Brooklanders…where do you send DCs to school and how is your commute?

[Anonymous]

Lots of places opening in the last two years. San Antonio Grill Brookland Cafe. Sometime in the next year there should be a Bus Boy and Poets and &Pizza are supposed to open. Brookland also has very easy access to Union Market and H Street Corridor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PPs who love brookland--where do you go to socialize with friends? I haven't been in a couple of years but when I remember it being extremely thin pickings in terms of neighborhood bars, restaurants, things like family pizzerias. Is there a movie theater or good neighborhood pool? Don't remember much of that in Brookland but then maybe I wasn't looking in the right places.

Socialize? What is this "socialize" thing you speak of? We are parents, there is not such thing as socialize...

[Anonymous]

PG Pool has sometimes been called Brookland's Backyard but the wait list is now so big that it is not an option for newcomers. Alas.

[Anonymous]

We met most of our Brookland friends as neighbors on our block, walking through the neighborhood with kids and dogs on sunny days, going to birthday and house parties, joining the Brookland Kids group, playing at the playgrounds (North Michigan Park, now Turkey Thicket and Burroughs and Noyes are options, those are places to go, too), and our children attending a local, popular charter with lots of other Brookland families.

Summers at PG Pool is also a place we meet neighbors but not really an option for new families since the wait list is over 800 at last check. There are many 12th Street restaurants (like Menomale, Little Ricky's, Brookland's Finest (opening soon)), Dance Place dance classes, and the Monroe Street Market will offer lots of options. Our sleepy "suburb in the city" will not be so sleepy in just another 6-12 months.

[Anonymous]

OP, clearly Brookland is a fine place to live, as demonstrated by the posters here. We didn't consider it when we were looking last year for 2 reasons: 1) because my office is in Virginia and I didn't want that long of a commute, and 2) I didn't want the uncertainty about the lottery and didn't want to have a long commute to my kids' school. If both you and your husband work downtown, then commute should be fine. If you can wait a few months, I'd wait to see how you do in the lottery. If you decide on the private school on 16th, then just consider what kind of commute that would be on a daily basis (I have no idea what that commute would look like). For me personally, car commutes in traffic make me crazy and it would have a significant negative impact on my well-being. But others are fine with it.

See where you get in and then figure out what works for you.

[Anonymous]

Potbelly just opened up.

[Anonymous]

It's slim pickings for homes for 350k in Brookland, however the Rigss Park neighborhood which is near offers more. There homes aren't as spacious and don't offer the character that the Brookland homes have, but you get to live in DC.

[Anonymous]

This will end up being a 400k home.


http://m.longandfoster.com/Property/PropertyLessDetails?MlsNumber=DC8196762&MlsCompanyID=2&OriginalSearchString=20017&SelectedMinPrice=0&SelectedMaxPrice=600000&SelectedBeds=0&SelectedBaths=0&SelectedPropertyType=1&PageIndex=2&PropIndex=8&TotalPages=4&propertySortOrder=0

[Anonymous]

^^ Is 7th and Decatur in Brookland? What are the boundaries of Brookland?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. yes, applied to Stokes, too!

to the PP who asked why Brookland. Brookland is awesome. mixed family friendly neighborhood, less expensive housing with a possible return on investment down the road (moreso than already established NW neighborhoods), more green space, super easy commute to 2 workplaces. in the end, financially we would much rather carry a lesser mortgage and have the possibility of going charter and not spending $ on private down the road than carrying a bigger mortgage that will not change for the next 30 years.

Like so many, you're trading super awesome super easy super green funtime for certainty on the schools piece. "Going charter" is not synonymous with "good." Or should I say "super awesome." Maybe for pk3 -2. Not for 6-12.

And fwiw, independent school tuition is now at the $33,000 a year mark for the top ~13 schools. A catholic parish k-8 will be much less.

Good luck to you.

Going charters is and can be synonymous with good. If I had my first choice, I'd prefer a school like IT or MV in conjunction with Latin than any WOTP/Wilson combo. Different strokes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. yes, applied to Stokes, too!

to the PP who asked why Brookland. Brookland is awesome. mixed family friendly neighborhood, less expensive housing with a possible return on investment down the road (moreso than already established NW neighborhoods), more green space, super easy commute to 2 workplaces. in the end, financially we would much rather carry a lesser mortgage and have the possibility of going charter and not spending $ on private down the road than carrying a bigger mortgage that will not change for the next 30 years.

