Sell me on Silver Spring

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Sorry, didn’t mean to offend anyone. I like the diversity in SS and some of the neighbourhoods are nice. People seem friendly.
It’s just that I have been to downtown SS many times now and it is a bit depressing. I’m fine with urban grit but there is something about the SS downtown that I find jarring. It is not designed well and many of the buildings are ugly and rundown. I love ethnic food. It’s just that the area feels utterly charmless. The WF is nice but the parking lot there gets crazy on the weekends. I was surprised at the traffic and congestion in downtown on Friday evenings. I just feel it would add to my stress level if I had to go there a lot. The farmers market is very nice. Maybe it is fine to live there but avoid downtown and instead frequent Takoma Park, Bethesda and Rockville instead. Even the metro station looks imposing and uninviting. Good to hear there are nice parks around. We are also looking at Kensington. I’m not a huge Bethesda fan but I would say the Bethesda downtown beats SS by a mile. I guess that visual aesthetics are important to me. I could never live in an ugly house even if the inside was very nice.

OP, I lived near SS for 16 years and worked in downtown SS for 6 and I agree with you 100%. I think the people being mean to you are just being defensive. FWIW, I like a lot of the neighborhoods in SS and like the people there better than in Bethesda but anyone who argues that DTSS is as nice as or nicer than Bethesda is deluded or just trying to justify their choice to live there.

Seconded. Silver Spring has a lot of nice neighborhoods. Woodside is great, Forest Glen is an under appreciated gem as is the neighborhoods around Four Corners. But people on here saying that Downtown SS is nicer than downtown Bethesda are delusional. Forget about the architecture arguments or the subjective views about soul, just consider that downtown Bethesda is contained on one side of a busy road (Wisconsin Ave) and you don’t have to walk across a busy highway to get to the main part from the Metro, unlike Silver Spring, where the downtown is only accessible from the Metro across Georgia Ave and the whole downtown is poorly planned and broken up by large roads. Concerns about getting hit by a car or living in a poorly planned urban center have nothing to do with demographics. Columbia Heights is just as diverse and has more “soul,” architectural character, and is most importantly much more walkable and better planned. Ditto Takoma Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Sorry, didn’t mean to offend anyone. I like the diversity in SS and some of the neighbourhoods are nice. People seem friendly.
It’s just that I have been to downtown SS many times now and it is a bit depressing. I’m fine with urban grit but there is something about the SS downtown that I find jarring. It is not designed well and many of the buildings are ugly and rundown. I love ethnic food. It’s just that the area feels utterly charmless. The WF is nice but the parking lot there gets crazy on the weekends. I was surprised at the traffic and congestion in downtown on Friday evenings. I just feel it would add to my stress level if I had to go there a lot. The farmers market is very nice. Maybe it is fine to live there but avoid downtown and instead frequent Takoma Park, Bethesda and Rockville instead. Even the metro station looks imposing and uninviting. Good to hear there are nice parks around. We are also looking at Kensington. I’m not a huge Bethesda fan but I would say the Bethesda downtown beats SS by a mile. I guess that visual aesthetics are important to me. I could never live in an ugly house even if the inside was very nice.

OP, I lived near SS for 16 years and worked in downtown SS for 6 and I agree with you 100%. I think the people being mean to you are just being defensive. FWIW, I like a lot of the neighborhoods in SS and like the people there better than in Bethesda but anyone who argues that DTSS is as nice as or nicer than Bethesda is deluded or just trying to justify their choice to live there.

Seconded. Silver Spring has a lot of nice neighborhoods. Woodside is great, Forest Glen is an under appreciated gem as is the neighborhoods around Four Corners. But people on here saying that Downtown SS is nicer than downtown Bethesda are delusional. Forget about the architecture arguments or the subjective views about soul, just consider that downtown Bethesda is contained on one side of a busy road (Wisconsin Ave) and you don’t have to walk across a busy highway to get to the main part from the Metro, unlike Silver Spring, where the downtown is only accessible from the Metro across Georgia Ave and the whole downtown is poorly planned and broken up by large roads. Concerns about getting hit by a car or living in a poorly planned urban center have nothing to do with demographics. Columbia Heights is just as diverse and has more “soul,” architectural character, and is most importantly much more walkable and better planned. Ditto Takoma Park.

Exactly. I love the people in Silver Spring. But walking around downtown with my 4 year old is stressful. I don't think there's anything wrong with wishing it were prettier and designed better. Unfortunately, there's not that many choices for walkable areas in MoCo. I think parts of close-in Silver Spring are great, I and I still live here. But I spend less and less time in DTSS itself and don't miss it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in downtown SS and love it. We are a ten minute walk from Rock Creek Park, so easy to get to downtown DC, lots of playgrounds. If we could buy in close-in SS (Woodside) or those townhouses across from the metro station I would feel like I've made it in life. We are people who prefer hole in the wall Ethiopian food to high end Bethesda restaurants, and Bethesda has too many White people for me honestly. I grew up in Bethesda and it's nice, but so not me.

When did this become acceptable to say? Smh.

When whit ppl pay a premium to avoid minorities like in Bethesda and AU Park.

Or maybe they just pay a premium for a nicer downtown with better schools? Why shouldn’t they if they have the money and it’s their preference... not EVERY discussion has to come back to race.... it’s exhausting

[Anonymous]

Rockville Pike used to be a disaster and the epitome of ugly semi-urban sprawl but Rockville has been redoing much of the area to create more walkable and pleasant spaces. I wonder if SS could be redone in the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rockville Pike used to be a disaster and the epitome of ugly semi-urban sprawl but Rockville has been redoing much of the area to create more walkable and pleasant spaces. I wonder if SS could be redone in the same way.

