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Thank you all very much! We are planning a trip to the Philadelphia area right after thanksgiving! and the Washington DC area shortly after. I have made a list of all the suggested towns and neighborhoods and will be sure to visit each one!
From what I am reading on here, Philadelphia and its suburbs seem to be a better fit due to the diversity and unique nature of the towns and neighborhoods. Can't wait to visit them all!
Thank you all very much! We are planning a trip to the Philadelphia area right after thanksgiving! and the Washington DC area shortly after. I have made a list of all the suggested towns and neighborhoods and will be sure to visit each one!
From what I am reading on here, Philadelphia and its suburbs seem to be a better fit due to the diversity and unique nature of the towns and neighborhoods. Can't wait to visit them all!
Sounds great, update us when you do make the visit.
Philadelphia sounds like a really good fit especially as your job location is in Center City rather than in the suburbs. Center City neighborhoods and many close by are very good neighborhoods that seem like a great fit for what you're asking and with a job location in Center City, it also makes it possible for you to do a short walking commute to work if you choose to live in Center City or the close by neighborhoods. I think Atlanta is the only odd duck in these three that seems like you should definitely eliminate, but I think Philadelphia also nudges out DC because your workplace is so centrally located for everything (rather than in a suburb) and the cost of living is far cheaper. There are also significantly better restaurants in Philadelphia than there is in DC, though you didn't list that as a plus, I'm guessing it'd still be very much appreciated.
So true! Philadelphia is amazing, but we know we are not New York and never will be. Many people in DC have this fantasy that they are on par with New York, I shut it down every time I hear someone hint at that.
I tell people that there are two Washingtons.
Washington the City can be an interesting place. It gave us George Clinton, Ben's Chili Bowl, the Arena Stage, 16th and Columbia Road NW and my friend the Amtrak chef, who is AFAICT one of five or so white people who call Strawberry Mansion home.
Unfortunately, that place is buried under the insufferable arrogance and self-importance of Washington the National Capital.
There was an ad I saw in the Washington Metro once that IMO captured everything that grates about the latter in a single sentence.
It was for the Riggs Bank, then the city's largest. (Perhaps telling: The bank went under in a money-laundering scandal and was scooped up by Pittsburgh-based PNC.)
The ad bore a photo of the White House and this legend:
"The most important bank in the most important city in the world thinks you're important too."
I nearly bust a gut when I saw it.
Oh, and: I'll take hanging out with my fellow scribblers at the Pen & Pencil over drinks at the National Press Club any day. Even if the latter gets better speakers, the former's more convivial.
With that budget go for a beautiful house in Rittenhouse or Fitler. You would be near the Schuylkill River Trail and could potentially walk to work. The only issue is 3 cars! Wow, that's a lot of cars. Although $1.5 - 2M will probably get you a spot or two off the street.
Somebody else already beat me to recommending Chestnut Hill.
For that amount of money, you could probably buy two or three homes in West Mount Airy, the next neighborhood down the road from Chestnut Hill. It's less tony, more funky and a lot more racially integrated - Mt. Airy (East and West) got its reputation for integration when real estate agents there drew a line in the sand against blockbusting and white flight in the 1960s and urged their neighbors to welcome the new African-American arrivals.
If you do move to the northwest part of the city, you might run into me at Earth Bread + Brewery on some Tuesday nights or at the bar at Paris Bistro from time to time. I live down the road in Germantown.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1ondoner
Public transit in Philly is over romanticized. When you are living in a $1.5 million home, taking the train to work becomes a nuisance. If you are working in center city, you definitely want to be in lower main line. Traffic in Philly is just as bad as any other major city.
If you work in a major city, you're better off living in the city.
This is why I think the best work location is Mclean, VA because it is not in downtown DC. You can reside in Fairfax county and drive to work. Trains are for broke people
Those emojis don't get you off the hook, Mister. I know your general opinion of the subject. I've gone mano a mano with you on public transit and will do so whenever the situation warrants.
Which it does now. (pampam123: You want a clue to my attitude on public transit, please note my posting handle. I've written about the subject for Philadelphia magazine, where I now run the real estate channel on the website, and I helped The Philadelphia Inquirer's current transportation reporter, Jason Laughlin, get up to speed on the subject when they put him in charge of that beat. They know who I am at 1234 Market Street still.)
Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy and Germantown are served by two SEPTA Regional Rail lines, one running on the east side of Germantown Avenue and the other on the west side of it. Generally speaking, the neighborhoods on the west side are more affluent than those on the east side, but the frequency of service is better on the east-side line. The west-side line ends right in Chestnut Hill's business district, where Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike meet. The ridership on the two Chestnut Hill branches resembles that of the Paoli/Thorndale branch (the "Main Line") in its makeup.
Here's a love letter I wrote Chestnut Hill summer before last:
(East Passyunk is a section of South Philadelphia that has experienced a renaissance of late. Younger families and LGBT folk have given its main drag, East Passyunk Avenue, a shot of adrenaline.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by pampam123
Thank you all so much for the replies! I was up very late last night doing some research on neighborhoods and google street views, it seems that Atlanta is quite similar to Dallas, which is a red flag to us. We want to escape the Southern way of life...driving everywhere, traffic, sub-par public transit, same strip malls and sprawl in every town...
I was definitely impressed with some of Philadelphia's urban neighborhoods. Fitler Square, Society Hill, and the Logan neighborhoods looked charming. Rittenhouse area looked very exciting, but possibly too much hustle and bustle to live right in the center of the action, plus I didn't see as many areas for kids to play outside in that neighborhood.
Also, I did some research on suburban communities, just to keep those in mind since we go back and forth about the yard aspect. Radnor and Newtown Square, and Chestnut Hill stuck out to me as very nice communities. And I saw that Wayne, Media, and West Chester looked to be very walkable and lively communities considering they are not in the city. Also what about the schools in all of these communities? Can anyone share a little about those!
Also, of course we prefer a wonderful area with amenities and an educated populous, but being in the richest county or town is not our top priority, we did that in Highland Park and are over it. Not to say we won't live in a wealthy town, but that is not our make or break point.
I may copy and paste this in the DC forum as well to maximize response. Thanks
So you asked about the schools. Perhaps I shouldn't speak on the subject, since I'm a single gay African-American male with no kids, but since schools matter so much to people searching for places to live, I've had to bone up on the subject.
First, let me advise you not to write Philadelphia off completely on this score. It is true that your kids must run a gauntlet (exams, a lottery, or both) to get into the city's best high schools, but the very best high school in the city is also the best in the state - and, according to U.S. News & World Report, one of the 50 or 100 best in the country. And even if they don't get into Masterman, there are several other excellent high schools they have a shot at, starting with Central High School, a top-20 school in the state, the city's oldest high school and the Commonwealth's most diverse public high school, hands down. The city's magnet high schools - Creative and Performing Arts, Bodine International Affairs, Academy at Palumbo and Dobbins Vo-Tech especially - are all very good as well.
And the grade schools are improving in several parts of the city thanks in part to the active involvement not only of parents but of neighborhood "Friends of" groups that provide support. I have a mental file labeled "The Philadelphia public schools aren't as bad as everyone says they are" that gets filled with comments from parents of children in grade schools not named William Meredith or Penn Alexander* who have told me they are pleased with the education their children are getting. The schools that I most often hear such comments about, besides perennials Albert M. Greenfield and George McCall (the two grade schools serving Center City), are Andrew Jackson in Hawthorne and Chester Arthur in Graduate Hospital. Mt. Airy USA, that neighborhood's community development corporation, holds tours of the neighborhood's schools for real estate agents to clue them into what's really going on inside them.
*William Meredith, in Queen Village, is the city's best grade school; parents kill to buy houses in its catchment. The Sadie Tanner Mosell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School ("Penn Alexander"), in University City, is so oversubscribed there's now a lottery to get into it as well; it's more than served the purpose for which it was built in the 1990s.
But if you'd rather avoid the crapshoot (or have a thing about charter schools), the four districts serving the Main Line - Lower Merion, Haverford Township, Radnor Township and Tredyffrin-Easttown - are all top-notch, with T-E at the top of the heap, Radnor right behind it, LM next and Haverford Township bringing up the rear. Rose Tree Media is also an excellent school district, as is West Chester Area, which got points in my book when it named its third and newest high school for Bayard Rustin, the "man behind the curtain" of the Civil Rights Movement and a West Chester native.
