Demographics
Population: 21,941Percent Black: 89.3
Percent White: 3.7
Percent Hispanic: 6
Percent Foreign-Born: 9.7
Percent Children: 21.5
Poverty Rate: 25.9 percent
2005 Median Home Sale Price: $448,892
2007 Violent Crimes Per 1,000 Residents: 19
2007 Property Crimes Per 1,000 Residents: 54.6
Touchstone
World Missions for Christ is not just a cool-looking storefront church across the street from Big Bear. It is also the subject of a 2004 documentary—Let the Church Say Amen—which follows the lives of four struggling neighborhood residents who go to this poky, run-down church and find hope and support there.
Arbitrary Rankings
Kid-Friendliness: 2The neighborhoods’ public schools are awaiting the magic touch of schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee; parks and playgrounds are so-so.
Housing: 9Rentals are cheaper than in other gentrified parts of town (one-bedroom apartments in Bloomingdale are available for as little as $800 a month; shares are listed for even less). A two-bedroom, two-bath unit in a renovated Bloomingdale Victorian is going for $559,000, a renovated four-bedroom, five-bath LeDroit Park Victorian’s listing price is $1,095,000, and a LeDroit Park single-family fixer-upper is listed for $300,000.
Eats: 0For now there are not many places beyond Big Bear Cafe and another new-ish cafe/upscale convenience store called Windows; new restaurants are supposedly moving in. We’ll believe it when we see it.
Consumer Goods: 2There are a couple of nice convenience stores, but not much else. A weekly farmer’s market makes produce shopping good at least once a week, during the summer.
Nightlife and Culture: 2Big Bear. That is all for now. But if you have to have only one cafe, this is a good one to have.
Intangibles: 8One great cafe makes a big difference. One great cafe plus affordable housing, interesting history and architecture, lovely gardens, proximity to busier neighborhoods, a diverse population, a cool park, and a neighborhood that feels like a community, makes for a really nice place.
Turrets Syndrome in the City Paper Archives
LeDroit Park
- Crafty Bastards!
Blog
- Win Advance Screening Passes to Transylmania
- Win Tickets to Chris Brown
- Win A Copy of the Unwigged & Unplugged Concert DVD!
- Win a copy of Bruno on DVD
- Win Tickets to See Seasonal Disorder
- Win tickets to see IMusical
- Win Run of Engagement Passes to see The Road
- Win a $50 Gift Certificate to Nage Bistro
- Win Passes to an Advance Screening of Armored
Comments
10:37 am
You forgot Timor Bodega for consumer goods! He has amazing local dairy, meats, produce, and breads along with other organic produce and lots of wonderful odds and ends. Since he opened, I rarely go down to Whole Foods. Who needs it?
11:55 am
Yeah, Timor is a big hole. Also, Windows Cafe. And how could you forget Thai X-ing?!
10:42 pm
Wow... so the Citypaper staffers would rather live in Deanwood than Bloomingdale? Does anyone else find this ranking system a wee bit suspect?
12:55 pm
The City Paper was certainly not doing their research on this one or perhaps were on something while writing. I don't know where they got some of these rankings. We are a stone's throw from the Metro, the 9:30 Club, and the U Street Corridor and that is not to mention all of the development around us that is coming (aside from McMillan Resevoir). And I can't remember the last itme someone said hello to me in some of the higher ranked neigborhoods.
6:22 pm
WTF? Obviously, an area where 9 out of 10 are of the same race is NOT at all diverse. Is it possible that you are so statistically challenged? Of course not, therefore there has to be some kind of agenda you are trying to sneak in here. Have no idea what could it be, maybe you are in cahoots with real estate developers, or maybe you have some kind of unresolved racial personal issues. Disturbing either way