Neighborhoods on the east side of Rock Creek Park

[Anonymous]

Just curious as to why so many house hunters in DC overlook the neighborhoods on the east side of rock creek park (colonial village, shepherd park etc.). The housing stock in these areas looks beautiful but I never hear about many people looking here. Wondering if there is some hidden pitfall that I don't know about.

[Anonymous]

My husband grew up on the east side of the park. His biggest complaint was that it was so inaccessible as a kid. He could not bike easily anywhere. His high school was on the west side of the park so most of his firends and things to do were on the west side.

[Anonymous]

We are in Brightwood (I posted on the master bath thread).

Pros:
- more house for the money (3BR, 3BA, garage) $600k
- very close to Rock Creek Park for fun weekend outings
- 5 mins to downtown Silver Spring (by car)
- 10 mins to Columbia Hts Target, BBB, etc. (by car)
- Safeway, CVS, post office all within walking distance
- Quiet neighborhood, nice neighbors
- takes me 25 mins door to door to take one of the S busses to work downtown during the week
- very nice playground just a few blocks away

Cons:
- schools (though we have some time to figure this out)
- other than grocery and drug store, not much retail and only fast food restaurants within walking distance
- Most of our neighbors are older, and younger neighbors don't have kids yet making us the only family with young kids on our block (but that will likely change over time)
- Because we wanted to be close to RCP, we are over a mile from closest Metro (Takoma), but can always find free street parking within 2-3 blocks of the metro because the parking zone is the same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in Brightwood (I posted on the master bath thread).

Pros:
- more house for the money (3BR, 3BA, garage) $600k
- very close to Rock Creek Park for fun weekend outings
- 5 mins to downtown Silver Spring (by car)
- 10 mins to Columbia Hts Target, BBB, etc. (by car)
- Safeway, CVS, post office all within walking distance
- Quiet neighborhood, nice neighbors
- takes me 25 mins door to door to take one of the S busses to work downtown during the week
- very nice playground just a few blocks away

Cons:
- schools (though we have some time to figure this out)
- other than grocery and drug store, not much retail and only fast food restaurants within walking distance
- Most of our neighbors are older, and younger neighbors don't have kids yet making us the only family with young kids on our block (but that will likely change over time)
- Because we wanted to be close to RCP, we are over a mile from closest Metro (Takoma), but can always find free street parking within 2-3 blocks of the metro because the parking zone is the same

and Takoma indoor pool open year-round, with a kiddie pool...
washington latin upper school and Lamb are in brightwood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

and Takoma indoor pool open year-round, with a kiddie pool...
washington latin upper school and Lamb are in brightwood

Can't believe I forgot to list the Takoma pool! It's beautifully maintained and rarely crowded.

[Anonymous]

For me, the insurmountable cons would be lack of walkability/street vitality and compromised Metro access. I would avoid a lot of extreme NW neighborhoods for this reason, too, and in fact, chose to live more centrally and sacrifice space rather than walkability.

[Anonymous]

We moved to DC a little over 2 years ago and really, really wanted to be east of the Park (Crestwood) but ended up buying in the west (Au Park). Our reasons:

1. Schools
2. Metro Access (did not have a car when we first moved)
3. While the houses "look" nice and you get more for the money a lot that we saw were way too big (think 16th street), a bit run down when you took a closer look or both - we were not looking to renovate.
4. This one is harder to articulate, but we (my husband really) wanted to be in a area where we could walk several blocks in any direction and still feel like we were in a nice area, we found this harder on the east side of the park.

[Anonymous]

The over-simplified answer to OP's question is 1) schools; and 2) race/class. West of the park is in-boundary to the best DCPS has to offer, and it is also more affluent and more white. While the latter may not be the "advantage" that it once was, I would imagine that back in the day it helped build the reputation that west of the park was more elite and prestigious than east of the park. I grew up in Shepherd Park - I think there are a lot of people that seek it out because it has good housing stock and is cheaper and more diverse than neighborhoods west of the park, but you just don't hear about it as much because it's not the default area people seek out for good houses and good schools. The schools were a real issue for the neighborhood when I was growing up. Many of the families on my block either moved to Maryland for the schools or sent their kids private. I, along with most of the kids in my neighborhood that stayed in public schools attended Deal and Wilson instead of our in-boundary schools, which meant that our parents really had to work the system to get us in out of boundary. I *think* that Shepherd now feeds into Deal and they will allow anyone at Deal to attend Wilson, so this may not be much of an issue anymore. Shepherd Elementary has always been a solid performing school, but it does lag behind the west of the park schools in terms of test scores. I believe this is primarily because the more affluent a family is, the better the kids tend to do on standardized tests, and there is simply a higher level of affluence west of the park, but that theory is purely speculation on my part.

