Capitol Hill families - If you moved to NW or burbs for school, do you have any regrets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you considering moving to NW, or outside of DC? I am asking because before we got great 5th grade lottery luck we were having the same conversations in our house. We came to the conclusion that the NW burbs were really just that; burbs. Deal and JR are the best public schools in DC, but they do not compare favorably to the best public schools in MD or VA. If we were prepared to leave CH for schools, we weren't going to nibble around the edges for JR and were going to just pull the ripcord and decamp for true burbs and objectively better schools.

I think this is how we feel, too EXCEPT since we only have one kid, we've actually considered just moving into an apartment zoned for Deal/JR that is in the densest, most urban parts of the catchment. So basically Van Ness or Wisconsin Avenue near the Cathedral. Something pretty walkable and very close to public transportation. If we did this, we wouldn't even sell our house, just rent it out until DC finishes HS.

What we could afford to buy in NW would be far from the metro and very suburban, and if we're going to do that, we might as well leave DC and get a little more value/space for our money and really good schools.

Renting an apartment IB for Deal/Wilson was a viable strategy 5 years ago. But you should proceed with caution today. The city has placed hundreds (thousands?) of homeless in the buildings along CT and WI. It’s not at all a family friendly environment it once was. Also, there is a tremendous push from the ANCs and CM Frumin to add more affordable housing in Ward 3, which is obviously noble. But, the schools are already overcrowded and there is no relief in sight. MacArthur HS is a rounding error and won’t make a dent in the overcrowding. Do your homework.

I don’t know if the numbers are that high but yeah, DC turning middle class housing into homeless shelters was … quite the move. When I was considering the move to NW and renting, I learned that there are some buildings and management companies with better reps. Also renting in a condo building or renting a house (there are some small ones) is lower risk.

Oh stop with your Ward 3 Whining. There is homeless housing and low-income housing in every ward and you're not so special that you get a pass.

Homeless shelters should be built where it's cheapest. That would also allow DC to build more shelters per the given amount of funding.

No, homeless shelters should be built in a way that does not further concentrate poverty, near transit (including bus lines) and other amenities, and near places that can provide employment/medical care/social services. Homeless shelters and low-income housing more generally should not be places to warehouse people we'd rather forget about. Ideally, they should be springboards to help people get back on their feet with the services and support they need. Although it's a good org, CCNV's location is not exactly conducive to doing anything besides staying homeless.

[Anonymous]

This is a silly thread. Nobody’s going to admit to having regrets about having moved. If you’re heavily invested in Hill life and can’t afford private school, you roll with the punches on DC public schools EotP past elementary. If you aren’t invested, you leave and rave about your wonderful life in Upper NW or the burbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a silly thread. Nobody’s going to admit to having regrets about having moved. If you’re heavily invested in Hill life and can’t afford private school, you roll with the punches on DC public schools EotP past elementary. If you aren’t invested, you leave and rave about your wonderful life in Upper NW or the burbs.

Well, there was that one poster who moved to Bethesda and then went private. But broadly, yes, people don’t sit around having regrets about choosing among a series of pretty good but imperfect options.

[Anonymous]

We lived on the Hill for 14 years pre-kids/with babies and loved it. We loved it so much that it was really hard to leave, but a combination of wanting a third kid and having bad luck in the preschool lottery a few times made a move necessary.

We left when our oldest was 4. We ended up in MD, but 1/4 mile from the DC line in Friendship Heights. We are still walking distance to the metro, and my DH commutes by metro, but Friendship Heights doesn’t have much to walk to. We can walk to downtown Bethesda in 15 minutes but honestly we don’t. It’s too easy to park there and not worth it.


All that being said, we are really happy that we made the move. The Hill is so great for babies (I had my third baby here and there wasn’t the same community/storytimes/playground culture as on the Hill) but Chevy Chase/Bethesda is great for older kids and teens. We send our kids to private school, but our neighborhood in the BBC cluster has lots of kids that go to public. We have a neighborhood pool and swim team and even my eight year-old can walk to the pool himself and hang out with his friends. We have a much bigger house with a pretty small yard (that we pay someone to take care of because that is not our thing.)

