Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, 2 kids to Brent, 8 years each. They walked to school together without parents from when eldest was in 3rd grade, from East Cap. We took the self-release-walk-home-independently option for them at school for 4th and 5th, like many other families in their peer groups. We gave them whistles, reflective vests and LED lights for helmets and on bikes and scooters and watch phones to call or 911 us if need be. We taught them to cross streets safely and to be aware of their surroundings. The youngest just graduated in May. Never had any kind of problem in all weather.

Well, this is great for you, but very few parents would be comfortable doing this. I say that as a Hill resident.

+1, I live on the Hill with no intention of leaving and no one I know does this. I do think there is an older cohort of parents whose kids were/are more free range, but the culture has changed. Newer families moving to the Hill are higher income, more likely to have nannies even once their kids are school age (also lots of people with family living with them or nearby), and their kids don't do this. The old guard on the Hill was more likely to be dual feds or even one fed, one SAHP, Gen X hippies/hipsters where having more free range kids in the city made sense to them. Newer folks are more risk averse.

It's a cultural shift that I think the PP, whose kids are clearly now older, may not realize it's happened because they don't socialize with the people who now have kids in elementary. This Hill is less free range now.

I'm one of the older parents. If what you're saying is true, that makes me really sad. What is the point of living in CH if your kids can't walk to school/the park/to their friends' house?

I know that CH people love to look down on upper NW but AU Park has this in spades - many kids start walking on their own to Janney in 4th or 5th grade. And they can easily walk to the park, library, ice cream, friends houses, etc. And middle and hs kids take the bus or metro or bike to Georgetown, Bethesda, Dupont, or even a Nats game

Great, please give me $1.5 mil so I can move from the Hill to AU Park. Sounds nice!

Do glover park instead. you have all the same things and similar schools, but prices in Glover Park are very similar to Cap Hill, as is the housing stock.

again, no - the Hill is cheaper. I don’t see anything under $1 mil in Glover Park. And of course many of us have 3% mortgages too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer to this question is: move to Glover Park. You get the walkability (or close to it) of Capitol Hill, without the downsides of crime. You avoid long commutes from the boring suburbs. And you don't have to worry about school quality.

I'm not buying any of this. Last time I checked, Glover Park isn't short on crime because DC isn't. We have friends there whose house was broken into a few months ago. Don't have to worry about school qualify for Hardy or MacArthur? Ridiculous. I'm told that the seriously incompetent Hardy principal was pushed out a month before the end of this past school year, by....furious parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, 2 kids to Brent, 8 years each. They walked to school together without parents from when eldest was in 3rd grade, from East Cap. We took the self-release-walk-home-independently option for them at school for 4th and 5th, like many other families in their peer groups. We gave them whistles, reflective vests and LED lights for helmets and on bikes and scooters and watch phones to call or 911 us if need be. We taught them to cross streets safely and to be aware of their surroundings. The youngest just graduated in May. Never had any kind of problem in all weather.

Well, this is great for you, but very few parents would be comfortable doing this. I say that as a Hill resident.

+1, I live on the Hill with no intention of leaving and no one I know does this. I do think there is an older cohort of parents whose kids were/are more free range, but the culture has changed. Newer families moving to the Hill are higher income, more likely to have nannies even once their kids are school age (also lots of people with family living with them or nearby), and their kids don't do this. The old guard on the Hill was more likely to be dual feds or even one fed, one SAHP, Gen X hippies/hipsters where having more free range kids in the city made sense to them. Newer folks are more risk averse.

It's a cultural shift that I think the PP, whose kids are clearly now older, may not realize it's happened because they don't socialize with the people who now have kids in elementary. This Hill is less free range now.

I'm one of the older parents. If what you're saying is true, that makes me really sad. What is the point of living in CH if your kids can't walk to school/the park/to their friends' house?

I know that CH people love to look down on upper NW but AU Park has this in spades - many kids start walking on their own to Janney in 4th or 5th grade. And they can easily walk to the park, library, ice cream, friends houses, etc. And middle and hs kids take the bus or metro or bike to Georgetown, Bethesda, Dupont, or even a Nats game

Great, please give me $1.5 mil so I can move from the Hill to AU Park. Sounds nice!

Do glover park instead. you have all the same things and similar schools, but prices in Glover Park are very similar to Cap Hill, as is the housing stock.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, 2 kids to Brent, 8 years each. They walked to school together without parents from when eldest was in 3rd grade, from East Cap. We took the self-release-walk-home-independently option for them at school for 4th and 5th, like many other families in their peer groups. We gave them whistles, reflective vests and LED lights for helmets and on bikes and scooters and watch phones to call or 911 us if need be. We taught them to cross streets safely and to be aware of their surroundings. The youngest just graduated in May. Never had any kind of problem in all weather.

