Thoughts on Truxton Circle for a young family?

[Anonymous]

We're looking at moving into the District with our preschool age daughter. Schools are not a consideration; we are going with private. Looking for a neighborhood that has a combination of restaurants, retail, grocery shopping, and amenities for young kids (playgrounds, etc). Ideally, we would be in Logan Circle, but we can't afford it. Truxton Circle seems like a nice alternative -- any thoughts on it?

[Anonymous]

I think it's pretty gritty.

[Anonymous]

I lived near Truxton for many years, but wouldn't choose to move there now. Centrally located like Logan or Bloomingdale, but the housing stock isn't as nice.

[Anonymous]

It's great - I've lived just west of TC for almost 10 years and have a couple of kids. Traffic has gotten a lot more congested in the area, especially with the opening/growth of new schools. There's a huge new residential development coming to the unit block of N St NW in the next year or so. I'd prioritize having a parking space.

And grittiness is in the eye of the beholder - a lot depends on where you're coming from and what your expectations are. It's great to be an easy walk to Bloomingdale/NOMA/Mt. Vernon Triangle/Shaw/downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived near Truxton for many years, but wouldn't choose to move there now. Centrally located like Logan or Bloomingdale, but the housing stock isn't as nice.

I'm surprised you'd say the housing stock isn't as nice ... I'm looking at some gorgeous row homes.

For example: https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1804-1st-St-NW-20001/unit-A/home/144278841

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's great - I've lived just west of TC for almost 10 years and have a couple of kids. Traffic has gotten a lot more congested in the area, especially with the opening/growth of new schools. There's a huge new residential development coming to the unit block of N St NW in the next year or so. I'd prioritize having a parking space.

And grittiness is in the eye of the beholder - a lot depends on where you're coming from and what your expectations are. It's great to be an easy walk to Bloomingdale/NOMA/Mt. Vernon Triangle/Shaw/downtown.

Agreed. I think a lot of people who say some of these neighborhoods are gritty haven't been to DC in 15 years.

[Anonymous]

We have a house just south of New York Ave. The new residential development someone referred to at N St NW is called Chapman Stables. We are close to Sursum Corda, which is slated for redevelopment in the very near future. We don't live in the house because we don't feel safe there with our two small children. Around our block, there have been many shootings over the last few years. I do think there will be a huge turnaround with Chapman Stables, Sursum Corda redevelopment, a new restaurant with outdoor cafe coming to the area, etc. It has promise but I wouldn't want to be in that immediate neighborhood with small kids right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a house just south of New York Ave. The new residential development someone referred to at N St NW is called Chapman Stables. We are close to Sursum Corda, which is slated for redevelopment in the very near future. We don't live in the house because we don't feel safe there with our two small children. Around our block, there have been many shootings over the last few years. I do think there will be a huge turnaround with Chapman Stables, Sursum Corda redevelopment, a new restaurant with outdoor cafe coming to the area, etc. It has promise but I wouldn't want to be in that immediate neighborhood with small kids right now.

Thanks for the insight. I think we'd be looking closer to Rhode Island Ave & 1st St. Don't know if that makes a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lived near Truxton for many years, but wouldn't choose to move there now. Centrally located like Logan or Bloomingdale, but the housing stock isn't as nice.

I'm surprised you'd say the housing stock isn't as nice ... I'm looking at some gorgeous row homes.

For example: https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1804-1st-St-NW-20001/unit-A/home/144278841

That's Bloomingdale. Truxton is south of FL Ave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's great - I've lived just west of TC for almost 10 years and have a couple of kids. Traffic has gotten a lot more congested in the area, especially with the opening/growth of new schools. There's a huge new residential development coming to the unit block of N St NW in the next year or so. I'd prioritize having a parking space.

And grittiness is in the eye of the beholder - a lot depends on where you're coming from and what your expectations are. It's great to be an easy walk to Bloomingdale/NOMA/Mt. Vernon Triangle/Shaw/downtown.

Agreed. I think a lot of people who say some of these neighborhoods are gritty haven't been to DC in 15 years.

I wrote the PP here and the neighborhoods ARE gritty. There are gunshots sometimes, people have been murdered within a couple of blocks of my house. The same is true in parts of Logan Circle, Shaw, Bloomingdale, Eckington, etc. South of NY Ave is really a world of difference compared to north of NY Ave, though the closer you get to North Capitol and NY from Truxton, the more likely you are to see some of the spillover from Tyler House and Sursum Corda. There is also public housing in the northern part of Truxton - there are occasionally gunshots there as well. Again, it's up to you to decide if that meets your comfort level. Walk around at night, see what you think.

