Friday Question of the Day – How did You Choose Your Neighborhood?

Photo by PoPville flickr user AWard Tour

When I first moved to Washington back in the summer of ’97 I really didn’t know anything about the city. I ended up living in Woodley Park and Cleveland Park and spent a lot of time in Adams Morgan (which I loved) only because I wanted to be on the metro’s red line. In 2003 I moved to Petworth and fell in love it with it rather quickly. I loved my house and yard. I loved the proximity to U St and Columbia Heights, I loved the people, the porches, Grant Circle and more. Over the last 4 or 5 years I’ve really started falling in love with many other parts of the city as well. Capitol Hill for one is an area that I completely ignored when I first moved to the city and I have become absolutely enamored with many of its neighborhoods today. There are also parts of Brookland, Bloomingdale, Shaw, Mt. Vernon Square, Mt. Pleasant, Dupont and yes even Georgetown that I have fallen in love with. All this is a preface to say – if I moved to the city tomorrow and had to pick a place to live – I’d have no idea where to pick. (Obviously buying a home vs renting a place could make a big difference.)

So let’s make this a two part question – if you were to move to the city tomorrow knowing what you know now – what neighborhood would you choose to live in and why? And for the second part, if you were to buy a house or condo tomorrow what neighborhood would be your first choice? And prices should be included into the equation, I’d love to buy a house in Cleveland Park or Logan Circle but there is no way I could afford one so I’m sticking with my Petworth bungalow! I also really like Petworth because it is easy for me to get to other neighborhoods that I like. But if I were looking for a place to rent I’d look for a roomate/group house (I’d also be 22 years old again) and pick either the U St area or near Eastern Market. What about you guys?