Small to Mid-Sized Towns/Good Schools 1 hour from Baltimore

[elizabeth224]

Ellicott City or the western portion of Catonsville.

[bus man]

Elkridge (especially the parts west of I-95), Ellicott City (especially the parts east of U.S. 29), and Columbia (especially the parts east of U.S. 29) are going to give you the best options for all of what you're looking for.

If you'd be commuting only during rush hours, there is an express bus from Columbia to Hopkins Hospital that you could use and save yourself the wear and tear on your car.

https://mta.maryland.gov/sites/defau...fSept-2017.pdf

But if you'll be needing to be down there during off hours, then you'll need to drive. But it's not too bad even during rush hours and it's pretty easy at other times, especially if you can position yourself to use I-95 and avoid I-695.

[JamesInDC]

Originally Posted by amc5710

My husband, 3 kids and I are considering relocating to the Baltimore area

BIG mistake.

[pappjohn]

Just live in Baltimore, its very progressive and run by democrats.
Your kids will love the schools and they have a mass transit system. It is Charm City.

[james777]

Your politics must be pretty important to you or you wouldn't have put them into your post. Looking at an area map, I see no bastions of progressivism in the Baltimore suburbs, just a sea of conservatism. The one exception might be Columbia, but housing prices there are inflated by its Washington, DC commuters, and commuting from there to the Hopkins medical campus could very well be a problem for you.

Traffic here isn't any better than Portland or Seattle, so I don't know why you would want to be an hour out. I suggest that you look within Baltimore City, or close areas just across the city line. You should use a realtor that specializes in rentals for people relocating into the area.

[bus man]

Originally Posted by james777

Your politics must be pretty important to you or you wouldn't have put them into your post. Looking at an area map, I see no bastions of progressivism in the Baltimore suburbs, just a sea of conservatism. The one exception might be Columbia, but housing prices there are inflated by its Washington, DC commuters, and commuting from there to the Hopkins medical campus could very well be a problem for you.

Look closer. Here is a map showing the margin of victory (in number of votes, not percentage) for the 2014 County Executive election in Howard County.

https://civilityandtruth.com/2015/03...howard-county/

The brighter the red, the higher the margin for Republican Allan Kittleman, who won. The brighter the blue, the higher the margin for Democrat Courtney Watson, who lost.

Here's more info if you're interested:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard...and_government

More often than not, Howard County elects Democrats for County Executive. (Of the past 9 Executives, 7 have been Democrats and 2 have been Republicans.) Regarding the County Council representatives for each district, in general, Districts 2, 3, and 4 elect Democrats. District 5 elects Republicans. District 1 swings back and forth.

OP, from my previous post, I would recommend that you focus your search in District 2.

Originally Posted by pappjohn

Just live in Baltimore, its very progressive and run by democrats.
Your kids will love the schools and they have a mass transit system. It is Charm City.

I don't know the OP, but I find the bolded very hard to believe.

[cjmeck]

Just throwing out some names in no particular order: check out Ellicott City, Columbia, Elkridge (all in eastern Howard County). For Baltimore County, look into Catonsville and Towson. I think all of those would be under 30-45 minutes to the city. There are really many, many nice places so if you find a rental that looks good and has schools you'd feel comfortable with; come back to us here and this group will help you narrow it down.

Good luck with your move!

[pappjohn]

I don't know the OP, but I find the bolded very hard to believe.

Its sarcasm, but the OP should appreciate the Baltimore schools as it's progressive policies that produced the Baltimore school system, the crime, the violence.