How are the Maryland Suburbs of DC different than the VA Suburbs? (Baltimore: 2009, neighbourhoods)

[Coem]

I'm an impartial observer, but as I'm thinking about taking a job in D.C. this is all interesting to me. I think the fact that VA still allows smoking in restaurants and other public places makes me think I'll look into living in MD rather than VA if I take the D.C. job. I'm not a big fan of cigarette smoke! I guess the tobacco lobby in VA is just too strong.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by kengrubb

Without P.G., they might look pretty well even.

I guess that that is what I was trying to say but didn't say it right.

[Skapov]

Originally Posted by JEB77

Fairfax and Montgomery have followed different approaches to development in recent years that resulted in Fairfax having more jobs, more higher-performing students and, yes, more congestion than Montgomery. There are great schools and neighborhoods in Montgomery County - but the divide between the haves and the have-nots is considerably more pronounced than in Fairfax.

You are absolutely right, it's all about jobs, and NoVa beats out Montgomery/PG Counties in that category. I currently live in PG and we just need more development and corporationsm, to really truly trive and attract more Middle Class professionals. When you bring in the jobs, the educated workclass will follow, and they'll bring their high-performing students with them, and then the schools will become great.

Fairfax County is a surer bet for living in a stable Middle-Class community, whereas Montgomery has the very very rich and the very very poor, and I would personally be uneasy about buying a home there because I fear Montgomery is reaching a tipping point where it's on the downclimb.

[Skapov]

Originally Posted by Joykins

I was sad to hear that the Maternity Center in Bethesda closed. Back in 2001 I was under their care for my first, and although I ended up being transferred to the hospital I was very impressed with their practice.

Yes, everyone was upset to see it go, but liability and medical malpractice insurance rates are crazy high in Maryland. Being a woman of childbearing age, this was a HUGE reason why I decided to search for a home in Fairfax County. The VA legislature specifically put protections for Midwives into the written legal code, and if for example my mother or husband wants to assist me as I labor at home naturally, that is legal and okay. In Maryland, if you have a home birth and a non-MD/CNM assists you, they can be charged with a crime should something go wrong! Pretty scary stuff...

Remember that lady in Ocean City, MD who had the pre-term miscarriages at her home? The police went digging in her backyard and tried to charge her with a crime, but luckily they didn't have a case, and so she sued and got awarded damages. Maryland is over-reaching and you can't be free to live your life as you want.

[14thandYou]

Originally Posted by kengrubb

Without P.G., they might look pretty well even.

But you can't take PG County out of the equation--it's a HUGE component of the MD burbs. I mean, why not take Baltimore out too and make Maryland one of the safest states in the country? The fact is Virginia doesn't have a PG county. I happen to think that Montgomery County is as hoity-toity as anything in Virginia, and the same goes for Howard. But PG's presence can't just be written off. (And PG isn't all bad, of course, lest anyone get that idea...I was just at the house of a friend of mine last night who lives in PG an it's as nice as most homes you'd find elsewhere in the area. PG also has the highest minority median income in the country.)

I also happen to agree with the earlier poster who stated that DCs suburbs are, by and large, among the best in the nation. Part of that of course has to do with the fact that DC's borders are artificially constrained and thus a great deal of urban development occurs in otherwise "suburban" areas. Arlington, Alexandria, Bethesda and Silver Spring are great examples of this.

[kengrubb]

Originally Posted by 14thandYou

But you can't take PG County out of the equation--it's a HUGE component of the MD burbs. I mean, why not take Baltimore out too and make Maryland one of the safest states in the country?

You are of course correct. However, one never knows exactly what folks mean when they make general reference to areas X and areas Y, no matter what the geography.

I didn't mean one could really remove PG from a comparison involving the DC suburbs. It was purely a hypothetical.

[$mk8795]

I'm suprised that no one on here paid attention to the news today.......

You Maryland Hating Virginians/Southerners can now shut up about the Maryland Schools being Bad:

Md. public schools ranked nation's best - Examiner.com

- A leading education newspaper has ranked Maryland's public schools as the nation's best.

[hj2500]

That report ranks Virginia as number 4, which is not horrible.

Northern Virginia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

19 of the region's schools appear in the top 200 of Newsweek's America's Top Public High Schools, of which schools like Thomas Jefferson were deemed "too elite" for. In comparison, Washington, Maryland, and the rest of Virginia have 10 schools between them in the top 200. [47]

National Universities Rankings - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report
23 Georgetown University (DC)
23 University of Virginia (VA)
32 College of William and Mary (VA)
53 George Washington University (DC)
53 University of Maryland--College Park (MD)
71 Virginia Tech (VA)
83 American University (DC)
102 Howard University (DC)
116 Catholic University of America (DC)

[vivo]

Originally Posted by hj2500

That report ranks Virginia as number 4, which is not horrible.

Northern Virginia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


National Universities Rankings - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report
23 Georgetown University (DC)
23 University of Virginia (VA)
32 College of William and Mary (VA)
53 George Washington University (DC)
53 University of Maryland--College Park (MD)
71 Virginia Tech (VA)
83 American University (DC)
102 Howard University (DC)
116 Catholic University of America (DC)

should private universities be included? If so where is Hopkins? naval academy?
maryland institute college of art in baltimore has a pretty awesome art school rep. top 3 perhaps i think.

[hj2500]

That university list includes private universities, since Harvard is ranked number 1 (as usual). Schools that specialize in things like art probably won't make the list since it is for ones that offer a "full range of undergraduate majors, master's, and doctoral degrees"