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Boyfriend and I are moving in less than a month and we can't figure out where we'd like to locate...we're open to anywhere near a metro station, and relatively safe.
We currently live in SW DC right now (waterfront station) and like it quite a bit; we are less than a block from everything that we need (metro station, grocery store, bank); it also takes me three stops to get to work which is a super plus.
However, we are also interested in Silver Spring, as he attends school there, and the place we are looking at is pretty much right next to his school, and about a 5 minute walk to the Silver Spring station.
I am willing to move to Silver Spring; however my MAIN concern is safety; I'm super super cautious and even almost paranoid of my surroundings. My work hours are late (midnight-1am sometimes), and I take a cab home from work now, (cheap, short cab ride, and there is NO way I take the green line heading to Branch Avenue EVER alone at night...I mean, ever).
As a woman in her mid-20s, would I be safe walking home from the Silver Spring metro? (I do hate that the red line passes through the NY Ave, Brookland stations...) Also, if you do live in Silver Spring, how do you like it?
Boyfriend and I are moving in less than a month and we can't figure out where we'd like to locate...we're open to anywhere near a metro station, and relatively safe.
We currently live in SW DC right now (waterfront station) and like it quite a bit; we are less than a block from everything that we need (metro station, grocery store, bank); it also takes me three stops to get to work which is a super plus.
However, we are also interested in Silver Spring, as he attends school there, and the place we are looking at is pretty much right next to his school, and about a 5 minute walk to the Silver Spring station.
I am willing to move to Silver Spring; however my MAIN concern is safety; I'm super super cautious and even almost paranoid of my surroundings. My work hours are late (midnight-1am sometimes), and I take a cab home from work now, (cheap, short cab ride, and there is NO way I take the green line heading to Branch Avenue EVER alone at night...I mean, ever).
As a woman in her mid-20s, would I be safe walking home from the Silver Spring metro? (I do hate that the red line passes through the NY Ave, Brookland stations...) Also, if you do live in Silver Spring, how do you like it?
Seems as if you have a personal problem. It's folks like you why the U.S. has lost most of its civil liberties under the guise "security". If your that worried get a tough boyfriend or buy a gun. Crime can happen anywhere at anytime, it does no help to your heath to worry about it 24 hrs a day
Well, she has a right to be concerned in this case. She gets off between midnight and 1 AM on most nights, her job is in DC, she's going to be riding metro by herself at night? She should bring it up to her boyfriend that safety in this case is a legit concern.
OP why not just go walk around the station at night with your boyfriend and get a feel for the place.
I'm just laughing at the NY avenue metro station bit. I used to have female roommates walking home from there at 2am many times with no problems at all using basic street smarts. Have you even been to the area outside the station?
I guess safety is relative depending on the person. Though with this post I can't help but picture the scene in the "**** people say in Dc" where the guy goes "omg Anacostia isn't that place dangerous??"
Do the guys complaining about a girl walking home at midnight-1am, have a girlfriend or a wife?
I've lived in much safer places, but I still have the respect to go walk the woman home. Telling her to buy a gun and don't worry about it, doesn't fly with women. (I'll probably get rep points for this! )
Sorry, no personal comments about those exact locations.
I'm with Tiger Beer and others on this one. I ride the Green Line and the Eastern part of the Red Line all the time and I've never had problems or felt unsafe, but I'm also a 6'1" 210lb male who has ridden Metro long enough to not give off that vulnerable, don't-know-what-I'm-doing vibe.
I think you'd be safe walking home from the SS metro. But if you're getting off work at 1AM, Metro won't be an option any way. You could cab it but that will add up very quickly... is a car in the cards?
Silver Spring is a very big, unincorporated part of Montgomery County. I lived in 2 different places in SS: in a row townhome on East-West Highway a 10 min. walk west of the SS Metro station (i.e., near downtown), and later in a single family dwelling off of Layhill Road, near the Glenmont Metro. Miles apart (the first was south of the Beltway, the second quite some distance north, even further than Wheaton), with very different environments, but both Silver Spring. Are you talking about downtown? When I lived in the above places, I worked in Southwest, though north of 395 (vs. where you live), and would not have thought even downtown SS any less safe than Southwest DC. But obviously further from activities in DC. The number of restaurants, stores, etc. in central Silver Spring was not then what it is now. But traffic may also have been better (I relied on the Metro to get to work in DC).
Street parking can vary widely from neighborhood to neighborhood in SS. There will be restrictions in many areas, maybe even permits in some places. Until you kinow where you might live, and know that you won't have parking (I had parking where I lived), hard to say what the street parking sitaution will be. What's it like in SW? I would assume it's even worse.
Personally I live in Waterfront and have spent time in downtown Silver Spring as well, and have found downtown SS to be safe relative to Waterfront. I think your big problem with SS will be that the metro only runs until midnight during the week, so you won't be able to ride it if you are working until 1am. Also even if you leave by midnight, the red line often runs infrequently or is single-tracking or other problems at night, so while I think the metro ride would be very safe, it could also be annoying to have to deal with the long waits late at night.
Why do you have a car? If your fears about safety were at all rational, you would never get into a car again because statistically speaking you are much much more likely to be injured or killed in a car accident than you are likely to get mugged.
That's especially true on the Metro. You are very unlikely to be the victim of a crime on the Metro. Only 1545 crimes occurred in the entire Metro system in 2011, which is miniscule when you consider MILLIONS of people ride it every year.
Riding in a car is much more unsafe than riding the Metro even at 1 am.
So basically what am I saying is, yes, you are way too paranoid.
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