Anonymous wrote:That placed a premium on travel from east to west, especially in the morning, when rushing one's children to school, then hurrying off to work.

Thus explaining why Klingle Road will have to be pried from the cold dead hands of some EotP residents.

East-of-the-Park lifestyles

For years after the 1968 Martin Luther King riots, all of DC east of Rock Creek Park was in decline and not very desirable. Mount Pleasant for some years consisted of inexpensive rooming houses. In time, the residential areas closest to the Park began to recover, middle-class people (like yours truly) buying houses in Mount Pleasant and Crestwood. But this recovery extended only a few blocks to the east of the Park. Columbia Heights remained, for years, a rough neighborhood, with some of the highest crime rates in the District. Schools were poor, and shops catered to a low-income clientele. Residents looking for better shops and schools quite naturally zipped across the Park to the wealthier neighborhoods to our west, Cleveland Park, Woodley Park, Tenleytown, Georgetown, et cetera. Even Mayor Marion Barry, a prototypical urban-black politician, sent his children to Murch Elementary, west of Rock Creek Park (all the way from Southeast DC). For us residents of Mount Pleasant and Crestwood, our homes were east of the Park, but our shops, restaurants, and schools were west of the Park.

That placed a premium on travel from east to west, especially in the morning, when rushing one's children to school, then hurrying off to work. Here in Mount Pleasant, there was a heavy rush every morning of cars heading west, to those "better" west-of-the-Park schools, such as Murch and Eaton. Few professional-class residents of Mount Pleasant were willing to send their children to our neighborhood school, Bancroft. (As of 2003, Bancroft was just 2% white non-Hispanic, in a neighborhood that was at least 35% white non-Hispanic.)

Anonymous wrote:Is the Midwest really in the mid west section of the country? Frederick Jackson Turner would say yes back then, but today, even after things changed we still use it. East of the park is an imprecise description of haves and have nots.

No, it is not. It is generally used as a moniker for good elementary schools versus not-as-good ones. And, when used properly, it actually is a pretty good divider line. Those of us that live east of the park, for the most part, still can't send our kids to their neighborhood schools, at least not without a lot of thought (Ross and Brent excepted, perhaps, but only in recent years). Maybe you are getting confused between east of the park and east of the river.

Have you heard of "the plan?" Why was the Green Line the LAST line built? You can (1) live west of the park, (2) east of the park and (3) east of the river.

How about "across the river" is that better for you?

Not me, assuming you mean the Anacostia River? That's not narrow enough.

OK, so "east of the park" only applies to north of downtown.

How about "across the river" is that better for you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wards two and three have an affluent catchment working to their advantage. They have had a different experience than east of the park.

You realize that most of Ward 2 is east of the park, right?

Which of these neighborhoods is strapped for cash?

Burleith
Chinatown
Downtown
Dupont Circle
Foggy Bottom
Georgetown
Logan Circle
Mount Vernon Square
Penn Quarter
Shaw (Part of the neighborhood is also in Ward 1)
Sheridan Kalorama
Southwest Federal Center
West End

The comment was that many of these neighborhoods are east of the park, not that they aren't wealthy. All of those in bold are east of the park.

Adding West End - it too is "East of Rock Creek Park."

Is the Midwest really in the mid west section of the country? Frederick Jackson Turner would say yes back then, but today, even after things changed we still use it. East of the park is an imprecise description of haves and have nots.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wards two and three have an affluent catchment working to their advantage. They have had a different experience than east of the park.

You realize that most of Ward 2 is east of the park, right?

Which of these neighborhoods is strapped for cash?

Burleith
Chinatown
Downtown
Dupont Circle
Foggy Bottom
Georgetown
Logan Circle
Mount Vernon Square
Penn Quarter
Shaw (Part of the neighborhood is also in Ward 1)
Sheridan Kalorama
Southwest Federal Center
West End

The comment was that many of these neighborhoods are east of the park, not that they aren't wealthy. All of those in bold are east of the park.