must not love your kids very much.

-Signed,
DCUM

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised no one has mentioned Takoma park on this thread yet (probably bc this is the dcps board). But we moved there a few years ago and have been very happy. It’s more of a small town vibe, rather than sprawling suburbs. Very walkable, easy to commute to my job on the hill, we got an yard, and we’ve been happy with the schools. It sounds like OP is considering Silver Spring, which (depending on the neighborhood they land on) would likely be pretty similar in terms of walkability. It’s not perfect here (traffic, and we have plenty of posturing lawn signs), but it’s much more livable and relaxing, for us.

Takoma park is great if you like insane commuters blasting through the neighborhood, constant traffic, high housing prices for poorly maintained cheap siding covered homes, and truly bad to mediocre schools. Also if you think proximity to Georgia Ave is a plus (pawn shops and McDonald’s) then sure, maybe? I guess some people like crime.

Huh? Georgia Ave doesn’t even go through TKPK… if you don’t like it, don’t move there, though it sounds like maybe you haven’t been there before? I’m just sharing my experience of moving to another neighborhood without big regrets in case it’s helpful to the OP, who may be wrestling with some of the same issues we were (crime, schools, space, etc).

From what I can tell, the CH boosters don’t like any neighbourhood in DC, MD or VA except CH

Yeah, not everyone in CH is like this but some people definitely are. Like there is nowhere else in the area that is worthwhile or something. It's weird. I live here and it has good qualities and bad qualities. It is not all things to all people and there are of course tradeoffs.

I wonder if, as CH has gotten more expensive, people feel like they need to justify the expense by believing it's better than everywhere else. When a row house in CH costs $2m, and you still don't have a yard or a good IB high school, maybe you feel like you have to justify yourself? Though the people we know who have bough recently for $$$ just send kids to private and can travel a lot or spend time at a family home or second home in the country in warmer months. So I don't know.

This is just poor logic. Most people bought their homes years ago and can afford to sell and buy another in a different neighborhood. Even the ones without family money and second homes.

What doesn’t make sense to me is selling your Capitol Hill house to move to a neighborhood with similarly poor middle and high schools, with worse amenities in a worse location. I would happily sell my house and move if I could find a neighborhood with excellent schools. I would be ok selling my nice brick house for a wooden box in a cookie cutter suburb if it meant the schools made the step down worth it. There is no neighborhood in dc with good enough schools for me to justify a move from Capitol Hill but that’s my opinion anyway.

If you think that you can compare Jackson Reed to Eastern and call them similarly mediocre, you are nuts. I work for DCPS and have good familiarity with both schools and I would not send my kid to Eastern. The number of high performing students at a school makes a huge difference to the learning environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Contrary to popular belief, just because someone is black doesn’t mean that they are homeless or low income. That black person living in ward 3 isn’t necessarily low income or homeless. Some of these people on this board continue to shock me with their narrow minded thinking.

What are you even responding to? Nobody is saying “yikes so many black people on barracks row!” People are reacting to the drug addict zombies who at best are sleeping on the sidewalk and at worst are harassing/attacking barracks row patrons.

And by the way, Black people in the city are more pro-policing/anti-crime than white people. It’s mostly idiots like you who think it’s ok for neighborhood shopping districts to be an unsafe place to visit.

Where did I say that it’s okay for neighborhood shopping districts to be unsafe places to visit? And how are you equating me making a statement about black people not being low income to shopping districts being unsafe. It sounds like you’re trying to say that a large concentration of black people makes any area unsafe.

[Anonymous]

A totally derailed thread. But a good reminder of what you loons really think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A totally derailed thread. But a good reminder of what you loons really think.

[Anonymous]

I'm in awe of the person who turned their nose up at takoma, which is basically a suburb with SFHs, multiple dog parks, a downtown district that it shares with tk park, bc parts of it are near Georgia ave

[Anonymous]

The only reason people have problems with Takoma is because there are too many black people in the neighborhood. It’s the truth that people won’t say out loud.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised no one has mentioned Takoma park on this thread yet (probably bc this is the dcps board). But we moved there a few years ago and have been very happy. It’s more of a small town vibe, rather than sprawling suburbs. Very walkable, easy to commute to my job on the hill, we got an yard, and we’ve been happy with the schools. It sounds like OP is considering Silver Spring, which (depending on the neighborhood they land on) would likely be pretty similar in terms of walkability. It’s not perfect here (traffic, and we have plenty of posturing lawn signs), but it’s much more livable and relaxing, for us.

