Gonzaga neighborhood concern
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Anonymous
| Crime in this day and age seems to be much more brazen than 35 years ago when DC was the world’s “murder capitol” based on a per capita stat. Crime was definitely more drug related then. But D.C. on the whole is now much more gentrified, and many neighborhoods are actually safer, including the ones around Gonzaga. So I wouldn’t be overly worried. |
Anonymous
| bump |
Anonymous
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Trying to decide how comfortable I am with 14 year old taking metro, especially with the shooting there 2 weeks ago.
Does anyone do private bus service there? |
Anonymous
I can’t tell if you are serious but no, not that I’m aware of. I have a current freshman, he’s seen some stuff on the metros/walking to Union but not any problems. He loves it there and I don’t think it’s a bad thing for the boys to learn to navigate areas like that. |
Anonymous
Seen some stuff as in???? |
Anonymous
Police and national guard around, homeless people, some people clearly high or drunk, unsteady. The Gonzaga kids are typically left alone. |
Anonymous
The school does an excellent 4 week freshmen orientation/summer school that’s optional but highly recommended. One of the three classes is basically an intro to all things Gonzaga and they actually take them to Union Station, go over the metro, how to act in Union Station and the neighborhood, etc. It’s basically the month of July. The summer is a great time to master the metro, VRE or MARC as there aren’t other kids going to school and things are less busy. By the time the first day of school rolls around in August my kid was very well prepared. For the first week of the summer program I rode with him on both VRE and metro so he got the hang of both, how to pivot if a train offloads or he misses the VRE, etc. Your son will be fine. |
Anonymous
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Honestly, most people had this same concern. But, DS learned to navigate it all very well. I know in Northern VA there are lots of carpools also. Once you start you can see who lives near you and set up carpool if that works better, at least for late nights.
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Anonymous
| Yeah its just not in a great location these days. Just stay to yourself and keep track of your surroundings. |
Anonymous
This is an absurd comment. It is in the inner city. You need to be aware of what is going on just like you would be walking around other inner city areas. To argue the area isn't better than 10 or 20 years ago, it just not being honest. My son takes the metro home all the time. If it is late at night usually after 8 (but only if it is dark), we pick him up. Some of that is safety some of it is basic quicker at that point. If you are concerned about the neighborhood then Gonzaga is probably not the right school for you, as a parent. And, yes, the locals know to leave the Gonzaga boys alone. |
Anonymous
| My Gonzaga kid even takes the metro to basketball and football games. Has never had a problem. |
Anonymous
This. We never pick up my kid. There are always other kids taking the metro even at night. The area is reasonably crowded |
Anonymous
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There's clearly a higher risk around here than in many areas in the city, but it's still extremely unlikely that your student will have any issue. (We live nearby and my kids have walked around the area with no problem starting around age 12.)
Overall violent crime in DC was down 29 percent from 2024 to 2025, and has declined another 26 percent year to date. (Some people worry about bad reporting, but murders, which are reported very well, have also declined by similar amounts.) There's still plenty of room for improvement, and there was definitely a surge in the previous few years, but the constant "Crime is skyrocketing!" is just wrong. https://mpdc.dc.gov/dailycrime |
Anonymous
Memories are very short. The level of crime in the area in the 1990s was way, way worse than it is today. (I lived in the area starting in 1997, and several of my roommates were mugged, and crime was already down substantially from the early 1990s.) For example, a Hill staffer was murdered in 1992: https://rollcall.com/2019/04/30/how-the-murder-of-a-young-senate-aide-ushered-in-the-tough-on-crime-era/ |
Anonymous
This is 100% correct. A lot of the hysteria boils down to, at the end of the day, "I saw a Black person talking loud and looking unsteady on their feet, and it scared me beyond belief." So much pearl-clutching on this forum. Lots of the neighborhoods close to Gonzaga (Mount Vernon, NoMa, H Street, Hill North, etc.) have gentrified *extremely* over the past decade, let alone since the turn of the century, and crime is way way down from when the parents on this forum were children themselves. |