Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:How shallow are you people to make the weather a major factor in where you live? It's all about jobs and education for the kids. Anything else, like real estate values, follows the jobs and education picture. Anything else is much less important.
Oh god, you're obnoxious. Weather matters because it's about being able to get out and enjoy the outdoors with your family. Where I grew up people spend most of the summer hiking/biking/camping/fishing and most of the fall and winter skiing, hunting, etc. It's about a lifestyle and values. And FWIW, I grew up in the sticks where people didn't obsess over jobs and education like they do here, and somehow I'm still smart and motivated enough to have a great job in this seriously competitive city. It's not so cut and dried.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:it's been hard for DH and I to make friends in our age group because we're relatively young parents for this area (29/32) though relatively old first time parents where we're both from.
I'm almost 40, and I have close friends in the area aged 25-50+, all with young children. Your friends don't need to be in your narrow age group.
Anonymous wrote:Fact: The people who have recently moved to upper NW(Last 10yrs) are wealthy either by their own means or trust funds. THey're the brightest, go-getters in this area and they can afford to live in DC comfortably.
Data to back your statement up, please. I smell some bs!
I have some! NP here. Checking 2010 US Census data, I can see that approx. 40% of the people in my very immediate neighborhood make more than $200,000 a year. This is a 10-fold increase from 10 years ago. As I click around the rest of upper NW DC in 20015, 20016, 20008 and 20007, I see the same thing.
We can debate whether $200,000 a year + is 'wealthy' or not, but I think it's safe to say where the trend is going here in CCDC and AU Park. It's LawyerTown now. Not so much NPRtown
Look under "more maps" then click "Income"
Looking at the map actually saddens me. Those poor people in Bethesda have almost no diversity. It's about 80% white and the Asians out number the African Americans. Crazy-ness.
http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?ref=us
Anonymous wrote:I think there is a huge difference between DC and these so called "close in suburbs". There is no comparison. Affording a house on Lowell lane or even somewhere like AU Park requires a much higher level of income than the burbs. And yes higher income generally means best and brightest.
Anonymous wrote:Every once in a while someone starts a thread like this that stirs up a brouhaha. Have you noticed that most things you complain about can be solved with more money? The problem seems to be that you don't have enough and other people who have more beat you to the closer/larger house with better things for you LO.
I wouldn't say it in such a pissy way, but this is actually the succinct answer to OP's question. How do people raise children pretty easily in DC? They have HHIs of about $400-700K. Very common up here where I live.
You buy a nice sized home with plenty of bedrooms, you send your kid to either JKLM or a private of your choice (easily), you hire a legal nanny to watch the kids until you get home and she drives your minivan to soccer practice. Your housecleaner was there today, so no probs there. So was the lawn crew.
If you have the right nanny, maybe she cooked you all something healthy for dinner. She shopped for you at Whole Foods while you worked. If not, you go to Sushi-Ko or Pete's Apizza and call it a night. Your commute was about 36 minutes, door to door (11th and Penn to 35th and Macomb). It's all good, and really the only thing you're stressed about is making gluten-free pancakes for your daughter to bring to the pajama day party at School ____ .
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The crazy part is some people LOVE the weather here. I don't like the hot summers, but we have mild winters and exceptionally long spring and fall. Also, where is it that has year-round ideal weather? Maybe in Northern California which is just insanely expensive.
It's 100 degrees today and it's May!! DC's seasons = Hot (May - October); Mild (November); Unplowed streets (December - February) and Tourist (Apil).
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think there is a huge difference between DC and these so called "close in suburbs". There is no comparison. Affording a house on Lowell lane or even somewhere like AU Park requires a much higher level of income than the burbs. And yes higher income generally means best and brightest.
Long-time Kent resident here -- living just a block away from Lowell for years. Please, folks, do not be fooled by the well-rehearsed facades so common to the neighborhood. Plenty of people have trust-funds or other inherited family wealth and are definitely not the "best and the brightest." The luckiest, maybe, but not the brightest. Many of these people lay it all on so thick simply to make everyone else believe they really are the best, etc., but this facade is a mile wide and an inch deep. It doesn't take long to figure out that these people are not smarter, more clever, more hard-working, etc. than the average person -- they just hit the lottery.
Truth is, that to afford the lifestyle (expensive house, private school, nanny, housekeeper, Chevy Chase Club, etc.), one truly needs a trust fund. Likely, someone earning their own money would have the good sense to realize they are surrounded by some of the best public schools in the country -- and that they ought to take advantage of them! Honestly, all of this keeping up with the Joneses must be exhausting -- especially when the Joneses so often have the invisible hand of family money keeping them afloat!
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What are some good semi-rural, beautiful places that also have a lot of highly educated people & some culture? I mean besides Aspen.
Charlottesville.
Anonymous wrote:I think there is a huge difference between DC and these so called "close in suburbs". There is no comparison. Affording a house on Lowell lane or even somewhere like AU Park requires a much higher level of income than the burbs. And yes higher income generally means best and brightest.
Anonymous wrote:I think there is a huge difference between DC and these so called "close in suburbs". There is no comparison. Affording a house on Lowell lane or even somewhere like AU Park requires a much higher level of income than the burbs. And yes higher income generally means best and brightest.
Anonymous wrote:So you equate high income to "bright"/brains?
Yes, in the District of Columbia. Not necessarily in Hollywood or Miami, but here, yes. If you are making $850K a year and you are an equity partner at Arnold, there is an excellent chance you are brighter than the average American. Are you really disputing that supposition?
The parallel is not assured at all, though: the -smartest- people I know in the area are not high income.
Anonymous wrote:it's been hard for DH and I to make friends in our age group because we're relatively young parents for this area (29/32) though relatively old first time parents where we're both from.