Takoma park is great if you like insane commuters blasting through the neighborhood, constant traffic, high housing prices for poorly maintained cheap siding covered homes, and truly bad to mediocre schools. Also if you think proximity to Georgia Ave is a plus (pawn shops and McDonald’s) then sure, maybe? I guess some people like crime.

Huh? Georgia Ave doesn’t even go through TKPK… if you don’t like it, don’t move there, though it sounds like maybe you haven’t been there before? I’m just sharing my experience of moving to another neighborhood without big regrets in case it’s helpful to the OP, who may be wrestling with some of the same issues we were (crime, schools, space, etc).

From what I can tell, the CH boosters don’t like any neighbourhood in DC, MD or VA except CH

Yeah, not everyone in CH is like this but some people definitely are. Like there is nowhere else in the area that is worthwhile or something. It's weird. I live here and it has good qualities and bad qualities. It is not all things to all people and there are of course tradeoffs.

I wonder if, as CH has gotten more expensive, people feel like they need to justify the expense by believing it's better than everywhere else. When a row house in CH costs $2m, and you still don't have a yard or a good IB high school, maybe you feel like you have to justify yourself? Though the people we know who have bough recently for $$$ just send kids to private and can travel a lot or spend time at a family home or second home in the country in warmer months. So I don't know.

This is just poor logic. Most people bought their homes years ago and can afford to sell and buy another in a different neighborhood. Even the ones without family money and second homes.

What doesn’t make sense to me is selling your Capitol Hill house to move to a neighborhood with similarly poor middle and high schools, with worse amenities in a worse location. I would happily sell my house and move if I could find a neighborhood with excellent schools. I would be ok selling my nice brick house for a wooden box in a cookie cutter suburb if it meant the schools made the step down worth it. There is no neighborhood in dc with good enough schools for me to justify a move from Capitol Hill but that’s my opinion anyway.

If you think that you can compare Jackson Reed to Eastern and call them similarly mediocre, you are nuts. I work for DCPS and have good familiarity with both schools and I would not send my kid to Eastern. The number of high performing students at a school makes a huge difference to the learning environment.

Oh totally agree! Without parents willing to subsidize DCPS’s garbage education by supplementing with tutors, mathnesium, kumon, etc- JR Wilson would not be head and shoulders and torso above eastern high. DCPS isn’t concerned with providing a mediocre education - as you are well aware!

My point is only that if I was going to move, it would not be to a place zoned for dcps which is garbage. I would move to actually good schools like Moco, McLean, Fairfax, etc. I agree that those neighborhoods are suburban and awful, but if I’m moving to improve schools I’m moving to the best schools. Dcps doesn’t cut it for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in awe of the person who turned their nose up at takoma, which is basically a suburb with SFHs, multiple dog parks, a downtown district that it shares with tk park, bc parts of it are near Georgia ave

Go there around rush hour. It’s a nightmare. And the housing stock is BAD. If I’m going to live in a plastic siding nightmare with bad schools, it’s at least not going to be by Georgia Ave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Contrary to popular belief, just because someone is black doesn’t mean that they are homeless or low income. That black person living in ward 3 isn’t necessarily low income or homeless. Some of these people on this board continue to shock me with their narrow minded thinking.

What are you even responding to? Nobody is saying “yikes so many black people on barracks row!” People are reacting to the drug addict zombies who at best are sleeping on the sidewalk and at worst are harassing/attacking barracks row patrons.

And by the way, Black people in the city are more pro-policing/anti-crime than white people. It’s mostly idiots like you who think it’s ok for neighborhood shopping districts to be an unsafe place to visit.

Where did I say that it’s okay for neighborhood shopping districts to be unsafe places to visit? And how are you equating me making a statement about black people not being low income to shopping districts being unsafe. It sounds like you’re trying to say that a large concentration of black people makes any area unsafe.

That’s clearly how you feel honey.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My kids went to our local DCPS school through 5th grade. They've won music/academic scholarships to a private school we can afford with the fi aid. We know that there are other great DC neighborhoods, but we're not moving 25 years into our life on the Hill just for schools. We can't stand the idea of taking care of a yard, having to walk more than 10 mins to a Metro station, or starting over socially. To each her own.

