Affluent African American Family, Considering Rockville Area (Baltimore, Columbia: hair salon, selling a house)

[SRS]

My husband and two small children are moving from San Fran to Montgomery Co. due to job relocations. This area seems to be a great place due to the school clusters and overall family-friendliness. I am looking for info regarding the diversity, particularly for well-off African Americans. Is this an area where you can find a nice church, get your hair done, have a diverse neighborhood, etc or do you take advantage of the good schools and have a social life outside of Rockville.

Also, if anyone can recommend excellent preschools - I would GREATLY appreciate - Pls let me know!

No need for questions/comments about African Americans seeking African Americans - I'm not looking to debate - just want to get a sense of the area - thanks in advance!

[carolina_guy]

Originally Posted by SRS

No need for questions/comments about African Americans seeking African Americans - I'm not looking to debate - just want to get a sense of the area - thanks in advance!

That's funny...seems to come with the territory of such a question.

[ebo202]

I think Rockville would be a great place for you guys. The worst to face will be traffic and some pretentious Bethesda-ites, but you'll fit right in.

There are a MILLION churches around here. I think MoCo is the mega-mall of churches.. no matter how specific you are looking for, you will find one. If you want Russian Orthodox Byzantine Church for people that have green hair, I'm sure you'll find one. I've gone to Bridgeway Bible in Columbia a few times and they're great. I met one guy who's a jerk there, but he was a jerk before church anyway

If you want a good stylist, head towards downtown Silver Spring or into the city. The missus' hair is impossible to manage, so she goes to Luisa's on Bonifant Rd. in Silver Spring, it's a Dominican salon. If you know any dominicans, you know they have A LOT of hair... From what I've seen, if you can manage that, you are really good.

As for entertainment, honestly I think Rockville is kinda boring... You DO however, have the Strathmore cultural center right down the street, decent movie theaters and you are super close to a very safe Metro-Rail stop. The metro will bring you to EVERYTHING good in the city. Forget driving. The Warner Theater has great shows, is right off Metro Center, Adams Morgan has great lounges and bars (although it's share of punk kids ) and Bethesda has a slew of restaurants hosting everything from Thai to Ethopian to Mongolian to Indian. Oh, and the best theater in town is the Uptown, right off the Woodley Park Metro Stop.

Traffic will be a pain, housing prices are FINALLY more reasonable, and people are diverse. There aren't too many "Just white/black/latin" people here... Everyone is mixed... Nigerian, Guatemalan, Persian, Kenyan, Brazillian, or something. I think because there are so many different cultures around here, people just tend to be more specific.

[autimom4ever]

One of the reasons I left ...

"Affluent"... WHO CARES!!

[ebo202]

Well, if you left, then you should be happy and let it be.

[ChocLot]

If you're affluent and want a residential area that stresses this, try Chevy Chase, MD. VERY affluent area.

[Njrover0216]

I second Chevy Chase, how about Baltiomre pretty affluent there too.

[lscalder]

She wants to live in Rockville. I think Rockville is nice and I think you will like it there but the traffice is horrible. The area is known for having one of the worst traffic in the area. Rockville do have plenty of shopping,restaurant and White Flint mall.

As far as Hair Salon it depends upon your hair styles. If you like styles and love your hair looking nice you do have to go out of Rockville into areas such as Pg county,Silver Spring,Washington Dc or Wheaton.

I do think Chevy Chase is more diverse and in my opinion is much nicer then Rockville. Chevy Chase is more a family area. Both are nice areas.

Ebo202: I find it very cute that a man knows about female hair and female hair salon because if I had to ask my husband about hair salon he would have no clue.

[truthhurts]

I would recommend Potomac, MD you should really look into a few of the neighborhoods in the area. While none of the neighborhoods are going to be anymore than 5-8% at most black it is consider a better area than Rockville. The Rockville area that boarders Potomac, is a nice area, but anywhere else in Rockville is suspect.

If you're as affluent as you say and selling a house in SF putting a down payment on a nice 5000-6000 sq ft house in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, and Potomac should not be a big problem. The reputation of Rockville is not as good as it used to be, so you may be hearing older information.

Also watch some members of this board especially the one that recommended Baltimore short of living in Homeland, Baltimore is not an overall nice area. Its mostly either poor blacks, lower middle, and middle and the same for whites.

Also check out Olney as you may be able to get more houses for the bucks. Anyway I would avoid living in Rockville. Also if you prefer living predominately black neighborhoods that are affluent look into gated communities in Woodmore, MD (only thing is it is in PG, so you would have to send your kids to private school and do all your shopping in Nova as their are not amenities for affluent people)

[Joykins]

I think Rockville would be an excellent choice for a well-off AA family. The area is very diverse. PG is considered the wealthy AA county, but the schools there are so bad I can't recommend it for a family with children unless you want to send them to private school. DC is just a hop skip and jump away on Metro for real culture although there are also plenty of things to do in Rockville or nearby. Traffic in the whole metro area is horrible and there really isn't a way to avoid it short of telecommuting.