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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m surprised no one has mentioned Takoma park on this thread yet (probably bc this is the dcps board). But we moved there a few years ago and have been very happy. It’s more of a small town vibe, rather than sprawling suburbs. Very walkable, easy to commute to my job on the hill, we got an yard, and we’ve been happy with the schools. It sounds like OP is considering Silver Spring, which (depending on the neighborhood they land on) would likely be pretty similar in terms of walkability. It’s not perfect here (traffic, and we have plenty of posturing lawn signs), but it’s much more livable and relaxing, for us.[/quote]

Takoma park is great if you like insane commuters blasting through the neighborhood, constant traffic, high housing prices for poorly maintained cheap siding covered homes, and truly bad to mediocre schools. Also if you think proximity to Georgia Ave is a plus (pawn shops and McDonald’s) then sure, maybe?  I guess some people like crime. [/quote]

Huh? Georgia Ave doesn’t even go through TKPK… if you don’t like it, don’t move there, though it sounds like maybe you haven’t been there before? I’m just sharing my experience of moving to another neighborhood without big regrets in case it’s helpful to the OP, who may be wrestling with some of the same issues we were (crime, schools, space, etc). [/quote]

From what I can tell, the CH boosters don’t like any neighbourhood in DC, MD or VA except CH[/quote]

Yeah, not everyone in CH is like this but some people definitely are. Like there is nowhere else in the area that is worthwhile or something. It's weird. I live here and it has good qualities and bad qualities. It is not all things to all people and there are of course tradeoffs.

I wonder if, as CH has gotten more expensive, people feel like they need to justify the expense by believing it's better than everywhere else. When a row house in CH costs $2m, and you still don't have a yard or a good IB high school, maybe you feel like you have to justify yourself? Though the people we know who have bough recently for $$$ just send kids to private and can travel a lot or spend time at a family home or second home in the country in warmer months. So I don't know.[/quote]

This is just poor logic. Most people bought their homes years ago and can afford to sell and buy another in a different neighborhood. Even the ones without family money and second homes.

What doesn’t make sense to me is selling your Capitol Hill house to move to a neighborhood with similarly poor middle and high schools, with worse amenities in a worse location.  I would happily sell my house and move if I could find a neighborhood with excellent schools. I would be ok selling my nice brick house for a wooden box in a cookie cutter suburb if it meant the schools made the step down worth it. There is no neighborhood in dc with good enough schools for me to justify a move from Capitol Hill but that’s my opinion anyway. [/quote]

Whether it’s logical or not, I think it is at least a partial explanation.  Truth be told, many of the amenities in Capitol Hill aren’t really that great.  Barracks Row would be nice, but really, I avoid taking my kid down there because there is always a bad vibe on parts of it.  Eastern Market is ok and a fun time with kids on the weekend.  I like many of the parks, but we also travel out of the neighborhood to go to other parks pretty regularly.  I do like the proximity to the mall, and that I can easily walk around the neighborhood with kids.[/quote]

Regarding parks, I think CH suffers often from having parks run by the NPS instead of municipal government. Like the playground at Eastern Market is great, because it was built by the city and is maintained through a neighborhood organization. Meanwhile, Lincoln Park has awful playgrounds, desperately needs a separate dog park, and the grass is often not well maintained. Similar problem with Stanton Park. It's a missed opportunity but due to the weirdness of DC governance, will not change anytime soon.[/quote]

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