Very specific address question (Henrico) (Richmond, Glen Allen: townhomes, school district, to live in)

[tigra002]

Okay, I have been reading these posts for days and I think I have a decent idea of good and less good areas. We are moving from Minneapolis and will have one child starting high school and one 5th grade in the fall. I feel like I found an area that I would like to focus my search and would love any opinions from locals. My criteria are to be close enough to drive conveniently Ellwood Thompson and Trader Joe's (my kids have multiple food issues and a health food store is a must) and to be in a decent school district. We prefer city to suburb but don't want to pay for private school. Here are a couple addresses I have come up with that feed Douglas Freeman High School.
7400 Glebe Rd, Henrico 23229
1410 Forest Av, Henrico 23229
Any input would be appreciated.

[sls76]

Originally Posted by tigra002

Okay, I have been reading these posts for days and I think I have a decent idea of good and less good areas. We are moving from Minneapolis and will have one child starting high school and one 5th grade in the fall. I feel like I found an area that I would like to focus my search and would love any opinions from locals. My criteria are to be close enough to drive conveniently Ellwood Thompson and Trader Joe's (my kids have multiple food issues and a health food store is a must) and to be in a decent school district. We prefer city to suburb but don't want to pay for private school. Here are a couple addresses I have come up with that feed Douglas Freeman High School.
7400 Glebe Rd, Henrico 23229
1410 Forest Av, Henrico 23229
Any input would be appreciated.

Any reason you are targeting Freeman? It's specialty center has a very strong reputation, but that's application based and open to the entire county. I'd consider Godwin too. It has an excellent academic reputation.

[tigra002]

I was considering Freeman because it was the closest high school to the areas we like (Museum, Carytown) with a decent rating. Is it not a great option? I will look into Godwin, thanks.
It's hard when you are moving to a new region and don't have reputation, history, and even heresay to fall back on. Numbers are really what I have to go by. And help from all of you on this forum!

[sls76]

I'm sure it's a good school although doesn't have quite the reputation Godwin or Deep Run have. Whether or not that's important, I'm not sure. Freeman's test scores get driven up by the specialty center. Without those students it wouldn't look as good on paper as it does.

http://henrico.k12.va.us/Pdf/Boundaries/high/Godwin.pdf

Parts of this attendance zone are 15 minutes or so from Carytown. Richmond is an easy city to get in and out of. I commute during rush hour and it takes me < 30 minutes to cover 20 miles.

[snatale1]

There's really no "bad" area's in Western Henrico. You should consider the Short Pump area too. If your into townhomes look into the flats at west broad village or the short pump area in general. It's 5 min from the other places but everything you need in either walking or 2 min drive. Trader Joes and Whole Foods almost next to each other, a fresh market down the street plus every other place you'd ever go to. I wouldn't worry about getting into the city. Richmond doesn't have "real" city traffic. I can drive from my house in Glen Allen (also Western Henrico) into downtown in the morning in less than 15 min.

[novanwbie]

If you move out to Godwin, you'll be closer to Trader Joe's, and still within 10-15 minutes of other things, like Fresh Market. Probably 20 from Ellwood Thompson.

I live in Godwin's area, and we love the area, even though our preference would be to live in the city. It is stronger than Freeman, which is buoyed in stats by its center, as sls76 says. Henrico has a very strong specialty center program at the h.s. level, so if your kids are strong academically, you may not be limited to the district within which you live.

My husband commutes from our house (we're almost in Goochland) to downtown and makes it in about 20-25 minutes, so nothing is really far around here. We're 5 minutes from Trader Joe's, in the Pocahontas Middle School/Mills Godwin pyramid.

[novanwbie]

BTW -- you'll probably love our winters! We've been out of school for days because of the cold. It's almost zero! ;-) My Twin Cities family laughs at us.

[novanwbie]

Jeez, I'm flaky tonight. I meant to put this all in one message. There are also local stores that will help -- Good Foods Grocery in Gayton is nice, and they have other locations. That's in the Mills Godwin district. And we have Whole Foods, but that's too pricy for me. I end up spend 3x what I intend to, so I just don't go there.

[sls76]

Originally Posted by novanwbie

If you move out to Godwin, you'll be closer to Trader Joe's, and still within 10-15 minutes of other things, like Fresh Market. Probably 20 from Ellwood Thompson.

I live in Godwin's area, and we love the area, even though our preference would be to live in the city. It is stronger than Freeman, which is buoyed in stats by its center, as sls76 says. Henrico has a very strong specialty center program at the h.s. level, so if your kids are strong academically, you may not be limited to the district within which you live.

My husband commutes from our house (we're almost in Goochland) to downtown and makes it in about 20-25 minutes, so nothing is really far around here. We're 5 minutes from Trader Joe's, in the Pocahontas Middle School/Mills Godwin pyramid.

Since middle school will be a consideration in a year, Pocahontas is an excellent option--one of the best in the state based on test scores.

[tigra002]

Fantastic info. Thanks to all.