Prince George's County (Baltimore, Bowie, Potomac: condos, townhomes, neighborhood)

[RoadTripGurl]

Iscalder you are too funny. I again agree with howsitgoingdude3 about PG. Hit the major points right on the nail. You are really mistaking the purpose of this forum which is to give opinions about different views of the county, not bash because someone does not like it. I never said there were no nice areas in PG County but if you were paying attention, I said that I thought the price of the houses were too much to pay and pay high taxes. Example, my semi-detached brick house taxes were 2K a year. The price I pay for my SFH in Harford County is 1200 per year. And yes I prefer a better setting but THAT IS MY PREFERANCE. When other people on this board say that they don't like the county they give examples as to why and that's that. You on the other hand finger point, get on your high and mighty 150K salary horse (not hating) and then say "You People" like there is something wrong with people who don't want to live in PG. OK, there are nice neighborhoods, never said they were not. But that is still my choice if I don't want to live there. There area lot of places in the world people don't want to live. But calling me a "racist" and "You people" is just ridiculous just because you don't agree with what I said. And have you ever been to Harford County? Or are you so closed minded that you will never leave PG? And no, the criminals will not be coming to Harford, it's too close to Delaware, and not close enough to a city or public transportation, and the "element" is different. I highly doubt that PG criminals are thinking about coming that far north... And so what if they are. I'd rather have them as neighbors than somebody like you...
And to triniboy, no I am not being "ignorant" (more name calling?), I've been here all my life I think I know what I'm talking about. Did you go to PG County public Schools? Everybody's not going to like PG County, get over it, its a part of life... Jeez, you two must be bored you guys take this forum way to seriously...

[1973 Forced Busing]

Yea boy I mean Gurl! Facts are facts, We who have spent all our lives in PG know how out of hand taxes have gotten. $4K a year for my SFH. I expect them to be even higher this year.

[lscalder]

Roadtripgurl you do have the right to choose where you want to live but my point is The closer you are to the city higher the property taxes are and if you want to better your community you have to pay higher taxes so the county can get better. The problem people who complain about pg is that they want to pay cheap taxes and have good everything but thats not how it works anywhere. people who are low to moderate income are moving farther North because of house prices and cheaper taxes such areas like Harford county. People are now willing to commute longer. I would never want to be your neighbor if you would live in areas such as District Heights,Capitol Heights, I wonder what your neighborhood now is like. I donot mind paying higher taxes because it goes toward public schools and making pg a better county. Taxes goes up because of the appreciation of real estate we get each year. We need to decide what we want to continue to pay cheap taxes in pg is not going to better the county in no way. And what do you mean by a Better setting I keep on telling you visit Upper Marlboro communites and you too would sell your home in Harford county and move to Upper Marlboro. I mean the homes and communities are all beautiful. And also the nicer areas you live in every county the better the schools are. I too have bad experience in Washington Dc Nw close to Walter Reed and I would never talk bad about the entire city because I didnot live in the entire city. What you are doing Roadtripgurl is talking down on the entire pg county. I would move to another area in washington dc because i only had bad experiences in one area of DC.

[RoadTripGurl]

You do not pay attention. In my last post, I said I never said there were not good areas. I said I do not want to pay to live there. I like Upper Marlboro, and Lanham was OK, I have lived in good areas. I just said that I do not want to live there anymore. The county as a whole has a bad rep, but I have said I do not want to live in PG County as my choice. No, I am not talking down on the whole county. But the cost of everything is not offsetting the negativity that will make me want to move to Upper Marlboro. Again, my choice of lifestyle.

[howsitgoingdude3]

Originally Posted by lscalder

Roadtripgurl you do have the right to choose where you want to live but my point is The closer you are to the city higher the property taxes are and if you want to better your community you have to pay higher taxes so the county can get better. The problem people who complain about pg is that they want to pay cheap taxes and have good everything but thats not how it works anywhere. people who are low to moderate income are moving farther North because of house prices and cheaper taxes such areas like Harford county. People are now willing to commute longer. I would never want to be your neighbor if you would live in areas such as District Heights,Capitol Heights, I wonder what your neighborhood now is like. I donot mind paying higher taxes because it goes toward public schools and making pg a better county. Taxes goes up because of the appreciation of real estate we get each year. We need to decide what we want to continue to pay cheap taxes in pg is not going to better the county in no way. And what do you mean by a Better setting I keep on telling you visit Upper Marlboro communites and you too would sell your home in Harford county and move to Upper Marlboro. too have bad experience in Washington Dc Nw close to Walter Reed and I would never talk bad about the entire city because I didnot live in the entire city. What you are doing Roadtripgurl is talking down on the entire pg county. I would move to another area in washington dc because i only had bad experiences in one area of DC.

