Mt. Pleasant, Capitol Hill, Columbia Heights, & Petworth (where to look?)

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

My family and I are moving to DC this summer from out-of-state for a 2-3 year temporary assignment. Our 3 year old has lotteried into Creative Minds, which will be moving to Old Soldiers Home, which is kind of sandwiched between Columbia Heights and Brookland -- as such, we're looking to RENT (remember, only here a few years) from the following 4 neighborhoods, in rough order of initial desirability:

1) Mr. Pleasant
2) Capitol Hill
3) Columbia Heights
4) Petworth

We chose those areas for proximity to the school. We're looking for a 2 BR, in the $2500 - $3000 price range, something walkable with retail options (e.g. Brooklyn/Prospect Heights is our ideal neighborhood), and safe and appropriate for families with young children. From what we read, Capitol Hill would likely be our first choice, but it's probably out of our price range, and is not as close to the other options for the CM school commute. (Please correct me if I'm wrong).

We're doing a real apartment hunting trip in July, but I'll be in the DC area next week for work and will have about 2 free days to check out the above neighborhoods. Not being familiar with DC, I just want to get an idea of what these neighborhoods are like, where the ideal streets/areas are to try find housing, where to avoid, etc. I hear some of these neighborhoods go from safe to somewhat sketchy very quickly, so if you can just give me parameters of which streets/areas I should visit to get a sense of the neighborhood in the short time I have, I would very much appreciate it. I suppose we'd consider Brookland too, though from what I hear it may be too suburban for us....we really like walkable. And again, we're not too familiar with DC so if there's other neighborhoods I should be considering, please let us know. We're set on CM though so living in MD or VA is not an option.

Thanks very much in advance!

[Anonymous]

Look in Columbia Heights or Mt. Pleasant.

Start at Irving and 11th Street. Walk north up 11th Street towards Monroe St, then make a left on Monroe and walk to 14th. Make a left on 14th and walk back down to Irving. Then make a left and walk back to your starting point at 11th and Irving. This will give you a feel of CH and if it has the vibe you want.

--CH mom of elementary aged kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look in Columbia Heights or Mt. Pleasant.

Start at Irving and 11th Street. Walk north up 11th Street towards Monroe St, then make a left on Monroe and walk to 14th. Make a left on 14th and walk back down to Irving. Then make a left and walk back to your starting point at 11th and Irving. This will give you a feel of CH and if it has the vibe you want.

--CH mom of elementary aged kids

Awesome, this is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. CH mom, I will definitely take that walk! thanks

[Anonymous]

CH mom here. It's by no means a walk that covers all of CH, but it will give you enough of a taste of what folks walk to. 11th Street has all the "hipster" local restaurants and a great small park at Monroe Street. And 14th St is the big commercial strip.

Good luck. We love living here. Even though our kids are out of strollers, there are plenty here.

[Anonymous]

I agree you may love Columbia Heights. I live in the Atlas District, aka NE Capitol Hill, and I think that might be a good fit for you, too. It's a little less expensive than the heart of the Hill and just as walkable. Also a little closer for your commute. You can look on Yarmouth and Evolve and Long and Foster for rentals. If you want to get a sense of the neighborhood, walk along H Street and the streets just N and S of it. It is chock full of kids and $3000 will get you a small row house.

[Anonymous]

Mt. Pleasant is very nice, too . . . two bedroom apartments in the larger complexes (Harvard Hall, etc) are in that price range but I'm not sure they have vacancies. Those older apartment buildings are cute and charming, in a vintage-y way (i.e., nice windows, hard wood floors, tile bathrooms, but small kitchens/bath, etc.) Other than the older, large apartment buildings it might be hard to find a two bedroom that's not a small, dark basement apartment -- most of the houses are big, 3+ bedrooms. Great if you can afford it, but on your budget, not likely. Walk Mt. Pleasant Street from Park to where it hits 16th for a feel for the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Bloomingdale is what you want. For a similar exercise as the CH poster above, I'd suggest that you start at Big Bear (1st and R NW) and walk north on 1st street a few blocks. You can take a right on U st and find Crispus Attucks part in between the row houses there, after you've checked out the park walk east on U st, south to T st, east on T, through Anna Cooper Circle, and then if you want to check out Ledroit Park and Shaw too, continue east on T, until you hit Florida Ave, then you'll be almost opposite the Howard theater and can check out the new retail options down 7th st.

