Union Market DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check the crime stats. I would for my $ go West of the 16th St, and be careful even there. Look up Alan Henney on Twitter.

I would avoid Brookland incl b/c the traffic but honestly the crime and the noise have been bad in the areas you mention.

How can you live like this?

Living great and not even WOTP. Why would I purposefully put myself in a place where I’d be at a risk of violence, crime, traffic jams, and no schools?
It seems irrational to ignore these things?

you think there are no schools in/near Union Market?

Pray tell. Which ones and up to what grade? And how good?

[Anonymous]

Smells like pot there 24/7

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Smells like pot there 24/7

At least it doesn’t have the smell of cheek clappage.

[Anonymous]

I can't figure out if the really hostile posts in this thread are from the OP, the poster with the s/o who lives near Union Market, or just some random person who doesn't think anyone (?) should live in a neighborhood they've heard of but never spent time in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not family friendly. It's well known as a neighborhood among the younger set where you move if you're single and want to "clap some cheeks" after a night out having cocktails / wine / whatever.

Uh... what?

OP, we live just south of Union Market, near H Street NE. The housing right around Union Market is all large condo/apartment buildings, and therefore not as family focused (Though we do know some families who live in them, mostly with babies/toddlers). But Union Market itself is very family friendly, and we go there all the time with our kids. Also La Cosecha nearby. A lot of the restaurants there are also pretty welcoming to kids -- we like St. Anselm and Stellina Pizzeria for sit down meals, and lots of the stalls at both markets. Sometimes there are events for kids at the markets. We also like having the Politics & Prose up there, though we are spoiled for bookstores in our neighborhood with Solid State and East City Books and Capitol Hill Books not far away either.

There are also events and spots in the neighborhood that are not for kids, which is of course fine. We like having the Angelika pop up nearby for date nights and plenty of bars and more adult-focused restaurants. To us it's the best of both worlds.

Sure, but do you “clap cheeks”?

Not nearly enough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't figure out if the really hostile posts in this thread are from the OP, the poster with the s/o who lives near Union Market, or just some random person who doesn't think anyone (?) should live in a neighborhood they've heard of but never spent time in.

I think there’s two of us with a s/o near Union Market and maybe you’re referring to the other one but that wasn’t my intention. I think it’s a nice neighborhood if a little too up and coming for my liking (I live in Cleveland Park so not exactly cool or trendy) but I spend a lot of time in NOMA because of my bf and I think it’s fine. I just wouldn’t live there if I had children is all I meant. If you’re young and like a kind of Brooklyn vibe I think it’s a great choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't figure out if the really hostile posts in this thread are from the OP, the poster with the s/o who lives near Union Market, or just some random person who doesn't think anyone (?) should live in a neighborhood they've heard of but never spent time in.

I think there’s two of us with a s/o near Union Market and maybe you’re referring to the other one but that wasn’t my intention. I think it’s a nice neighborhood if a little too up and coming for my liking (I live in Cleveland Park so not exactly cool or trendy) but I spend a lot of time in NOMA because of my bf and I think it’s fine. I just wouldn’t live there if I had children is all I meant. If you’re young and like a kind of Brooklyn vibe I think it’s a great choice.

Ah, okay.

Different strokes for different folks. I actually lived in Cleveland Park about 20 years ago as a student and really liked it -- it's a very accessible neighborhood for a newcomer because all the commercial stuff is right on Connecticut and everything else is residential, and the metro and buses run along Connecticut too. So it's just very intuitive and it made for a good entry into life in DC. I'd move back there, too, but I do agree it's kind of sleepy.

The funny thing is that I now live near Union Market with kids and I don't think of it as "cool and trendy" even though I know that's the perception elsewhere. We bought here because we could afford a row house and it made sense for our commutes, whereas Cleveland Park or other parts of NW are tough commutes and SFHs are well out of our price range. We've found it to be great for kids, love our school, and feel like the neighborhood has a real family vibe with lots of people with young kids. We are at Union Market or La Cosecha probably once a week, plus shop at the TJs there and I sometimes go to La Pluma or one of the markets to work during the day. It's always felt very family friendly but we are also there during family times -- 11am on Saturday or 5pm on a Thursday. I'm sure it's livelier and more adult at 10pm on the weekend, we just wouldn't be there (or anywhere) with our kids at that time.

