Moving to Frederick, Maryland from Metro Detroit Michigan (Hagerstown: townhouse, neighborhoods)

[coolwildtiger]

Based on a job offer, I am considering moving to Frederick,Maryland. As an single educated african american male in his early 30's, can someone tell me how this city is,where are the places to live at, what are things to do and how is the commute from Frederick to Hagerstown?

[Tesaje]

There are lots of places to live both in town and the surrounding area. If you are worried there won't be African Americans, rest assured there are plenty. Not as dense a population as DC, but few places are. I think there's still some residual racism from some people but I think its more pockets than an overall atmosphere. We have 2 AA families in my small rural neighborhood. Seem like nice people and no one thinks anything of it. Or if they do, they hide it.

There are some very good restaurants in Frederick. There's some music/dance places, bars with music on weekends. There's an arts & play house if like that stuff. There's an arts center. DC and surrounding areas are not that far away if that is what you want.

From Hagerstown to Frederick often has slow traffic on the freeways in the morning and the reverse in the aftn. Hagerstown is becoming more and more of an outlying bedroom community for DC. I don't take it often, but every time I do, the traffic is heavy and sometimes very slow. The reverse direction is pretty light. Going at speed it takes about 25 minutes to get to the Hagerstown exits off I70.

[Tim Rankin]

Frederick is a great town to raise a family, and although there are some really decent restaurants and some bars in the downtown and surrounding areas, it's not DC, as far as a singles scene. But the town really has a lot of charm, and to be honest, does have a decent population of singles. It won an award a couple years back as having one of the top 5 "main streets" in the USA.

I lived in Frederick as a single male in my 30's for about two years before getting married, and liked it. My guess is you would like Frederick more then Hagerstown, as a place to live. It would also give you better proximity to DC, if you need a dose of city excitement.

If you are looking for some nice neighborhoods close in to the city center that are primarily African-American, there are a few to choose from. Typically they are older homes, solid and with some character, etc. I would recommend living in the city, vs. in some of the newer, dense "townhouse-style" developments further out. At least that would be my preference.

If you are asking about the commute from Frederick to Hagerstown in the morning, and then back to Frederick in the afternoon, it'll be a breeze. It's an opposite direction commute, and about 25-30 min max. Commuting the other way [Hagerstown to Frederick to Hagerstown] will take a bit longer due to some traffic, although it shouldn't be too bad. I have never driven that route so I can't say firsthand, though.

[Billiam]

Frederick is Great - Very 'charming' to a lot of people, tons of history, arts, festivals, privatly owned shops(like tons), great pubs and restaruants, parks, concerts, lots of things to do in the mountains, great architecture, and its a great place to live - Don't worry about race, living here all my life, racism isn't big at all - Downtown is a great place to live - very safe in most areas, most people love it there, and if i could i would move back!