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Well ummm...that's my point. You just totally agreed with me.
I know I agreed with you. But, my point was actually the next sentence - everyone has to make compromises. There aren't any single family homes with a nice backyard in a crime-free good school district with no commute and within walking distance to tons of museums, restaurants and recreational facilities, at least not in this area. So, people are making choices, and at least some people are choosing the condo/townhouse route instead of the single family home route.
I know I agreed with you. But, my point was actually the next sentence - everyone has to make compromises. There aren't any single family homes with a nice backyard in a crime-free good school district with no commute and within walking distance to tons of museums, restaurants and recreational facilities, at least not in this area. So, people are making choices, and at least some people are choosing the condo/townhouse route instead of the single family home route.
Understood. Dense areas like Logan Circle and Penn Quarter were the areas that saw the biggest increase in population over the last decade. I think I've mentioned before that if all of the District was as dense as Logan Circle the population in the city would be like 2 million.
It will take a long time before someone buys a condo at the old Convention Center site because they want to be in the local DCPS schools. In fact, it's zoned for Thomson, where a fourth-grader recently brought crack cocaine to school and shared it with about a dozen classmates.
I completely agree with you. I am well-aware of the problems at Thomson, which is one reason why you never see me saying that I will definitely send my child to my neighborhood public school. I hope that will change in the future. There is some potential: The building has been renovated and the neighborhood wants it to change, but it has a long way to go and DCPS stuck it with a bad principal this year. Progress made was ratcheted back. In the meantime, there are other out-of-boundary and charter school options.
And condos are certainly going up in NoVa as well.
In NoVa, at least, the school system attempts to project the number of students who will live in the new condos. Typically, they greatly over-estimate the number of families who'll buy the new condos, although they arguably have an incentive to do so since they'll seek a financial contribution from the developer that's tied to the number of projected students.
I can think of only one recent instance - in the City of Falls Church - where new condos went up and the school system was surprised because they had actually under-estimated the number of families that would purchase units.
However, the City of Falls Church has one of the top school systems in the entire DC area, so some people were prepared to spend a lot of money for the public schools. It will take a long time before someone buys a condo at the old Convention Center site because they want to be in the local DCPS schools. In fact, it's zoned for Thomson, where a fourth-grader recently brought crack cocaine to school and shared it with about a dozen classmates.
You keep picking isolated incidents to try and paint a scary picture of life in the city (which I suspect is your core motivation throughout) rather than accept broader trends. Have you spent time in Thomson? Do you know any kids attending or staff? That school's doing great. There's not an epidemic of 4th grade drug abuse any more than a wealthy suburban school is a dangerous place if one kid does something stupid there.
You keep picking isolated incidents to try and paint a scary picture of life in the city rather than accept overall trends.
Trends that you have yet to prove. The facts are:
(1) The District of Columbia is approximately 50% black and 40% white. Yet there are 3.5 times as many black households with children as white households.
(2) Public school enrollment declined in every grade level with the exception of pre-school, which posted a marginal gain.
How do you look at these facts and then say "there's a trend of middle class families moving into or staying in the city?"
Can you find one piece of evidence that points to that conclusion?
Well I will say that suburban schools have just as much drug use if not more. I went to a suburban high school in a wealthy neighborhood that bussed in kids from the projects (I'm the last generation of crosstown busing) back in Georgia and the drug use crossed all racial and socio-economic lines. I doubt that things have changed that much since the 90s.
You keep picking isolated incidents to try and paint a scary picture of life in the city (which I suspect is your core motivation throughout) rather than accept broader trends. Have you spent time in Thomson? Do you know any kids attending or staff? That school's doing great. There's not an epidemic of 4th grade drug abuse any more than a wealthy suburban school is a dangerous place if one kid does something stupid there.
Do you currently have kids in DCPS? You seem inclined to turn a blind eye to any bad things that happen in the District because they don't accord with your "sunshine and puppies" view of the city. I don't have an anti-DC agenda (as noted, I spend most of my working hours and many of my leisure hours here), but relatively few parents would blow (no pun intended) past an incident where a fourth-grader brought crack cocaine to a classroom and ended up sharing it with a bunch of classmates, sending them to the hospital.
Whether there's an epidemic of drug abuse at Thomson is not relevant; the point is that something like that was widely reported and obviously sets back efforts by DCPS to convince the types of folks you keep arguing are going to remain in DC that schools in the District are safe and nurturing. Most parents don't want to send their kids to schools with metal detectors; for that to be required and then still have incidents like what recently happened at an inner-city school like Thomson is adding insult to injury. The upshot is that some things that you like to portray as near-certainties for the future are far less certain of being realized.
As Terrence81 just noted, there is also drug use at suburban schools. But the reality is that parents are going to pay more attention to crack cocaine at a public elementary school in the city, with all that connotes, than to drug use that typically takes place on the weekends, and behind closed doors, among suburban students.
As the husband of a suburban schoolteacher, I can absolutely vouch for this.
But it's not that type of drug use that usually winds them up in prison or with gunshot wounds in a backalley.
Quote:
Originally Posted by terrence81
Well I will say that suburban schools have just as much drug use if not more.
A kid walking into school with a bag of cocaine is a problem that goes beyond drug use. His parents (or brothers or uncles) are involved in the drug trade. This means that more people are at risk than just the users of the drugs.
(1) The District of Columbia is approximately 50% black and 40% white. Yet there are 3.5 times as many black households with children as white households.
(2) Public school enrollment declined in every grade level with the exception of pre-school, which posted a marginal gain.
How do you look at these facts and then say "there's a trend of middle class families moving into or staying in the city?"
Can you find one piece of evidence that points to that conclusion?
You consistently miss the point, not recognizing the early indicators and rather trying to use overall demographics to claim that the status quo hasn't changed.
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