Like so many, you're trading super awesome super easy super green funtime for certainty on the schools piece. "Going charter" is not synonymous with "good." Or should I say "super awesome." Maybe for pk3 -2. Not for 6-12.

And fwiw, independent school tuition is now at the $33,000 a year mark for the top ~13 schools. A catholic parish k-8 will be much less.

Good luck to you.

Going charters is and can be synonymous with good. If I had my first choice, I'd prefer a school like IT or MV in conjunction with Latin than any WOTP/Wilson combo. Different strokes.

Oy, your use of "is" is just wrong here. Going charters CAN BE synonymous with good. It isn't automatically synonymous with good. Most of the charters are new and have no long term results to look at. Why does this have to be a competition? DCPS can be good or bad. Charters can be good or bad. If you prefer IT and Latin, great, good luck to you, I hope you get in and love them and your kids thrive. Others choose DCPS, for many reasons, including proximity to their homes, experienced teachers, etc. Isn't it great to have choices?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ Is 7th and Decatur in Brookland? What are the boundaries of Brookland?

It's North Michigan Park. Realtors love to call just about anything Brookland these days, similar to the way they've tried to expand Capital Hill boundaries in recent years. For example, Monroe Street Market is actually Edgewood, not Brookland. All of this strikes me as a shame bc adjacent neighborhoods like Edgewood, Woodbridge, Queens Chapel and North Michigan Park are each nice and friendly neighborhoods in their own right.

Technically Brookland is north of RI, west of 18th/SD and south of Michigan. Even the that is a newer creation as between Otis and Michigan is actually University Heights.

[Anonymous]

I am wondering if I get into my dream charter, if I can also find a dream home in brookland. My current house would sell for between $1 and $1.2 mil. My wish list in brookland would be:
1) coffee shop I could walk to in under a mile
2) 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths-- which would include an inlaw suite plus a playroom
3) parking and maybe even a garage
4) a wooded lot or a lot overlooking woods
5) space and enough room left on the budget to install a nice swimming pool.

Does this kind of thing exist in brookland?

tIa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am wondering if I get into my dream charter, if I can also find a dream home in brookland. My current house would sell for between $1 and $1.2 mil. My wish list in brookland would be:
1) coffee shop I could walk to in under a mile
2) 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths-- which would include an inlaw suite plus a playroom
3) parking and maybe even a garage
4) a wooded lot or a lot overlooking woods
5) space and enough room left on the budget to install a nice swimming pool.

Does this kind of thing exist in brookland?

tIa.

I have seen small houses on large lots and large houses on small lots, but not both together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. yes, applied to Stokes, too!

to the PP who asked why Brookland. Brookland is awesome. mixed family friendly neighborhood, less expensive housing with a possible return on investment down the road (moreso than already established NW neighborhoods), more green space, super easy commute to 2 workplaces. in the end, financially we would much rather carry a lesser mortgage and have the possibility of going charter and not spending $ on private down the road than carrying a bigger mortgage that will not change for the next 30 years.

Like so many, you're trading super awesome super easy super green funtime for certainty on the schools piece. "Going charter" is not synonymous with "good." Or should I say "super awesome." Maybe for pk3 -2. Not for 6-12.

And fwiw, independent school tuition is now at the $33,000 a year mark for the top ~13 schools. A catholic parish k-8 will be much less.

Good luck to you.

Going charters is and can be synonymous with good. If I had my first choice, I'd prefer a school like IT or MV in conjunction with Latin than any WOTP/Wilson combo. Different strokes.

Oy, your use of "is" is just wrong here. Going charters CAN BE synonymous with good. It isn't automatically synonymous with good. Most of the charters are new and have no long term results to look at. Why does this have to be a competition? DCPS can be good or bad. Charters can be good or bad. If you prefer IT and Latin, great, good luck to you, I hope you get in and love them and your kids thrive. Others choose DCPS, for many reasons, including proximity to their homes, experienced teachers, etc. Isn't it great to have choices?

It is the other PP that implied DCPS is superior to charters. Yes it is great to have choice.