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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think there is a lot of truth to what’s been written on this thread for the Petworth area near the Kansas and Georgia intersection, and definitely further south.

However, we moved to the northern Petworth area(a little north of Sherman Circle) in 2014 and feel like it is a very different experience. You lose the walkability (though there are buses) but you gain a lot of community. Many of the side streets have a ton of kids and feel quite safe (or as safe as anywhere in a city).

We have a 7 and 9 year old and they know everyone on our street, with a lot of evening play in the front yards and alleys. There is a lot of racial and socioeconomic diversity, and many young families and intergenerational families that have been in the area for awhile. There are also a number of childless DC professionals who move to the area to get a good house close to downtowns.

Interestingly, it is not just families with babies, there are more and more late elementary families (though many if not most of those families that we know, including us, are in DCI feeder schools - I agree the McFarland feeder is a challenge). Every year there is more and more visible community, including elaborate Halloween trick or treat nights, parties at Sherman circle, and block parties.

We really love our street and feel quite happy and no plans to move. It helps that we were lucky and bought long enough ago that we could afford a rowhouse with a big backyard- those are harder to find and now can go for $1m+.

I acknowledge that there were things we lucked out on including the timing we bought, our neighbors, and our charter school, but don’t sleep on northern petworth. Not every street is a gem but those that are are truly special. [/quote]

What would you have done had you not lucked out on your charter school? [/quote]

I don’t know how I would answer this as an individual, because we were never in our inbound school. But my husband  was wary about our inbound school and I am sure he wouldn’t have been happy with the kids being there past pre-k4.

So truthfully, I don’t know. We are not enamored by the suburbs (we love our neighborhood and it feels like all of our friends with bigger houses just have bigger messes to clean). Probably we would’ve moved to either a small house west of the park, or Takoma Park. Maybe we would’ve tried private but I’m not sure we could’ve afford it.
[/quote]

So you would have left Petworth.

That's Petworth in a nutshell: The people with options who are randomly assigned a good DCPS number stay. Or the people who can afford private and are fine with the neighborhood's negatives stay. The people with options who don't get a good number and can't afford $40k/year for private cash out and leave.

This is not a knock against you. But it's also an illustration of Petworth's very low ceiling, and an illustration of why people will be having this same conversation 20 years from now.[/quote]

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