We always thought we would move back to CH when our kids were grown, but we like it here and will probably just downsize to a condo and get a summer house somewhere else. No regrets.

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting threat for me, a long time Capitol Hill dweller, with a kid about to start high school at Walls. If we hadn't had lottery luck, we were definitely thinking through the options contained in this thread - move to the burbs, suck up a commute to a private, rent inbounds for JW . . . . Fortunately, it did not come to that. Capitol Hill is just an incredibly charming "village" to live in. I absolutely love being walking distance to so much - shops, restaurants, riverfront at Navy Yard, the Mall, my work. Many, many kid's activities within a mile. And the walk is always lovely - on brick sidewalks, past varied and attractive hundred plus year old rowhomes, old churches, the Supreme Court, and the Capitol Building, the Mall (on the way to work)) - you never feel like you are walking alongside a freeway, or next to a strip mall, as can happen so frequently in the burbs. We have friends who live in Bethesda, around 1.5 miles from the metro - but I can't imagine that being a pleasant walk. And most of the streets in their particular neighborhood don't even have sidewalks. I think what it comes down to is you either really, really enjoy this kind of dense, walkable and historical neighborhood (Capitol Hill), or it is just not that important to you (and you don't really like it). No doubt the uptick in crime has me worried - but I think that a lot of places are struggling to right the ship, post-pandemic, and enough people are invested in the neighborhood that the pendulum will swing back soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting threat for me, a long time Capitol Hill dweller, with a kid about to start high school at Walls. If we hadn't had lottery luck, we were definitely thinking through the options contained in this thread - move to the burbs, suck up a commute to a private, rent inbounds for JW . . . . Fortunately, it did not come to that. Capitol Hill is just an incredibly charming "village" to live in. I absolutely love being walking distance to so much - shops, restaurants, riverfront at Navy Yard, the Mall, my work. Many, many kid's activities within a mile. And the walk is always lovely - on brick sidewalks, past varied and attractive hundred plus year old rowhomes, old churches, the Supreme Court, and the Capitol Building, the Mall (on the way to work)) - you never feel like you are walking alongside a freeway, or next to a strip mall, as can happen so frequently in the burbs. We have friends who live in Bethesda, around 1.5 miles from the metro - but I can't imagine that being a pleasant walk. And most of the streets in their particular neighborhood don't even have sidewalks. I think what it comes down to is you either really, really enjoy this kind of dense, walkable and historical neighborhood (Capitol Hill), or it is just not that important to you (and you don't really like it). No doubt the uptick in crimei has me worried - but I think that a lot of places are struggling to right the ship, post-pandemic, and enough people are invested in the neighborhood that the pendulum will swing back soon enough.

If you hadn’t gotten lucky in the lottery (where did your Walls kid go for MS?), would you have moved, despite loving your neighborhood?

That’s the question.

People who got lucky in the lottery don’t get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We raised our kids in Arlington too, after moving to the DMV from elsewhere, not really being city people, and knowing nothing about DC. We’ve now lived in the area for decades, and moved to the city as young empty nesters several years ago.

There’s no doubt that our kids had a nice upbringing in a safe area with good schools. And they have fond memories of their childhood. And they like the DMV well enough that they have all settled here.

But none of them (four) is even considering living or raising their families in a place like Arlington (and, yes, they could afford it). It’s just that after being out of it for a while it’s now painfully obvious just how white, sterile and insular it was, and none of them want that either for themselves or their kids.

+100. I’m Asian and I find Arlington too homogeneous and white. It is an easy place to live but incredibly insular

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We raised our kids in Arlington too, after moving to the DMV from elsewhere, not really being city people, and knowing nothing about DC. We’ve now lived in the area for decades, and moved to the city as young empty nesters several years ago.