Well, this is great for you, but very few parents would be comfortable doing this. I say that as a Hill resident.

+1, I live on the Hill with no intention of leaving and no one I know does this. I do think there is an older cohort of parents whose kids were/are more free range, but the culture has changed. Newer families moving to the Hill are higher income, more likely to have nannies even once their kids are school age (also lots of people with family living with them or nearby), and their kids don't do this. The old guard on the Hill was more likely to be dual feds or even one fed, one SAHP, Gen X hippies/hipsters where having more free range kids in the city made sense to them. Newer folks are more risk averse.

It's a cultural shift that I think the PP, whose kids are clearly now older, may not realize it's happened because they don't socialize with the people who now have kids in elementary. This Hill is less free range now.

I'm one of the older parents. If what you're saying is true, that makes me really sad. What is the point of living in CH if your kids can't walk to school/the park/to their friends' house?

I know that CH people love to look down on upper NW but AU Park has this in spades - many kids start walking on their own to Janney in 4th or 5th grade. And they can easily walk to the park, library, ice cream, friends houses, etc. And middle and hs kids take the bus or metro or bike to Georgetown, Bethesda, Dupont, or even a Nats game

Great, please give me $1.5 mil so I can move from the Hill to AU Park. Sounds nice!

Anonymous wrote:I am tentative to type this. Glover Park is a nice walkable neighborhood and MacArthur is very promising. But, if you already now live on the Hill and are short-term just looking at middle school, it is not clear to me that the difference between SH and Hardy is necessarily large enough to justify the big step of moving along with the loss of a shorter commute and some of the other familiarity and convenience that comes with the Hill.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer to this question is: move to Glover Park. You get the walkability (or close to it) of Capitol Hill, without the downsides of crime. You avoid long commutes from the boring suburbs. And you don't have to worry about school quality.

I'm not buying any of this. Last time I checked, Glover Park isn't short on crime because DC isn't. We have friends there whose house was broken into a few months ago. Don't have to worry about school qualify for Hardy or MacArthur? Ridiculous. I'm told that the seriously incompetent Hardy principal was pushed out a month before the end of this past school year, by....furious parents.

Anonymous wrote:The answer to this question is: move to Glover Park. You get the walkability (or close to it) of Capitol Hill, without the downsides of crime. You avoid long commutes from the boring suburbs. And you don't have to worry about school quality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer to this question is: move to Glover Park. You get the walkability (or close to it) of Capitol Hill, without the downsides of crime. You avoid long commutes from the boring suburbs. And you don't have to worry about school quality.

This is a good option. Though it's missing the public transportation options. Part of the appeal of CH is that it's very walkable and convenient for living in and spending most of your time, but it's also incredibly easy to get to the rest of the city from via either metro or bus. Glover Park is insular. But at least you'd have easy commutes for elementary and middle (definitely walkable, and I'd personally be thrilled with Stoddert and Hardy). MacArthur is further but I'm guessing there will be a reasonable transportation option from GP.

I would definitely prefer the local food/shopping options in Glover Park to CH. I think CH has overrated dining and retail options. It's great in theory but less so in execution. Also, often places I really like leave and I'm not always sure why. Meanwhile a lot of what sticks around is pretty middling.

Really this is my way of saying I'd love to be in such close proximity to the original Jetties

Anonymous wrote:I am tentative to type this. Glover Park is a nice walkable neighborhood and MacArthur is very promising. But, if you already now live on the Hill and are short-term just looking at middle school, it is not clear to me that the difference between SH and Hardy is necessarily large enough to justify the big step of moving along with the loss of a shorter commute and some of the other familiarity and convenience that comes with the Hill.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer to this question is: move to Glover Park. You get the walkability (or close to it) of Capitol Hill, without the downsides of crime. You avoid long commutes from the boring suburbs. And you don't have to worry about school quality.

This is a good option. Though it's missing the public transportation options. Part of the appeal of CH is that it's very walkable and convenient for living in and spending most of your time, but it's also incredibly easy to get to the rest of the city from via either metro or bus. Glover Park is insular. But at least you'd have easy commutes for elementary and middle (definitely walkable, and I'd personally be thrilled with Stoddert and Hardy). MacArthur is further but I'm guessing there will be a reasonable transportation option from GP.

I would definitely prefer the local food/shopping options in Glover Park to CH. I think CH has overrated dining and retail options. It's great in theory but less so in execution. Also, often places I really like leave and I'm not always sure why. Meanwhile a lot of what sticks around is pretty middling.

Really this is my way of saying I'd love to be in such close proximity to the original Jetties

Anonymous wrote:The answer to this question is: move to Glover Park. You get the walkability (or close to it) of Capitol Hill, without the downsides of crime. You avoid long commutes from the boring suburbs. And you don't have to worry about school quality.