I love that my kids are growing up in an economically and racially and culturally diverse neighborhood. I really like living here. I have not experienced any crime to myself or my property (other than a couple of package thefts) in 10 years. We walk A LOT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a house just south of New York Ave. The new residential development someone referred to at N St NW is called Chapman Stables. We are close to Sursum Corda, which is slated for redevelopment in the very near future. We don't live in the house because we don't feel safe there with our two small children. Around our block, there have been many shootings over the last few years. I do think there will be a huge turnaround with Chapman Stables, Sursum Corda redevelopment, a new restaurant with outdoor cafe coming to the area, etc. It has promise but I wouldn't want to be in that immediate neighborhood with small kids right now.

Thanks for the insight. I think we'd be looking closer to Rhode Island Ave & 1st St. Don't know if that makes a difference.

Oh yeah, north of Florida Ave is Bloomingdale not Truxton. Slightly less easy access to central DC amenities. Substantially less gritty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a house just south of New York Ave. The new residential development someone referred to at N St NW is called Chapman Stables. We are close to Sursum Corda, which is slated for redevelopment in the very near future. We don't live in the house because we don't feel safe there with our two small children. Around our block, there have been many shootings over the last few years. I do think there will be a huge turnaround with Chapman Stables, Sursum Corda redevelopment, a new restaurant with outdoor cafe coming to the area, etc. It has promise but I wouldn't want to be in that immediate neighborhood with small kids right now.

Thanks for the insight. I think we'd be looking closer to Rhode Island Ave & 1st St. Don't know if that makes a difference.

It does make a difference. That's Bloomingdale, not Truxton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's great - I've lived just west of TC for almost 10 years and have a couple of kids. Traffic has gotten a lot more congested in the area, especially with the opening/growth of new schools. There's a huge new residential development coming to the unit block of N St NW in the next year or so. I'd prioritize having a parking space.

And grittiness is in the eye of the beholder - a lot depends on where you're coming from and what your expectations are. It's great to be an easy walk to Bloomingdale/NOMA/Mt. Vernon Triangle/Shaw/downtown.

Agreed. I think a lot of people who say some of these neighborhoods are gritty haven't been to DC in 15 years.

I wrote the PP here and the neighborhoods ARE gritty. There are gunshots sometimes, people have been murdered within a couple of blocks of my house. The same is true in parts of Logan Circle, Shaw, Bloomingdale, Eckington, etc. South of NY Ave is really a world of difference compared to north of NY Ave, though the closer you get to North Capitol and NY from Truxton, the more likely you are to see some of the spillover from Tyler House and Sursum Corda. There is also public housing in the northern part of Truxton - there are occasionally gunshots there as well. Again, it's up to you to decide if that meets your comfort level. Walk around at night, see what you think.

I love that my kids are growing up in an economically and racially and culturally diverse neighborhood. I really like living here. I have not experienced any crime to myself or my property (other than a couple of package thefts) in 10 years. We walk A LOT.

Thanks. We'll take a walk around the neighborhood and see what we think. We lived on U and 13th a couple of years ago and loved it; unfortunately that's not in our price range right now, but we never felt unsafe there. My other impression of DC is being here for college in '05 ... obviously things have changed a ton since then, so I'm trying to take stock of how things are now.

In any case, it looks like the redevelopment of some of the housing projects should make a big difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a house just south of New York Ave. The new residential development someone referred to at N St NW is called Chapman Stables. We are close to Sursum Corda, which is slated for redevelopment in the very near future. We don't live in the house because we don't feel safe there with our two small children. Around our block, there have been many shootings over the last few years. I do think there will be a huge turnaround with Chapman Stables, Sursum Corda redevelopment, a new restaurant with outdoor cafe coming to the area, etc. It has promise but I wouldn't want to be in that immediate neighborhood with small kids right now.

Thanks for the insight. I think we'd be looking closer to Rhode Island Ave & 1st St. Don't know if that makes a difference.

It does make a difference. That's Bloomingdale, not Truxton.

Thanks for the clarification! Sorry -- I'm not familiar with that area of DC.

[Anonymous]

If you're really looking at Bloomingdale there's a bazillion young families there. (My young family lives in Truxton. It can be gritty.)