Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're talking about the area near Rosedale we looked there, too. If we both drove to work and I wasn't home most of the day, we would loved it for the reasons you mentioned. But DH's long walk to the metro and having my kid home all day with me or nanny made us feel anxious, when taking into account the relative safety of the neighborhood. It's not quite yet where we want our neighborhood to be in terms of being able to walk at night etc... Just my two cents.

Not feeling safe when home alone with a child is pretty serious. Consider Eastport or Annapolis and your children will learn how to sail instead of how to smoke a blunt.

Uh, you think they don't smoke weed in Annapolis?

Most folks in Annapolis want more than just a 40 and a blunt.

Hill East is Stadium Armory Metro Stop area.
People started calling it Hill East to make it sound more desirable and part of Capitol Hill, which it wasn't considered really a part of until about maybe 10 years ago.

1300 Block of South Carolina is nice and would be safe, 1400 and 1500, a little less nice, just b/c of the intersections there w/ the convenience stores.
Inbounds elementary school is Payne and is starting to become a school to go to for preschool. They use the Tools of the Mind curriculum which is a good program. Capitol Hill Little League is based at Payne for practices on weeknights and games on Saturday. I've been shopping at the safeway over there for 15 years and haven't had a negative experience. It's a quick trip over the bridge on East Capitol to the target in Landover which is nice and not crazy crowded like the potomac yard one. There is also a nice, uncrowded Costco with a gas station and a Wegman's in Landover. Parking around 1300 SC is going to be plentiful and easy. It's miserable all day every day closer in and around barracks row.
I live closer to the Capitol, we like our inbounds school and close proximity to restaurants, bank and other businesses, but parking is really challenging.
More opportunity for a little bit more yard east of Lincoln Park.

Anonymous wrote:Did Hill East used to be called something else? I've lived in the area my whole life and I've never heard of a neighborhood called "Hill East."

I heard that it used to be called Lincoln Park and that name Hill East got started a decade or so ago. One neighbor of mine said that the southern section was called Southeast when he was young.

Did Hill East used to be called something else? I've lived in the area my whole life and I've never heard of a neighborhood called "Hill East."

EAST = bad for families unless you go private

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're talking about the area near Rosedale we looked there, too. If we both drove to work and I wasn't home most of the day, we would loved it for the reasons you mentioned. But DH's long walk to the metro and having my kid home all day with me or nanny made us feel anxious, when taking into account the relative safety of the neighborhood. It's not quite yet where we want our neighborhood to be in terms of being able to walk at night etc... Just my two cents.

Op here. Not sure where Rosedale is...? We are really looking at the 1300 to 1500 block of south Carolina SE.

This is a really great area - only 2 oe 3 blocks from Lincoln Park and close to the metro. I live further East with 3 small kids and feel very safe. I've lived there for 9 years. There are a few businesses (Park Cafe (nice restaurant on Lincoln Park), a small upsacel food store adn a garening store on the park, a new pretzel bakery, a a crepe place a block south of there) and it's a short walk to Eastern Market anyway. There are tons of families, and tons of twins. There are two sets of twins on my block.

Unless you know for sure that you will be moving before your twins go to kindergarten or you will definitely pay for private, then you really, really need to look into the schools first before you decide to buy in Hill East or any other "up-and-coming" neighborhood. We bought in Columbia Heights 6 years ago, figuring that when we eventually had kid(s), we'd do the out-of-boundary lottery or pick a charter school. We learned this year that you really cannot count on either of those--it's called a lottery for a reason and most of the good to decent charters also have a lottery because they have more applicants than spaces. That said, some of the elementary schools on Capitol Hill are good; I just have no idea whether you'd be in boundary for any of them in Hill East.

Goodness sake, no Crofton is not walkable. If you've come from a big city, you'll hate it trust me. i lived there briefly and hated it. I currently live in Hill East and love it. Lots of young parents moving in and also friendly (for the most part) old school residents who've lived there for ages. It's got the quiet and community of a residential area, but close enough to walk or bike to Eastern Market, Barracks Row, and H Street when you want to hit up a restaurant, bar, etc. If you absolutely need to shop at a Target or big box retail, it's a 15 minute drive to Potomac Yards in Virginia and the freeway is right there that takes you there.

Is Crofton a walkable area? I colleague just told me it was on some top places to live.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Barney Circle is a very specific small neighborhood. Hill East incorporates Barney Circle and a much larger area around it.

I can't seem to find Hill East, please point it out for me.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/DC_neighborhoods_map.png

Very roughly, I would say that Hill East is west of Lincoln Park to the Stadium / Armory Metro, and between H Street to the north and the freeway to the south.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're talking about the area near Rosedale we looked there, too. If we both drove to work and I wasn't home most of the day, we would loved it for the reasons you mentioned. But DH's long walk to the metro and having my kid home all day with me or nanny made us feel anxious, when taking into account the relative safety of the neighborhood. It's not quite yet where we want our neighborhood to be in terms of being able to walk at night etc... Just my two cents.

Not feeling safe when home alone with a child is pretty serious. Consider Eastport or Annapolis and your children will learn how to sail instead of how to smoke a blunt.

Uh, you think they don't smoke weed in Annapolis?

Anonymous wrote:If you're talking about the area near Rosedale we looked there, too. If we both drove to work and I wasn't home most of the day, we would loved it for the reasons you mentioned. But DH's long walk to the metro and having my kid home all day with me or nanny made us feel anxious, when taking into account the relative safety of the neighborhood. It's not quite yet where we want our neighborhood to be in terms of being able to walk at night etc... Just my two cents.

Not feeling safe when home alone with a child is pretty serious. Consider Eastport or Annapolis and your children will learn how to sail instead of how to smoke a blunt.

I think it could be defined as East of the Historic District, which runs along 14th Street (part of 15th for the Car Barn).

Anonymous wrote:Barney Circle is a very specific small neighborhood. Hill East incorporates Barney Circle and a much larger area around it.

I can't seem to find Hill East, please point it out for me.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/DC_neighborhoods_map.png

The one problem with Annapolis would be that you would be commuting into DC along with a lot of other people, while if your husband commuted to Annapolis, he'd be reverse commuting. Aside from that, I'd also consider it - it's definitely small town living, but it is beautiful and probably nicer for the kids.

I don't know enough about Hill East to comment on your original question, but when we were looking, we decided we'd only want to live on the Hill if we could actually be in the Eastern Market area, and we couldn't afford that. We then bought a house for under $700K in AU Park, but it's a small 3BR and a bit of a fixer upper.