Detailed reasons for why you wouldn't live in Prince Georges County...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a resident of PG County- having moved here from NOVA. I don't really understand all the negativity surrounding PG County at all. First, Maryland as a state is more diverse and liberal than VA- which we greatly appreciated. The commute from our neighborhood into DC or Bethesda is a cinch- either by rail or car. Our commute from Pentagon City on the blue line downtown was god-awful... trains were always packed and delayed, and the summer tourists are disgusting. Then there's the good part of Arlington that is a concrete jungle- complete lack of green space. It is the complete opposite in MD... there are so many public parks, with real playgrounds and space and splash parks, etc. Homes in University Park are beautiful, same as Arts District Hyattsville, and Historic District of Hyattsville.
The only thing that stinks is the high property tax rate... but we aren't moving back to NOVA just to save 2k/yr on property taxes.
I should also mention... public schools in PG are NOT all bad. And Prince Georges has some very nice private schools that don't reach 30k a year.

Other than Hyattsville and University Park, what other neighborhoods are beautiful? PG county is Ward 9.

[Anonymous]

Because the last time I lived there, it was near an elementary school (in PG Takoma Park) and the police kept disrupting my sleep by having drug raids around the school, and my friend who I was renting a room from had to take a loss in a hot market to sell her very lovely home because it was in PG not Montgomery Takoma Park. Bad investment.



Didn't the PG side of Takoma Park move to Montgomery County ten years ago? The town is now completely within Montgomery Co.

Yes. The part of Takoma Park that was previously in PG was consolidated into MoCo more than 10 years ago. ALL of TKPK is in MoCo. There remain a few streets in Carole Highlands neighborhood that have a Takoma Park postal address & zip that are in PG. But they are not residents of the City of TP. Real estate agents like to advertise these houses as "Takoma Park!" but they enjoy none of the city services, schools, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a resident of PG County- having moved here from NOVA. I don't really understand all the negativity surrounding PG County at all. First, Maryland as a state is more diverse and liberal than VA- which we greatly appreciated. The commute from our neighborhood into DC or Bethesda is a cinch- either by rail or car. Our commute from Pentagon City on the blue line downtown was god-awful... trains were always packed and delayed, and the summer tourists are disgusting. Then there's the good part of Arlington that is a concrete jungle- complete lack of green space. It is the complete opposite in MD... there are so many public parks, with real playgrounds and space and splash parks, etc. Homes in University Park are beautiful, same as Arts District Hyattsville, and Historic District of Hyattsville.
The only thing that stinks is the high property tax rate... but we aren't moving back to NOVA just to save 2k/yr on property taxes.
I should also mention... public schools in PG are NOT all bad. And Prince Georges has some very nice private schools that don't reach 30k a year.

Other than Hyattsville and University Park, what other neighborhoods are beautiful? PG county is Ward 9.

My neighborhood is gorgeous, quiet, inexpensive, adjacent to a huge park, and I live in Lanham. Enjoy your million dollar shoebox in NOVA or whatever, lady.

[Anonymous]

Race race race. You ant talk about race as it applies to African Americans in this country withou discussing racism, economic disenfrancisemt, the crime that goes with economic disadvantages, the lower tax base, less money for schools, and nihilism. Why bother? I'm looking in gentrified DC and Montogomery County-
Signed single AA mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Race race race. You ant talk about race as it applies to African Americans in this country withou discussing racism, economic disenfrancisemt, the crime that goes with economic disadvantages, the lower tax base, less money for schools, and nihilism. Why bother? I'm looking in gentrified DC and Montogomery County-
Signed single AA mom.

Ant= can't
Disenfranchisement etc...

Short version= too many black people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Why so many folks on here against the area? Not asking to be argumentative, looking for some solid info from people in the area.

PG is majority African American and parts of it are relatively poor. Property values are generally lower than in other area jurisdictions which impacts tax revenue and school funding. As you would expect, poorer localities suffer from higher crime rates. A lot of the negativity here, IMO, is knee jerk reaction to Fox (and other) news reports of incidents of crime "in PG County" and the broad paint brush is applied to the County as a whole. There are very nice parts of it too, certainly. Spending time there and making up your own mind is really the way to go if you're thinking of moving there.

So it is a vicious circle. The poor cannot afford houses with high property values, therefore revenue from property taxes is too low to maintain schools, and so even in Maryland we have a large segment of population who receive a very poor education. Gingrich thought he could solve the problem of ghetto education by making kindergarteners do manual labor in school. Most Americans are OK with this and I am amazed that nobody is even angered by this inequality

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why so many folks on here against the area? Not asking to be argumentative, looking for some solid info from people in the area.

PG is majority African American and parts of it are relatively poor. Property values are generally lower than in other area jurisdictions which impacts tax revenue and school funding. As you would expect, poorer localities suffer from higher crime rates. A lot of the negativity here, IMO, is knee jerk reaction to Fox (and other) news reports of incidents of crime "in PG County" and the broad paint brush is applied to the County as a whole. There are very nice parts of it too, certainly. Spending time there and making up your own mind is really the way to go if you're thinking of moving there.

So it is a vicious circle. The poor cannot afford houses with high property values, therefore revenue from property taxes is too low to maintain schools, and so even in Maryland we have a large segment of population who receive a very poor education. Gingrich thought he could solve the problem of ghetto education by making kindergarteners do manual labor in school. Most Americans are OK with this and I am amazed that nobody is even angered by this inequality

+1. Of course it is a vicious circle...and I have been pretty ticked about the lack of equality for a while. Hence why I worked in education policy for many years. It's embarrassing that even within Fairfax and Montgomery, there are schools that suffer from inequality just because of the area immediately surrounding it. Yes, they have the same curriculum, but we've segregated schools again based on socio-economics. And it's a damn shame.

