DC Chosen Best Place to Raise a Family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't want daily urban stress...

Different folks have different stressors, obviously. The most stressful two years of my life were the period where I had to commute to Rockville from the city every morning. It turned me into a completely different person--and not in a good way. I cannot spend that much time in a car ever again.

Where did you move? West Virginia?

Live and work in Fairfax County. I only drive 7,500 miles a year.

But, how many hours do you spend commuting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually, Parenting Magazine is talking about in the city. Commutes are actually fantastic if you live in Capitol Hill and commute to, say, DOJ. I walk my kid the half block to school every morning, and my neighbors do the same, then ride their bike the 20 min to work. The commute is not just "reasonable", but enjoyable. As far as "affordable homes", it depends on where you draw the baseline. Obviously a house is going to be cheaper out in the exurban wastelands of the greater Manassass/Dumfries metropolitan area--but then of course you're living in Manassass/Dumfries.

I know plenty of folks who've moved to DC from NYC specifically because it's more family friendly and comparatively dirt-cheap.

This. We moved from NYC to a neighborhood near the NY metro red line. Our 3 bdrm, 2 1/2 bath renovated rowhouse was under $500K. We have a wonderful private backyard and parking. Can walk to work - 10 minutes. Got our kid into a immersion language charter which is about a 15 minute drive in the morning. Love it here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never been to Omaha, but looking at the "hipster" areas of downtown, I don't see any reason why it can't have fairly walkable neighborhoods. The Old Market District shows up with a Walk Score of 88.

Of course the list is complied to sell magazines. At the same time, it's a bit of a trailing indicator reflecting what the magazine's readers want to hear. My theory is that it reflects the falling influnce of the Baby Boom--and to a lesser extent Gen X--and the rise of the millennials as a target demographic.

It's simply validating the choices being made by the new wave of parents.

I'm 43, and I'll admit that the walkablility of a neighborhood was nowhere on my radar screen 15 years ago when selecting a house.

I'm a fellow Gen-Xer, so I know what you're talking about. But this is what a radical demographic shift looks like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, Parenting Magazine is talking about in the city. Commutes are actually fantastic if you live in Capitol Hill and commute to, say, DOJ. I walk my kid the half block to school every morning, and my neighbors do the same, then ride their bike the 20 min to work. The commute is not just "reasonable", but enjoyable. As far as "affordable homes", it depends on where you draw the baseline. Obviously a house is going to be cheaper out in the exurban wastelands of the greater Manassass/Dumfries metropolitan area--but then of course you're living in Manassass/Dumfries.

I know plenty of folks who've moved to DC from NYC specifically because it's more family friendly and comparatively dirt-cheap.

This. We moved from NYC to a neighborhood near the NY metro red line. Our 3 bdrm, 2 1/2 bath renovated rowhouse was under $500K. We have a wonderful private backyard and parking. Can walk to work - 10 minutes. Got our kid into a immersion language charter which is about a 15 minute drive in the morning. Love it here.

Exactly. My brother makes a ton of money in finance, and is raising his two kids on the Upper East Side. His commute doesn't suck--in fact he can walk to work. But his kids have to commute to private school downtown, and he's hemorrhaging money. He's totally jealous of our upper middle-class life in DC.

[Anonymous]

It kills me when people complain about getting their kids into charter schools in DC. A complete cakewalk compared to getting kids into public G&T schools or private schools in NYC. We are super happy with our public charter - our first choice - if it was a private school we would have paid the tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It kills me when people complain about getting their kids into charter schools in DC. A complete cakewalk compared to getting kids into public G&T schools or private schools in NYC. We are super happy with our public charter - our first choice - if it was a private school we would have paid the tuition.

What do people do if they can't afford private school tuition but don't get into a public charter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, Parenting Magazine is talking about in the city. Commutes are actually fantastic if you live in Capitol Hill and commute to, say, DOJ. I walk my kid the half block to school every morning, and my neighbors do the same, then ride their bike the 20 min to work. The commute is not just "reasonable", but enjoyable. As far as "affordable homes", it depends on where you draw the baseline. Obviously a house is going to be cheaper out in the exurban wastelands of the greater Manassass/Dumfries metropolitan area--but then of course you're living in Manassass/Dumfries.