What is walkable in Rockville?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in downtown SS and love it. We are a ten minute walk from Rock Creek Park, so easy to get to downtown DC, lots of playgrounds. If we could buy in close-in SS (Woodside) or those townhouses across from the metro station I would feel like I've made it in life. We are people who prefer hole in the wall Ethiopian food to high end Bethesda restaurants, and Bethesda has too many White people for me honestly. I grew up in Bethesda and it's nice, but so not me.

When did this become acceptable to say? Smh.

When whit ppl pay a premium to avoid minorities like in Bethesda and AU Park.

Or maybe they just pay a premium for a nicer downtown with better schools? Why shouldn’t they if they have the money and it’s their preference... not EVERY discussion has to come back to race.... it’s exhausting

Thanks for playing the caucasian naivete game in 2021. As if better schools are not directly linked to racist zoning, white flight and deliberately underfunded schools. This is not even novel or scandalous info. Idk what country you live in but in America, the country where ppl enslaved people to avoid doing work and then created policies to over centuries to ensure those some ppl would never ever be their equals, it usually always HAS to come back to race.

But enjoy your white enclave!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rockville Pike used to be a disaster and the epitome of ugly semi-urban sprawl but Rockville has been redoing much of the area to create more walkable and pleasant spaces. I wonder if SS could be redone in the same way.

I never see anyone walking on Rockville Pike. I am not bein dramatic either. I see people getting out of their cars to walk to each strip mall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rockville Pike used to be a disaster and the epitome of ugly semi-urban sprawl but Rockville has been redoing much of the area to create more walkable and pleasant spaces. I wonder if SS could be redone in the same way.

What is walkable in Rockville?

The Pike and Rose shopping center is nice. Has some good restaurants and shops and condos. It looks nicer than DTSS.

[Anonymous]

The area near Rockville town center is great. Walkable, clean, metro station, good schools too.

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine lives on Wilton Ave over by the Mormon cathedral and it is a LOVELY, very tight knit, very friendly, neighborly street.

I don't know the exact name of that neighborhood, but if you look up Wilton Ave in Silver Spring you'll find it.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A friend of mine lives on Wilton Ave over by the Mormon cathedral and it is a LOVELY, very tight knit, very friendly, neighborly street.

I don't know the exact name of that neighborhood, but if you look up Wilton Ave in Silver Spring you'll find it.

Good luck!

Hoping this helps...
They bought about 18 months ago, they got their beautiful home, a lovely guest house on the property, and a huge piece of land for $820,000.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2941-Wilton-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20910_M57437-95110

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda is where souls go to die. Rockville, Frederick, anything thing is better than heinous and hoitey Bethesda with its zero parking, congestion, and office park overload. Blah blah blah. It’s the Arlington of MoCo.

Oh yes, the drug & opioid epidemic ground zero, crime riddled Frederick is MUCH better than Bethesda.
I'm sure given the option of a free home in either location, you'd far prefer to live in Frederick, right? 🤣

Oh, and please spare us the part where you extolle all of the virtues of Frederick, ok?
I grew up there.

Nothing, absolutely nothing you can say would make Frederick a better place to raise your family than Bethesda.

Any place is better than Frederick to raise a family... ANY PLACE.

I live in Rockville now, so I have no dog in this Silver Spring fight, but for you to make such a ridiculous, laughable and untrue statement, shows that you have ZERO clue of what you speak of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster here. We have a budget that caps out at $1 million. Could we find a decent house in a nice SS neighborhood. We have two kids. We have been looking within DC but now I’m wondering if we should also look further out.

Yes. If my budget had been a touch higher, I'd have looked in the neighborhood that I think is called Twelve Oaks. This sold recently, and is central to everything: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8401-Cedar-St-Silver-Spring-MD-20910/37283013_zpid/

This is Silver Spring address but Takoma Park schools: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7919-Takoma-Ave-Silver-Spring-MD-20910/37313316_zpid/

It's shocking to me that a 1928 house with radiator heat and in desperate need of renovations, sold for almost $1M! 🤯

FYI, that has absolutely nothing to do with the home being in Silver Spring, because I'm shocked that anyone would pay that much money for such an old home anywhere in this area (not to mention, all of the issues that come with owning an old house brings).

Am I missing something here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster here. We have a budget that caps out at $1 million. Could we find a decent house in a nice SS neighborhood. We have two kids. We have been looking within DC but now I’m wondering if we should also look further out.

Yes. If my budget had been a touch higher, I'd have looked in the neighborhood that I think is called Twelve Oaks. This sold recently, and is central to everything: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8401-Cedar-St-Silver-Spring-MD-20910/37283013_zpid/

This is Silver Spring address but Takoma Park schools: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7919-Takoma-Ave-Silver-Spring-MD-20910/37313316_zpid/

It's shocking to me that a 1928 house with radiator heat and in desperate need of renovations, sold for almost $1M! 🤯

FYI, that has absolutely nothing to do with the home being in Silver Spring, because I'm shocked that anyone would pay that much money for such an old home anywhere in this area (not to mention, all of the issues that come with owning an old house brings).

Am I missing something here?

Not to mention that the high school is a 3/10 on Zillow.

[Anonymous]

Bethesda is really nice, but you can’t get around the whiteness and the history. And obviously that’s what people mean by “good schools.”