Anonymous wrote:I live in West End. It’s very family friendly. We have a mix of kids that attend public and private. Kids can ride their bikes or walk to RTC. In my neighborhood, there are a few 2nd generation home owners meaning they grew up in the house they are now raising their kids in. The now adults still say hello to the people their parents age by saying “Hello Mrs Jones”. It’s what they’ve always called that person.

Friday night are fire pit happy hour. Everyone gets together at someone’s house, we order pizza, adults chat and the kids and dogs play. It’s grown to the point that on Friday nights the streets get blocked off around 7. If you live on the blocked off street and come home after they’ve been blocked, you either park on another street and walk home or move the cones and drive slowly. Most likely your kids are already playing on the street with their friends so people don’t get annoyed by the street being blocked.

Once a month there is a neighborhood book club meeting. We live near a city park and the neighbors often meet up there. The park has a huge field that very rarely is used. People bring their dogs to the field on a leash and if the field is empty let the dogs run off leash.

When I walk the dog I always run into people. We stop and chat. Everyone seems to know everyone. When a neighbor had a heart attack in the middle of the day, the neighborhood was organized to deal with her kids and animals before school let out. She is a single mom. I’m very happy here.

I am in the West End as well and agree with most of this description. We are very happy.

But to clarify, I have never seen a street blocked off by cones on a Friday night, ever. This may have happened on the particular block PP lives on, but I don't want OP to think that the streets all typically shut down....

Anonymous wrote:RTC just sold their share of all of the restaurants to the Canadian developer that owns the apartment buildings. Local news article said that the developer wants more than just restaurants in RTC, so there may be a bit more diversity.

Also, Lidl filed for application for building on Rockville Pike and Shady Grove Metro entrance's street. So some changes are afoot in the area.

We moved to Rockville from SS 7 years ago and have been very happy in King Farm (wanted to live in Woodley Gardens but didn't want to be moved to Beall). We are comfortable with letting the kids walk to the parks, pools, Safeway; walking from the middle school to RTC with their friends, and not have to be driven everywhere. I look forward to my kids being able to ride metro and buses around the area. It is safe, diverse, and family oriented. I love that we have a lot of great restaurant options nearby, ethnic groceries (Golden Bakery, EuroMart, Halal, and tons of Asian markets), and lots of beautiful trees and parks in the area.

But yes, as a child of the 80s, that REM song comes to my head, too!

My kids love that they can walk from RMHS to RTC for lunch and after school, and after a football game at night to hang out. Especially fun in the winter when the ice skating rink goes up. They all head out to the rink after school some days. DC loves it.

I also can't wait to see what the new developer does with RTC. When the kids were little we used to go to RTC all the time to go to the library, have lunch/dinner, and hang out on the green.

I live in West End. It’s very family friendly. We have a mix of kids that attend public and private. Kids can ride their bikes or walk to RTC. In my neighborhood, there are a few 2nd generation home owners meaning they grew up in the house they are now raising their kids in. The now adults still say hello to the people their parents age by saying “Hello Mrs Jones”. It’s what they’ve always called that person.

Friday night are fire pit happy hour. Everyone gets together at someone’s house, we order pizza, adults chat and the kids and dogs play. It’s grown to the point that on Friday nights the streets get blocked off around 7. If you live on the blocked off street and come home after they’ve been blocked, you either park on another street and walk home or move the cones and drive slowly. Most likely your kids are already playing on the street with their friends so people don’t get annoyed by the street being blocked.

Once a month there is a neighborhood book club meeting. We live near a city park and the neighbors often meet up there. The park has a huge field that very rarely is used. People bring their dogs to the field on a leash and if the field is empty let the dogs run off leash.

When I walk the dog I always run into people. We stop and chat. Everyone seems to know everyone. When a neighbor had a heart attack in the middle of the day, the neighborhood was organized to deal with her kids and animals before school let out. She is a single mom. I’m very happy here.

