Chevy Chase or Cleveland Park (Washington: crime, home, neighborhood)

[dbaggs]

Hi

I've been reading this forum for the past few months as my family and I will be relocating to Washington DC.

I wanted to get some feedback as to the livability and safety of Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase. We are focussing on those two areas as I want to live as close to work as possible without being directly downtown.

I'll be working around Capitol Hill and my kids will be going to school in the Georgetown and Cleveland Park areas.

Although the metro is a great option I'll most likely be driving as I have a parking spot at work.

I want to minimize the driving in traffic as much as possible without living in an area that is crime ridden. I am currently extremely spoiled as I have a 10 minute drive to work every day.

Any comments or other suggestions?

[chicagotodc]

Both are quite safe. I lived in CP for a long time. I presume you've looked into home prices, but $1MM in Cleveland park is largely entry level, and $1.5MM is probably the median. Chevy Chase is slightly more reasonably priced. Your commute will be better from CP. Both are very nice areas and considered quite upscale, your neighbors will be working professionals, world bank, treasury, people on foreign posts, etc. CP has a lot of nice things going for it - quite centrally located an easy ride to Gtown for dinner, nestled inbetween Connecticut and Wisconsin you have some nightlife nearby in either direction but the roads/feeling itself remains quite residential. The commute to work is pretty good and access to rock creek off of mass will provide you with a relatively quick route around the city.

Much of the same can be said of Chevy Chase, but I think the commute would be quite a bit more of a pain from up there (perhaps someone else can correct me if im wrong). I cant picture what route would be a good route.

[dbaggs]

Thank you for the great reply. This helps tremendously.

[DCforever]

Chevy Chase is actually a good sized area that extend into both the District and Maryland. Cleveland Park is a bit more of a walking neighborhood. Both Chevy Chase and Cleveland Park suffer somewhat from a lack of diversity.