Anonymous wrote:Downtown Silver Spring (and even the neighborhoods surrounding what most would consider downtown) are among the new places where you can find a decent size home, within 30 minutes driving or metro of downtown DC, with excellent public schools, in the $500-$850k range.

Do you mean "few" places?

We live in Takoma Park, which is an easy hop to DTSS, and go frequently to DTSS for kids activities (ice skating in the winter, water fountain/play area in the summer, the playground/park, ballet classes, farmers market, shopping, movie theater, etc.). There is also great ethnic food (Ethiopian, Jamaican, Thai, etc.) and there are good bars, too, w/in a few blocks of the new, core mixed-use development w/ the WF, Strosniders, Chipotle, Starbucks, Potbelly, AT Loft, etc. Our friends who live right there love it, too.