DCUM Forum

Anonymous

10/02/2025 15:55 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

How do people deal with the “towers” issue?

Anonymous

10/02/2025 07:57 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure you understand the extra tax burden of TP.

And the schools are good but not as good as Bethesda/Potomac.

What do you mean by this? They are all part of montgomery county schools.

Be specfic

They’re not W schools. If you care about elite schools, move west of the Pike. Potomac with the similar to Takoma Park priced houses near Rockville/North Bethesda. That is the place to be.

Elite, lol, ok. There is no such thing as an elite MCPS school. You will get just as good of an education at Blair or Einstein or BCC as you will get at the W schools. Which is to say, it will be part of a big public school with all the good and bad that comes with that, and if your kid is smart and a self starter, it will be a fine education.

Like the other poster said: keep telling yourself that. This sounds like a level of copium from some dope with a meager $600-800K house budget.

The W schools stand alone for a reason.

Anonymous

10/01/2025 22:55 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

Its basically Aspen Hill but in Silver Spring. Nice houses, but dangerous.

Anonymous

10/01/2025 21:34 Subject: Re:Tell me about Takoma Park

Anonymous wrote:A lot better public college options in Virginia, so keep that in mind. You’re going from a state with UVA, Tech, W&M, and GMU to a state with UMD and not much else.

Takoma Park is nice, but way more isolated than Alexandria. Isolated from the museums in DC, isolated from major malls and shopping areas and a lot of other stuff. It’s even 30 minutes to get to Bethesda from there.

?

It's a 15 min metro ride to Metro Center (if that). I know, since I do it for work 2-4x a week!

Anonymous

10/01/2025 18:52 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

Anonymous wrote:Lovely place, cute downtown, still very very liberal whatever some other people said in this thread (I honestly don’t understand how you can take part in the actual life of Takoma park and not notice how liberal it is, some PPs may spend a lot of time at home)

Yes pay attention to higher taxes. And yes it is an absolute pain to cut a tree but that’s why we have such a green canopy too.

School are diverse because there are a lot of low income pockets in Takoma mixed in the white collars of the historic district. Best schools are the ones directly in bound for historic district (TES, piney branch and TPMS). They are reasonably good but not amazing either. Our kids are happy there (ESS is ok but there is a difference according to all the people I know who experienced both)

Finally, the DCC consortium is ending, MCPS moving to a regional approach for high schools. And Takoma park is in region 1 with BCC among other high schools. Which means that in high school the landscape/ choices will be changing in the coming 2 years (head to the MCPS school forum for more details). I think Takoma ended up ok in that report project

And to add to my post: we absolutely love it here, love the community and wouldn’t consider another area near DC. I don’t agree that it is « just another wealthy enclave ». White collars here are mostly federal workers, NGO and think tank type (or leftist lawyers..). Your bank account doesn’t give you status and the kids can feel it. It is great

Anonymous

10/01/2025 18:49 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

Lovely place, cute downtown, still very very liberal whatever some other people said in this thread (I honestly don’t understand how you can take part in the actual life of Takoma park and not notice how liberal it is, some PPs may spend a lot of time at home)

Yes pay attention to higher taxes. And yes it is an absolute pain to cut a tree but that’s why we have such a green canopy too.

School are diverse because there are a lot of low income pockets in Takoma mixed in the white collars of the historic district. Best schools are the ones directly in bound for historic district (TES, piney branch and TPMS). They are reasonably good but not amazing either. Our kids are happy there (ESS is ok but there is a difference according to all the people I know who experienced both)

Finally, the DCC consortium is ending, MCPS moving to a regional approach for high schools. And Takoma park is in region 1 with BCC among other high schools. Which means that in high school the landscape/ choices will be changing in the coming 2 years (head to the MCPS school forum for more details). I think Takoma ended up ok in that report project

Anonymous

10/01/2025 13:39 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

The houses are really fantastic, and there is a lot going on. It's a wonderful place for a family to explore. Worth taking a look. If you are looking for lower priced options, parts of Hyattsville might also fit the bill.

Anonymous

10/01/2025 13:37 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure you understand the extra tax burden of TP.

And the schools are good but not as good as Bethesda/Potomac.

What do you mean by this? They are all part of montgomery county schools.

Be specfic

They’re not W schools. If you care about elite schools, move west of the Pike. Potomac with the similar to Takoma Park priced houses near Rockville/North Bethesda. That is the place to be.

Elite, lol, ok. There is no such thing as an elite MCPS school. You will get just as good of an education at Blair or Einstein or BCC as you will get at the W schools. Which is to say, it will be part of a big public school with all the good and bad that comes with that, and if your kid is smart and a self starter, it will be a fine education.

Keep telling yourself that.

Anonymous

10/01/2025 13:34 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure you understand the extra tax burden of TP.

And the schools are good but not as good as Bethesda/Potomac.

What do you mean by this? They are all part of montgomery county schools.

Be specfic

Are you that dense?

Anonymous

10/01/2025 12:43 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

When we moved out of DC we had a similar list of basic wants and looked at a few homes in Takoma Park, but what we could afford there ($900k budget) was not all that walkable to the lovely downtown area and metro. We looked a little in the northern part of Bethesda (NIH, Oakmont/Alta Vista area) but ended up in Kensington where we've been very happy. Not the reputation as the liberal enclave that TkPk has, but lots of federal (or former) employees, welcoming, good schools, sidewalks, and depending on where in Kensington you are, walkable to the cute downtown on the east side of Conn Ave, or hardware/coffee/wine bar/pet shop etc on the west side of CT. I'd encourage you to check it out if you're looking for more options.