There’s no doubt that our kids had a nice upbringing in a safe area with good schools. And they have fond memories of their childhood. And they like the DMV well enough that they have all settled here.

But none of them (four) is even considering living or raising their families in a place like Arlington (and, yes, they could afford it). It’s just that after being out of it for a while it’s now painfully obvious just how white, sterile and insular it was, and none of them want that either for themselves or their kids.

Did your kids go to Yorktown? My kids are at Gunston. It is definitely not rich, white and entitled.

Our kids attended North Arlington schools. No one with any real money moves from DC to South Arlington for the schools. Not because they’re not good - they are - but because they’re not perceived as good.

You’re the minority if you did.

I am the PP. My kids are in the bilingual program so my kids take a bus to Gunston instead of walking to our N. Arlington middle school. Gunston has great teachers and we are all glad we left the hill.

That’s great - good for you. But you didn’t move to South Arlington I see.

I want to like South Arlington but it is pretty ugly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We raised our kids in Arlington too, after moving to the DMV from elsewhere, not really being city people, and knowing nothing about DC. We’ve now lived in the area for decades, and moved to the city as young empty nesters several years ago.

There’s no doubt that our kids had a nice upbringing in a safe area with good schools. And they have fond memories of their childhood. And they like the DMV well enough that they have all settled here.

But none of them (four) is even considering living or raising their families in a place like Arlington (and, yes, they could afford it). It’s just that after being out of it for a while it’s now painfully obvious just how white, sterile and insular it was, and none of them want that either for themselves or their kids.

Did your kids go to Yorktown? My kids are at Gunston. It is definitely not rich, white and entitled.

Our kids attended North Arlington schools. No one with any real money moves from DC to South Arlington for the schools. Not because they’re not good - they are - but because they’re not perceived as good.

You’re the minority if you did.

I am the PP. My kids are in the bilingual program so my kids take a bus to Gunston instead of walking to our N. Arlington middle school. Gunston has great teachers and we are all glad we left the hill.

That’s great - good for you. But you didn’t move to South Arlington I see.

I want to like South Arlington but it is pretty ugly

It will get better as Columbia Pike is redeveloped. Shirlington Village and Fairlington are very attractive, and there are other attractive and similarly historic South Arlington neighborhoods, but like LA, there are a lot of ugly parts in between.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a silly thread. Nobody’s going to admit to having regrets about having moved. If you’re heavily invested in Hill life and can’t afford private school, you roll with the punches on DC public schools EotP past elementary. If you aren’t invested, you leave and rave about your wonderful life in Upper NW or the burbs.

I mean I regret my commute. I hate it. Other than that, the suburbs have been what we need for now, for various reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you considering moving to NW, or outside of DC? I am asking because before we got great 5th grade lottery luck we were having the same conversations in our house. We came to the conclusion that the NW burbs were really just that; burbs. Deal and JR are the best public schools in DC, but they do not compare favorably to the best public schools in MD or VA. If we were prepared to leave CH for schools, we weren't going to nibble around the edges for JR and were going to just pull the ripcord and decamp for true burbs and objectively better schools.

I think this is how we feel, too EXCEPT since we only have one kid, we've actually considered just moving into an apartment zoned for Deal/JR that is in the densest, most urban parts of the catchment. So basically Van Ness or Wisconsin Avenue near the Cathedral. Something pretty walkable and very close to public transportation. If we did this, we wouldn't even sell our house, just rent it out until DC finishes HS.

What we could afford to buy in NW would be far from the metro and very suburban, and if we're going to do that, we might as well leave DC and get a little more value/space for our money and really good schools.

Renting an apartment IB for Deal/Wilson was a viable strategy 5 years ago. But you should proceed with caution today. The city has placed hundreds (thousands?) of homeless in the buildings along CT and WI. It’s not at all a family friendly environment it once was. Also, there is a tremendous push from the ANCs and CM Frumin to add more affordable housing in Ward 3, which is obviously noble. But, the schools are already overcrowded and there is no relief in sight. MacArthur HS is a rounding error and won’t make a dent in the overcrowding. Do your homework.

