2 RNs, working at Georgetown, looknig for a place !! (Arlington, Alexandria: apartments, rental)

[9ja]

So my future roomie and I will be RNs working at Georgetown Hospital.We're both moving in from out of state and are narrowing down our options. Our priorities are:
1) Parking (Secure and not ON STREET)
2) Washer and Dryer in Unit
3) Relatively close to a metro stop and SAFE part of town
4) <20 minute commute to Georgetown (by the way, when we mapquest to find out distances and are told that Apt A is 19 minutes from Georgetown Hospital, is it REALLY 19 minutes or an hour, considering DC traffic?!?! We're clueless
5) So far we are looking at
-Meridian at Braddock Station
-Huntington Gateway

We need more suggestions of awesome places to stay that are safe and affordable (we are willing to spend up to $2100/month for a 2BR/2BA). HELP - we need a list of places we can narrow down. Arlington/Alexandria preferred. WHERE Is the best place to live to avoid traffic to Georgetown if you are living in Northern Virginia?

THANKS GUYS !!
~9ja~

[Azmordean]

What is your price range? Meridian at Braddock I have heard is a nice building but in a not so nice, not so safe aresa - the "low rent" part of Alexandria. I don't have personal experience with it though. Not sure of the details on Huntington Gateway. I will say this though - I'm not sure either area is all that close to Georgetown. You may want to look more at Arlington, as that would net you a much shorter commute - and I'm pretty sure there are buses in Arlington that go direct to G-town.

Good luck!

[WakeEmUp]

There are a lot of good places around the crystal city/ pentagon city area for that price. Georgetown is about 15 minutes away by car. By metro it's about 45 minutes (because you have to metro then take a shuttle over to the hospital). Parking is $6 a day for employees. The drive is not bad and if you really wanted to you could bike it. There is a great bike trail. It takes a little longer but...people do it

Here are a few apts in the area:

Apartments for Rent in Crystal City / Pentagon City | Apartment in Crystal City / Pentagon City*Virginia

[ACWhite]

I agree with WakeEmUp and that the two places you identified will be much more than 20 minutes most of the time.

The commute by car to Georgetown from Crystal/Pent. Cities is a breeze, up Route 1 -- 20 minutes door to door ,unless you are coming in/out at heavy traffic times, at least for now. With additional building of apts. etc. on Route 1 south of there, it may be more crowded with traffic in the future. If you have unusual schedules, which many nurses do, and can avoid rush hours and the times when staff/faculty tend to enter and leave Georgetown (which is often the worst part of the commute), this won't be much of a problem.

[9ja]

THANKS GUYS !!
Yes so as nurses, day shifts are 7am - 7pm and then night shift starts from 7pm to 7am. So practically we'd be leaving the house at 6am ish for a day shift and leaving the hospital at 7:30pm ish. And for night shift, we'd be leaving the house at 6pm ish and heading back home at 7:30 am ish...(1) So would we be missing all the horrendous Georgetown traffic I've been reading about??? (2) What shift would you recommend (purely based on traffic considerations)?

So as far as areas to live we're thinking Arlington... I read other people mention Pentagon area/Crystal City. (3) So would Alexandria be too far? (4) What about Falls Church/Vienna area? We mapquest all our potential apts and we're wondering if 18 minutes is really 18 minutes (or more like 48 mins ....its so hard trying to figure this out when you're freshly moving into the city !! THANKS for all your help guys ( I'd appreciate answers to my (4) Questions)

~9ja~

[gzjht1]

I live at the Avalon at Ballston apartments in Arlington. Driving at those times, you will be able to be @ Gtown in less than 15 minutes. The apartments are just off I-66 and has easy access to DC.

Other places to consider are Rosslyn, Courthouse, Clarendon and Virginia Square areas of Arlington. These are all metro accessible. Gtown Hospital has a shuttle service that runs from the Rosslyn metro stop.

Let me know if you have other questions.

[ACWhite]

Originally Posted by 9ja

THANKS GUYS !!
Yes so as nurses, day shifts are 7am - 7pm and then night shift starts from 7pm to 7am. So practically we'd be leaving the house at 6am ish for a day shift and leaving the hospital at 7:30pm ish. And for night shift, we'd be leaving the house at 6pm ish and heading back home at 7:30 am ish...(1) So would we be missing all the horrendous Georgetown traffic I've been reading about??? (2) What shift would you recommend (purely based on traffic considerations)?