[Anonymous]

http://thefitzgeralddc.com/gallery/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bloomingdale is what you want. For a similar exercise as the CH poster above, I'd suggest that you start at Big Bear (1st and R NW) and walk north on 1st street a few blocks. You can take a right on U st and find Crispus Attucks part in between the row houses there, after you've checked out the park walk east on U st, south to T st, east on T, through Anna Cooper Circle, and then if you want to check out Ledroit Park and Shaw too, continue east on T, until you hit Florida Ave, then you'll be almost opposite the Howard theater and can check out the new retail options down 7th st.

Bloomingdale and Capitol Hill have the advantages of being much closer to the Mall and the historical and/or commercial areas of DC (Museums, Gallery Place, Union Market, H St. NE, Union Station, etc.) They're not as suburban as some DC neighborhoods (Petworth, Brookland, parts of Mt. Pleasant). Bloomingdale/LeDroit should be cheaper than the Hill, but pretty convenient for the red, green, and yellow lines if she wants good metro access.

[Anonymous]

You can also look at the rental options in NOMA. There are new rentals in brookland too, Monroe st. Market. Not sure about the pricing. Just note though that cm's location isn't really accessible by walking or metro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree you may love Columbia Heights. I live in the Atlas District, aka NE Capitol Hill, and I think that might be a good fit for you, too. It's a little less expensive than the heart of the Hill and just as walkable. Also a little closer for your commute. You can look on Yarmouth and Evolve and Long and Foster for rentals. If you want to get a sense of the neighborhood, walk along H Street and the streets just N and S of it. It is chock full of kids and $3000 will get you a small row house.

Thanks all for the helpful descriptions. Curious, what would be the commute time to/from NE Capitol Hill (or Capitol Hill proper) to Old Soldiers Home area? How much worse is that than say Mt. Pleasant?

thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree you may love Columbia Heights. I live in the Atlas District, aka NE Capitol Hill, and I think that might be a good fit for you, too. It's a little less expensive than the heart of the Hill and just as walkable. Also a little closer for your commute. You can look on Yarmouth and Evolve and Long and Foster for rentals. If you want to get a sense of the neighborhood, walk along H Street and the streets just N and S of it. It is chock full of kids and $3000 will get you a small row house.

Thanks all for the helpful descriptions. Curious, what would be the commute time to/from NE Capitol Hill (or Capitol Hill proper) to Old Soldiers Home area? How much worse is that than say Mt. Pleasant?

thanks!

Commute from NE Capitol Hill would most likely take significantly longer than from Mount Pleasant. There is always a lot of traffic in Mount Pleasant, but from NE Capitol Hill you have to go through some troublesome intersections. It would depend on where you were but I'd factor about 20 minutes from Mount Pleasant and 30-35 from the Hill.

[Anonymous]

Are you working downtown? Do you plan on driving for drop off and pick up or would you be taking a bus? I would figure out what would make the most sense in terms of your commute. wmata.com has bus maps.

It looks like another neighborhood close to CM is Park View, which is between Columbia Heights and Petworth--I have a friend there who likes it. It's really unclear to me if you can easily get to CM from the west side of the Old Soldiers Home complex. I would call the school to see how you actually get to the new location, and then figure out where would make sense to live.

I have another friend who lives near 10th and Monroe NW--is that northern Columbia Heights or southern Petworth, and there are some restaurants nearby, and they like that area. That would also be close to CM.

Your life will be easier the closer you are to the school so you don't have to backtrack to get to and from work. I think Columbia Heights, Petworth, or Parkview would be your best bets if you're not a fan of Brookland.

[Anonymous]

How do you lottery into a school before you even live here? That doesn't make sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Commute from NE Capitol Hill would most likely take significantly longer than from Mount Pleasant. There is always a lot of traffic in Mount Pleasant, but from NE Capitol Hill you have to go through some troublesome intersections. It would depend on where you were but I'd factor about 20 minutes from Mount Pleasant and 30-35 from the Hill.

Mt Pleasant traffic on Park Rd/Columbia Rd can be BAD. Just too many cars on those narrow roads. But Irving and Kenyon are OK if you're going east-west against traffic (which I'm thinking you would be from MtP to CM). The commute from Bloomingdale wouldn't be bad -- straight up North Capitol, against traffic. About 15 min, even during rush hour, I think. Park View is also very close, probably 10-15 minutes driving. . . although the area is somewhat grittier than CH proper. The drive from Capitol Hill (by which I mean, south of H Street) would involve a lot of stop signs and would probably take at least 30 min, more if you're farther south.