RTC just sold their share of all of the restaurants to the Canadian developer that owns the apartment buildings. Local news article said that the developer wants more than just restaurants in RTC, so there may be a bit more diversity.

Also, Lidl filed for application for building on Rockville Pike and Shady Grove Metro entrance's street. So some changes are afoot in the area.

We moved to Rockville from SS 7 years ago and have been very happy in King Farm (wanted to live in Woodley Gardens but didn't want to be moved to Beall). We are comfortable with letting the kids walk to the parks, pools, Safeway; walking from the middle school to RTC with their friends, and not have to be driven everywhere. I look forward to my kids being able to ride metro and buses around the area. It is safe, diverse, and family oriented. I love that we have a lot of great restaurant options nearby, ethnic groceries (Golden Bakery, EuroMart, Halal, and tons of Asian markets), and lots of beautiful trees and parks in the area.

But yes, as a child of the 80s, that REM song comes to my head, too!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YMMV but Rockville Town Center is depressing and that whole area is on the decline. If you don’t want to be in the hole once you purchase your home in this economy I’d look where new development is a little further south. Look around Twinbrook Metro where Wegman’s is being built and around White Flint Metro and Pike and Rose. These areas are going to have homes that will appreciate a lot in the next 5-10 years, especially homes that are walkable to Twinbrook Metro and Wegman’s development.

I respectfully disagree. Sometimes, I wish Rockville town center had a bit more of the vibrancy of Pike and Rose. Still, the current incarnation of the town center has 2-4 places I’d happily go for date night without kids, 2-4 sit down restaurants I’m willing to eat in with kids that don’t overlap with my “date night” choices, 3 casual places I’d go to with kids + the Spot. There are also a handful of places I’d go to with friends or co-workers. I’m grateful to be walking distance to so many places and am looking forward to the ice skating rink in winter.

I also prefer RTC to P&R. It is much easier to navigate and park. I do wish there were a few more productive? stores that I could get errands done as oppose to browse for a gift. I hope something useful replaces the CVS, I enjoy the librbary and many of the restarants. The picnic tables are great.

+1 And homes around RTC are still very desirable. They sell pretty quickly. Family friendly, close to Rockville Rec Center and Aquatic center, parks, schools, red line.

But ITA on the stores. They try too hard to cater to these small businesses, but those small businesses don't seem to cater to what people want. That's why they keep failing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YMMV but Rockville Town Center is depressing and that whole area is on the decline. If you don’t want to be in the hole once you purchase your home in this economy I’d look where new development is a little further south. Look around Twinbrook Metro where Wegman’s is being built and around White Flint Metro and Pike and Rose. These areas are going to have homes that will appreciate a lot in the next 5-10 years, especially homes that are walkable to Twinbrook Metro and Wegman’s development.

OP here again. Thanks to everyone for this thread it has been very useful.

What do you mean by “in decline”? Increased crime/homelessness or something? I did briefly visit RTC on Sunday and it seemed fine to me, although some of those giant bureaucratic buildings around it were a bit depressing. But I don’t know those other areas you mentioned and may check them out for comparison.

Some people mentioned Kensington. We would like to live close to a red line stop and it seems like Kensington just has the MARC station? I’ve never commuted on the MARC but have the impression it’s far less convenient

Haven’t read whole thread so don’t know your budget or your views on the Down County Consortium but the eastern portion of Kensington is very convenient to the Forest Glen metro which is east side of the red line. 20 minutes door to door from FG metro to Union Station. Eastern part of Kensington goes to Oakland Terrace elementary which is very well-liked but then to Newport Mill and Einstein which folks have more mixed opinions on (I’m local and I like the schools all the way up, but YMMV). Can walk to the cute stuff in Kensington and get a lot of house for under a million. Neighbors friendly and a mix of government and private sector workers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YMMV but Rockville Town Center is depressing and that whole area is on the decline. If you don’t want to be in the hole once you purchase your home in this economy I’d look where new development is a little further south. Look around Twinbrook Metro where Wegman’s is being built and around White Flint Metro and Pike and Rose. These areas are going to have homes that will appreciate a lot in the next 5-10 years, especially homes that are walkable to Twinbrook Metro and Wegman’s development.