I don’t know if the numbers are that high but yeah, DC turning middle class housing into homeless shelters was … quite the move. When I was considering the move to NW and renting, I learned that there are some buildings and management companies with better reps. Also renting in a condo building or renting a house (there are some small ones) is lower risk.

Oh stop with your Ward 3 Whining. There is homeless housing and low-income housing in every ward and you're not so special that you get a pass.

Homeless shelters should be built where it's cheapest. That would also allow DC to build more shelters per the given amount of funding.

I agree with this. The problem with the voucher program is that they are putting people who actually need supportive housing with services into apartment buildings with no support. It makes sense to have a voucher program that lets functional families pick an apartment in various neighborhoods, but it does not make sense to turn buildings into de facto low barrier homeless shelters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you considering moving to NW, or outside of DC? I am asking because before we got great 5th grade lottery luck we were having the same conversations in our house. We came to the conclusion that the NW burbs were really just that; burbs. Deal and JR are the best public schools in DC, but they do not compare favorably to the best public schools in MD or VA. If we were prepared to leave CH for schools, we weren't going to nibble around the edges for JR and were going to just pull the ripcord and decamp for true burbs and objectively better schools.

I think this is how we feel, too EXCEPT since we only have one kid, we've actually considered just moving into an apartment zoned for Deal/JR that is in the densest, most urban parts of the catchment. So basically Van Ness or Wisconsin Avenue near the Cathedral. Something pretty walkable and very close to public transportation. If we did this, we wouldn't even sell our house, just rent it out until DC finishes HS.

What we could afford to buy in NW would be far from the metro and very suburban, and if we're going to do that, we might as well leave DC and get a little more value/space for our money and really good schools.

Renting an apartment IB for Deal/Wilson was a viable strategy 5 years ago. But you should proceed with caution today. The city has placed hundreds (thousands?) of homeless in the buildings along CT and WI. It’s not at all a family friendly environment it once was. Also, there is a tremendous push from the ANCs and CM Frumin to add more affordable housing in Ward 3, which is obviously noble. But, the schools are already overcrowded and there is no relief in sight. MacArthur HS is a rounding error and won’t make a dent in the overcrowding. Do your homework.

I don’t know if the numbers are that high but yeah, DC turning middle class housing into homeless shelters was … quite the move. When I was considering the move to NW and renting, I learned that there are some buildings and management companies with better reps. Also renting in a condo building or renting a house (there are some small ones) is lower risk.

Oh stop with your Ward 3 Whining. There is homeless housing and low-income housing in every ward and you're not so special that you get a pass.

Homeless shelters should be built where it's cheapest. That would also allow DC to build more shelters per the given amount of funding.

No, homeless shelters should be built in a way that does not further concentrate poverty, near transit (including bus lines) and other amenities, and near places that can provide employment/medical care/social services. Homeless shelters and low-income housing more generally should not be places to warehouse people we'd rather forget about. Ideally, they should be springboards to help people get back on their feet with the services and support they need. Although it's a good org, CCNV's location is not exactly conducive to doing anything besides staying homeless.

the voucher program doesn’t do any of those things, though. and there’s a good argument that the city should not be spending scarce dollars on the most expensive real estate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP, but in a similar boat as OP.

Folks are posting about moving from CH to other parts of the city or close in (Arlington). I don't really consider any of these the true burbs. What about folks who moved closer to the beltway? Where little is really walkable, takeout is slim pickings, etc.?

We moved from petworth to Oakton. We love it. We didn’t realize how much stress we lived with weighed on us - crime particularly- till we were out. We love being around more nature and letting the kids run around and having a bigger space for family visits. Our neighborhood has been really nice and we’ve met nice families but we made the effort to introduce ourselves when we moved in because you don’t have that row home proximity to help out. Have to be proactive in the burbs for sure. Our school has more diversity than our dc public did. We’ve had zero regrets.

um. if your public school was in Petworth, this is literally not possible. Oakton is 75% white.

