Moving to 13th and Columbia from LA (violent crime, house)

[Shananagans]

Hello everyone!

Im a female 25 year old college grad moving from the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles to Columbia Heights of of 13th and Columbia at the end of august. I will be moving into a large house with 5 other people including my boyfriend.

I understand its a neighborhood in "transition" and is not a place to go for a jog around 12 at night but I was hoping someone from the 90026 zip code has been to or lived in the 20009 and can give me some insight not only to crime but to getting around town with out a car! eek can i ride a moped in the winter?

[wylekaters]

13th and Col? You'll be about 2 blocks from the metro which will def work in your favor transportation wise.

And yes, I've seen people bare the cold on mopeds here in the winter, as long as it's not icey/snowing

And be careful around there at night...

[Uptown_DC]

lol u bulljivin im 16 n i was born an raised in columbia heights but yea just be careful walkin between 13th n 14th n columbia rd thats CHV(ColumbiaHeightsVillage) shyt an yeah thats a hood. Just a heads up...no racists stuff but usually i dont like none of the new white ppl cuz they takin everything over but imma let this slide lol

[PenguinSix]

Map the crime over the last year and judge for yourself.

Metropolitan Police Department (http://crimemap.dc.gov/presentation/intro.asp - broken link)

[Shananagans]

thanks uptown, dont worry im getting back to LA as soon as possible. just doing a 9 mo stay in your hood then im going back to mine. rather deal with 13th street cholos and traffic.

got anyother territories i should avoid?


PS is the east coast a lot more rasict than LA??? it seems like it.

[wylekaters]

i've never been to cali, but i know some of some racist people around here.

just search these forums for "parts of dc to avoid" or something like that...we get sooo many people asking that question.

[DC's Finest]

I used to live on 11th & Columbia and never had any problems. Don't believe everything you read on these forums. Just keep your city wits in tact and you will be fine. Columbia Heights is a cool neighborhood and is only getting better.

[bellyofthebeast]

I used to live on 17th and Columbia which is four blocks away and never had any problems, although its definitely the kind of neighborhood where its good to take precautions. I always walked female friends home past dark. I would also generally try to avoid loitering groups of people at night, although that's more common sense than anything else. The area around the metro station has a pretty intimidating violent crime rate, but again that was the metro station I used every day for a few years and I never had any problems. in terms of transportation, A you will have almost no problem with snow, mostly because we get almost none of it. B, you will soon be very happy that you don't have a car because DC is a walker's world. Metro and buses can take you pretty much anywhere worth going in the city. Driving in DC is also something that many people try to avoid, what with its glorious numbers of awkward intersections and high traffic. Navigating NoVa and MD will necessitate a car in most circumstances, but such is suburban life. Columbia Heights station has the green line as well as a bunch of bus lines including the new Circulator which takes you all around the neighboring hip neighborhoods. Hope this helps