Heh! I live in Westover! I’m not aware of a predominance of low rider culture here, although there’s probably some of that over in the apartments. It’s a good place to live, IMHO.
It’s probably got one of the best school districts in the country, although it’s more about the people that live there (smart kids) than anything the school system’s doing.
Amen. I swear Virginia drivers think it’s a sacrament to pass on the right.
I don’t think Maryland drivers suck so much as there are too many of them. Are there no places of employment in Maryland? ISTM there’s a lot more of them coming here for work than vice versa, but I could be wrong.
I have no idea what apartments go for in Greenbelt. I’m talking about places like Dupont, Cleveland Park, Capitol Hill, etc. Maybe that’s a little high, I’d revise to around $2200 or so, but not much lower than that.
Yeah, the apartments. I don’t know if the owner is still there but the one I’m most familiar with is an '86-or-so Caprice in front of the Rudd complex. I lived in one of the buildings–thankfully not a Rudd–across from the church parking lot.
When Caprice-boy first moved in, he hand his buddies would get together and parade up & down Washington Blvd. This became so common that I was thankful when I came home one day to see that Caprice-boy had managed to break off one of his wheels. The reason I believe they came from Arna Valley is because I saw one of his buddies parked among the duplexes there.
I’m in MoCo! Although quite a bit closer in.
phall - I second the recommendation to look into Takoma Park. I like Silver Spring a lot, especially for a family with kids. You can get a two bedroom apartment around here for under $2k, and crime-wise the concerns are more stolen bicycles than drug deals. In DC itself, the advice I received upon moving to the area was to look near the red line, which I think is still pretty safe advice. Areas like Mt. Pleasant are safer than they used to be, but I’d question the school quality over there. Call a realtor! I’d be happy to send a name or two your way if you’d like.
Ravenman writes:
> I have no idea what apartments go for in Greenbelt. I’m talking about places
> like Dupont, Cleveland Park, Capitol Hill, etc. Maybe that’s a little high, I’d revise
> to around $2200 or so, but not much lower than that.
You said, “an average two bedroom apartment in a good neighborhood.” If you meant to restrict yourself to fairly expensive neighborhoods in the middle of D.C. you should have said so. People exaggerate the cost of rental in the area for “good neighborhoods” because they limit themselves too much in what that means.
Virginia drivers suck, but passing on the right? Who the fuck cares about that? In traffic like we have here, it only makes sense to pass on the right when you have to.
I’m talking about just plain meanness, like doing all you can from preventing someone from changing lanes or making a turn.
The OP said he was looking to live “IN DC if at all possible” [OP’s emphasis] so I was trying to be responsive to that. If he has said he wanted to live in Greenbelt or Vienna or even Crystal City I wouldn’t have said a thing about rents.
I think I remember that car!
I live just on the other side of Swanson from there so I don’t see a lot of the goings on over in the apartments. Thankfully, apparently.
For people who now know where I live, please note that I’m neither stalkable nor the owner of anything would-be robbers would consider valuable.
I was born in DC. I grew up in the MD suburbs of DC. I now live in York, PA. I still drive to the DC area regularly to visit family, go to events etc. so I feel like my experience there over the past 30 years is still relevant. That said, I perfer living where I am now. Even if I were to get a job in the DC Metro area, I would live in a suburb and commute.
Everyone tries to compare their “city” to “The Big City,” whether that be Washington, Baltimore, New York, or what have you (or San Fran and LA if you are on the left coast.) There is no comparison. The worst section of Harrisburg is still better than even a regular run-of-the-mill bad neighborhood in DC (or Baltimore for that matter.)
One more neighborhood recommendation - the Capitol Hill area is interesting, and it would be oh-so-cool to live within walking distance of Eastern Market. I know several people who live around there these days and the housing is relatively affordable, especially if you are interested in a fixer-upper. Schools would be iffy, though. My friends/relatives there all have preschool age children.
Thanks for all the info. It’s been helpful–a bit overwhelming, but still helpful.
I would absolutely be renting. I’m not ready to make the committment to home ownership, regardless of where I’m living.
I have a severe love/hate relationship with Harrisburg and I’m trying to decide if it’s my usual “I hate Harrisburg in the Winter and Summer” mood, of if my love of DC is actually a love of DC and not just a hate of Harrisburg at the moment. I also don’t want to remain where I am simply because it’s comfortable, but may not be the best of what I’d like/feel like I deserve.
I also have to consider how my marketable skills (in the area of nonprofit organzations) would transfer to a market like DC. I know DC is the home for a lot of national nonprofits, but I need to make sure that my income to expenses ratio doesn’t actually decrease with any more. It’s not like I’m making millions now, but I can’t afford to more than double my rent expenses, for example, if my income doesn’t double as well.
It’s not an easy decision.
I don’t think relocating ever is. I might make sense for you to apply to some openings to see what is available and what the salaries are. The cost of living here isn’t cheap and with school age children, I would avoid the city itself.
If you hate Harrisburg in the winter and summer … You just might hate Washington in the winter and summer too.
Although it might be subject for another thread, I hate Harrisburg in the winter because it costs so freaking much to heat my laregely uninsulated house (oil heat, boiler older than dirt). I hate Harrisburg in the summer because of all the idiots with their booming car radios and the loud-mouth idiots who think nothing of hanging out on their front porches until midnight on a Wednesday night and who use my neighborhood as their own personal trashcan. (Littering is a huge problem in my neighborhood.)
…Maybe I just need to move out of my neighborhood…
Mmmmm… yes and no. Having lived in both places (and I continue to visit Harrisburg several times a year since I have family there), winter weather can be substantially worse in Harrisburg than in Washington, from the same weather front. 10-20 degrees colder on the same day, rain here = snow there. For example about 5 years ago, we were supposed to travel up on Christmas day - it was raining / flurrying here but it was starting to get messy in Harrisburg; my mother called and said not to come. By early afternoon, it was sunny and in the 40s here; they had 6+ inches of snow. We are more likely to get sleet around here, I think - it’s been 30 years since I’ve spent much time up there in the winter. Sleet makes for shitty driving and sidewalks - I’d much rather have snow.
Summers are similar - perhaps a bit hotter/muggier here on average but then everyone has A/C.
Spring and fall are nice in both places.
The issue with the noisy neighbors is one you could probably solve by moving within the Harrisburg area itself, of course. In fact schooling-wise that’s always a consideration. I don’t know all that much about the public schools in the outlying areas (we went to parochial) but I gather they’re OK in general.
Oh - and one comment combining schooling and weather: Fairfax County in particular has a mix of terrains. Much hillier in the western / northern part of the county, with narrower / winding roads. It’s all one school district, also. So, if roads are icy in the northwestern area, they truly aren’t safe to travel - while they’re perfectly safe near my area (eastern part of the county). BUT - for some reason, the school district has to have an all-or-nothing closing policy. So my kids often get out of school when it would be perfectly safe for them to go. We joke that this is because all the rich folks who could afford good lawyers (or are lawyers themselves) live in the part of the county with the unsafe roads 
I don’t know whether it’s safe to make this assumption regarding rental apartments in the city.
Ah - true. We lived in a dive in the city for about 5 months when we first moved in, and that place didn’t even have heat! (there were a lot of code violations there). A/C would be a luxury in many areas.
Safer to say that most places have A/C.
How are you with museums? 
Your familiarity with nonprofits might be of help in other areas, like the National Endowment for the Arts or the National Endowment for the Humanities.