People are just saying anything lol

I don't live in Oakton, but looked it up. Oakton is 53% white and Oakton HS is 43% white

https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108:13:::NO:0_CURRENT_SCHOOL_ID,P0_EDSL:050,0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting threat for me, a long time Capitol Hill dweller, with a kid about to start high school at Walls. If we hadn't had lottery luck, we were definitely thinking through the options contained in this thread - move to the burbs, suck up a commute to a private, rent inbounds for JW . . . . Fortunately, it did not come to that. Capitol Hill is just an incredibly charming "village" to live in. I absolutely love being walking distance to so much - shops, restaurants, riverfront at Navy Yard, the Mall, my work. Many, many kid's activities within a mile. And the walk is always lovely - on brick sidewalks, past varied and attractive hundred plus year old rowhomes, old churches, the Supreme Court, and the Capitol Building, the Mall (on the way to work)) - you never feel like you are walking alongside a freeway, or next to a strip mall, as can happen so frequently in the burbs. We have friends who live in Bethesda, around 1.5 miles from the metro - but I can't imagine that being a pleasant walk. And most of the streets in their particular neighborhood don't even have sidewalks. I think what it comes down to is you either really, really enjoy this kind of dense, walkable and historical neighborhood (Capitol Hill), or it is just not that important to you (and you don't really like it). No doubt the uptick in crimei has me worried - but I think that a lot of places are struggling to right the ship, post-pandemic, and enough people are invested in the neighborhood that the pendulum will swing back soon enough.

If you hadn’t gotten lucky in the lottery (where did your Walls kid go for MS?), would you have moved, despite loving your neighborhood?

That’s the question.

People who got lucky in the lottery don’t get it.

This this this. All of our friends had great lottery luck. We have our own luck, but it's not without sacrifice (money and commute). They don't understand why we want to move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting threat for me, a long time Capitol Hill dweller, with a kid about to start high school at Walls. If we hadn't had lottery luck, we were definitely thinking through the options contained in this thread - move to the burbs, suck up a commute to a private, rent inbounds for JW . . . . Fortunately, it did not come to that. Capitol Hill is just an incredibly charming "village" to live in. I absolutely love being walking distance to so much - shops, restaurants, riverfront at Navy Yard, the Mall, my work. Many, many kid's activities within a mile. And the walk is always lovely - on brick sidewalks, past varied and attractive hundred plus year old rowhomes, old churches, the Supreme Court, and the Capitol Building, the Mall (on the way to work)) - you never feel like you are walking alongside a freeway, or next to a strip mall, as can happen so frequently in the burbs. We have friends who live in Bethesda, around 1.5 miles from the metro - but I can't imagine that being a pleasant walk. And most of the streets in their particular neighborhood don't even have sidewalks. I think what it comes down to is you either really, really enjoy this kind of dense, walkable and historical neighborhood (Capitol Hill), or it is just not that important to you (and you don't really like it). No doubt the uptick in crimei has me worried - but I think that a lot of places are struggling to right the ship, post-pandemic, and enough people are invested in the neighborhood that the pendulum will swing back soon enough.

If you hadn’t gotten lucky in the lottery (where did your Walls kid go for MS?), would you have moved, despite loving your neighborhood?

That’s the question.

People who got lucky in the lottery don’t get it.

This this this. All of our friends had great lottery luck. We have our own luck, but it's not without sacrifice (money and commute). They don't understand why we want to move.

Also if you have kids 5+ years apart, getting lucky in the lottery doesn't mean you get sibling preference after elementary school - and who wants to bank on winning the lottery twice? You do well with the older child, but your younger child doesn't and you can't afford private.... so now you move and pull the older child out of their school in highschool? This is our thinking - to be in a school district where both kids have a decent chance of doing well in the local school (obviously nothing is guaranteed).