Icecalder, I only have one thing in here I totally disagree with and that is " I mean the homes and communities are all beautiful. And also the nicer areas you live in every county the better the schools are." This is totally not true. There is one school in PG county that "was" a really good school at one point. It no longer is as good as it used to be when I attended, but its still the best one in the county and that's ERHS in Greenbelt. In fact little known fact that is not talked about much is that Sergey Brin the billionaire founder of Google went to ERHS. However, the PG county public schools in all of the "wealthier" area's of the county are equally as bad as the ones in the poor areas and that's a problem. In most areas like Moco and Fairfax you would be correct as the schools located in the upper scale neighborhoods do tend to be a lot better overall than a lot of the schools located in the poorer areas, but again NO PG school compares favorable to most of the schools in these two counties and that's sad. I'm sorry to say if you cared about your community you should be more outraged about this stuff and not supporting the continuation of such sub par standard for black children. I'm sorry i'm a black male currently in college and that's the way i look it. PG, has given the majority of kids there a get out of jail free card and they've allowed these substandards to persist by electing the same officals to ruin the school board year after year and it just bothers me that most of the parents seem not to care about their childrens education. Raising standards and expecting people to be responsible for following through on such a raised bar is in no way racist, but what is racist is accepting these kids sub standard performances as "culturally" acceptable and making up every excuse in the book to keep them performing the same without dealling with the real problem. PG has consistently done that in its school system.

[Novael]

Originally Posted by howsitgoingdude3

In all fairness lscalder is pointing out a few valid points. Yes, not all of PG county is a crime ridden hell hole. However, Iscalder, I think the argument that Roadtripgirl is making is simple and equally as valid. Why should she have to live in a crime infested unsafe community just to find affordable living in PG. I think her argument is she is finding the more affordable living in whatever county it is and a lot less crime. Now, obviously there are a number of reasons it is cheaper to live further away from a major city then it is to live closer to a major city. My parents live in the neighborhood and area you are talking Iscalder and my mom hates it and would prefer to live in Fairfax. Now, you're right there are not many crime issues in their neighborhood, but they have to leave that neighborhood and it is like living in a third world country when they leave. Most of the county is in the dumps! Yes, there are a "few" neighborhoods that are extremely nice with a lot of well to do black americans, but the majority of PG is not that way and I think that's what most people are saying. I do not think anyone here would disagree with you in saying that there are well to do blacks living in the county. I think the disagreement comes from saying the whole county is the wonderful perfect utopia of black success. I'm sorry making a 150k is not a lot of money. I mean making 300k is not a lot of money. You're really not living a true upper middle class life until you're making over 600k - 800k after taxes.

I digress, but I would have to strongly agree. Now, why are people saying such negative things about PG? The main reason is the crime why the hell is a county full of black americans so dangerous and why the heck are they always killing each other and robbing people and stealing cars? There is no excuse for that in what is supposed to be a "suburban county." Now there is crime everywhere you're right, but nothing near the level of PG county. I live in the northeast and we leave our door open and unlocked would you do that in your neighborhood? I mean i lived in Mclean, Va for a brief time period and there was a gang shooting in a neighborhood with 6000-8000 sq foot houses. Obviously it did not make the nightly news as Mclean has the money to keep that stuff under rugs and I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for the local paper there, but that was a very random one time event. Upper Marlboro, MD is not bad, but Largo is, Kettering is, and Landover is, and those are all in close proximity to one another, so naturally crime spills over. Look if you're an upper class person looking to live the "american dream" PG is probably not the best place to experience, that dream. I'm not saying you cannot have the American dream in PG, but i'd recommend a more respected zip code in a more respectable county. Look if PG did not have the crime problem, did not have the shcool system problem, then you'd have a valid arguement that a lot of people crapping on the county is because there's a black middle class majority, but with all the problems there, there are way too many valid reasons to make such accusation of the county.