Washington the City can be an interesting place. It gave us George Clinton, Ben's Chili Bowl, the Arena Stage, 16th and Columbia Road NW and my friend the Amtrak chef, who is AFAICT one of five or so white people who call Strawberry Mansion home.
Unfortunately, that place is buried under the insufferable arrogance and self-importance of Washington the National Capital.
There was an ad I saw in the Washington Metro once that IMO captured everything that grates about the latter in a single sentence.
It was for the Riggs Bank, then the city's largest. (Perhaps telling: The bank went under in a money-laundering scandal and was scooped up by Pittsburgh-based PNC.)
The ad bore a photo of the White House and this legend:
"The most important bank in the most important city in the world thinks you're important too."
I nearly bust a gut when I saw it.
Oh, and: I'll take hanging out with my fellow scribblers at the Pen & Pencil over drinks at the National Press Club any day. Even if the latter gets better speakers, the former's more convivial.
Guess I got confused over one of Parliament's early albums, the classic "Chocolate City" (1973), whose title song celebrates Washington, DC (and whose album cover makes it plain).
"They may call it the White House, but that's only a temporary condition."
That Washington is gone now too, though, drowned under a wave of younger white arrivals.
I chuckled when I read this. People who want to buy million dollar homes know they can spend half a million and still get a very nice house. This is why I pointed the OP to NOVA.
Their perspective is very different from someone who's trying to pay-off their student loan or raise a deposit for a starter home. This is what most guys don't get. Do you honestly think they want to take SEPTA to work? Not if they can avoid it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl
For that amount of money, you could probably buy two or three homes in West Mount Airy, the next neighborhood down the road from Chestnut Hill. It's less tony, more funky and a lot more racially integrated - Mt. Airy (East and West) got its reputation for integration when real estate agents there drew a line in the sand against blockbusting and white flight in the 1960s and urged their neighbors to welcome the new African-American arrivals.
Between you and kyb01, you have a ton of information on Philly, and you are one of the most level headed homers in the Philly forum. May be because you are a transplant. But you are still a homer nonetheless.
I chuckled when I read this. People who want to buy million dollar homes know they can spend half a million and still get a very nice house. This is why I pointed the OP to NOVA.
Their perspective is very different from someone who's trying to pay-off their student loan or raise a deposit for a starter home. This is what most guys don't get. Do you honestly think they want to take SEPTA to work? Not if they can avoid it.
Between you and kyb01, you have a ton of information on Philly, and you are one of the most level headed homers in the Philly forum. May be because you are a transplant. But you are still a homer nonetheless.
Their perspective seems pretty different from someone who is looking for simply a large, comfortable home in a nice and quiet neighborhood with little to do. Do you have any idea what Highland Park is like? It's very nice. It also reminds me of very nice parts of NOVA so your pointing in that direction sounds a bit silly. I'll admit that I chuckled a bit when you wrote about your chuckling.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 10-20-2017 at 07:58 AM..
Their perspective seems pretty different from someone who is looking for simply a large, comfortable home in a nice and quiet neighborhood with little to do. Do you have any idea what Highland Park is like? It's very nice. It also reminds me of very nice parts of NOVA so your pointing in that direction sounds a bit silly. I'll admit that I chuckled a bit when you wrote about your chuckling.
DC is a more international city, and that's a big draw for many expats. That doesn't seem to be at the top of your list though, so I think Philadelphia could be a great fit for you. Your money will certainly go further and you will have pretty much your pick of locations, plus you'll be able to afford private school for your child if that's of interest although the public schools are good in the areas of interest to you.
I think it was smart to rule out Atlanta (lots of good things but the downsides are very similar to what you dislike about Dallas) and also very smart to visit both Philly and DC. At some point, you have to go with your gut and what feels like home to you.
One thing not mentioned is whether there are any differences in the work locations in terms of your career path and management. I'm assuming these locations are all different branches of the same organization and not every branch is equal. So that would be a factor in my decision as well.
Enjoy your visits and good luck with your selection!
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