OP here again. Thanks to everyone for this thread it has been very useful.

What do you mean by “in decline”? Increased crime/homelessness or something? I did briefly visit RTC on Sunday and it seemed fine to me, although some of those giant bureaucratic buildings around it were a bit depressing. But I don’t know those other areas you mentioned and may check them out for comparison.

Some people mentioned Kensington. We would like to live close to a red line stop and it seems like Kensington just has the MARC station? I’ve never commuted on the MARC but have the impression it’s far less convenient

RTC has had trouble keeping tenants. From what I have read the rents are high. The leasing co also runs the newer Pike and Rose Development. Some think Pike and Rose is their first focus. There have been issues with paying for parking but with metro right across the street, it would be impossible to have free parking. Now there are 2 hours free so I think that park has been worked out. The biggest issue in my opinion is the focus on only small local shops which do not attract that many shoppers. It is a very nice spot and I hope it can find its place in the community.

Anonymous wrote:YMMV but Rockville Town Center is depressing and that whole area is on the decline. If you don’t want to be in the hole once you purchase your home in this economy I’d look where new development is a little further south. Look around Twinbrook Metro where Wegman’s is being built and around White Flint Metro and Pike and Rose. These areas are going to have homes that will appreciate a lot in the next 5-10 years, especially homes that are walkable to Twinbrook Metro and Wegman’s development.

OP here again. Thanks to everyone for this thread it has been very useful.

What do you mean by “in decline”? Increased crime/homelessness or something? I did briefly visit RTC on Sunday and it seemed fine to me, although some of those giant bureaucratic buildings around it were a bit depressing. But I don’t know those other areas you mentioned and may check them out for comparison.

Some people mentioned Kensington. We would like to live close to a red line stop and it seems like Kensington just has the MARC station? I’ve never commuted on the MARC but have the impression it’s far less convenient

Anonymous wrote:Every time I see the Rockville sign on the beltway, it reminds me of the REM song - Don't Go Back to Rockville.

Looking at your watch a third time
Waiting in the station for the bus
Going to a place that's far
So far away and if that's not enough
Going where nobody says hello
They don't talk to anybody they don't know

[Verse 2]
You'll wind up in some factory
That's full-time filth and nowhere left to go
Walk home to an empty house
Sit around all by yourself
I know it might sound strange but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long


[Chorus]
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year

for the lyrics, Mills took some artistic license with a real-life incident. “There was a girl (Ingrid Schorr). We were seeing each other and we really liked each other, but we were not boyfriend and girlfriend. She was going back to Rockville for the summer. And I thought that ‘going back to Rockville’ just screamed song, right there. As I wrote it, it turned into what if we were in love and she was leaving and never coming back. And that’s how it turned into ‘(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville.’ It just morphed as it went along.”

The narrator suggests Rockville, Maryland is a place “where nobody says hello/They don’t talk to anybody they don’t know.” He also relates his need to drink his heartache away: “Cause it’s so much easier to handle/All my problems if I’m too far out to sea.” But he also owns up to the fact that her return might not be as good for her as it would be for him: “If you were here, I’d only bleed you.”

https://americansongwriter.com/dont-go-back-to-rockville-rem-behind-the-song/

In the spring of 1980 I was at college in Athens, Georgia. My once-good grades had given way to behavior that my parents were starting to get wind of, and they instructed me to come back home to Maryland for the summer. I didn’t want to go. Everything in Athens was so… fresh and exciting. I had just started taking part in the innocent decadence that would sustain the scene for the next several years. And I was just beginning a romance with Mike Mills, the bass player in the weeks-old R.E.M. A few weeks before the end of spring quarter he said to me — we were at Tyrone’s, the local rock club, standing between the Rolling Stones pinball machine and the Space Invaders game, playing neither — “I finally meet a girl I like and she’s got to go back to Rockville.”

