Tell me about downtown Silver Spring

[Anonymous]

Wouuld this be an interesting area to live within walking distance? Is it mainly chain stores and restaurants or is there some personality and interest to it? Is there a sense of community in the areas surrounding?

[Anonymous]

It's an area with lots of stuff - chains and otherwise. Very convenient, and very walkable. You'll find some higher end/urban downtown stuff like Whole Foods/WSC/CakeLove/cute restaurants/farmers market/etc... but you'll also find some chains like Chik-Fil-A/Red Lobster/New York and Company clothes/etc...

The metro isn't really in the middle of downtown, but rather, it's across Ga. Ave. Not terribly convenient to the "downtown" (but very convenient to Discovery HQ, and some offices).

The homes around downtown range from charming to "ehh," the apartments from old and grungy to fancy and new. In my opinion, the nicer homes are closer to the Whole Foods/Strosniders Hardware side, and further away from metro. There are some nicer condo-looking or apartment-type places there, too. This side of Ga Ave. is the one that's walkable to multiple grocery stores, gym, restaurants, etc... I'm talking east of Georgia, south of Colesville, north of Sligo. There are also townhomes right near the metro if you need to metro to work but want to walk a bit further to the "stuff."

Again, a personal opinion, but if I lived in one the homes near the WF/Strosniders (I think the street I see is Cedar Avenue?) with a kid or two, I'd be happy to walk to stuff on the weekends/nights, and be happier if I could drive to work in NW or SS or even Bethesda rather than use transit.

[Anonymous]

DTSS resident. There are a lot of chains on that one block of Ellsworth--the fancy, gentrified area, but if you go a block in almost any direction, or down Georgia, you have a bunch of locally owned businesses and restaurants. It's a very, very walkable area, and there are a lot of local activities, especially for young families.

[Anonymous]

We live in Kensington, so are essentially equidistant between downtown Bethesda and downtown silver spring. I like both, a lot. We chose Kensington bc walk able to metro ws not what we needed and I prefer not living in the more congested downtown area. It can get noisy during rush hour, but it it a city!

Our friends who live in DTSS love it. They will never leave. They love being able to have the city life and being able to walk to groceries, restaurants, metro, buses etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DTSS resident. There are a lot of chains on that one block of Ellsworth--the fancy, gentrified area, but if you go a block in almost any direction, or down Georgia, you have a bunch of locally owned businesses and restaurants. It's a very, very walkable area, and there are a lot of local activities, especially for young families.

Great area for laundering money, buying hot merchandise, and stocking up on phone cards to TWCs.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of chains. I'm personally not a big fan. But I think you need to spend an afternoon and get a feel for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DTSS resident. There are a lot of chains on that one block of Ellsworth--the fancy, gentrified area, but if you go a block in almost any direction, or down Georgia, you have a bunch of locally owned businesses and restaurants. It's a very, very walkable area, and there are a lot of local activities, especially for young families.

Great area for laundering money, buying hot merchandise, and stocking up on phone cards to TWCs.

Oh, crawl back under your bridge.

Op, we live a little further off dtss (about a mile walking) and we love it. We walk or bus to metro, play in the fountain, go to the farmers market and Fenton st market, and think there is a great community in east silver spring. Active civics and listservs, diversity, good community for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DTSS resident. There are a lot of chains on that one block of Ellsworth--the fancy, gentrified area, but if you go a block in almost any direction, or down Georgia, you have a bunch of locally owned businesses and restaurants. It's a very, very walkable area, and there are a lot of local activities, especially for young families.

Great area for laundering money, buying hot merchandise, and stocking up on phone cards to TWCs.

Exactly, where's the traditional comforts of suburbia and NW DC like Apple Store, Mattress Store, Container Store, and Chipotle?

[Anonymous]

I wish I lived closer. I grew up near downtown Bethesda and prefer downtown Silver Spring. We're too far to walk and wish I could. Lots for everyone ... stuff for kids, families, adults, singles, chains, mom & pops, metro, grocery stores, movies, shows.

[Anonymous]

We live in Sligo Park Hills which is within .5 mile from DTSS on the Whole Foods and Strosniders hardware side. We've lived here for two years and love it. Nice houses, tons of families with good kids, very walkable, tons of public transit, people always out and about, easy to get to DC and also to 495/95, tons of playgrounds and right by Sligo Creek trail, I could go on about all the things we love yes, DTSS is all chains, but we have found lots of other indeendent stores right around and do walk to DTSS for the fountain and ice cream or easy dinners frequently. We are very happy (we're a family with preschool age kids who work in DC if it matters - seems like there are tons of families like us).

[Anonymous]

I would search for "park hills" on this board - there have been tons of recent SS posts with lots to say about the immediate area.

[Anonymous]

Ha - I said "good" kids but I meant young kids. I guess there are lots of them that are good also

[Anonymous]

And since you asked specifically about community, we live on a great street with lots of young families. We get together and swap babysitting and play dates and stuff all the time. People are really friendly and invested in the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DTSS resident. There are a lot of chains on that one block of Ellsworth--the fancy, gentrified area, but if you go a block in almost any direction, or down Georgia, you have a bunch of locally owned businesses and restaurants. It's a very, very walkable area, and there are a lot of local activities, especially for young families.

Great area for laundering money, buying hot merchandise, and stocking up on phone cards to TWCs.

Exactly, where's the traditional comforts of suburbia and NW DC like Apple Store, Mattress Store, Container Store, and Chipotle?

DTSS resident again -- we actually do have a Chipotle.

[Anonymous]

Downtown Silver Spring (and even the neighborhoods surrounding what most would consider downtown) are among the new places where you can find a decent size home, within 30 minutes driving or metro of downtown DC, with excellent public schools, in the $500-$850k range.