[Anonymous]

I will say something unpopular but very honest. We lived in one of these neighborhoods briefly, and had not realized until we moved back to a very central WTOP location just how much low grade stress came with living in these neighborhoods. You are expected to embrace “city living” including to be aware and street smart (and for anyone who says that’s not true just look up the recent happenings in these neighborhoods). It’s not even the overt drug trade or a dodgy guy in the alley or a shooting or a knifing or rats or mosquitos or bulletproof glass at the local bodega or trash by the metro, it’s just a low grade siege mentality where you’re expected to have your “wits about you”. The relative feeling of equally “city living” in a place where you don’t have to look over your shoulder is just incomparable and hard to describe until you’ve felt it. I didn’t realize we and the kids were carrying this low grade subconscious stress until we moved and its absence was a huge relief. I would not live like that again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't figure out if the really hostile posts in this thread are from the OP, the poster with the s/o who lives near Union Market, or just some random person who doesn't think anyone (?) should live in a neighborhood they've heard of but never spent time in.

I think there’s two of us with a s/o near Union Market and maybe you’re referring to the other one but that wasn’t my intention. I think it’s a nice neighborhood if a little too up and coming for my liking (I live in Cleveland Park so not exactly cool or trendy) but I spend a lot of time in NOMA because of my bf and I think it’s fine. I just wouldn’t live there if I had children is all I meant. If you’re young and like a kind of Brooklyn vibe I think it’s a great choice.

Yep, two of us, I’m the other, who was making a little fun of characterizing it as “edgy” - because I tend to think DC (and especially DCUM) standards for that are pretty low. The minor street crime there doesn’t seem any worse to me than anywhere else in the District other than maybe wypipo world of AU Park. It’s not where I would choose to live but I enjoy visiting my s/o there and it has a lot to offer, if you like food halls and drinks carts and avocado toast, which I do.

The only hostility came from someone who told me my opinion doesn’t matter.

[Anonymous]

Great area for singles and child free couples who like urban living and avoid hassles of commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will say something unpopular but very honest. We lived in one of these neighborhoods briefly, and had not realized until we moved back to a very central WTOP location just how much low grade stress came with living in these neighborhoods. You are expected to embrace “city living” including to be aware and street smart (and for anyone who says that’s not true just look up the recent happenings in these neighborhoods). It’s not even the overt drug trade or a dodgy guy in the alley or a shooting or a knifing or rats or mosquitos or bulletproof glass at the local bodega or trash by the metro, it’s just a low grade siege mentality where you’re expected to have your “wits about you”. The relative feeling of equally “city living” in a place where you don’t have to look over your shoulder is just incomparable and hard to describe until you’ve felt it. I didn’t realize we and the kids were carrying this low grade subconscious stress until we moved and its absence was a huge relief. I would not live like that again.

NP - you are cute, PP. You really think you can let your guard down WOTP? Enjoy your naïveté and leave your doors unlocked and your trash cans open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not family friendly. It's well known as a neighborhood among the younger set where you move if you're single and want to "clap some cheeks" after a night out having cocktails / wine / whatever.

Uh... what?

OP, we live just south of Union Market, near H Street NE. The housing right around Union Market is all large condo/apartment buildings, and therefore not as family focused (Though we do know some families who live in them, mostly with babies/toddlers). But Union Market itself is very family friendly, and we go there all the time with our kids. Also La Cosecha nearby. A lot of the restaurants there are also pretty welcoming to kids -- we like St. Anselm and Stellina Pizzeria for sit down meals, and lots of the stalls at both markets. Sometimes there are events for kids at the markets. We also like having the Politics & Prose up there, though we are spoiled for bookstores in our neighborhood with Solid State and East City Books and Capitol Hill Books not far away either.

There are also events and spots in the neighborhood that are not for kids, which is of course fine. We like having the Angelika pop up nearby for date nights and plenty of bars and more adult-focused restaurants. To us it's the best of both worlds.

+1 to all of this, as a fellow rowhouse resident closer to H Street.