I know plenty of folks who've moved to DC from NYC specifically because it's more family friendly and comparatively dirt-cheap.

This. We moved from NYC to a neighborhood near the NY metro red line. Our 3 bdrm, 2 1/2 bath renovated rowhouse was under $500K. We have a wonderful private backyard and parking. Can walk to work - 10 minutes. Got our kid into a immersion language charter which is about a 15 minute drive in the morning. Love it here.

Exactly. My brother makes a ton of money in finance, and is raising his two kids on the Upper East Side. His commute doesn't suck--in fact he can walk to work. But his kids have to commute to private school downtown, and he's hemorrhaging money. He's totally jealous of our upper middle-class life in DC.

I think we can all agree it's cheaper here than NYC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It kills me when people complain about getting their kids into charter schools in DC. A complete cakewalk compared to getting kids into public G&T schools or private schools in NYC. We are super happy with our public charter - our first choice - if it was a private school we would have paid the tuition.

What do people do if they can't afford private school tuition but don't get into a public charter?

Depends on what you have to compare it to: In NYC, all preK/preS are private except for head start so at least in DC you get a choice. Everyone I know who applied to a charter in DC got into one or got a decent enough waitlist number that they expect to get into one by the end of Summer. If you apply to a bunch and apply early, your chances are very good that you'll get in somewhere. We applied to 4 and got into all 4: Much better results than what we would have gotten had we stayed in NYC.

I suppose it's all relative to what you are use to.

[Anonymous]

We expected to pay for PreK so finding a public charter for preK was a nice surprise.

[Anonymous]

Where are the good high schools in DC? This is a serious question: everyone seems to be talking about how much they love their kids' elementary schools, but it's not that difficult to get a good elementary school even in a bad general district or area. Does anyone stay in DCPS through high school graduation who can afford to go private? If so, where do they live?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, Parenting Magazine is talking about in the city. Commutes are actually fantastic if you live in Capitol Hill and commute to, say, DOJ. I walk my kid the half block to school every morning, and my neighbors do the same, then ride their bike the 20 min to work. The commute is not just "reasonable", but enjoyable. As far as "affordable homes", it depends on where you draw the baseline. Obviously a house is going to be cheaper out in the exurban wastelands of the greater Manassass/Dumfries metropolitan area--but then of course you're living in Manassass/Dumfries.

I know plenty of folks who've moved to DC from NYC specifically because it's more family friendly and comparatively dirt-cheap.

How many Federal agencies have moved their offices out of the city? Mine has. Lots of the "DC jobs" are no longer in the DC. DH private sector job is in Pentagon City and my Federal job is in Rockville.

[Anonymous]

First off, why the assumption exurbanites all have 60-90 minute commutes? My wife and I combined don't have that commute and we're in Leesburg. (I won't go into how we can go -- and have gone -- to shopping, dining, etc., without driving, but that might confuse some of the DC snobs.)

There's several ES's in DCPS that are great. Problem is, a TH in those areas runs you what, $750k and up?

19:26, the only DCPS MS/HS combo I've ever seen any DCUMers even consider attending is Deal/Wilson.

When I've pointed this out in past threads, I'm just told, "Oh, we can shell out $30k a year for private school, so we don't care."

Of course there's the charter and OOB lottery but is that really and honestly guaranteed (and if you lose out, can you still get into an OK private school?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First off, why the assumption exurbanites all have 60-90 minute commutes? My wife and I combined don't have that commute and we're in Leesburg. (I won't go into how we can go -- and have gone -- to shopping, dining, etc., without driving, but that might confuse some of the DC snobs.)

There's several ES's in DCPS that are great. Problem is, a TH in those areas runs you what, $750k and up?

19:26, the only DCPS MS/HS combo I've ever seen any DCUMers even consider attending is Deal/Wilson.

