Town near D.C. metro area away from the rat race!
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Anonymous
| ISO a town close (40-60 miles) to the D.C. metro area that is calm, have progressive minded people and good elementary schools. Does such a town exist???? One parent could telework 3 days per week and the other parent 2 days per week. Commutes to work would be Arlington, Rockville, or Silver Spring. We are burnt out living here with young children, being stuck in traffic, crowded stores on the week-end, 4-6 years waiting list for a pool close to our neighborhood, 2-3 years waiting list for after school care, we took a walk today on the trail and there was constant bicycle traffic, etc. |
Anonymous
| Loudoun County, duh. Although it is expanding with the metro but if you move west of Leesburg you will be all set. |
Anonymous
| We were looking for this and the schools was the tough thing. Ultimately, we found that we had to go further down 95 South to get what we wanted...and couldn't be happier. |
Anonymous
| West Springfield? Burke? Fredericksburg? |
Anonymous
Is Burke and West Springfield calmer and gentler than the rest of Northern VA? |
Anonymous
| Lovettsville VA? I know someone with kids who lives out there and loves it. DH and I drove around just for kicks looking at houses and liked the small-town feel of it but it's just too far for us. But I think that could work for you commuting to SS and Rockville, as you could take the MARC train across the river in Brunswick. |
Anonymous
| Howard county |
Anonymous
| Mosaic |
Anonymous
| poolesville? very small but great schools |
Anonymous
| Brookeville, md. Part of it borders Olney, and part of it is horse country. Excellent schools....Greenwood elem, rosa parks ms, and Sherwood HS (all MCPS). Olney has a small town feel. |
Anonymous
|
Lovettsville VA is hardly progressive as is most anything west of Leesburg.
Middleburg VA is (surprisingly) liberal (it voted 2-1 for Obama.) It does have a tinge of the tourist trap though ... and if you don't like horses, you might not like it. Why not Frederick City, given that 2 of your 3 locations are in MD. If that is too bustling for you, then maybe the rural parts of Frederick County? OTOH, rural Frederick County still puts the Fredneck in Frederick. South on I-95 you're in red country until you hit Fredericksburg. |
Anonymous
| I feel your pain OP, but 40-60 miles one way is a lot even 2-3 times per week. If you are determined to leave, I'll throw out the suggestion of Anne Arundel county in Maryland. Some of the areas are really conservative, but there are liberal parts as well. The pace is slower and overall the people are much friendlier. There are a handful of snobby areas, but still they are twice as down to earth as they are in DC. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
People are pretty mellow out this way. Maybe it is all the military transients, who come 2-3 years then leave. |
Anonymous
Most anywhere in Anne Arundel County still puts you at at least an hour to DC. the closest to DC is Crofton, and traffic along the main road (route 3) in crofton is becoming increasingly intolerable (even on weekends). So I don't think moving there will necessarily fix the issues the OP is complaining about. And Crofton is still an hour's commute (if not more, depending on where you are headed in D.C. and whether it's raining). The other areas of Anne Arundel that are nice are a long haul to D.C. I love Annapolis, but I don't consider it commutable (even a few days a week) to DC, especially in the summer. The few people I know who commute from Annapolis are part of a van pool, so they have a very strict/limited schedule (there's only one departure and return). I also get the feeling that most of the locations 40-60 miles from DC are actually growing rapidly, and so I'm not sure how much of an escape it will be (as far as traffic goes). |