So as far as areas to live we're thinking Arlington... I read other people mention Pentagon area/Crystal City. (3) So would Alexandria be too far? (4) What about Falls Church/Vienna area? We mapquest all our potential apts and we're wondering if 18 minutes is really 18 minutes (or more like 48 mins ....its so hard trying to figure this out when you're freshly moving into the city !! THANKS for all your help guys ( I'd appreciate answers to my (4) Questions)

~9ja~

As another poster said, GU operates a shuttle service from the Rosslyn metro (also from DuPont), but when you add up the time waiting and then riding on it (in addition to the time spent getting to Rosslyn, and from the shuttle stop to your office in the hospital), the time of your commute into GU is much longer than if you drive, which is why a lot of people who work at GU drive and pay the outrageous parking fees, rather than take metro. It's really a shame that there is no metro stop in Georgetown.

I think, if you drive from Arlington, etc., you are better off with the day shift than the night shift, but neither set of times you described is ideal.

For the day shift: In the morning, the Key Bridge into DC can get bumper-to-bumper, although I would NOT think this would be true between 6 - 7 AM. When you get off work, you'll sometimes hit traffic coming off campus and then on M Street and leaving the District on the Key Bridge, but usually it's not too bad by 7:30 PM. It's really bad between 5 and 7 PM.

For the night shift: The biggest problem I see is going into DC in the evening at the beginning of your night shift, because a lot of people come in on the Key Bridge to eat dinner or have fun--it's not just work commuters. You might sit on the bridge and on Canal Rd. or M Street quite awhile. Coming OUT of DC in the morning, I wouldn't think it would be too bad at 7:30 AM, but I'll leave it to someone else who does that drive then. The problem would not be people leaving GU but commuters going to work and using Canal Rd. or other streets you might use to leave, and the usual bottleneck at the Key Bridge.

If the hospital gives you a chance for a shift that runs something like 10 AM to 10 PM or vice versa, or 3 AM to 3 PM, etc., you would avoid a lot of traffic.

Re: (3) it depends on what part of Alexandria. If you have to drive through Old Town or nearby, during rush hours (maybe 6:30-9 AM, for example), it can take an hour to fight the Alexandria commuter traffic, get to campus, park, and walk to the hospital.

Re: (4) Falls Church, the main thing is avoiding Seven Corners, which is a nightmare even when it's not rush hour. If you can find a route where you don't have to stop at a lot of lights or stop signs, it might work. Vienna is pretty far from GU but there may be shortcuts that locals know about. If you know that you both will work the same shift and can car pool on I-66, this wouldn't be too bad during the hours you described, according to a friend of mine who downtown a little earlier than you would (and leaves earlier). Maybe more people on this board who live near there can help.

Can you ask people who work at the hospital where they live? They might have some good ideas.

A lot of people at GU live in the District (e.g., Burleith, DuPont area) or in Maryland.

[9ja]

Thanks ALOT guys for the input. Yes my roomie and I plan to carpool on some days we work the same shift. So in Alexandria, we're considering :

(1) Palazzo at Park Center ( 4556 Strutfield Lane) which Mapquest shows would be 18 minutes from 3800 Reservoir Road (Gtown Hospital). Someone said that if we had to pass through old town we might be in traffic for an hour?!?! EEEKKKK Y'all are scaring me.... might wanna live in a cardboard box next to Gtown and probably pay a fortune for it.

(2) In Arlington, we're looking at Park at Arlington Ridge. Which is apparently 14 minutes away (per Mapquest).

I don't want to feel like I'm "working for rent" It's sooooo hard finding apts within our price range ($1000-$1100).
2 bd/2ba, off street parking for 2 and washer/dryer is really all we really want. Metro access within walking distance would be fine but since we both have cars its no biggie. (PS: Can you park at a metro station during the weekends? Is parking scarce? Is parking at metro stations safe? What are the approximate costs/day/hour? Does every metro stop have a lot? )


Thanks guys....the search continues.

[ACWhite]

9ja, have you seen this:

Georgetown University: Off Campus Housing

I don't know about your (1) but Arlington Ridge would be 15 minutes to the GU garage except during the high traffic times I described earlier - add on a bit more to get to your workplace. Whether you can park at a metro station depends on the station - some have parking, some don't. You can park at the Pentagon City mall to use the PC metro, but of course, you'll have to pay the fees. Some of your questions about metro may be answered here:

Metro - Metrorail System Map

I was the one who said if you have to go through Old Town during rush hour (and face rush hour on Key Bridge) etc., it can take an hour. I lived near Eisenhower and ran into that problem when I had to be in Georgetown at 8:30 AM. The distance wasn't bad but you are stuck bumper-to-bumper in too many places. It was a nightmare and something you should avoid if you are paying close-in rental prices.

Since you have cars and Georgetown really isn't convenient to metro, and since nice apartments near metro command a very high premium in rent prices, maybe you would want to trade off being close to a metro to get a nicer place at a lower price.

[ACWhite]

Also, 9ja, people on this board often recommend Craig's list and other sources to find apartments. You may be able to get a good deal on a condo that an individual owner wanted to sell but due to the housing market decided to rent. You might want to scan some of the other threads for links to those sources.