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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every thread always ends up being suburbanites vs District dwellers. Thing is DCUM is such a small subset of both factions that it's probably the same posters arguing over the same thing over and over.

And the distinction doesn't even make much sense in some areas. I mean, many parts of NW Washington are more "suburban" than parts of Bethesda or Northern Virginia. What of it? People choose to live where they can, based on value, location, schools, services and amenties, recreation, convenience, etc.

[Anonymous]

Just moved from Boston and generally you get more house for your money, but the winters are just not worth it. The winters are completely depressing and they last 8 months, plus you get significantly less daylight hours. Unless you love winter sports, forget it. I can also speak to San Francisco which really is the greatest city but the cost of living is horrendous, traffic a nightmare, public schools abysmal and private schools extremely hard to get into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just moved from Boston and generally you get more house for your money, but the winters are just not worth it. The winters are completely depressing and they last 8 months, plus you get significantly less daylight hours. Unless you love winter sports, forget it. I can also speak to San Francisco which really is the greatest city but the cost of living is horrendous, traffic a nightmare, public schools abysmal and private schools extremely hard to get into.

Yeah, other than thatit's great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Capitol Hill is the BOMB! We love, love, love our relatively spacious open-plan 3 bed rowhouse with a nice-sized backyard, commute (25 minutes walking door to door) to interesting jobs, our stumbling distance neighborhood park, and the many restaurants and shops within walking distance. And, two GS 15s make plenty of money to send our one child to private school if we decide we're unhappy with our well-regarded (walking distance) public elementary.

Okay, we're very lucky - I admit it! And, a big negative for us is the lack of any family nearer than a lengthy plane ride away . . .

I think it's a shame that people limit themselves to one child so they can live in a small house or apartment in an over-priced area and afford private school if necessary. Having siblings is a good thing for so many reasons. Most of the folks I know who decided to "stop at one" did so because they're not willing to give up anything for their kids, rather than because they think it's the best environment for a child. Not criticizing. Just keeping in real.

And I think it's a shame that you are so stupid, and self-righteous to boot. "Most of the folks I know" who decided to stop at one did so for very sound, very personal reasons that are nobody else's business. Why don't you just stick to hauling your 8 kids around in an SUV in your plastic suburb in your oh-so "real" and enlightened life??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So . . .what are your thoughts on green, big yards and friendly neighbors in freakishly close-in, metro accessable brookland? Capitol hill and Georgetown I can see as overhyped, but Brookland?! I bet most folks in "upper NW" like yourself have never even been to Brookland. And why would you? No hype to get you there. Just cute SFH on large lots. Its a sleepy suburb right smack inside the city.

But what about schools? I know there are some good public schools in DC, but I don't have any colleagues living in DC that send their kids to public school. I have three kids and a stay at home wife. Shelling out $35K+ per child per year to pay for private school doesn't strike me as good value for money. I'd rather save some of that money for college and be able to travel fairly frequently with my family. Plus, I'm not persuaded that my kids won't get a rock solid education and have as good a shot at getting into the top schools of their choice coming out of their Howard County school as they would coming out of a DC private school. Frankly, if I paid the kind of money people pay to send their kids to Sidwell and St Albans and they ended up going to a second or third tier school like AU or Virginia Tech, I'd be seriously annoyed, but it happens fairly often. One of my colleagues is constantly complaining about how she's spending her kid's inheritance paying for them to go to Maret. But she's caught up in the whole prestige thing. Yes I know there are benefits to sending your kids to school in an environment of wealth and privilege, but you can certainy get that in college if that's what you want. Anyway, you keep Brookland. I'll take Howard County any day. For the many people who are transplants to DC from other areas, before you decide you can't take the DC area, you should give serious consideration to life outside the beltway.

Would you please post on the private/ independent schools forum? We could use your line of sanity and reasoning there...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Like an earlier poster said, it all depends on what makes you happy. I'm not sure I could ever be truly happy in a house of less than 3,000 sq. ft. Those smaller houses are just too suffocating.

Hahahahaha, that's effing hilarious! You sound like Kelsey Grammar's ex wife! 1700-2000 sq. ft is not bad for a family, unless you are a hoarder or just cannot stop buying pointless shit to fill your empty life. Sucks to be you if you *need* 3000 sq. ft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[ Those smaller houses are just too suffocating.

NP here. a suffocatingly small house gives shy folks like myself the extra incentive to get out of the house and into the parks, museums, beach, visit friends in the 'burbs, etc. If I had a large house, large yeard, etc. I would never leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sitting in my lovely and spacious (albeit old) apartment in Glover Park, DC. The windows are wide open with a lovely cross breeze coming through. It's dead quiet. DD is in bed. She goes to Stoddert (two blocks away), and plays in the terraced huge back yard behind our apartment. I catch a bus to work (the D2), and am there in 25 minutes. I rarely take the subway, and we don't have a car. We walk to Whole Foods, to Surfside and then to Max's for ice cream about twice a week. We run into neighbors and chat with them as we walk around the neighborhood. People are pleasant and relaxed. I (happily) don't know what most of you people are yammering about. It's all about choices. If you don't like it here, find a way to leave. Otherwise, bloom where you're planted, for your sake and for others.

Good luck when JP's Strip Club opens back up soon a couple of doors down from Surfside and next to Z Burger. You'll have hobos trying to cadge change from you for burgers and booze right before they defacate and vomit in your yard.

Who pissed on your shoes? The PP is happy in Glover Park. What's it to ya?

Thanks, PP. I'm the poster who lives in GP. You either know nothing about GP, and so chose to write about one of the few undesirable elements in the neighborhood (and I'm pretty sure "hobos" don't frequent JP's), or you do know about it, in which case you've come up with pathetic lies. I live on W Street, and it's pretty far back. There is no one trying to "cadge" change or do any of the other things you allege. There's one strip of retail in GP; the rest is residential and quiet. And BTW, how about learning to spell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

Unkind.