In general, I have agreed with your assertions, but how do you define upper middle class? Do you have statistics to back your claim? Is the class determined by net worth and not income? Not attacking, just wondering. Here I am thinking I'm doing ok for myself making 300K and I'm not even upper middle class

In reference to the topic, I believe PGC does indeed get a bad rap and I've visited friends in UM and Bowie, and those areas are nice, but no amenities. I live in Loudoun Cty, VA (right next to Great Falls) and I have the luxury of great shopping, eating, and good schools (when we have kids). I'd love to see the comeuppance of PGC, but should I wait for certain amenities to come to me. We should all hope PGC becomes the beacon for middle/upper-middle class black wealth. It would serve the community at large.

[RoadTripGurl]

Originally Posted by Novael

In general, I have agreed with your assertions, but how do you define upper middle class? Do you have statistics to back your claim? Is the class determined by net worth and not income? Not attacking, just wondering. Here I am thinking I'm doing ok for myself making 300K and I'm not even upper middle class

In reference to the topic, I believe PGC does indeed get a bad rap and I've visited friends in UM and Bowie, and those areas are nice, but no amenities. I live in Loudoun Cty, VA (right next to Great Falls) and I have the luxury of great shopping, eating, and good schools (when we have kids). I'd love to see the comeuppance of PGC, but should I wait for certain amenities to come to me. We should all hope PGC becomes the beacon for middle/upper-middle class black wealth. It would serve the community at large.

Novael your point is exactly what me and others' have been saying. Why wait for comeuppance? it's been too long already to wait. I hear a lot about Great Falls.

[maat]

I live in Upper Marlboro. True, we don't have the amenities that the other counties in the WMA have. Everyone who says why wait for amenities when you can go elsewhere has a valid point. Would I love to be able to shop here, of course. But for many of us it is bigger than restaurants and retailers, it's about history. We are passionate about Prince George's. In this county, for the first time in US history, the median income rose as the demographic became more African American. We have an opportunity to create a great place to live and at the same time solve social issues that have plagued our communities for decades. We have an opportunity to narrow the achievement gap in our schools and show the rest of the country how to get that done. I grew up in a household where community service was stressed above the personal. I don't know how else to live. If I moved to a more affluent community so I would have a shorter drive to the mall I would feel like I was turning my back on my community. Things are already changing in leaps and bounds. I live here and it's hard for me to keep up. We don't want to be a replica of Fairfax or Montgomery. We want a community that reflects our demographic.

[RoadTripGurl]

It's not the ammenities I want to wait on, its the improvement of the County in general. My biggest thing is the schools. I wanted my son to have a better education than I had growing up there. And I didn't turn my back, I just moved on, for some people its' their time. I still do community service and participate in service events with my church down there, but as far as living, I don't think so. Where I live is not hardly affluent; that's not even what I want. But it's more community to me than when I was there. Some of my neighbors in PG were friendly, and I still associate with them, but the neighborhood and overall feel of community was larger than when I was in PG County. I wish PG hadn't cut all the magnet programs for the schools, its important and the kids really needed that. My son was going to a school in Seat Pleasant that was a magnet school, and the county cut that program along with a hand full of others. There are only a few of the performing arts schools, or special science schools in PG, and you have to win the "lottery" for your child to get in to them. I miss the old PG when they had programs like Odyssey of the Mind and a large variety of after school activities for elementary school kids. it seems like after I started high School, the system changed drastically. It's the depleted to low quality education, that's a big reason why I moved.

[lscalder]

What people have to remember is pg county is changing for the better and the time have come when the county is doing a lot more to change. The county taxes is increasing which will go towards the schools which means the schools will get to par with all the other counties. Every county at one point was not the way it is now and it took time to change. I remember couple yrs ago what Washington Dc looked like no one wanted to purchase home their look at dc now it have everthing fine shopping,dining. Pg is also changing for the best in the next 5 yrs pg county will be completely different. for a county to change you have to take out the bad and its sad to say this but they have to inflate house prices an dproperty taxes just like Washington Dc,Montgomery,Fairfax and other county did for the county to change and thats is exactly what they are doing. I have alot of clients who want to move to pg county but cannot because of the home prices so they have to live in another county that is a whole lot cheaper. This is how I know pg county is changing for the best prices of homes are getting too high,Property taxes are increasing and new homes are over price trust me with these things rising the county is think along with ever other county if the home prices and taxes are high you have less crime which is some what true.