Reply to Mt. Pleasant craziness

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "Mt. Pleasant craziness"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]

I've lived in Mt. Pleasant for almost 20 years, first in a shared house, then as a homeowner. I bought a rowhouse back in the late 90s when housing prices were in a slump (for 180K--can you believe it?). I remember Columbia Heights when it was a wasteland of empty lots without a metro stop.

Now I'm still here, a Mt. Pleasant mom with young kids at Bancroft.

There's hardly a week that goes that I don't wonder if we should be moving somewhere else to better schools. I think about it when I talk to friends with kids at Eaton or Hearst; when I chat with work 
colleagues with kids in gifted programs in Takoma Park and Fairfax; when I visit my brother with kids in a great public school in the Midwest.

Although my spouse and I are not in lucrative professionss and we're lower middle class by DC standards, as much as our house has appreciated, we could move across the park or probably even 
Bethesda. But I ask myself, where would we go? What would we give up?

Some answers: A lovely, charming, historic, diverse, very walkable neighborhood. A 3 mile bike commute to work downtown. No nearby metro, but Park Road buses every 10 minutes in the morning that zip me over the Red or Green line on the days it's too cold or rainy to bike. A huge urban wilderness so close that I can step onto a hiking trail without crossing a busy street.

I do wish Mt. Pleasant had better restaurants. I have cringed in the last few years when a storefront came up for lease and instead of a Tryst or a Comet Pizza, we got another laundromat or a paint 
store. One problem is that most of the retail space is too small for a restaurant of any reasonable size. On the other hand, there's no way I would trade Mt. Pleasant Street for Park Road and 14th with 
its traffic and noise.

Then there's Bancroft. At least a few DCUM posters hate it for some reason and take every chance to dis it on this board. But I'm not sure they've even set foot in the place in the last few years. Our 
kids love Bancroft; we love the two block walk to school. It's not perfect, but our kids are growing up learning a second language as part of an incredibly diverse community.The fact is, the school is 
slowly gentrifying (80% low income 4 years ago; 70% last year). Demographically it's the closest thing in the city to Oyster; Powell, Marie Reed and Bruce Monroe are far behind. There is a small but 
strong core of middle class families who stay through 5th. And they are nice. No snooty moms like the ones I hear about at Murch or Janney. The gentrificaton will probably pick up now that bright and 
shiny Mundo Verde will no longer be nearby to suck them away.

But back to the original post, yes, house prices in Mt. P are insane! A pretty average row house down our street just went for $950,000. No way would I buy into this neighborhood now. I just feel lucky I bought here long before it became hot.   
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics