Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another UP resident here - we love the vibe and chose to settle here after living in DC (Shaw) and buying a starter home in Calvert Hills. We have been in the area for 12 years so it has developed from a food desert to a place with multiple walkable grocery stores and restaurants outside of pizza joints for college students. We primarily shop at the new Trader Joe's and Whole Foods as they are closest to us. The Whole Foods development keeps getting better for families, and I let my kids go to the Starbucks and Habit Burger there alone. I do have some concerns about the violence at PG Plaza and opt away from there other than an occasional Target run.

Overall, it is an increasingly diverse suburb with mature trees and mostly 30s-40s era houses where you will find government and NGO workers, professors, and lots of lawyers but few that work at big firms. The town has its own trash/recycling/snow/police and maintains the playgrounds nicely. Come by and you'll see a lot of dog walkers that are willing to say more!

How is it getting increasingly diverse?

More non-white people move in?

Anonymous wrote:Does it have a vibe?

Liberal well-educated white people
Idk if that's a vibe that's the neighborhood

Anonymous wrote:Another UP resident here - we love the vibe and chose to settle here after living in DC (Shaw) and buying a starter home in Calvert Hills. We have been in the area for 12 years so it has developed from a food desert to a place with multiple walkable grocery stores and restaurants outside of pizza joints for college students. We primarily shop at the new Trader Joe's and Whole Foods as they are closest to us. The Whole Foods development keeps getting better for families, and I let my kids go to the Starbucks and Habit Burger there alone. I do have some concerns about the violence at PG Plaza and opt away from there other than an occasional Target run.

Overall, it is an increasingly diverse suburb with mature trees and mostly 30s-40s era houses where you will find government and NGO workers, professors, and lots of lawyers but few that work at big firms. The town has its own trash/recycling/snow/police and maintains the playgrounds nicely. Come by and you'll see a lot of dog walkers that are willing to say more!

How is it getting increasingly diverse?

Another UP resident here - we love the vibe and chose to settle here after living in DC (Shaw) and buying a starter home in Calvert Hills. We have been in the area for 12 years so it has developed from a food desert to a place with multiple walkable grocery stores and restaurants outside of pizza joints for college students. We primarily shop at the new Trader Joe's and Whole Foods as they are closest to us. The Whole Foods development keeps getting better for families, and I let my kids go to the Starbucks and Habit Burger there alone. I do have some concerns about the violence at PG Plaza and opt away from there other than an occasional Target run.

Overall, it is an increasingly diverse suburb with mature trees and mostly 30s-40s era houses where you will find government and NGO workers, professors, and lots of lawyers but few that work at big firms. The town has its own trash/recycling/snow/police and maintains the playgrounds nicely. Come by and you'll see a lot of dog walkers that are willing to say more!

Does it have a vibe?

Much better to be close to Univ. of Maryland than SMU!

I love university park dallas. Such a friendly place

We've also enjoyed University Park. Calvert Hills is another neighborhood right across Bmore Ave that is great and is even a little more affordable (though with a very small housing inventory).

We moved to University Park (UP) from DC during the pandemic and have really liked it. With the proximity to UMD, a lot of the residents are profs or have a connection to the university (you can easily walk up to campus depending on where in the neighborhood you live).

We had primarily toured homes in Chevy Chase and the Woodside Park section of Silver Spring before stumbling on University Park. My spouse can walk to work at UMD, which made UP a pretty easy choice for us in combination with the big difference in price compared to the other houses we considered. Interestingly, almost none of my family members from Bethesda had heard of UP (there is more to Maryland than MoCo?!).

School wise, people are happy with UP's public elementary but it seems like many decide to look elsewhere for middle school and beyond (you see window stickers for pretty much every private school but most are more local).

In terms of shopping and running errands, we are within walking distance of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. We tend to grocery shop primarily at the College Park Trader Joe's and Lidl. It is great to have an amazing new library (technically in Hyattsville but right across Adelphi from UP) and a Target and Home Depot so close. We also like being able to attend UMD sporting events, which are family friendly. With all of the investment in the surrounding areas, especially right near UMD and in Hyattsville, it seems like the immediate region will continue to get nothing but nicer too.

I can't recommend UP enough if you work at UMD since it is convenient to work and to UMD's excellent Center for Young Children, plus with the university's outdoor pool, golf, and tennis combo, it can be similar to having a hugely discounted country club membership in the warmer months.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lots of friends there. Some kids play together but they gravitate to school friends, especially as they grow older. The nearby mall has crime problems, and my children are not allowed to go there (shootings).

Sure, some people are welcoming. There is a list serv and some local activities (races each year) that bring people together.

It’s a place to live if you want a decent house among trees that is about $900-$1m or more.

If you won’t let your children go to PG mall, you shouldn’t live here for sure. I am at PG mall all the time with my toddler. There HAS been one shooting there I can recall since we moved here. It wasn’t random, and I’m very comfortable going there and being a normal level of vigilant and alert. There was a shooting at Montgomery Mall a few years ago too. I bet the PP would let her kids go there, and I can speculate about why.

Speculate away. Nice calling me a racist.

OP, This is who you’ll be living near in University Park.

Three people were shot in 2022 at the mall. Two of those died. A 17 year old was also shot dead at the metro station, and another person was knifed at West Hyattsville.

Not all were targeted but even if they were? Do you hear yourself—as if “targeted shootings” are cool. No worries there. Nothing to see, people! Just a dead body.

If someone wants to move here, I won’t be the one to lie about the issues. I hated it when people did that to me.

I'll just hire private security with all the money I'm saving by not having a mortgage in PG.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lots of friends there. Some kids play together but they gravitate to school friends, especially as they grow older. The nearby mall has crime problems, and my children are not allowed to go there (shootings).

Sure, some people are welcoming. There is a list serv and some local activities (races each year) that bring people together.

It’s a place to live if you want a decent house among trees that is about $900-$1m or more.

If you won’t let your children go to PG mall, you shouldn’t live here for sure. I am at PG mall all the time with my toddler. There HAS been one shooting there I can recall since we moved here. It wasn’t random, and I’m very comfortable going there and being a normal level of vigilant and alert. There was a shooting at Montgomery Mall a few years ago too. I bet the PP would let her kids go there, and I can speculate about why.

There were 2 shootings last summer. One was random and the other was not.
To be fair--Tyson's Corner also had a handful of shootings last summer but I am not sure anyone was actually killed.

It's not like the Montgomery County State's Attorneys office has a shortage of murders to prosecute either.

why are you bringing up MoCo? Is that your automatic response whenever someone mentions crime at PGPlaza?

Because I worked in the prosecutor's office there and know that every place carries some risk of violent crime. The difference between PG Plaza and other areas isn't as great as most posters here make it out to be. Too many people think that your risk of violent crime is determined by whether the businesses around cater to the wealthy, but it's really not. You can still get murdered in a Lululemon.

Oh please. Workplace violence is hardly random.

https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/The-Lululemon-Murder

Oh, I didn't realize that you had verified each account of violence and determined which ones were random in your opinion and only counted those. We these also random?

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/three-arrested-body-found-stairwell/65-56b54f46-6767-4c6c-b3bf-f05a693a5acc

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/shots-fired-during-police-chase-in-bethesda-3-in-custody-police/3089837/

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/66-year-old-bethesda-man-found-dead-in-his-home/65-73744942-300f-4540-b69f-7d27e95807ed

Again, reading is a great skill. Read the articles and you will have your answer.

From twitter today. Someone mentioned the station up string.

METRO STATION CITIZEN ROBBERY: West Hyattsville Metro Station, 2700 Hamilton Street in Hyattsville-- the female victim was punched in the mouth & had her purse stolen; she was evaluated by medics. A woman & 2 men fled in a black car. @MetroTransitPD investigating. #wmata

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lots of friends there. Some kids play together but they gravitate to school friends, especially as they grow older. The nearby mall has crime problems, and my children are not allowed to go there (shootings).

Sure, some people are welcoming. There is a list serv and some local activities (races each year) that bring people together.

It’s a place to live if you want a decent house among trees that is about $900-$1m or more.

If you won’t let your children go to PG mall, you shouldn’t live here for sure. I am at PG mall all the time with my toddler. There HAS been one shooting there I can recall since we moved here. It wasn’t random, and I’m very comfortable going there and being a normal level of vigilant and alert. There was a shooting at Montgomery Mall a few years ago too. I bet the PP would let her kids go there, and I can speculate about why.

There were 2 shootings last summer. One was random and the other was not.
To be fair--Tyson's Corner also had a handful of shootings last summer but I am not sure anyone was actually killed.

It's not like the Montgomery County State's Attorneys office has a shortage of murders to prosecute either.

why are you bringing up MoCo? Is that your automatic response whenever someone mentions crime at PGPlaza?

Because I worked in the prosecutor's office there and know that every place carries some risk of violent crime. The difference between PG Plaza and other areas isn't as great as most posters here make it out to be. Too many people think that your risk of violent crime is determined by whether the businesses around cater to the wealthy, but it's really not. You can still get murdered in a Lululemon.

Oh please. Workplace violence is hardly random.

https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/The-Lululemon-Murder

Oh, I didn't realize that you had verified each account of violence and determined which ones were random in your opinion and only counted those. We these also random?

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/three-arrested-body-found-stairwell/65-56b54f46-6767-4c6c-b3bf-f05a693a5acc

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/shots-fired-during-police-chase-in-bethesda-3-in-custody-police/3089837/

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/66-year-old-bethesda-man-found-dead-in-his-home/65-73744942-300f-4540-b69f-7d27e95807ed

You obviously missed the shopping at Lululemon reference in pp. Read better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious why UP is so white? Is there something historically that made that particular area not welcoming to non-whites?

PG county was predominately white for a very long time, especially areas like Bowie. It changed in the past 30 years maybe? UP/CH have stayed very white bc there is so little inventory and very few if any new houses being built. And I've met many people here who have inherited their homes from parents or family member. And a lot of the homes are still occupied by original homeowners.

And there are whispers of steering by some of the older real estate agents.

There are some great local historians who have done good work around the varying forms of segregation in the area over time. North Brentwood has a long and really important history of Black homeownership and culture that goes back to just after the Civil War when the land was sold by an officer to his former soldiers. I honestly don’t know the details and sadly I don’t think the museum there survived the pandemic. But they have also done some restoration work on a tavern there that hosted major Black musicians, I think basically for after parties when they performed in DC.

At this point I think the real estate process is as unbiased as anywhere else (which is to say still pretty bad I think re loan approval and such). I think what happens is the land and housing stock in the formerly white areas are fancier, so the prices are higher, so maybe they stay whiter because of economic correlations, and on and on.

Definitely in Mount Rainier there have been some fairly definable waves of population with different races in the majority. It will be interesting to see what happens next but for right now, imo Rte 1 is about as good as it gets in terms of diversity (racial and economic) and the safe, convenient suburban experience. Of course there’s still problems, but I don’t know of anywhere else in the area that’s better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lots of friends there. Some kids play together but they gravitate to school friends, especially as they grow older. The nearby mall has crime problems, and my children are not allowed to go there (shootings).

Sure, some people are welcoming. There is a list serv and some local activities (races each year) that bring people together.

It’s a place to live if you want a decent house among trees that is about $900-$1m or more.

If you won’t let your children go to PG mall, you shouldn’t live here for sure. I am at PG mall all the time with my toddler. There HAS been one shooting there I can recall since we moved here. It wasn’t random, and I’m very comfortable going there and being a normal level of vigilant and alert. There was a shooting at Montgomery Mall a few years ago too. I bet the PP would let her kids go there, and I can speculate about why.

There were 2 shootings last summer. One was random and the other was not.
To be fair--Tyson's Corner also had a handful of shootings last summer but I am not sure anyone was actually killed.

It's not like the Montgomery County State's Attorneys office has a shortage of murders to prosecute either.

why are you bringing up MoCo? Is that your automatic response whenever someone mentions crime at PGPlaza?

Because I worked in the prosecutor's office there and know that every place carries some risk of violent crime. The difference between PG Plaza and other areas isn't as great as most posters here make it out to be. Too many people think that your risk of violent crime is determined by whether the businesses around cater to the wealthy, but it's really not. You can still get murdered in a Lululemon.

Oh please. Workplace violence is hardly random.

https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/The-Lululemon-Murder

Oh, I didn't realize that you had verified each account of violence and determined which ones were random in your opinion and only counted those. We these also random?

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/three-arrested-body-found-stairwell/65-56b54f46-6767-4c6c-b3bf-f05a693a5acc

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/shots-fired-during-police-chase-in-bethesda-3-in-custody-police/3089837/

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/66-year-old-bethesda-man-found-dead-in-his-home/65-73744942-300f-4540-b69f-7d27e95807ed