Gay friendly neighborhoods in Frederick? (Rosedale, Thurmont: apartments, to rent, condos)

[tster7]

My wife and I will be moving to Frederick this summer with our 2 year old son and I was wondering which neighborhoods in Frederick or more broadly which towns in Frederick county tend to be gay friendly or more socially liberal?

[htownterp]

In my opinion, Frederick County is a very conservative county. Downtown Frederick might be as liberal as it gets. Urbana might be a little more open minded as well. Folks are nice and I would think you would be fine in either of those two places.

[westsideboy]

Yeah, stay urban or clearly suburban. The rural farm areas are more conservative and more religious.

[Steelers10]

I am assuming you are looking to rent initially when coming to Frederick. I will echo the sentiments of previous posters and say stay within the city of Frederick. I would say most of your Frederick County suburbs are just bedroom communities. I wouldn't expect anyone to hassle you but there is not much of a community feel. That isn't related to your relationship that is just the nature of the contemporary suburb. Some of your outer suburbs of FredCo really aren't suburbs at all and are their own separate communities. Once again, not a knock on any community but Thurmont isn't exactly known for its diversity and open-mindedness.

I would say the most favorable neighborhoods would be those around Hood College, which started out as the Women's College of Frederick. It didn't become fully co-ed until about 10 years ago and the adjacent neighborhoods seem to be pretty liberal. The neighborhoods are Baker Park, Rosedale, and Selwyn Farms but they are not subdivisions. They are mostly single family homes with some duplexes built between the 1930s and 1950s or 60s. There are a lot of parks in the area (notably Baker Park) and it is fairly close to downtown. Fairview Avenue is not a busy street but it connects these residential neighborhoods. Along Fairview there is a shopping center with a very nice and rarely busy Safeway and also some pretty contemporary apartments that look pretty well-maintained and always seem to have vacancies. Frederick Memorial Hospital is also close by. I hope this helps!

[westsideboy]

I love those condos near Safeway! The ones with the green roofs, right? They look just like beach condos and many have fireplaces inside.

[Steelers10]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

I love those condos near Safeway! The ones with the green roofs, right? They look just like beach condos and many have fireplaces inside.

Not too far way, the Hope VI program has really cleared out all of the housing projects in Frederick and similar developments to the one along Fairview have been put up in their place. They seem to be a little bit lower density but very well integrated into the overall landscape.

[tster7]

Originally Posted by Steelers10

I am assuming you are looking to rent initially when coming to Frederick. I will echo the sentiments of previous posters and say stay within the city of Frederick. I would say most of your Frederick County suburbs are just bedroom communities. I wouldn't expect anyone to hassle you but there is not much of a community feel. That isn't related to your relationship that is just the nature of the contemporary suburb. Some of your outer suburbs of FredCo really aren't suburbs at all and are their own separate communities. Once again, not a knock on any community but Thurmont isn't exactly known for its diversity and open-mindedness.

I would say the most favorable neighborhoods would be those around Hood College, which started out as the Women's College of Frederick. It didn't become fully co-ed until about 10 years ago and the adjacent neighborhoods seem to be pretty liberal. The neighborhoods are Baker Park, Rosedale, and Selwyn Farms but they are not subdivisions. They are mostly single family homes with some duplexes built between the 1930s and 1950s or 60s. There are a lot of parks in the area (notably Baker Park) and it is fairly close to downtown. Fairview Avenue is not a busy street but it connects these residential neighborhoods. Along Fairview there is a shopping center with a very nice and rarely busy Safeway and also some pretty contemporary apartments that look pretty well-maintained and always seem to have vacancies. Frederick Memorial Hospital is also close by. I hope this helps!

Thanks for the great information. Just curious if you had anything to add if we were looking to buy instead of rent?