East Cleveland Native/Pittsburgh College Student wanting to move to DC (house, neighborhoods)

[whochrisporter]

Hello everyone,

I'm relatively new to this forums (I usually read not post here), and I needed some help on what are some good areas to live at for a few years as my gf completes her Bachelor's at the Art Institute in Arlington (coming from the Pittsburgh AI). I'll be graduating for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in March 2009, so I'll be looking more for jobs in the web design field. Ssorry, but 'm going to be a bit detailed, but from looking at other posts, a lot of people were very detailed, and commentors didn't mind it)

My girlfriend and I visited D.C. a few weeks ago (3 days after Obama won) and we both had a very good time and really had a good feeling about the city. We stayed at a friend's house who is a student at Howard in the N.E. quad of the city, maybe 5 minutes from downtown.

We visited downtown and the monuments of course, Pentagon City, Georgetown, and some areas close to Howard U.

What we really like is the fast Metro trains (3 minutes between each train...wow), compared to Cleveland's 15 minutes and Pittsburgh 30 minutes. We also like how the Metro touches every neat area of the city (for a college student). Cleveland does that somewhat and Pittsburgh goes no where.

Of course we loved that it has that big city feel in a small tight area.

Here are some reasons for fleeing from Cleveland/Pittsburgh:

Cleveland:
-Poorest city in nation/7th most dangerous
-Drabby, broken down buildings
-Most of our peers are stuck in "hood" ways

Pittsburgh:
-Very little places to shop. The stores here have bad clothes.
-Boring
-Terrible public transportation
-Stores like Walmart and malls are like 40 minutes away from downtown/school


Coming from the poorest and one of the most dangerous small cities in the nation (East Cleveland), I've became quite the black professional in the web design field and my GF does fashion retail.

We are just looking for some neighborhoods that are:
- close to "city life", not much suburb life.
- mixed culture, not hood, but not quiet
- close to great/affordable shopping (like a mixture of Casual to Aeropostle to "fitted" hiphop clothing, not that tall tee, baggy pants stuff)
- close to the Metro of course
- able to get to Art Institute of Arlington (via metro)
- able to pay $800-$1000 in rent

Anyone has any suggestions of any neighborhoods to move to, leave some suggestions.

Thanks!

[terrence81]

I'm no expert but I'm going to give it a crack. Well in that price range I'd look further out unfortunately. So the cooler close-in neighborhoods are out.

Now I've heard good things about Mt Pleasant. It is quiet though but there's a metro stop to walk to and bam you're off to where the action is. Also you can walk to a new shopping area that has Target, Best Buy, Marshalls and a bunch of other chain stores. I think it's the only area with so many big box chains in the city limits.

Also the area around Howard seems pretty nice to me like Ledroit Park. It's more affordable than say Dupont, Georgetown or Adams Morgan.

If you're going to be in VA a lot then you might look at Pentagon City. It can be a little expensive though but you'll be near a metro and shopping because there's a big mall and countless big box stores there. Also Pentagon City is the biggest and only major mall that is metro accesible. So you might still be out there when you need to get your mall on.

Also further out you can even consider Old Town Alexandria. Now technically that's the suburbs but with Old Town you have everything you need within walking distance there's a metro. There's shops, bars and a grocery store. It has a quaint feel to it though. Also I think it's a little cheaper than the city (not much) so that's a plus. I have a coworker out there who loves it and only drives to work and then only because the job isn't near a metro.

In the end I'm thinking you would be better off in the area around Howard but doesn't hurt to look at all the options.