Moving to house close to Federal Center metro station (apartment, crime)

[fetishizedarmadillo]

Hi,

I'm a 22-year old female considering moving to a house two blocks from the Federal Center SW metro station. I've never lived in DC before and am a recent graduate of a suburban college but am fairly street-smart. Is this a pretty safe area? I'm not planning on walking back in the middle of the night but might come back occasionally at 10 or 11 or thereabouts. Is that safe or would it be better for me to generally take taxis at night? Should I feel at all nervous, beyond the general wariness one should have in a city, walking around in the evening?

Thanks,
armadillo

[geoking66]

It's really all federal buildings, not sure where there are even houses around there. Reasonably safe, but incredibly desolate.

[stateofnature]

Yeah I am surprised there is any housing down there at all. It's a totally government office area that goes dead after 6:30 pm when all the federal employees go home. Not where I would want to live because I would feel like Will Smith in I Am Legend living there.
Is this "house" (i'm guessing not a house per se but an apartment) really two blocks away from Federal Center SW? The closest residential area I can think of would be around the Southwest Waterfront but that would be a little more than two blocks away. If that's where the "house" is, then it's not an unsafe area, but is full of a lot of public housing and maybe not the best place to spend a lot of time walking around at night by oneself.
Have you actually visited this place?

[fetishizedarmadillo]

Hi, thanks for the input. The building is definitely a house--I haven't visited but have seen pictures and the landlord is a friend. It's on G Street SW, very close to the Southwest Freeway.

[stateofnature]

Ok, yeah there are some rowhouses on the south side of the Southwest Freeway on G St, that's where I thought you might be talking about. It's definitely more than 2 blocks from Federal Center SW (landlords do tend to exaggerate how close their properties are to things), but still a doable walk. The character of the area completely changes from a desolate federal building area north of the freeway to a quiet residential neighborhood south of the freeway, so it was a bit confusing in your first post because it made it sound like you were on the north side, which is why we were surprised you had found a house there.

There's a Safeway very close by to 4th and I SW so you've got some basic amenities not that far away. Other than that it's a pretty quiet, not dangerous neighborhood, but still worth exercising some caution at night. If you're looking for a hopping busy urban area full of people, bars, restaurants, etc, this is definitely NOT that at all, but it's still in the middle of the city so you can easily get to wherever you want to go.

[SmoothGuy]

Originally Posted by fetishizedarmadillo

Hi, thanks for the input. The building is definitely a house--I haven't visited but have seen pictures and the landlord is a friend. It's on G Street SW, very close to the Southwest Freeway.

It's generally a safe area, but I would still be pretty careful walking around there at night. That area isn't lively and vibrant at night such as Dupont Circle or Adams Morgan so there may be a higher chance of crime. But I personally haven't heard of much crime in that area.

[The Heartbreak Kid]

It is a ghost town at night. I miss my ghost town at night.