My impression is that the younger population of Union Market skews a little hipper and more foodie than other neighborhoods like Navy Yard with a lot of new construction. People move there because of the two big food halls and the restaurants. Residents are pretty well-off, but not quite as much so as someplace like Dupont or Logan. It's not quite as scene-y as U street, nor quite as crunchy as Columbia Heights/Mt. Pleasant.

Go to Union Market on a weekend afternoon and you'll see tons of kids, though I think that many of them are people who walk from H Street, Capitol Hill, Eckington, etc. No shortage of families in walking distance, in any case.

+1. So many families that live in the rowhouses around Union market and H st.

The apartments by Union market likely skew younger and single because it’s just not enough space for a family. But the rowhouses nearby definitely skew more towards families.

With a family I would stay south of Florida Ave. Further south and west the better IMO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check the crime stats. I would for my $ go West of the 16th St, and be careful even there. Look up Alan Henney on Twitter.

I would avoid Brookland incl b/c the traffic but honestly the crime and the noise have been bad in the areas you mention.

How can you live like this?

Living great and not even WOTP. Why would I purposefully put myself in a place where I’d be at a risk of violence, crime, traffic jams, and no schools?
It seems irrational to ignore these things?

you think there are no schools in/near Union Market?

Pray tell. Which ones and up to what grade? And how good?

Two Rivers 4th St is basically in Union Market. Others close by that I'd consider sending a kid to include JO Wilson, Stuart Hobson, Capitol Hill Montessori, Ludlow Taylor, Mundo Verde P Street, School Within School, Langley, and Friendship Armstrong. Inspired Teaching isn't that much further away. How good? Fewer kids on grade level than west of the park, better than DCPS on average, fine for most kids of DCUM posters. If you think everyone should live IB for Deal that's cool, but it's not very practical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say something unpopular but very honest. We lived in one of these neighborhoods briefly, and had not realized until we moved back to a very central WTOP location just how much low grade stress came with living in these neighborhoods. You are expected to embrace “city living” including to be aware and street smart (and for anyone who says that’s not true just look up the recent happenings in these neighborhoods). It’s not even the overt drug trade or a dodgy guy in the alley or a shooting or a knifing or rats or mosquitos or bulletproof glass at the local bodega or trash by the metro, it’s just a low grade siege mentality where you’re expected to have your “wits about you”. The relative feeling of equally “city living” in a place where you don’t have to look over your shoulder is just incomparable and hard to describe until you’ve felt it. I didn’t realize we and the kids were carrying this low grade subconscious stress until we moved and its absence was a huge relief. I would not live like that again.

NP - you are cute, PP. You really think you can let your guard down WOTP? Enjoy your naïveté and leave your doors unlocked and your trash cans open.

Yeah I'm the poster who lives in Cleveland Park with the bf in NOMA and I don't think this is correct. My bf and I have a running joke that he has more sketchy characters and I have more rats in our neighborhoods. However there is definitely crime WOTP these days. In my neighborhood there is a homeless man who has several no trespass orders issued from various apartment and condo buildings. He continues to break into these buildings at night and attempt to access individual apartments.

I would say living in any neighborhood involves an awareness of surroundings and common sense. While I disagree with the way the current mayoral admin. handles crime I do think "low grade siege mentality" is a bit dramatic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check the crime stats. I would for my $ go West of the 16th St, and be careful even there. Look up Alan Henney on Twitter.

I would avoid Brookland incl b/c the traffic but honestly the crime and the noise have been bad in the areas you mention.

How can you live like this?

Living great and not even WOTP. Why would I purposefully put myself in a place where I’d be at a risk of violence, crime, traffic jams, and no schools?
It seems irrational to ignore these things?

you think there are no schools in/near Union Market?

Pray tell. Which ones and up to what grade? And how good?

Two Rivers 4th St is basically in Union Market. Others close by that I'd consider sending a kid to include JO Wilson, Stuart Hobson, Capitol Hill Montessori, Ludlow Taylor, Mundo Verde P Street, School Within School, Langley, and Friendship Armstrong. Inspired Teaching isn't that much further away. How good? Fewer kids on grade level than west of the park, better than DCPS on average, fine for most kids of DCUM posters. If you think everyone should live IB for Deal that's cool, but it's not very practical.

K-5 lots of choice everywhere but what then?
Anyway? Not for me.