We don't walk more than ten minutes to the metro, or the supermarket, or one of 5 coffee shops, or our great middle school here in Arlington. We didn't really start over socially, we kept our old friends and made new ones. We have a yard and pay about $1000/year for someone else to take care of it (we save at least that much in taxes). Sounds like the Hill worked for you because of the scholarships, but honestly I do think some people assume that life outside of the Hill is some kind of suburban hellscape, when it can still be very walkable and pleasant. Our kids are in the car much less since we moved than they were before. And yes, real estate near a metro stop is expensive - but so is the Hill.

I live 2 blocks from Eastern Market, so it’s pleasant, but if I lived in Hill East like so many young families do these days, I’d have moved years ago. So much of the Hill is near nothing and is very inconvenient.

It is adorable how old timers on the Hill think Eastern Market is the epicenter of area amenities.

I actually think near NE in the LT zone is the sweet spot for amenities. Eastern Market, west side of Lincoln Park, or south of Capitol South within easy walking distance to WF/pretty close to Navy Yard are the other good spots. Near Potomac Ave metro/the Roost/new Safeway also not bad. But Hill East (14th/15th & East) slightly farther north/Maury zone is actually pretty inconvenient to any amenities. Maury is a great school, but that part of the Hill really isn’t very walkable.

We bid on a row house literally opposite the Maury playground but we were outbid. Is that not a good location?

It’s a fantastic location. You can walk to h street and Lincoln park. In my opinion the LT area is a dump. There is a lot of crime, lots of public housing, and the houses are too small, and you are not near that many parks except for the LT park and Sherwood rec. Ludlow isn’t great and there aren’t any middle schools on the hill worth attending.

LOL what? The housing stock IB for Maury and IB for LT is the same, and the LT neighborhood is closer to transit, shops and a bunch of parks. Are you even from DC?

It is so funny to me that you seem to actually believe that the falling down Victorian worker housing in the ludlow Taylor area is similar to the gorgeous Victorians around Lincoln park and eastern market. Sure. Okay!

I hate to contribute to this discussion, but I think you must be confusing Maury for a different school.

LT: https://www.redfin.com/school/159511/DC/Washington-DC/Ludlow-Taylor-Elementary-School

Maury: https://www.redfin.com/school/118348/DC/Washington-DC/Maury-Elementary-School

So they basically share a border for the more expensive part of the Maury zone, while LT extends west and Maury extends east from there. LT zone is pretty small and has multiple houses going for over $2 million currently. It goes no further north than H and no further east than 12th. Most of it is only a few blocks to Stanton Park or a few blocks to Lincoln Park. Where is the magic part of it that's a green space deprived dump? I think the Western part of the Maury zone is very nice and well-located, but there's way more of the Maury zone that's near nothing and not very nice than the LT zone. They seem to be equidistant to Eastern Market.

Yeah, you’re 2.5 bedroom home with no basement is identical to the Maury zone around Lincoln park. Sure. Definitely!! And everyone knows ludlow Taylor is on par with Brent and Maury too. And by the way, there are so many parks, no housing projects and no crime.

As an amendment to my previous comments, add “delusional people” to reasons why the ludlow Taylor district is undesirable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is quintessential DCUM. A bunch of rich people who can afford $1M+ real estate arguing about where to live and p*ssing on places the majority of folks can't afford.

I can't believe you would slum it at $1m! You must not love your kids very much.

-Signed,
DCUM

I think the real fools bought their house for 1 million plus in a neighborhood with high crime and bad schools. And by the way, this describes me. A total fool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only reason people have problems with Takoma is because there are too many black people in the neighborhood. It’s the truth that people won’t say out loud.

Takoma Dc or takoma md? Takoma dc always struck me as predominately white - the kind of white person puts one of those anti racist yard signs up but has zero black or Latino friends.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised no one has mentioned Takoma park on this thread yet (probably bc this is the dcps board). But we moved there a few years ago and have been very happy. It’s more of a small town vibe, rather than sprawling suburbs. Very walkable, easy to commute to my job on the hill, we got an yard, and we’ve been happy with the schools. It sounds like OP is considering Silver Spring, which (depending on the neighborhood they land on) would likely be pretty similar in terms of walkability. It’s not perfect here (traffic, and we have plenty of posturing lawn signs), but it’s much more livable and relaxing, for us.

