Moving from NYC to DC suburbs...tell me why you like the DC suburbs

[Anonymous]

Eh, I know former NYers who embraced life in McLean and Great Falls. Think: Larla now rides horses and Larlo plays travel baseball or LAX. They have a tribe of city expats who vacation together, carpool, etc.

It’s weird prioritizing your life around walking to coffee shops. Plus, you can conceivably walk anywhere in the burbs if you buy a home within walking distance of shopping centers.

[Anonymous]

I live in close-in Bethesda, the Westbrook area.

What I like:

--Very warm and welcoming neighborhood that has the ES at its heart -- this is the kind of neighborhood where kids play in the streets and there are block parties

--Tolerant and while not incredibly diverse it is somewhat. We are Jewish and feel fine

-- educated and cultured, a lot of smart people who share our values

-- dog friendly

--In fifteen minutes I can walk to the metro, CC trail, FH, Spring Valley, Tenleytown, the local library

-- Love the local pool, kids do swim team and my DH and I play tennis. It's the summer center of the neighborhood

-- Convenience -- easy to get to downtown DC on the red line, into downtown Bethesda, into Nova, onto 495 to go to NY

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

No. Close-in Arlington or Bethesda have excellent schools and walkable (to coffee) neighborhoods.

- resident of (the horror!!) Reston

+1 I moved from another large city (not nyc) to Arlington (westover). What I like - best of both worlds, I can be downtown at a museum with my kid in about 10 minutes by car on a Saturday morning, I can still walk to coffee, a few of our favorite restaurants and the farmers market, lots of playgrounds, but I also can easily get to a grocery store (with my cargo bike on the trail or by car and enjoy the large parking lot and ease), I can easily drive places when it’s easier to with my kids but I also hate the in and out of car seats so we also have a cargo bike and tote the kids on the trails as much as possible. Next year my son will start kindergarten and we have a great public school that the neighbors all seem happy with a short walk away. No stress there which is very nice and obviously a huge privilege. Life is pretty easy. Parks and trails a block away. Neighbors who have become good friends, I can text on a Saturday morning and have impromptu get togethers with friends and their kids who are similar ages. I probably outed myself to anyone who knows me traipsing around westover on our bike but they are becoming more common by the day.

If you end up further out, we have family farther out in a suburb that isn’t walkable to shops etc and the benefits there I do see too - it’s quiet, there is a lake nearby, lots of culdesacs and neighbors are chill and friends. Kids run around (they do in Arlington too).

Hi Westover neighbor! I was the previous poster who mentioned Westover. My son starts kindergarten next year too! No doubt we’ll see you at Tornados soccer practice/ at the beer garden. I’ll be the one holding a red rose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

How old are your kids? Plenty of DC proper has good public schools at the elementary level (e.g., WOTP and Capitol Hill, at the very least).

[Anonymous]

I live in Silver Spring (lived in the heart of DC for years, the last few with no car and a kid). Things I love about the burbs: I can still walk to the store and my kid still walks to school. My kid is friends with other kids on the block and they all roam around (I’m not sure which house he’s at now, but we have a group text going so we just do that). Everything is a less than minute drive (yes, it was an adjustment): the store, all the doctors my family sees, some friends, good restaurants. We each have a home office, eating outside in the backyard when it’s nice out, growing veggies in the garden…and I can get stuff delivered without worrying about it being stolen from the front porch.

[Anonymous]

Move to MOCO. Good publics and by far the best Private school and country club access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Move to MOCO. Good publics and by far the best Private school and country club access.

True I’ve had it with publics and moved from NOVA to MOCO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

The public schools in McLean and Great Falls are the best in the state. Great Falls is rural and spread out but parts of McLean are walkable and there is easy Metro access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean….if that’s the way you feel, why not stay in your place in DC? Plenty of people raise their kids in apartments.

I’m living in the suburbs right now due to the fact that I dated and then married a divorced dad who didn’t want to leave his kids school district. It’s soul deadening.

The bonus is I don’t have to smell smoke from neighbors. Also, the pools out here are nice. And it feels like there’s no crime. I’m sure there is, but it feels very safe.

Oh sorry

Haven’t had coffee yet!

You are moving from nyc

Why don’t you move to dc itself instead?

Have you already bought your house?

