Please advise: Capitol Hill or different neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

We are a crunchy, biracial family hailing from Portland. We originally planned to move to Capitol Hill in DC but we are now having doubts. We would be renting a house in the Brent Public School boundary. We have spent some time here the last couple days and are not feeling "the vibe" of the neighborhood. We are also aware that these are quick first impressions and we may love it here. We are worried that the area is not diverse enough and that we will stick out like a sore thumb. DW and I are in creative fields and we would like to be around other creative, liberal people.
Should we be looking at another neighborhood? We want a good school for our kids but to add onto this dilemma, we are worried now that our kids won't fit into Brent school. They are very quirky kids, not really into sports, one is suddenly into Buddhism and will meditate randomly... You get the picture... Worried that instead of appreciating their quirks, they will get bullied. Advice sought.

[Anonymous]

Where will your jobs be?

[Anonymous]

DW will be working mostly from home and I will be working near the McPherson subway station.

[Anonymous]

You might also want to mention ages of children and your price range. Maybe that'll help.

[Anonymous]

Takoma Park is probably more your speed

[Anonymous]

Who do you think goes to Brent? The children of the democratic mandarin class. dc is not portland - you will not find a vibe of any sort, not in bounds for an acceptable school. The hill will be fine. I guess you could try takoma park.

[Anonymous]

Capitol Hill is quite liberal/crunchy. As for the diversity of Brent, it depends on the grade. The upper grades are much more diverse than early childhood.

It really is a great neighborhood-- did you go around Eastern Market and local parks? If you can do private, Capitol Hill Day School might be more your speed for quirky kids.

Also agree with PPs suggestion of Takoma Park, although that would increase your commute significantly.

[Anonymous]

Hmm. The school thing is hard. How old are your kids? If you have a late ES kid it's possible you could still win a lottery spot at a charter and get the other one in with sib preference. Then you have a lot more options open.

[Anonymous]

When I hear "crunchy from Portland" I think of Bloomingdale. Schools are not great, though. So if you must live in boundary, maybe Dupont Circle (in bounds for Ross) would be more your speed.

[Anonymous]

South Arlington

Your kids will fit right into Campbell Elementary.

[Anonymous]

I think you'd like NE Capitol Hill better. Maybe inbounds for Maury if you want guaranteed good school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Takoma Park is probably more your speed

I'm an agent, this was the first thing that popped into my head too.

If you want public schools for the kids, this is a tough one in DC because the neighborhoods you are describing are going to be the kind of neighborhoods that have not so great public schools. I live in bounds for Ross in Dupont and we're sized out so we have to move and can't afford to stay in Dupont, but I do love it here. We watched the Pride Parade from our balcony today and it sort of clicked in how lucky we are to have been in this neighborhood so long - it's totally not pretentious and it has a great elementary school. Price depending, you can check into Dupont, possibly Logan (schools might be an issue here though but getting better I believe) or Brookland (but schools are abysmal there.)

For some reason, I'm also thinking H Street....schools also a problem there, but so many families are staying in the city that all these schools are improving with the increased parental involvement.

[Anonymous]

Tough call OP. I would say petworth is much more low key and laid back but the schools are very hit or miss and universally suck by 3rd grade. Same for takoma. I live in petworth and we will hope for a charter for 4th grade. Honestly when people say Brent has "diversity" in the upper grades its all low income AA whose parents didn't have the wherewithal to get them into a good charter for 5th grade. And that's pretty much every place in DC unless you live west of the park. Portland is great but it's going to be culture shock in DC...especially if you live in bounds for a good school.

[Anonymous]

Your family would fit right in at Brent. There are many families that look different from 1950's TV families. I'm thinking of several gay families, some who adopted, also some single parents who adopted. Plenty of biracial families. I've never had the sense that anyone gives that kind of thing the slightest bit of thought. There certainly wouldn't be any bullying based on being biracial. That's just not an issue on the Hill.

I, along with others, am concerned about the lack of diversity in the youngest grades. My kids are in older grades that are quite diverse so it doesn't impact our life specifically, but it would be sad to lose that diversity.

Brent is an excellent school and you would be hard-pressed to find a better school at this point (too late for charter lotteries) that would be significantly more crunchy.

The Hill is a great place to raise a family. Ignoring the people on DCUM who jump on any street crime that occurs (it's the city, it happens, it's part of life in a city, very unfortunately), there is a great community here. We watch out for each other, watch and help with each other's kids growing up, and are just generally there for each other. People compare it to living in a small town and that is very true. House guests and out-of-town friends are often astonished at how connected our parents group is.

We have worked very hard to improve the elementary schools and are working on middle schools. The improvements in many of the schools are due in large parts to the sweat and contributions of the Hill parents.

It's true the Hill is not super hippy dippy as a whole, but there are plenty of people who are themselves and so you would easily find like-minded people and also others who think differently! There are tons of people who walk/bike everywhere or nearly everywhere. We have some great farmer's markets. My in-laws are from the midwest and the diversity of families and lifestyles here on the Hill is just so dramatically much broader that it's not even a comparison.

I like Tak Park, but the schools are marginal. Dupont Circle (Ross) could be a great choice, but might be hard to find the right rental. Agree that some of the more up-and-coming neighborhoods would be more earthy, but the schools arent' nearly as good as Brent. They also don't tend to be particularly diverse, unless you consider 95%+ something other than White to be diverse. Honestly, in my experience, AA kids are rougher on biracial kids than are White kids. That's just a generalization, of course, but I've seen the 1st and never seen the other. I work with kids.

Whatever you decide, welcome to Washington and good luck on your move and house search!

[Anonymous]

Great description, pp! OP, just a warning, we have crime here, as pp mentioned. Let's just get out that upfront because in about 5 minutes we will hear from the poster who thinks everyone who lives here are bad parents because there's so much crime here and we subject our kids to it because we like diverse, city living more than we like our kids.