Anonymous wrote:In my personal calculations, if I needed to buy a house in DC that required daily use of a car to get to schools, pharmacy, coffee shops, WORK , I would not continue to ]live in the city. The largely car free lifestyle is the key thing that offsets the public school madness for me. I also look toward the future when my teenagers will be able to walk, bike, metro to wherever they need to be.

This.

In my personal calculations, if I needed to buy a house in DC that required daily use of a car to get to schools, pharmacy, coffee shops, WORK , I would not continue to live in the city. The largely car free lifestyle is the key thing that offsets the public school madness for me. I also look toward the future when my teenagers will be able to walk, bike, metro to wherever they need to be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Shepherd Park is suburban not urban. Where is the action there? Diversity?

Anonymous wrote:I agree that charters are probably the way to go. We have been pretty lucky, we were accepted to Bridges off the waitlist a few weeks before school started and are currently at Inspired. We just bought in Shep Park and are now in Deal boundaries so if our current charter doesn't pan our for middle school we have a back up plan. I do agree that you should assume a commute will/can be up to 30 minutes. However, you can be creative with carpooling etc. I'm with you and I'm a city person, can't see myself ever living in the burbs, so I will make it work no matter what.

What's your definition of suburban in DC? If you're saying Shepherd Park is suburban they you would have to say Brookland, Hillcrest, Woodridge, 16th street heights, and many other neighborhoods are not urban. Do you have to be a certain distance to downtown? Metro? Do you have to not have a detached single family? Please explain what you consider urban vs suburban in the city? West of the park I can see, but not even 100% so please expand.

Don't take the bait, honey. She aspires to the upper West side (which is not to say that she actually can afford to have a family there) and is resentful that her life in DC fails to approximate her "Sex in the City" fantasy.

Let it go. DC will never be as fashionable as NY (Manhattan). However, for a woman, success in DC is much more about intelligence and accomplishment. NYC has a vulgar, Hollywood sort of element to it now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Shepherd Park is suburban not urban. Where is the action there? Diversity?

Anonymous wrote:I agree that charters are probably the way to go. We have been pretty lucky, we were accepted to Bridges off the waitlist a few weeks before school started and are currently at Inspired. We just bought in Shep Park and are now in Deal boundaries so if our current charter doesn't pan our for middle school we have a back up plan. I do agree that you should assume a commute will/can be up to 30 minutes. However, you can be creative with carpooling etc. I'm with you and I'm a city person, can't see myself ever living in the burbs, so I will make it work no matter what.

So Anacostia is not urban because it's not diverse?!?

ghetto is the proper term

Got cut off...

DC is not NY, so please dont compare the two.

DC is not NY.

We bought in Brookland about 8 years ago. Schools weren't even a consideration at the time. We love the neighborhood and have stayed. Fast forward to this fall and luckily enough, our DC got into a charter that's relatively close. Otherwise, we were going to pony up for private schools or maybe move out to MD. This charter wasn't an option even 3 years ago - and who knows what will happen for your child 3 - 4 - 5 years from now. Find a neighborhood you like and a home you can raise a child in - and if you need to move, you can. Life in DC is uncertain re: schools - and if you can't live with the uncertainty, then move to MoCo and deal with the commute. Tradeoffs.

I've looked at every definition of urban on the internet/US census, none state getting about without a car or diversity as definition. I would say its hard to argue that living on Geoegia avenue is not urban.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Shepherd Park is suburban not urban. Where is the action there? Diversity?

Anonymous wrote:I agree that charters are probably the way to go. We have been pretty lucky, we were accepted to Bridges off the waitlist a few weeks before school started and are currently at Inspired. We just bought in Shep Park and are now in Deal boundaries so if our current charter doesn't pan our for middle school we have a back up plan. I do agree that you should assume a commute will/can be up to 30 minutes. However, you can be creative with carpooling etc. I'm with you and I'm a city person, can't see myself ever living in the burbs, so I will make it work no matter what.

What's your definition of suburban in DC? If you're saying Shepherd Park is suburban they you would have to say Brookland, Hillcrest, Woodridge, 16th street heights, and many other neighborhoods are not urban. Do you have to be a certain distance to downtown? Metro? Do you have to not have a detached single family? Please explain what you consider urban vs suburban in the city? West of the park I can see, but not even 100% so please expand.

NP. Brookland, Hillcrest et al isn't urban but I'm from NYC. They remind me of Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx plus you couldn't survive w/o a car. We live downtown DC near Chinatown which I consider urban and the area around Dupont. That's about it for urban around here. Georgetown is like a lot of towns in Westchester which I don't consider urban.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Shepherd Park is suburban not urban. Where is the action there? Diversity?

Anonymous wrote:I agree that charters are probably the way to go. We have been pretty lucky, we were accepted to Bridges off the waitlist a few weeks before school started and are currently at Inspired. We just bought in Shep Park and are now in Deal boundaries so if our current charter doesn't pan our for middle school we have a back up plan. I do agree that you should assume a commute will/can be up to 30 minutes. However, you can be creative with carpooling etc. I'm with you and I'm a city person, can't see myself ever living in the burbs, so I will make it work no matter what.

So Anacostia is not urban because it's not diverse?!?

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Shepherd Park is suburban not urban. Where is the action there? Diversity?

Anonymous wrote:I agree that charters are probably the way to go. We have been pretty lucky, we were accepted to Bridges off the waitlist a few weeks before school started and are currently at Inspired. We just bought in Shep Park and are now in Deal boundaries so if our current charter doesn't pan our for middle school we have a back up plan. I do agree that you should assume a commute will/can be up to 30 minutes. However, you can be creative with carpooling etc. I'm with you and I'm a city person, can't see myself ever living in the burbs, so I will make it work no matter what.

What's your definition of suburban in DC? If you're saying Shepherd Park is suburban they you would have to say Brookland, Hillcrest, Woodridge, 16th street heights, and many other neighborhoods are not urban. Do you have to be a certain distance to downtown? Metro? Do you have to not have a detached single family? Please explain what you consider urban vs suburban in the city? West of the park I can see, but not even 100% so please expand.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Shepherd Park is suburban not urban. Where is the action there? Diversity?

Anonymous wrote:I agree that charters are probably the way to go. We have been pretty lucky, we were accepted to Bridges off the waitlist a few weeks before school started and are currently at Inspired. We just bought in Shep Park and are now in Deal boundaries so if our current charter doesn't pan our for middle school we have a back up plan. I do agree that you should assume a commute will/can be up to 30 minutes. However, you can be creative with carpooling etc. I'm with you and I'm a city person, can't see myself ever living in the burbs, so I will make it work no matter what.

I'm 20 feet from Georgia avenue, I'm thinking it's pretty urban.

Anonymous wrote:This. +1.

Anonymous wrote:This is why most families who aren't multimillionaires live in Md and va

Really? Think about this statement. Are you truly this stupid?

Sorry, Shepherd Park is suburban not urban. Where is the action there? Diversity?

Anonymous wrote:I agree that charters are probably the way to go. We have been pretty lucky, we were accepted to Bridges off the waitlist a few weeks before school started and are currently at Inspired. We just bought in Shep Park and are now in Deal boundaries so if our current charter doesn't pan our for middle school we have a back up plan. I do agree that you should assume a commute will/can be up to 30 minutes. However, you can be creative with carpooling etc. I'm with you and I'm a city person, can't see myself ever living in the burbs, so I will make it work no matter what.

This year we got into Appletree, Inspired Teaching and Bridges. Like the other PPs we're going to take things one year at a time. I think our current choice will be great for the next few years.