Coffee is important! DC would be OK but public schools aren’t great (right?) I’ve read about parochial schools but we aren’t religious at all. We would need a cheaper COL to comfortably afford private school.

Many of the public elementary schools in nw dc are just as good as public elementary schools in the burbs. Deal and Hardy are ok junior high schools. I’m not a fan of the public dcps high schools at the moment. The top private high schools are excellent, some of the best in the nation, but expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Move to MOCO. Good publics and by far the best Private school and country club access.

Never understood why people think proximity to country clubs that had a history until recently of excluding Blacks and Jews is a big selling point. It’s like someone in the South touting proximity to a former plantation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean….if that’s the way you feel, why not stay in your place in DC? Plenty of people raise their kids in apartments.

I’m living in the suburbs right now due to the fact that I dated and then married a divorced dad who didn’t want to leave his kids school district. It’s soul deadening.

The bonus is I don’t have to smell smoke from neighbors. Also, the pools out here are nice. And it feels like there’s no crime. I’m sure there is, but it feels very safe.

Oh sorry

Haven’t had coffee yet!

You are moving from nyc

Why don’t you move to dc itself instead?

Have you already bought your house?

Coffee is important! DC would be OK but public schools aren’t great (right?) I’ve read about parochial schools but we aren’t religious at all. We would need a cheaper COL to comfortably afford private school.

Many of the public elementary schools in nw dc are just as good as public elementary schools in the burbs. Deal and Hardy are ok junior high schools. I’m not a fan of the public dcps high schools at the moment. The top private high schools are excellent, some of the best in the nation, but expensive.

These top private high schools don’t educate a lot of kids. Good luck waltzing down from another metro area into DC and just thinking your kid will necessarily end up at Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

I really feel like we have the best of both worlds living near downtown Bethesda-- our neighborhood is super-walkable (just checked and walk score says 92, transit score 66, bike score 87) with theaters, farmers markets, library, grocery stores, etc.

But also we have a single family house and a good amount of green space in the neighborhood-- we did lots of walking during the pandemic and really appreciated both the parks and just the general tree cover.

On top of that the public schools are great (no not ideal but as people who are a lot about education we find them certainly good enough) and services in general are good.

And then on top of that, the museums, multiple airports, restaurants of DC are close by (one sad thing about Montgomery County is it has a lot of ok restaurants and some good ethnic restaurants but not a lot of fine dining).

Anyway, life here is relatively easy, if you don't get caught up in the rat race mentality you'll see on this board a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why New Yorkers do this. They leave NY, move to a soulless suburb of another city and then complain nonstop how they hate X city. No, you hate the burns.

Cause we are forced to. My block very few moved here by choice. I got laid off a big NYC job and moved here for work. What I do miss which could be a perk is too much diversity.

Meaning I love to go Arthur Ave in Bronx good Italian food, Flushing Queens, good Chinese, good Jewish Bagels, everything here is so bland. Could be plus. I mean you could be odd man in NY suburbs when Lawrence is 95 percent Orthodox, Roosevelt 95 percent Black, Hicksville 95 percent Hispanic median, Garden City 95 percent white Catholic but in those towns a sense of community of you fit in. We have none of that in DMV. Which is why folks join stiff to meet their tribe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why New Yorkers do this. They leave NY, move to a soulless suburb of another city and then complain nonstop how they hate X city. No, you hate the burns.

Cause we are forced to. My block very few moved here by choice. I got laid off a big NYC job and moved here for work. What I do miss which could be a perk is too much diversity.

Meaning I love to go Arthur Ave in Bronx good Italian food, Flushing Queens, good Chinese, good Jewish Bagels, everything here is so bland. Could be plus. I mean you could be odd man in NY suburbs when Lawrence is 95 percent Orthodox, Roosevelt 95 percent Black, Hicksville 95 percent Hispanic median, Garden City 95 percent white Catholic but in those towns a sense of community of you fit in. We have none of that in DMV. Which is why folks join stiff to meet their tribe.

This is BS.

Four of the country's most diverse cities/towns are in MoCo --Germantown, Gaithersburg and Silver Spring come in at Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and Rockville rounds out the top 10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

The public schools in McLean and Great Falls are the best in the state. Great Falls is rural and spread out but parts of McLean are walkable and there is easy Metro access.

LOL. Okay.