Tell me about Columbia, MD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regarding restaurants: Royal Taj -- best Indian food in the area aside from Rasika

Noodles Corner has every type of Asian noodle dish imaginable.

We drive from 30 minutes away to go to both places (just as we drive 30 minutes to DC when we want Ethiopian, for instance).

rasika is way overrated.

woodlands is better than both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up there. Columbia is not walkable like DC or Baltimore. You will be car-dependent. The overall school system is excellent, but there are a few schools that need a bit more research before buying into their district.

Columbia was designed to collocate mixed use housing, businesses, and shopping. It's broken down into 9 or 10 villages, each with a village center of shopping. So it's somewhat walkable depending on where you live. Each village is made up of smaller neighborhoods.

The original intent of Columbia was to have low income housing next to moderate priced housing next to high income housing, but for the past twenty years, it's been mostly high income housing that's being built. The oldest parts of Columbia like Oakland Mills, Wilde Lake, and Long Reach have a lot of that lower income housing, so it tends to be a more transient population and the schools are not as great. Not bad. But there is more crime, etc.

The best high school in Columbia proper is probably Atholton. Hickory Ridge village feeds into it, particularly the neighborhood Clemens Crossing. You can get very nice houses for $500-600K there.

The areas that surround Columbia are more rural with many McMansions and the schools are considered better, like Mt. Hebron, Centennial, and Glenelg. They are not walkable at all.

Elliott City is the County seat and a quaint little historic town with cute shops. You might find that appealing.

There can be heavy traffic congestion on some major routes, like coming from the west side of Route 32 headed toward 95 and FT. Meade. That might be something to ask a realtor about when considering location.

The library system is great. It has a brand new nature center that is the envy of the area. It's very easy to get to Baltimore and not a bad trip to DC.

Some other neighborhoods to look at:

Maple Lawn. Not Columbia proper but a brand new planned community. http://www.maplelawnmd.com/

Kings Contrivance
River Hill
Highland
Clarksville

Actually River Hill is in Columbia. It's the last village.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in Columbia. It is very suburban, but we like that. Good schools, good activities for kids, a Wegmans , and honestly it takes me 15m more a day to get to work in DC than it does some of my co-workers who live in NoVa.

Driving? Are your coworkers coming from Woodbridge or something? That drive is a nightmare. Columbia is really nice but I cannot imagine commuting to DC.

[Anonymous]

There are many good non chain restaurants if you know where to find them, try the HowChow blog. And yes, many many people in Howard County commute to DC driving or via bus or MARC train.

[Anonymous]

The vibe is much more Balmer than DC. That's not a bad thing, just food for thought.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Columbia and really enjoyed it. I went to one of the "lower tier" high schools (Hammond) but never thought of it as a bad school at all.
I really enjoyed the amenities that pp have mentioned; tot lots, large fields for sports, pools, etc....
I try to convince my wife to move there but she's too street...sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regarding restaurants: Royal Taj -- best Indian food in the area aside from Rasika

Noodles Corner has every type of Asian noodle dish imaginable.

We drive from 30 minutes away to go to both places (just as we drive 30 minutes to DC when we want Ethiopian, for instance).

rasika is way overrated.

woodlands is better than both.

I'm the PP you quoted, and I love Woodlands too! But very different style from Rasika/Royal Taj.

[Anonymous]

Columbia is walkable but the city is intentionally decentralized (it is composed of 'villages' that have a small commercial (think store, gas station and a couple of chain and nonchain restaurants) center). Weirdly chain restaurants get more prominent placements so while it might appear that there are only chains there is a decent local scene (the howchow blog PP referenced is a great reference). I prefer EC to Columbia because of the annoying Columbia Association, which is a city-level HOA which is on top of your neighborhood HOA. Tho you can live in Columbia and not under the CA if you buy an 'out parceled' lot. It's not Arlington but yet people still manage to soldier on. I prefer Ellicott City to Columbia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Columbia is walkable but the city is intentionally decentralized (it is composed of 'villages' that have a small commercial (think store, gas station and a couple of chain and nonchain restaurants) center). Weirdly chain restaurants get more prominent placements so while it might appear that there are only chains there is a decent local scene (the howchow blog PP referenced is a great reference). I prefer EC to Columbia because of the annoying Columbia Association, which is a city-level HOA which is on top of your neighborhood HOA. Tho you can live in Columbia and not under the CA if you buy an 'out parceled' lot. It's not Arlington but yet people still manage to soldier on. I prefer Ellicott City to Columbia.

My husband and I grew up in Columbia and moved to the historic Ellicott City after we married. Had no desire to move to Columbia. It was just too "pretty little boxes" for us.

However, we get great educations and lots of amenities while living there growing up.

I did the commute to DC for over 13 years and we have since moved to NoVA for work.

[Anonymous]

You may want to look into Fulton, about 20 mins from columbia, off of 29. It's a more affluent area with excellent schools. Some new restaurants and the houses have just been built. You can get a nice house on your budget.

[Anonymous]

If you're dead set on Columbia, stay west of I-95. The not so good parts of Columbia are east of 95 near Laurel. I know it's all relative what is good or bad, but really, east of I-95 is where are the section 8 people live.