Takoma park is great if you like insane commuters blasting through the neighborhood, constant traffic, high housing prices for poorly maintained cheap siding covered homes, and truly bad to mediocre schools. Also if you think proximity to Georgia Ave is a plus (pawn shops and McDonald’s) then sure, maybe? I guess some people like crime.

Huh? Georgia Ave doesn’t even go through TKPK… if you don’t like it, don’t move there, though it sounds like maybe you haven’t been there before? I’m just sharing my experience of moving to another neighborhood without big regrets in case it’s helpful to the OP, who may be wrestling with some of the same issues we were (crime, schools, space, etc).

From what I can tell, the CH boosters don’t like any neighbourhood in DC, MD or VA except CH

I am not a CH booster, but as a former takoma resident, I am also not going to pretend takoma is remotely better than Capitol Hill or even Trinidad. Honestly Brightwood is better than Takoma and it’s a huge dump.

Brightwood is a huge dump? What parts are you referring? We are looking at moving and noticed some inventory south of the new Walter Reed site (west of GA ave) and didn’t get a dump vibe?

Can you elaborate?

Are you kidding? Brightwood is super great if you want the most overpriced house in dc, with terrible schools, gridlock for days, terrible amenities, and whose biggest attraction is Georgia Ave.

Honestly I think Trinidad is a better investment.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My kids went to our local DCPS school through 5th grade. They've won music/academic scholarships to a private school we can afford with the fi aid. We know that there are other great DC neighborhoods, but we're not moving 25 years into our life on the Hill just for schools. We can't stand the idea of taking care of a yard, having to walk more than 10 mins to a Metro station, or starting over socially. To each her own.

We don't walk more than ten minutes to the metro, or the supermarket, or one of 5 coffee shops, or our great middle school here in Arlington. We didn't really start over socially, we kept our old friends and made new ones. We have a yard and pay about $1000/year for someone else to take care of it (we save at least that much in taxes). Sounds like the Hill worked for you because of the scholarships, but honestly I do think some people assume that life outside of the Hill is some kind of suburban hellscape, when it can still be very walkable and pleasant. Our kids are in the car much less since we moved than they were before. And yes, real estate near a metro stop is expensive - but so is the Hill.

I live 2 blocks from Eastern Market, so it’s pleasant, but if I lived in Hill East like so many young families do these days, I’d have moved years ago. So much of the Hill is near nothing and is very inconvenient.

It is adorable how old timers on the Hill think Eastern Market is the epicenter of area amenities.

I actually think near NE in the LT zone is the sweet spot for amenities. Eastern Market, west side of Lincoln Park, or south of Capitol South within easy walking distance to WF/pretty close to Navy Yard are the other good spots. Near Potomac Ave metro/the Roost/new Safeway also not bad. But Hill East (14th/15th & East) slightly farther north/Maury zone is actually pretty inconvenient to any amenities. Maury is a great school, but that part of the Hill really isn’t very walkable.

We bid on a row house literally opposite the Maury playground but we were outbid. Is that not a good location?

It’s a fantastic location. You can walk to h street and Lincoln park. In my opinion the LT area is a dump. There is a lot of crime, lots of public housing, and the houses are too small, and you are not near that many parks except for the LT park and Sherwood rec. Ludlow isn’t great and there aren’t any middle schools on the hill worth attending.

Across from Maury is a perfectly good location. But Redfin says the average house in the LT zone is over $1 million and the most expensive on the Hill except for Brent. And there isn’t any public housing in the zone aside from one building of subsidized seniors apartments at 10th & G, so the rest of this is crazy. It’s also worth noting that the average LT house is almost exactly the same distance to Lincoln Park as the average Maury house… very slightly closer actually!

You’re talking about the Maury expansion area. Yes that area sucks too. But it is at least cheaper than living going to ludlow taylor and has a better elementary as well.

Ahh, so you're someone who lived on the Hill a decade ago! Got it. "Expansion area"... following the last boundary review, which was nearly a decade ago.

Yeah, I know what I’m talking about.