Cleveland Park---gets you everything. If no financial limitations then you can switch to private school for high school if Wilson doesn't appeal. Plus some of the best private schools in DC are also easy walking distance in Cleveland Park.

Anonymous wrote:Edgmoor is not liberal?

It may not be left-wing hippie-dippy liberal, but it's heavily Democrat.

heavily democrat doesn't mean liberal.

There are plenty of reasons Mclean is a nice place to live, but if OP wants both "urban" and "good schools", I feel like all of the options are going to be on the redline in upper NW or just over the MD border.

Do you care about green space and when you say urban do you meet fun, cool, and hip or just stores like Crate and Barrel? We prefer to be in the district for more of the urban feel we are used to coming from NYC but it depends what you want. Claredon is cleaner and very gentrified with plenty of shops (but seems to lack park space from when I've been there).

Yeah I would second some parts of CCDC. It looks residential but still tends to have high walk scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:salona village in mclean (near franklin sherman and mclean grocery stores

http://www.walkscore.com/score/1333-chain-bridge-rd-mclean-va-22101 62: Somewhat Walkable

Anonymous wrote:Kenwood in bethesda (near sidwell and bethesda shopping)

http://www.walkscore.com/score/5100-edgemoor-ln-bethesda-md-20814 95: Walker’s Paradise

Salona Village in McLean is a great neighborhood, but probably not what the OP is after. It's what I'd call a "car-light" neighborhood, where you can walk some places if you want, or have short car trips to other places, but it's not an "urban environment." In return, you can get a big house on a nice lot that simply isn't feasible in most parts of Arlington or Bethesda.

Previous posters: I am pretty sure OP is going to visit these neighborhoods before she purchases a home there. She is not going to buy it based solely on its walk score and the advise of anomymous board members. Yeesh.

Cleveland Park would be my first choice. Or possibly Woodly Park, Kalorama, or limited parts of CCDC.

Anonymous wrote:Our criteria (in no particular order)

1. Great schools in walking distance (preferably public)
2. Urban environment
3. Other children nearby
4. Very high walk score
5. Liberal
6. No geographic limitations
7. No financial limitations
8. Great housing stock (can be small or large, house, apt or other)

Lyon Village/Clarendon.

[/b]Tons[b] of kids, great public schools. Our house has a walk score of 97.8. We joke that we'd have to actually be living in the Metro station to get it higher.

Edgmoor is not liberal?

It may not be left-wing hippie-dippy liberal, but it's heavily Democrat.

If you need WalkScore to tell you that, then you've got much, much bigger problems. The main use of WS is not to compare areas with a 10 score to areas with an 85. Rather, it is to compare areas in the 60s, 70s and 80s to each other. And for that, it's not accurate.

Anonymous wrote:+1 on PP who points out that walkscore in the DC area is not very relevant.

I totally agree that OP should visit the area, but disagree that WalkScore is not very relevant. It quickly shows for example that McLean is a lot less walkable than areas downtown. No surprise for people who live here -- but good info for newcomers.

+1 on PP who points out that walkscore in the DC area is not very relevant.

OP: visit the neighborhoods yourself. Walk Score is a deeply flawed criterion and often doesn't match the actual walkability of the neighborhood. Not all stores are created equal: if you live in FH or CCDC, while it may seem nice to have Chevy Chase Pavilion and Mazza Gallerie nearby, those malls are essentially worthless for actual life. (And WalkScore still gives credit to some bodega-equivalent on Western that I've never, not once, seen open.) Actually, despite living in the area, much of Wisconsin Ave. is passable at best for commercial (exceptions being around Tenleytown metro). For many day-to-day things, the "Spring Valley" shopping center on Mass (Sbucks, Le Pain Quotidien, CVS, thai, pizza, grocery store) is more useful or at least as useful as the Tenleytown metro hub. The point is, don't trust a website and instead walk yourself.

Edgemoor in Berhesda.