Old Town (apartment, house, neighborhoods)

[tmarino]

Curious to hear from folks who live or have lived in Old Town. Positives, negatives. I lived in NYC for years and am now looking into moving to DC from Austin, TX. I have a car. I am thinking that even if I ended up moving into one of the DC neighborhoods, it might be good to start in an area like Old Town where having a car and making the transition from a house in Austin to DC would be a little easier as a first step.

I welcome all input. Thank you!

[JimGriffith]

Positives: Fantastic restaurants...good variety of high-end and cheap eats, all types of ethnic cuisine, seafood, etc.

Close proximity to DC, and several metro stops nearby.

Plenty of great little art galleries and coffee shops.

You can bring all your guns from Texas and keep 'em in your Va. apartment (not to stereotype, but that's a plus in my book).

Decent waterfront area. Safe.

Decent nightlife options, but mostly Irish Pubs, Karaoke bars, some dives and a couple nice lounges. If that gets tiresome, you can hop on the metro to DC. Close to excellent movie theater on Eisenhower Ave. Lots of offices if you want to walk to your job.

Negatives: Parking can be a real pain. Rents aren't cheap. The scene is a little to "milquetoast" for certain folks.

A lot of people live there and love it. I spent a year there and almost never ventured into DC, like it wasn't even there. But that's me.