Silver Spring vs. Takoma Park

[Anonymous]

Moving to the area this summer and looking in these two towns. Guidance? Preferences? Opinions on schools? Go!

[Anonymous]

Takoma Park feeds into 2 elementary schools (with like two blocks feeding into a third) and two middle schools, and Silver Spring has maybe 30 elementary schools feeding into at least 5 middle schools.

So, it's a big question.

Basically, how old are your kids? Where are you going to work? Do you prefer to be walking distance to the Metro or do you not care? Do you plan to stay for the long haul for just for 5 years or so?

[Anonymous]

Our kids are 5 and 7--going into kindergarten and 2nd grade. We want to be very walkable (our current town has zero sidewalks and it's a ton of car time). Ideally, we'd like to be walkable to the Metro/downtown area. We plan to stay for the long haul.

Since we're doing this long-distance, the school thing is confusing, what with all the elementary schools in SS etc.

[Anonymous]

Why are you moving here? Where will you be working? It makes a difference because even if you can be walkable for your kids school it won't matter if you're still commuting a bunch.

Silver Spring actually refers to a very large geographic area. You'll want to focus on downtown Silver Spring and stipulate as much when you talk to your realtor. Otherwise you may be nearly as far away as Colesville and still be in "Silver Spring." It's a quirk of local geography.

Takoma Park is much smaller. Quainter. Hippier. Lots of beautiful old houses. You'll pay a premium for that.

[Anonymous]

Don't say "go."

[Anonymous]

OP where in SS? SS is a huge place. You need to clarify this to get a meaningful response.

Also, we are assuming you mean Takoma Park, MoCo, but there is a PG side to TP as well.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the MoCo side of TP. Sorry about the "go"--still learning here. We're moving for my husband's job. His office is near Farragut, so he needs to be close to the Red Line. I work from home, so it's less important for me, though since we're moving from out of state it would be nice to walk downtown so I can be around people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP where in SS? SS is a huge place. You need to clarify this to get a meaningful response.

Also, we are assuming you mean Takoma Park, MoCo, but there is a PG side to TP as well.

No there isn't. The PG side was incorporated into MoCo about 15 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Ok, you'll want to focus on areas near the Red Line, then. I'd look at Takoma Park (walk to Takoma station), Downtown Silver Spring (walk to Silver Spring station), and the area around Forest Glen metro station.

The corresponding elementary schools are, I believe:

Rolling Terrace Elementary (K-5): Huge school with a high ESOL population, but an active PTA and a well-regarded Spanish partial immersion program. At least 22 kids per class outside the immersion program, though, and I'm not sure any of Rolling Terrace is walkable to the Metro but there are buses. Feeds to Silver Spring International Middle, which has a middle years IB program, and Blair High.

Takoma Park Elementary (K-2) and Piney Branch (3-5): Great schools with a gifted program, but huge with about 10 classes per grade and 22+ kids in a class. You will pay a good amount to live here, but the neighborhood is lovely and people are super nice. Feeds to Takoma Park Middle and Blair High, which are good schools for this side of the county.

East Silver Spring (K-5): Higher poverty school with corresponding lower test scores, but parents who are in the school are happy with it and there are middle class families in the school. The higher poverty population means they get extra funding for smaller class sizes. 4 classes per grade, 18 kids per class. Feeds into Takoma Park Middle and Blair.

Woodlin Elementary (K-5): Very well regarded elementary school with a high performing student body. Feeds to Sligo Middle School and Einstein High, both of which have fiercely loyal constituencies but have only recently begun to attract middle class families in any significant number. Einstein has a visual arts magnet that people love, but it is test-in (or, I guess, portfolio in)

Flora Singer Elementary (K-5): Brand new building, super popular principal, happy families. Feeds to Sligo MS and Einstein.

I'm sure there are other options that I'm missing, but those are the schools off the top of my head that might allow your husband to walk to Metro.

[Anonymous]

Hi, Op

I live in Downtown Silver Spring. Other things to think about regarding Takoma. Living in Takoma park means paying extra taxes since you also have a mayor and the benefits of being a 'city' versus an unincorporated town like SS. That's one of the reasons we live in SS.

Depending on where you live it is also a pain to change your house ( if historic) or cut down trees. Had a friend who had lead in her windows but because they were historic were refused permission to remove them. She wanted them removed because she had children at the time.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, Op

I live in Downtown Silver Spring. Other things to think about regarding Takoma. Living in Takoma park means paying extra taxes since you also have a mayor and the benefits of being a 'city' versus an unincorporated town like SS. That's one of the reasons we live in SS.

Depending on where you live it is also a pain to change your house ( if historic) or cut down trees. Had a friend who had lead in her windows but because they were historic were refused permission to remove them. She wanted them removed because she had children at the time.

Good luck!

This is helpful info. The flip side is that TP has its own police force. I live in SS and have never had any issues relying on Montgomery County police but that seems like a nice perk of TP. They also have city composting. I don't know if that compensates for the drama if you need to remove a tree, though.

[Anonymous]

Takoma Park has an insane tax rate compared to other areas in DC. There were a few recent threads about the recent increase in taxes. Before you settle on TPK, research the historical records. The tax rate can differ wildly over the years.

Also, Takoma Park has growing divide between the halves and the halves not due to the increasing housing prices. Its a nice little place to live but there are SES differences. . . check out the local play groups at the library and some of the other local events.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the taxes are higher Takoma Park. We decided to pay the premium because we liked living near Sligo Creek, the housing stock is nice, and I wanted my child to attend Takoma Park Middle School and Blair. If you can find a house in SS with schools that you like, go for it to save on taxes.

[Anonymous]

Don't make the same mistakes we made and buy into the hype and pay a premium for a small older house in TP without knowing what you are truly getting, scope out exactly where you will be living and come back at multiple times before deciding. The oldtown part of TP is cute but now kind of a pain to drive through and Carrol is just the worst. There are some cute neighborhoods in the historic parts but they turn shady and crappy quickly as you get closer to New Hampshire, University Blvd, Maple Ave (non-SFH part) and Flower Ave. The bane of TP is it really is right on the edge of what many would consider civilization, many don't agree with me but drive around the close by PG and the DC neighborhoods and judge for your self.


Silver Spring is huge and ranges from Ok to forgettable down to pretty bad with some of the worst being right on the edge of DTSS and TP like Piney Branch and University. Obviously you would want to close to downtown preferably south of Dale Dr or just north. Even then you have to be careful with school expectations as the best neighborhoods (Woodside and Woodside Park) goes to one of the lesser school clusters where the other decent neighborhood (Sligo Park Hills) has a very sub par elementary school and is on the far edge of what could be consider walkable. There are a few compromise neighborhoods (Woodmore and Forest Glen) that are cheaper and rightly so but offer decent options for the area if your budget is south of 600k.

The problem with the DTSS area is it is just recovering for decades of being the dumping ground of low income housing and neglect form the county and while it is going though a transformation it still has many of the cons of poorer urban areas and the cons of the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Takoma Park has an insane tax rate compared to other areas in DC. There were a few recent threads about the recent increase in taxes. Before you settle on TPK, research the historical records. The tax rate can differ wildly over the years.

Also, Takoma Park has growing divide between the halves and the halves not due to the increasing housing prices. Its a nice little place to live but there are SES differences. . . check out the local play groups at the library and some of the other local events.

Is a Halves not a whole?