When I've pointed this out in past threads, I'm just told, "Oh, we can shell out $30k a year for private school, so we don't care."

Of course there's the charter and OOB lottery but is that really and honestly guaranteed (and if you lose out, can you still get into an OK private school?)

Since we're talking about raising kids in the city, here's my thinking:

Generally you hear from parents of young children who would like to live in DC, but claim "you just cannot do it" because of schools. When you scratch the surface, they'll concede that, sure there are a lot of elementary school options, but what about middle school and high school. Then when you point out that there are actually quite a few high school options for a student who's even slightly motivated (Walls, Wilson, Bannaeker, Ellington), they'll concede that, okay, there are good H.S. options, but what about middle schools??

So...here's the deal with middle schools: if your child is about to enter middle school, and you can't find a decent place to send them, and can't afford a couple of years of private, then you move out of the city. But it has always struck me as incredibly odd to hear from folks who say they'd just love to stay in town, but they simply can't do it with a 2.5 year old because the middle schools are not up-to-snuff.

Given the rapid improvement of DCPS in general over even the last 5 years, our strategy is to wait and see what happens with middle school between now and the 7 years from now when it'll be an issue. We can always throw in the towel in 2018 and move to someplace outside of DC, rent our house, and ride out the storm.

[Anonymous]

9:25, good points. However, of the four you mention, only Wilson is general-enrollment.

If your DC isn't artsy, then no Ellington. If your DC isn't top 10%, then no Banneker. I don't know what the standards are for Walls.

For DC to work for these parents, they want certainty -- and if you move to McLean, Vienna, Oakton, Bethesda, Rockville, or Potomac, you have the certainty of good public schools. Not so much for South Arlington, Alexandria City, Prince George's County, or DC itself.

[Anonymous]

PP, I like your thinking. We are on a similar plan but in the suburbs. We moved to a neighborhood in Maryland that is very nice with a great ES but the MS and HS aren't the best in Montgomery County (they are still in the top 20 in the state but not what most DCUMers would consider good enough). But, our area has seen a lot of young families moving in recently and based on our neighbors, I would say there is a good chance that by the time my 10 mo is going into middle school, the schools will be just fine. And if they're not, we'll deal with it then. The same trend is happening in DC and I think in 10 years, the DCPS will be a whole different ballgame because parents, who are paying a pretty penny to live in the District will demand it. And they should. I'm not saying that you shouldn't send your kid to private school if that is your preference (I went to private school so I'm not knocking it) but if you are paying taxes on a $750K townhouse, that tax money should give you a decent public school option. If I was willing to spend that much here in MoCo, I would expect that there would be no issues with the schools in my area. But, I didn't feel the need to sacrifice space for schools at this point so we bought in a less expensive area until we need to deal with schools.

I also wanted to say, on a related note, that I don't understand why people on this forum are always bashing the choices that one another make in terms of where they live. Yes, there are some people who would love to live in the city but cannot afford it. That's no reason for the upper-class in NW to put them down all the time and mock their commutes. There are others who live in the city and would love to have more space at a house in the suburbs but would take a loss if they sold at this point so they stay where they are. All of us make sacrifices to live where we live but we are all doing the best we can and live where we live because it works for us. I don't really care where others live but it bugs me when people assume that I live in the suburbs because I can't afford something closer to the city. The truth is, I grew up around here and most of my friends and family live between Baltimore and DC. So, I prefer to be in Maryland so I can be closer to them. I work downtown, have a nice, easy commute on the train where I get peace and quiet to read but at the end of the day, I want to be out of the city in my quiet little neighborhood where, yes, I can walk to restaurants and shops but I also have a driveway to park my car in case I actually want to go somewhere not walkable. I like DC, I really do, but I don't necessarily feel the need to spend every waking moment in the city. On the weekends, I just assume go to Baltimore if I want to hang out in the city. Please do not assume that everyone outiside of the 202 area code live in spawling McMansions and commute 3 hours a day because we aren't cool enough to live in the District.