Elizabeth236

The Mount Vernon Square neighborhood now goes by the name Mount Vernon Triangle. I moved here in 2010 and have seen the neighborhood go through an incredible transformation. It was a good place to live before, with great access to two metro stations and lots of buses. It's a great place to live if you have different family members commuting to opposing sides of the city or if you know your commuting destination will change in the future. The city vista development with the Safeway and Ace Hardware means you can get all your necessities at your fingertips. All those things that drew me to the community are still true, although the neighborhood changed a lot since I first moved in--in both positive and negative ways. There are lots of new apartment and condo buildings. New restaurants and bars are popping up faster than I can keep up with going to them. The neighborhood has become a lot busier and it's a lot more difficult to find a parking spot than it used to be. It's nice to have so many choices of restaurants in very near-in walking distance. It's not so nice to have to deal with the drunken happy hour crowds on my way home or contend with evidence of people having gotten sick on the sidewalk when I am trying to walk my dogs. All the people out and about definitely contribute positively to the neighborhood feeling safe, but also can create a lot of noise. The neighborhood feels like much more of a party/nightlife destination than when I first moved here. A lot of people seem to move here for very short periods of time, which weakens the neighborhood feeling and, I suspect, is part of why I see people less likely to care about public and common spaces, which is very sad to me. A lot of the apartment buildings do short term leases and corporate housing offers to keep occupancy high, which I doubt will change in the near future as there are more buildings going up and renting out all the units continues to be a competitive business. My family is moving out of the neighborhood because we are looking for a more stable, community-oriented neighborhood, but the MVT has been a good home for a long time, and I can see why people like it. I hope that as development continues it will add more services for long-term residents (medical offices, a dry cleaner, small retail,etc.) instead of more bars and restaurants.