BTW, I'm not sure where 7:51's husband grew up, but I found Shepherd Park immensely accesible as a kid, and could use the bus or the subway to get anywhere I wanted. Also, not sure where 9:59 is talking about that you can't walk in several blocks in any direction and still feel like you are in a nice area, but this certainly isn't true of Shepherd Park or Colonial Village.

[Anonymous]

Schools and walkability.

When we were looking a few years ago we considered East of the Park. We were moving from Georgetown where we did not need to get into a car on a daily basis - and sometimes did not move the car all week. We when looked at neighborhoods East of the Park, we felt that although they were much less expensive, we were going to give up what we liked about living in the city. For us, we might as well have moved to Maryland as we would at least have solid school choices.

We ended up West of the Park and are very happy with our choice.

[Anonymous]

Could people be more specific about which west of the park neighborhoods they find walkable and more urban, and which east of the park neighborhoods they find inaccessible?

[Anonymous]

which west of the park neighborhoods they find walkable and more urban

Well, I live in the part of Chevy Chase DC that many erroneously call "Friendship Heights." The Walk Score for my address is very high. walkscore.com

This would be true for all the western parts of Chevy Chase and the eastern parts of AU Park, as well as Tenleytown. Also, Cleveland Park and some of Woodley Park. And the western part of Forest Hills, which is north of Albemarle and south of Garrison, along Connecticut Ave.

None of these places are "urban" like H St. NE is urban, or 17th and S Sts. are urban. While the commerce, Metro and buses are there, the density is not. But you still have parking issues, crime and lots of stores

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could people be more specific about which west of the park neighborhoods they find walkable and more urban, and which east of the park neighborhoods they find inaccessible?

I guess I think in terms of clusters and corridors. The whole length of Connecticut Avenue is more dense and better connected than Wisconsin Ave, which suffers from an enormous dead zone. Forget Mass. Ave once it stretches beyond Kalorama. Even on Connecticut Ave, walkability gets sparse for me north of Porter St., and even just below it, the housing stock and side streets of Cleveland Park (and super low-rise commercial strips of CP) don't feel remotely urban. I would consider the desirable urban core to stretch from Georgetown to Penn Quarter West-East and from Eastern Market to Columbia Heights South to North. These are the areas with denser buildings and shorter blocks.

Immediately east of the park, Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights are very walkable, but areas to the north become more and more residential. Again, destinations become farther apart, blocks get longer, there are fewer people on the street, and there's less to look at. To some extent, I have the same complaints about Chevy Chase, although they have some businesses along Connecticut Ave. You can walk around there if you want, but it's still pretty quiet and low-density.

[Anonymous]

We are in Adams Morgan, moved here from New York. It's immensly walkable but the tradeoffs are cost and high crime, not to mention terrible schools. My kids attend a west of the park public that we got into OOB. One thing that neighborhoods way up 16th Street are lacking, according to friends who live up there, is parks with nice playgrounds, some say that there is a lack of community feel to the neighborhoods. I'm not sure that I spend much less time in the car than suburban friends - yes I can walk to CVS and a grocery store, but so many "kid" activities like gymnastics are way out in the burbs. I also spend an insane amount of time on Rock Creek Parkway. If you are looking up 16th and need to commute downtown I'd really try driving 16th or 14th or RCPkwy during rush hour. You get more house but the commute might not be so different than Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Yay, Brightwood! PP, we're there too and have a young baby, so look for us out walking. There are a few of us around. As to the original question, the only major pitfall is the schools. If we can't do OOB or charters, we may have to move just for that reason, since we can't afford private. Maybe you can. We've been here over 7 years and the crime and other urban issues are not very different from west of the park. We got a lot of house for our money, it was actually more affordable than the close in MoCo burbs at the time we bought. And we are 2 blocks from the park, which is wonderful. Come east!

[Anonymous]

OP here--thanks for all the great replies. I guess I was really comparing the residential as opposed to more urban neighborhoods east of the park to west of the park. I agree that if you want a more urban feel than Colonial Village is not the right area for you. But I am shocked at how much more house you get for the money in Colonial Village as compared to Chevy Chase and both neighborhoods seem similar in terms of residential feel, can't walk to much, etc. Maybe it really is based on an intangible prestige factor.