Anonymous

10/01/2025 09:47 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure you understand the extra tax burden of TP.

And the schools are good but not as good as Bethesda/Potomac.

What do you mean by this? They are all part of montgomery county schools.

Be specfic

They’re not W schools. If you care about elite schools, move west of the Pike. Potomac with the similar to Takoma Park priced houses near Rockville/North Bethesda. That is the place to be.

Elite, lol, ok. There is no such thing as an elite MCPS school. You will get just as good of an education at Blair or Einstein or BCC as you will get at the W schools. Which is to say, it will be part of a big public school with all the good and bad that comes with that, and if your kid is smart and a self starter, it will be a fine education.

Can any Blair kid take the magnet classes, or only those accepted to the magnet? At RM, anyone can take IB classes in 11th and 12th but the magnet classes in 9th and 10th are restricted. If the answer is no, it's actually detrimental to a kid who attends Blair and is both shut out of the most rigorous curriculum and then must compete against 100 high-achieving magnet kids for college admissions.

Blair college admissions are impressive, but the top admits are all magnet kids. Compare to, say, Churchill, with no magnet. Also impressive, but an even playing field.

Public Schools

Maryland

Bethesda-Chevy Chase: https://www.instagram.com/bccdecisions25/
Blake: https://www.instagram.com/wherethebengalsgo2025/
Clarksburg: https://www.instagram.com/coyotecommits2025/
Damascus: https://www.instagram.com/official.dmas2025commits/
Einstein: https://www.instagram.com/farewelltitans25/
Gaithersburg: https://www.instagram.com/gburgcommits25/
Kennedy: https://www.instagram.com/jfkcommits2025/
Magruder: https://www.instagram.com/whatcomingcolonels25/
Montgomery Blair: https://www.instagram.com/blaircommits25/
Northwest: https://www.instagram.com/nwhscommits25/
Northwood: https://www.instagram.com/gladiatorcommitments/
Paint Branch: https://www.instagram.com/panthersgowhere25/
Poolesville: https://www.instagram.com/falconsflyhigh2025/
Quince Orchard: https://www.instagram.com/cougarcommits/
Richard Montgomery: https://www.instagram.com/blastoffrockets25/
River Hill: https://www.instagram.com/rhhs.25/
Rockville: https://www.instagram.com/rockvilleseniors25/
Seneca Valley: https://www.instagram.com/wheretheeaglessoar25/
Sherwood: https://www.instagram.com/sherwoodgrad25/
Springbrook: https://www.instagram.com/bluedevilsbound25/
Thomas S Wootton: https://www.instagram.com/peaceoutpatriots25/
Walt Whitman: https://www.instagram.com/vikingdestinations2025/
Walter Johnson: https://www.instagram.com/wherethewildcatsgo2025/
Watkins Mill: https://www.instagram.com/wm2025commits/
Wheaton: https://www.instagram.com/whs25commits/
Winston Churchill: https://www.instagram.com/beyondthebulldog25/

I'm not sure what point your making, but none of these MoCo schools is "elite" in any sense. As I said, they are perfectly good schools, and if your kid is smart, he or she is going to get a fine education and have plenty of opportunities. If your kid has the right diversity metrics, is good at a sport, uber wealthy, or very smart and good at school, then that obviously means a lot for college admissions, regardless of which school you are coming from.

Anonymous

10/01/2025 09:41 Subject: Re:Tell me about Takoma Park

Anonymous wrote:A lot better public college options in Virginia, so keep that in mind. You’re going from a state with UVA, Tech, W&M, and GMU to a state with UMD and not much else.

Takoma Park is nice, but way more isolated than Alexandria. Isolated from the museums in DC, isolated from major malls and shopping areas and a lot of other stuff. It’s even 30 minutes to get to Bethesda from there.

That's true about the public universities. Virginia might be the best state in the country on that front, although getting into UVA from NoVa is damn near impossible now for most students.

But I disagree about Takoma Park being more isolated. There is a metro stop that goes right downtown to where the museums are. I take the metro down with my kids. It is easy to metro to Union Station and DCA. I consider isolation from the "major malls and shopping areas" to be a good thing, but there is plenty of major retail close by. Bethesda is 20 minutes away, but I don't really care about that, and it is at least that far from Alexandria. Anyway, I can't imagine seeing Takoma Park as isolated from anything in the DC area.

Anonymous

10/01/2025 09:34 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure you understand the extra tax burden of TP.

And the schools are good but not as good as Bethesda/Potomac.

What do you mean by this? They are all part of montgomery county schools.

Be specfic

They’re not W schools. If you care about elite schools, move west of the Pike. Potomac with the similar to Takoma Park priced houses near Rockville/North Bethesda. That is the place to be.

Elite, lol, ok. There is no such thing as an elite MCPS school. You will get just as good of an education at Blair or Einstein or BCC as you will get at the W schools. Which is to say, it will be part of a big public school with all the good and bad that comes with that, and if your kid is smart and a self starter, it will be a fine education.

Anonymous

10/01/2025 09:31 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

OP the feel will remind you of Del ray. We’re in Alexandria (moved from nw) and have friends in TP. It’s a lovely community but does feel a lot further from things than Alexandria does

Anonymous

10/01/2025 09:30 Subject: Tell me about Takoma Park

Purple Line will be coming through "soon."