What's it like to live in Columbia, MD?

[Anonymous]

I've lived in Columbia since 1999, and now bored out of my mind. Ten years ago developers said they were going to make it a walkable place similar to Bethesda. It still hasn't happened. However, Columbia is a great place for families especially with young children. There's nothing here for singles. Restaurants are plentiful both chain and non-chained places. I'm trying to move back to NY but the high housing costs have kept me here much longer than I anticipated.
I go to D.C. (and occasionally Baltimore) for activities. Oh yeah, there is one big plus - virtually no serious crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No Whole Foods, but there is a My Organic Market and a David's Natural Market.

Yes there is!

[Anonymous]

Come on- there is every food store here:
Whole Foods
Wegmans
Harris Teeter
Giant
Safeway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Come on- there is every food store here:
Whole Foods
Wegmans
Harris Teeter
Giant
Safeway

Safeway is gone. Now there is a Weis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a Whole Foods in Columbia?

There's a huge Whole Foods in Columbia. And a mom's, roots, etc.

[Anonymous]

No one will be hungry here. More food and restaurant choices than anywhere. There is shopping, too. Most schools are fine. There are pockets of lower income areas which, yes, have some crime. Mostly there are great family oriented neighborhoods with lots of things to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is both true that River Hill is the last of the Columbia villages (it's a planned community) and that it is technically in Clarksville, if you can get your head around that.

Nope again, most River Hill communities have Columbia addresses. Those not on CA property have Clarksville addresses. There's a large gray area of what is Columbia, what is Ellicott City, what is Elkridge, what is North Laurel. Some are all really Columbia, but just have postal code differences, or vice-versa.

[Anonymous]

I gre up here too and my fam loves going back on weekends. Great for my young kids. I would be extremely bored here as a single though. We love living in dc. And visiting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up there. Went to a great high school. A pp stated that Columbia doesn't have great high schools, but River Hill is the best and it's in Columbia. I loved growing up there. My parents still live there. My kids love going over there. However, after living in MoCo and growing up in HoCo, I choose to live in DC. Just more to do, not as suburban. If my husband had a choice, he would live in HoCo, but I refuse. It's like when you grow up in the country you want to live in the city and vice versa.

River Hill is in Clarksville, not Columbia. It's a 21029 zip.

River Hill is like our W schools in Mo Co. Hammond and Wild Lake, for example, aren't in the same "money" league.

Atholton is also quite good. 9 out of 10 to river hill's 10 out of 10.

[Anonymous]

If you are looking in Columbia, I used to live in the River's edge community and the schools are excellent and relatively diverse. I would highly recommend looking there.

However, commuting to D.C. Is legit awful unless by some chance you can go into work outside of rush hour. It regularly took me 1.5 hours to get home during the week. I moved to MoCo although I have found that with all of the metro craziness I end up driving a lot more than I would have thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on- there is every food store here:
Whole Foods
Wegmans
Harris Teeter
Giant
Safeway

Safeway is gone. Now there is a Weis.

There's a Safeway in Harper's Choice, isn't there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are looking in Columbia, I used to live in the River's edge community and the schools are excellent and relatively diverse. I would highly recommend looking there.

However, commuting to D.C. Is legit awful unless by some chance you can go into work outside of rush hour. It regularly took me 1.5 hours to get home during the week. I moved to MoCo although I have found that with all of the metro craziness I end up driving a lot more than I would have thought.

Even outside of rush hour, commuting to DC from Columbia is awful. Unless by outside of rush hour you mean the middle of the night or weekends.