I was the pp who moved to Hill East. I didn't take this as unkind. I thought it was funny - as in laughing with me rather than at me. Thanks, pp, for standing up for me but it was unnecessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Capitol Hill is the BOMB! We love, love, love our relatively spacious open-plan 3 bed rowhouse with a nice-sized backyard, commute (25 minutes walking door to door) to interesting jobs, our stumbling distance neighborhood park, and the many restaurants and shops within walking distance. And, two GS 15s make plenty of money to send our one child to private school if we decide we're unhappy with our well-regarded (walking distance) public elementary.

Okay, we're very lucky - I admit it! And, a big negative for us is the lack of any family nearer than a lengthy plane ride away . . .

Uh . . yeah. Sure. Except there is no such thing as a spacious rowhouse on Capitol Hill. If you mean spacious relative to a one bedroom apartment, then OK.
A couple of friends of ours sold their modest sized, but comfortable SF home in Silver Spring to buy a townhouse on Capital Hill. I admit that I was shocked at how little space they had relative to their other house. After about a year, they adopted and moved out to 'burbs for the public schools.

Like an earlier poster said, it all depends on what makes you happy. I'm not sure I could ever be truly happy in a house of less than 3,000 sq. ft. Those smaller houses are just too suffocating.

What's amusing about this post is, I'm sure you think you're needling the city-dwellers who are reading this. But there's certainly no jealousy here. I learned a long time ago that the more spiritually impoverished and aesthetically degraded the neighborhood, the bigger you want your house to be. If you're living in a suburban cul-de-sac, it makes sense you'd want a massive house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every thread always ends up being suburbanites vs District dwellers. Thing is DCUM is such a small subset of both factions that it's probably the same posters arguing over the same thing over and over.

I think, given the title of the thread, this was inevitable. It's a bit like saying, "I haven't figured out how people raise non-obese, non-drug-addicted children in the exurbs."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sitting in my lovely and spacious (albeit old) apartment in Glover Park, DC. The windows are wide open with a lovely cross breeze coming through. It's dead quiet. DD is in bed. She goes to Stoddert (two blocks away), and plays in the terraced huge back yard behind our apartment. I catch a bus to work (the D2), and am there in 25 minutes. I rarely take the subway, and we don't have a car. We walk to Whole Foods, to Surfside and then to Max's for ice cream about twice a week. We run into neighbors and chat with them as we walk around the neighborhood. People are pleasant and relaxed. I (happily) don't know what most of you people are yammering about. It's all about choices. If you don't like it here, find a way to leave. Otherwise, bloom where you're planted, for your sake and for others.

Good luck when JP's Strip Club opens back up soon a couple of doors down from Surfside and next to Z Burger. You'll have hobos trying to cadge change from you for burgers and booze right before they defacate and vomit in your yard.

Oh this is so silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sitting in my lovely and spacious (albeit old) apartment in Glover Park, DC. The windows are wide open with a lovely cross breeze coming through. It's dead quiet. DD is in bed. She goes to Stoddert (two blocks away), and plays in the terraced huge back yard behind our apartment. I catch a bus to work (the D2), and am there in 25 minutes. I rarely take the subway, and we don't have a car. We walk to Whole Foods, to Surfside and then to Max's for ice cream about twice a week. We run into neighbors and chat with them as we walk around the neighborhood. People are pleasant and relaxed. I (happily) don't know what most of you people are yammering about. It's all about choices. If you don't like it here, find a way to leave. Otherwise, bloom where you're planted, for your sake and for others.

Good luck when JP's Strip Club opens back up soon a couple of doors down from Surfside and next to Z Burger. You'll have hobos trying to cadge change from you for burgers and booze right before they defacate and vomit in your yard.

Oh this is so silly.

Personally I think JPs strip club might help the neighborhood. If DSK could have gone there to get his jollies he wouldn't be harassing maids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Now I live in western Howard County and have an hour long commute downtown. But my kids have plenty of room to play

No way I'm trading two hours of family time for a marginal increase in yard space. I had to commute to Rockville from downtown that for about four months, and almost had a nervous breakdown.

And that took anywhere between 1 and 1.5 hours each way. Unless you're riding the train out of downtown, and everything goes like clockwork, there's no way to get from downtown to Fredrick, or elsewhere in W Howard in an hour or less.

From the number of parents--and regional residents in general--living in DC, and the way close-in housing prices have defied the national trends, it's obvious more and more savvy folks are coming around to that conclusion.

I'm not the pp you are quoting but I also live in a suburb that results in a commute that is ~1hr for my husband. I SAH.

For us, our location has allowed us to live in a very family friendly suburb with great amenities... and be debt free before 30. Mortgage paid off. I wouldn't want to be a slave to our home for the next 30 years any more than you'd want our commute.

While this may be true, the relative value of exurban homes is going to continue to tank in comparison with urban and close-in houses. This is inevitable as the price of energy continues to rise (gas and heating/cooling). Add to this the projected population growth for the DC region, and it's quite likely that the value of that paid-off cheap house in the 'burbs is going to end up looking like a paid-off house in Trinidad in the early 80s. Having a house that's paid off is a lot less attractive when that house is in a neighborhood that's generally not livable.

[Anonymous]

Good grief, what is up with this super competition between city dwellers and sububanites!?? Stop it already. It's like high school up in here! If you like the city, great. If you like being in the burbs, wonderful. Stop bashing each other- we're all different so we're going to like different things. City vs. Burbs- whatever you decide, it doesn't make you you better, smarter, richer, happier than the other person who chose a different path.