Sorry, tangent, but it gets under my skin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are my reasons:

Crime
Lack of diversity (I like the international feel of Fairfax better as suppose to the monoracial social settings)
Terrible Schools (my uncle who currently teaches in PG County talks all the time about how terrible it is to teach there and he taught in DCPS for years)
No great shopping, restaurants, or cultural amenities like the other surrounding counties
Corrupt local leaders
Mentality (there is no desire or focus on change there. It continues to decrease in regards to quality of life)
DC gentrification (As DC continues to gentrify many of their cesspool of criminals, Section 8 government dependency types, and ghetto fabulous types seem to flock to PG County which is another reason for the crime and poor quality schools.)
Police Department

Also, this may not be PC to say, but I'm going to say it, "I really don't care to live around African Americans who continue to ignore the pathology that exist within their communities and I am African American. It's just sad to see the pathologies in PG County and to accept it as the norm. Even talking to relatives whom reside there they seem to accept the dysfunctionalism as normal life. It drives me totally insane to see my people settled for less than what they deserve. I mean PG isn't Baltimore City or Southeast DC, but the Washington DC area have better options for families to live. There is a reason why the homes are so cheap there.

Your logic is absurd. People can say the same things about Washington, D.C. which is still 49% black, yet the housing market could not be better. The schools also suck, compared to other jurisdictions. People have always complained about DC being corrupt, but folks are still flocking here. I would not live anywhere else and our last house was in Chevy Chase, MD.

Like anyplace, there are nice parts to PG and bad parts. The same is true for Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

It is hard to discuss PG County without bringing up the social, economic and crime issues that persist in the lower SES AA community.

I owned a gorgeous home for 3 years that in a lower income, predominately AA community. My neighborhood was a small lower-middle class enclave surrounded by a vast ghetto. 9% of the kids at the local junior high could read at grade level.

I moved there with an open mind and I quickly realized that I was never going to feel safe there. I had my car stolen and broken into numerous times (a ten year old Japanese coupe), numerous attempted house break ins, regular shoot outs on the street, drug deals at the children's play ground on a daily basis, and of course the gang rape at the local high school dance that kids took pictures of but no one called the police because "the bitch was drunk". This was in the "nice part of town" with the coop nursery school and artisanal coffee house.

I lost over $150,000 in that house but it was a small price to pay to escape. Never again.

I now live with middle class people in a run down house with a 65 year old oven and vinyl flooring. It's fantastic.

TL: DR: It's better to get the worst house in the best neighborhood you can afford, than the best house in a bad neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Http://www.wtop.com/41/2632466/LISTEN-Jack-Leslie-Johnson-phone-call-released

[Anonymous]

To be fair, the new county exec, Rushern Baker, is totally legit.

He goes to a white church, for crying out loud.

That was a racist comment, but I think it's very interesting nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

#1 reason: Corrupt, incompetent police force
#2 reason: Many schools in crisis, so I worry that the central office is overburdened dealing with those
#3 reason: Crime seems to be spreading in the county

Of course, those are generalizations. If I found something that I liked in a neighborhood I liked close to a school I liked at a price I liked, of course, I'd consider it!!

PS: Don't be fooled: Montgomery County schools, overall, are good. Very good. Even if there are folks who've had subpar experiences there. Central office is competent, committed, and the schools tend to attract high-achieving and high-striving professionals.

[Anonymous]

The DC housing market is being fueled by young singles and empty nesters, not families who need govt services. While there are more families buying in DC, they are not the majority of buyers of all these new condos.

[Anonymous]

Hey, if you folks want White dysfunction, you have to move out to West Va. or out to maybe Winchester/Front Royal/Hagerstown.

But, this is DCUM not WVRM ... so we get to deal with Hispanic/Black dysfunction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why so many folks on here against the area? Not asking to be argumentative, looking for some solid info from people in the area.

PG is majority African American and parts of it are relatively poor. Property values are generally lower than in other area jurisdictions which impacts tax revenue and school funding. As you would expect, poorer localities suffer from higher crime rates. A lot of the negativity here, IMO, is knee jerk reaction to Fox (and other) news reports of incidents of crime "in PG County" and the broad paint brush is applied to the County as a whole. There are very nice parts of it too, certainly. Spending time there and making up your own mind is really the way to go if you're thinking of moving there.

So it is a vicious circle. The poor cannot afford houses with high property values, therefore revenue from property taxes is too low to maintain schools, and so even in Maryland we have a large segment of population who receive a very poor education. Gingrich thought he could solve the problem of ghetto education by making kindergarteners do manual labor in school. Most Americans are OK with this and I am amazed that nobody is even angered by this inequality

+1. Of course it is a vicious circle...and I have been pretty ticked about the lack of equality for a while. Hence why I worked in education policy for many years. It's embarrassing that even within Fairfax and Montgomery, there are schools that suffer from inequality just because of the area immediately surrounding it. Yes, they have the same curriculum, but we've segregated schools again based on socio-economics. And it's a damn shame.

Sorry, tangent, but it gets under my skin.

So if blacks receive a sub standard education on socie-economic grounds then they are not being discriminated against, and nobody can say that the educational institution in America is racist?