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What is the value added proposition for living in the District?
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Anonymous
Tell us about your children's school! |
Anonymous
| Where can I move so that I will never have to live near people who use the term "value-added proposition"? I'm all for diversity, but there are limits. |
Anonymous
He is in a daycare/preschool that is on my way to work. Wonderful facility with a great playground and an amazing teacher. It is awesome! But, my point is not that living in DC does not have its hardships. It does, and the cost of school will be one. But, that does not mean that there isn't value added. For us, we save about 1-2 hours a day (depending on the comparison) of commuting time. That is time that I spend with my DS. Let's say it is 1 hour a day of commuting saved, he is in daycare for only four years, and we take three weeks of vacation a year. That is 980 extra hours that I get to spend with him. And, a huge number of those hours, and many at other times, are spent at museums because it takes less than 5 minutes to add that to our day (plus the 20 minutes to an hour of time spent in the museum, of course). |
Anonymous
| There isn't one. Grew up in Foggy Bottom, moved to Arlington as soon as I grew up and moved out on my own. |
Anonymous
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Free public swimming pools = value add.
PreK 4 and increasingly PreK 3 = value add. 9 foot ceilings in a beautiful old house = value add. Having a family of four with only one car = value add. Restaurants that take a reservation = value add. Non-chain restaurants = value add. Lunchtime walk to farmer's market = value add. Free music in parks near work during lunchtime = value add. |
Anonymous
| OP, it is personal. My mother grew up in Paris, right down town, and when she moved here, she was so happy to live in the suburbs and have a garden. I am more like her and the city just does not thrill me, I used to live in Van Couver. The children of the urban dwellers might see it differently and want out, and vice versa.. |
Anonymous
You can move to PA but they like to say "nothing but upside". |
Anonymous
| I love walking to work! |
Anonymous
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my home, my office, and my daughter's (high quality) school are all located in the same zip code.
i count this as one of my greatest accomplishments! |
Anonymous
The Ivies will also only take so many from STA, Sidwell, and GDS. |
Anonymous
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I never understand people who say they would never live in the city because of the traffic. As others have pointed out, city dwellers don't have to sit in the terrible traffic because they live in the city and can hop on the metro. I live in the suburbs (not even that close-in) and the worst part of my commute into the city is the traffic getting into the city, not once I am there.
And if you want to talk about services, I've had to come to my office in DC several times over the past year to have things like heat and power because the electricity is CONSTANTLY going out in Maryland. I have never lived in the District and probably never will but if you truly cannot understand why others would, you are clueless. Who the hell wants to "know" people who live in McLean and Potomac? Odds are, the people who live in DC do know these people because they work with them in the city. |
Anonymous
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You mean, OP, that you haven't noticed that some of those DC neighborhoods are really beautiful? You haven't noticed that people can walk to restaurants?
If you like McLean, great. Live in McLean. If you don't, then don't. |
Anonymous
What's your point? |
Anonymous
| I agree with you OP. But it depends on where in the District you live. If you are on the West side of RCPW, and you have kids, it's a wonderful combination of good schools, family friendly neighborhoods, relatively short commute, and good restaurants, wonderful museums and culture just steps away. If you live on the East side of RCPW, then it's really another story. Although the museums, culture and restaurants are equally accessible, and the commute is great, these neighborhoods are not family friendly and the schools are not good, and as someone wiht kids, I often feel I am short-changing my kids and family. There is not a whole lot of value added when what we most value is our children and our children cannot even go to the local playground because it's sketchy..... or attend the local school because it's well.... yes, sketchy. When I was single or just married, but no kids, it didn't matter. Back then, I didn't even know where the playgrounds or schools were, but with kids, your values and focus changes, obviously. And now I value being able to walk to a world class playground, have my kids attend a great local public school, that would make our lives so much better. I will say that I am not willing to go back to wasting my life away commuting 1-2 hrs/day, SO where can you move close-in Virginia or Maryland, or family friendly neighborhood in DC for approx $2,600/month mortgage/rent? |
Anonymous
So your basic thesis is that people (a lot of us) who live east of the Rock Creek either don't care enough about our kids, or are too stupid to know better? Basically, it's OK to live in the city as long as the part you live in looks like a lot like the suburbs? There's no benefit to living in a more urban environment, attending charter schools (or local public schools), exposing your kids to all the benefits and challenges of city life? Well, it's nice that you have it all figured out. It apparently never penetratedyour consciousness that some people may "value" different things than you do? |