That’s the genesis of “(Don’t Go Back) to Rockville,” one of R.E.M.’s most-beloved songs. The lyrics, like their author, are endearingly straightforward. The song isn’t so much about me as about my taking off for some other place, leaving him behind: “I know it might sound strange but I believe you’ll be coming back before too long.”

https://www.hilobrow.com/2011/09/23/rockville-girl-speaks/

Ha ha!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YMMV but Rockville Town Center is depressing and that whole area is on the decline. If you don’t want to be in the hole once you purchase your home in this economy I’d look where new development is a little further south. Look around Twinbrook Metro where Wegman’s is being built and around White Flint Metro and Pike and Rose. These areas are going to have homes that will appreciate a lot in the next 5-10 years, especially homes that are walkable to Twinbrook Metro and Wegman’s development.

I respectfully disagree. Sometimes, I wish Rockville town center had a bit more of the vibrancy of Pike and Rose. Still, the current incarnation of the town center has 2-4 places I’d happily go for date night without kids, 2-4 sit down restaurants I’m willing to eat in with kids that don’t overlap with my “date night” choices, 3 casual places I’d go to with kids + the Spot. There are also a handful of places I’d go to with friends or co-workers. I’m grateful to be walking distance to so many places and am looking forward to the ice skating rink in winter.

I also prefer RTC to P&R. It is much easier to navigate and park. I do wish there were a few more productive? stores that I could get errands done as oppose to browse for a gift. I hope something useful replaces the CVS, I enjoy the librbary and many of the restarants. The picnic tables are great.

Anonymous wrote:YMMV but Rockville Town Center is depressing and that whole area is on the decline. If you don’t want to be in the hole once you purchase your home in this economy I’d look where new development is a little further south. Look around Twinbrook Metro where Wegman’s is being built and around White Flint Metro and Pike and Rose. These areas are going to have homes that will appreciate a lot in the next 5-10 years, especially homes that are walkable to Twinbrook Metro and Wegman’s development.

I respectfully disagree. Sometimes, I wish Rockville town center had a bit more of the vibrancy of Pike and Rose. Still, the current incarnation of the town center has 2-4 places I’d happily go for date night without kids, 2-4 sit down restaurants I’m willing to eat in with kids that don’t overlap with my “date night” choices, 3 casual places I’d go to with kids + the Spot. There are also a handful of places I’d go to with friends or co-workers. I’m grateful to be walking distance to so many places and am looking forward to the ice skating rink in winter.

YMMV but Rockville Town Center is depressing and that whole area is on the decline. If you don’t want to be in the hole once you purchase your home in this economy I’d look where new development is a little further south. Look around Twinbrook Metro where Wegman’s is being built and around White Flint Metro and Pike and Rose. These areas are going to have homes that will appreciate a lot in the next 5-10 years, especially homes that are walkable to Twinbrook Metro and Wegman’s development.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS for town like feeling look also into Garrett Park and Kensington (not Rockville but in the same area)

You are going to get a high concentration of Catholics here, btw.

I am a native. MoCo has always had a high jewish population, particularly Silver Spring, Potomac, Rockville, etc.

In comparison, counties in VA--Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, etc. have very, very few. I think there was one Jewish student in my entire high school class of 500+ students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every time I see the Rockville sign on the beltway, it reminds me of the REM song - Don't Go Back to Rockville.

Haha, I know me too. But I do really like Rockville. Great neighborhoods; close enough to places so you don't feel isolated; has multiple metro stations; lots of restaurants and shopping nearby; good schools; and overall a great place to raise kids.

Top 10 cities for families

#9

https://livability.com/best-places/10-best-cities-for-families/

Anonymous wrote:Every time I see the Rockville sign on the beltway, it reminds me of the REM song - Don't Go Back to Rockville.

Haha, I know me too. But I do really like Rockville. Great neighborhoods; close enough to places so you don't feel isolated; has multiple metro stations; lots of restaurants and shopping nearby; good schools; and overall a great place to raise kids.