Forum Index
»
DC Public and Public Charter Schools
H.D. Cooke...thoughts?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| So crime is down but still high. Makes me want to only look at safer OOB neighborhoods no matter how nice a school renovation is. |
Anonymous
|
A drive by shooting during the day, feet from the school
http://dcist.com/2007/02/hopes_are_high_.php If you think things have changed so much, I'd say you might be kidding yourself. Ward 3 has the highest crime in the entire city according to the Washington Post and much of it is concentrated in the area where HD Cooke is located. A police camera is not a sign of a location where I would walk around with my child. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14392-2003Nov7?language=printer http://www.dupontcircle.biz/dcu/dcu040.htm Who do you all think is putting up all the "1-7" and "Clifton Terrace" tags all over, the tooth fairy? |
Anonymous
|
PP here, I mis-typed above, it is Ward 1, 3rd District that has the honor of having the highest crime in the entire city.
|
Anonymous
| Oh, for heaven's sake, shouldn't you be posting on your own Fairfax County board? |
Anonymous
|
http://www.princeofpetworth.com/2009/12/shooting-at-2600-block-of-sherman-ave-nw-wed-night/
http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=3824 (search down for "euclid" http://borderstan.com/tag/adams-morgan/ (daytime robberies at 17th & Columbia, 1/2 block from Cooke, crime on Kalorama and many of the blocks surrounding the school, pack robberies, Guardian Angel patrols of Adams Morgan, etc.) Cap City isn't in a great location either, problems not likely to change anytime soon http://www.columbiaheightsnews.org/News/Councilmember/Gang-Retaliations-Source-of-Much-Recent-Violence.html http://www.princeofpetworth.com/2008/07/fatal-shooting-in-adams-morgan/ Anyway, you get the idea. Not a very safe neighborhood, and I live in it so I should know. Going to stop pasting the innumerable links my google search turned up, but wanted to mention another daytime shooting (weekday) on Columbia Road, kids fired across the street, bullets struck the bus stop and broke the window of Casa Lebrato, just at the height of my 3 year old's face, we had been there just a bit earlier, happened around 2-3 pm, close to school dismissal IIRC. There were also shots fired that day on Mozart or one of other side streets in the immediate neighborhood of Cooke. I actually don't walk on Columbia anymore during the day except on the weekends, way too much going on. The "Cooke" side of Columbia is worse. I would never patronize the jewlers on Columbia, way too likely to be robbed. Even Crumbs and Coffee was robbed at 11 am one Sunday morning, at gunpoint. Literally dodged that bullet, I had promised my kids donuts but they dawdled putting on their shoes. One way to "trade up" schools is to call around the 2nd Monday in the fall, if they have openings, they will release them to OOB students. Most likely in K, but worth a try. I know kids from Adams Morgan who got into Eaton and Murch that way. |
Anonymous
Sorry, proud longtime AM resident here. Last time I checked, Cooke had even lower scores than Marie Reed. There is a crack house on the corner. People should be aware of the factors at play in the neighborhood that have nothing to do with a new building. Decide whatever you want re: your kids but don't be naive. |
Anonymous
Where do you live? Most parents are happy to have more information about the schools they are considering. What is your problem? |
Anonymous
Maybe she lives near H.D. Cooke and/or decided to send her kids there? This is a brutal place for people who make decisions contrary to the prevailing wisdom, yet need those decisions validated in an anonymous forum. |
Anonymous
if you won't walk on columbia road on weekdays, i think it's time for you to move out of adams morgan. seriously. i am a little neurotic myself and this seems downright silly to me. |
Anonymous
|
Everyone makes different choices. From 18th down to Dupont, fine. From 16th to 18th, eh, I'll skip it in the early afternoon on weekday. I don't enjoy the men hanging out (and I don't mean Christ House), the harassment, the spitting and pissing on the sidewalk or the vibe. There are so many lovely streets in Adams Morgan, no need to drag my toddlers through that scene when we can just walk around it. We have no need for illegal documents, and just don't find it pleasant. Before kids, not an issue, I was at work all day.
No plans to sell, thanks for your concern PP. |
Anonymous
|
What a lot of grim links. Yeesh, I'd blocked some of those incidents out. I've lived in Adams Morgan for 15 years, moved here from NY. The crime in the area bounded by 16th, Columbia, and 18th has always been really bad. Yes there has been development and there is a new grocery. There are a lot of real pathologies at work and the problems of those kids - hungry, witnesses to violence, not school ready, are going to take precedence.
I'm guessing that a lot of DCUM Adams Morgan parents don't live in that immediate 17th and Euclid area. Go walk around, after school, and in the late afternoon and see for yourself how you feel. Stop in at the Euclid Market a 1/2 block away and see how comfortable you are getting an after school snack. In the morning it is quiet, but later in the day and in the early evening (it's dark early in the winter) it's a different scene. Would you be comfortable having your kids walk to a friend's house nearby when they are older? How many of their classmates will live in homes that you will feel comfortable having them visit? A police camera is not usuallly a sign of a family friendly neighborhood, did you notice it 1/2 a block away when you went for the Cooke tour? Maybe driving up and dropping/picking up at the Mozart door will work for some people. But people who are concerned about Columbia Road need to do some more invesigation, it's Euclid and 17th and Champlain that you need to worry about. The new building is lovely, I'd still give getting into charters or OOB schools at entry years your best shot. Also look at the schools that Cooke feeds to and how comfortable you would be there. The game in DC is to get in an elementary that allows you to avoid the worst of the middle schools (both the poor education and the peers who may be getting involved in gangs and crime at that age). Why do people think that even schools in upper NW like Deal and Wilson have metal detectors? Cooke feeds to schools in Columbia Heights. As always, YMMV. |
Anonymous
I don't know if it's really that silly. I live in Mount Pleasant and have asked our nanny take routes other than Mount Pleasant street if possible in the afternoon. Several friends have done the same. Did you live here a few years back where the gang kids on bicycles opened fire on the 42 bus coming down Mt. Pleasant at 2 or 3 in the afternoon? Lots of kids hanging out and shady characters. It's just more prudent to avoid places that are likely to be hot spots if it is feasible. A friend owns a business in the commerical strip on Columbia and has told us that there are a lot of robberies during the day. Do you work fulltime neurotic PP? If you do, and if you don't read the crime stats in the Post or elsewhere, then I could see having a very different impression. Doesn't mean that the crime isn't there though, just that you have been lucky and it hasn't touched you. If you drive into the Target garage you might be unaware of the frequent violent crime at the CH metro stop. |
Anonymous
| i work full-time, but only for the past year. before that, a combo of sahm and wah for 3 years prior. so i was out and about in the nabe all the time. i don't own a car and so i don't drive to target. i am on foot and on bus all these nabes every day. and i am not particularly brave! i am on the AM list serve, i read a bunch of the local blogs, Wapo, City Paper etc. i feel informed. i don't feel unsafe on columbia road. even at 930pm at safeway, where i often am, sadly, because that is the only chance i get to shop. |
Anonymous
Sheesh, not that proud, considering how hard you've been banging this AM=hellhole drum. If you're so terrified, perhaps it is time to move to the 'burbs. |
Anonymous
To be fair, it doesn't come across to me like she's saying Adams Morgan is a hellhole. It comes across as someone who knows the ins and outs of the neighborhood and is being very frank about them. If I were a parent considering this school, these are factors I would want to know about so that I could take them under consideration. The way you're lashing out at her suggests that your choice is different from hers - and you resent the fact that she won't validate your decision. |