Moving to MD- Rockville or Ellicott City? (Baltimore, Columbia: home search, high schools)

[K-Bear]

Current Rockville resident here

I've never been to Ellicot City nor do I care to (don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's a lovely place. Just have no reason to go there) so I really can't comment on what life is like in EC or HoCo.

I would recommend Rockville for most of your wants/needs. The only thing that would make me say EC is the fact that your wife is leaving the workforce. I'm guessing EC house prices are lower than Rocville if that is a factor.

But, Rockville for everything else

I'm a SAHM with 2 young girls (3 and 1) and I love raising my girls in this area. I live in a quiet neighborhood that has a little village center and parks. I love being able to walk to the village center and have store clerks know me and my kids. I love being able to walk to the parks to play.

Rockville also built their Town Center recently and it's close by. In the summer they have concerts and activities for the kids. They also have farmers' markets in the summer. Every Memorial Day they also have a big event (Hometown Happenings or something).

There's also plenty of shopping centers/malls around here. The Rio is a great shopping center with kid friendly stores and activities during the summer.

The Metro is also close by and it's wonderful to hop on (kids love riding the Metro!) to go down to DC to the museums and other attractions.

Since you said you will be working from home and your wife will be a SAHM, you most likely won't be affected too much by the traffic. My husband works 10 min. from our home and like I said, I'm a SAHM and wer're really not affected by the traffic.

If I were commuting on 270 during rush hour, my answer would probably be different! But my daughter's preschool starts at 9:30 and I don't go on 270, so it's not *too* bad. Plus, I schedule all my errands middle of the day and not during rush hour. It seems like you would also have similar flexibility. And we avoid 355 on weekends

In Rockville, you can creat a quiet, small town life for yourself but still have access to the offerings a big city has to offer. There is just so much for you and especially your kids to do down here!

So, yeah, Rockville is pretty great place to live. But it can be pricey, so that would be the big drawback against living here.

[moving2MD]

Thanks for all of the opinions. It seems pretty evenly split between those that favor Rockville vs. those that prefer Ellicott City, which is kind of what I expected. Both seem like very good options. I'm going to make the trip to Rockville in a few weeks to try and get a feel for it myself, but any other thoughts about either place would be appreciated. Thanks!

[ElCityMom]

We have lived in Ellicott City for a couple of years by now. The public school system is very, very good! The teachers are awesome! Everyone I have talked to can't say enough of how pleased they are. They consider Howard County schools to be the best. The most popular is Centennial High School district but I hear that others are not bad as well. Hope this helps.

[sweetpotater58]

Ellicott City

[scottfs]

Well, I grew up in Rockville and also recently lived in Howard county in Elkridge, which is close to Ellicott City. Howard County overall is great, but I just never got the feel that things were as 'nice' there as in MoCo. I think you'll find the neighborhoods in the Rockville area that are a little further away from the 'urbanized' town center and pike areas to be very nice and logically laid out.

I like Ellicott City, but I did feel like the shopping and entertainment options were much greater in Rockville/Moco. Ellicott City is very nice tho, don't get me wrong.

Cons of Rockville would have to be the traffic which can get a bit crazy but it does depend a lot on where you're trying to get and at what time. As someone else mentioned, the abundance of speed and red light cameras in Rockville are certainly a pisser compared to EC. Addittionally, I really despise some of the out of control rules in MoCo, such all the liquor stores being county-owned. There aren't any independent liquir stores, just "beer & wines". What is this, the Soviet Union? In this respect I think EC wins by far.

Another consideration is that Rockville is a suburb of DC and EC is a suburb of Baltimore. Which one would you rather see more, be associated with more, etc? I personally prefer DC to Baltimore. I view DC as more upscale, with a preferable nightlife and culture to the more blue-collar Baltimore. That's in no way a knock on Baltimore, it just depends on what you like. If you have relatives come to visit from out of state, I'd rather take them and hop on the Red Line (metro) down to DC than drive in to Baltimore. I do like the availability of the Metro line for easy access to DC.

Anyway, that's my biased opinion. Feel free to send me any Rockville-specific questions you might have. I spent most of my life there.

[tonyc]

^^^ Everything he said...and let me get out of here for my drive into work, via 355 in Rockville. BTW, since this thread I've been communting through Rovkville every day, and it's not bad at all.

[MichaelinMaryland]

if you live in rockville/bethesda/potomac area prepare to throw away a lot of money for speeding and running redlights...so ridiculous. and there is also a lot of construction going on. and the traffic can be awful and this is the east coast so drivers are not very nice.

[firefightermom]

Originally Posted by MichaelinMaryland

if you live in rockville/bethesda/potomac area prepare to throw away a lot of money for speeding and running redlights...so ridiculous. and there is also a lot of construction going on. and the traffic can be awful and this is the east coast so drivers are not very nice.

You'll only be throwing money away if you speed in front of the cameras (you can look up the locations online, and they are fairly obvious if you are paying attention) or if you regularly run red lights. I never got a ticket for either.

[MichaelinMaryland]

comeon tell me you never had the urge to run a redlight when you have just waited 3 minutes for the light before to turn green and you're picking up the speed unable to wait to get on the highway until you see that light right ahead turn yellow...

[firefightermom]

Originally Posted by MichaelinMaryland

comeon tell me you never had the urge to run a redlight when you have just waited 3 minutes for the light before to turn green and you're picking up the speed unable to wait to get on the highway until you see that light right ahead turn yellow...

Actually, no. I didn't grow up in the Metro DC area, where it seems everyone likes to break the rules and it seems like the cops never enforce traffice laws--which is why they do the cameras, I guess.

I grew up in Ohio where the towns make their money from traffic violations...learned very quickly not to do things that would get me a ticket. It's a law in OH to always signal a lane change, turn, etc, and you can get pulled over and ticketed just for that.

Old habits die hard.