Baltimore- Where to start looking

amother

Tangerine

Sun, Aug 30 2015, 8:09 am

Baltimore is a big mix. I know a lot of kollel families have moved to the upper park heights area in the last few years. Also a new chasidish community has just started there.
Cheswolde/ 21209 is very established families but some younger ones as well. Kollel families seem to be moving to Indian village as well. I'm just trying to think where I would move now after being in Israel. Probably Indian village or seven mile area (21208) because I grew up in upper park heights and the houses there are older and need a lot of work to make them nice. But the big southern houses can be absolutely beautiful if you put a lot of work into them...
Also there is Bancroft village, townhomes that kind of remind me of a small Lakewood development. Very social young area but the construction of the houses seems a bit cheap... If that doesn't bother you I would suggest that.

Hashem_Yaazor

Sun, Aug 30 2015, 3:42 pm

Yeshiva Lane is only for people affiliated with the yeshiva. If you don't have a shtellar there, you have to wait 6-7 years to get an apartment right now, and it's not a long term solution.

I disagree that TI necessarily has longer hours and stricter discipline. Preschool is actually shorter hours than TA, and once upon a time there may have been more old fashioned methods of discipline, but these days? Like any regular American school. I was a TI parent for 5 years before we left Baltimore.
Both boys' schools are mixed, but TA is bigger, and perhaps the yeshivish kids get "diluted" in the numbers, but you'll find similar hashkafic lifestyles in both schools.

This may be funny, but living by TA, while not common for non-TA teachers, may actually be a good option. I can put you in touch with a family there if you would like who did just this (without teaching in TA; they actually send to TI). Very simplistic living, you get more for your money (it's about 100K less than what you would get for an equivalent house in the regular part of Baltimore), and davening would be with TA staff/rebbeim who would be similar in hashkafah and lifestyles. Houses are a little harder to find since it's a smaller area, but it's an option you may want to explore. We actually would have considered it, had we stayed in Baltimore.

amother

Brunette

Sun, Aug 30 2015, 4:04 pm

amother wrote:

We just moved from Bancroft Village. We rented - yes, houses are beautiful but cheaply made and people are selling quickly - people dont seem to stay long. The new chassidish kollel just had 4 families move in there, and the houses are now selling for almost 300k, some for more. I didnt like living there. Anon because I am one of 2 people who rented there and everyone knows I didnt like it.

As far as the discipline ag TI - HahahabahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA. My husband just stopped teaching there after one whopping year. My son was in the preschool there. He came home crying daily because the big kids are making fun of him. My husband, who taught secular studies in the older grades there, was appalled at the lack of middos. I have told this to a number of people, a lot of the kids even called my husband by his first name. None of the administrators did anything - they didn't even care. It broke my heart the way that my husband and my son came home from that school every day. When we complained to the school they didn't do anything and finally I spoke to the preschool director myself who stormed up to the middle school administrators because she was so upset that my son was being teased so mercilessly. She told me that the administration claimed not to know that my son was being teased by the big boys and told her I didn't believe it for a second. Then she admitted that she was told by the administration that they were aware that it was a problem but they didn't do anything to stop it. these are the yeahiva lane kids - children of the supposedly cream of the crop. I'm not impressed. Needless to say they're not going back for a second year.

amother

Lawngreen

Sun, Aug 30 2015, 7:37 pm

HI
I know a family very well who live near to TA. The husband is not a Rebbi in TA. There are about 28 families in that neighborhood, about 22 with small kids and teenagers. Of those , about 7 or 8 families are not TA rebbeim, but all of them have kids in TA. There are no longer any TI families in the niehgborhood. Teh family who Hashem Yaazor is talking about moved their kids to TA.
From what I hear and see from my friend, it is a great place to live, with a real commmunity feel, everyone looks out for each other. It is non materialistic, simple and houses are cheaper. like you could expect to spend more like $180- 240, 000 I think.
OTOH, my friend says she is limited socially, because on shabbos they are far from the resto f the comminity, it is 45 minute walk to yeshiva lane, and at least one hour to the closest end of the main part of the community.
If you see this as a serious possible option at any point in your search, say so and I will put my screenname out there so you can PM me for more info.

justcallmeima

Sun, Aug 30 2015, 7:49 pm

" I know exactly what you are talking about about why you are leaving. Since that is important to you, you may want to look into rumors about certain TI staff member still working there. "

She's talking about the se$xual abuse of children. And you say "since that is important to you". Are there parents to whom it is not important? Does that mean like "Yeah, I don't really mind if my child is sexua&lly abused"? What on earth???? "You MAY want to look into rumors." "Nah. I'll pass. Like I said. It really doesn't matter to me one way or the other.

amother

Burlywood

Sun, Aug 30 2015, 7:57 pm

Baltimore is a wonderful community. Though I didn't grow up here, I live here for over 15 years and I'm happy to be raising my family here. There is real achdus between the different shuls and Rabbanim and a real feeling of being part of a community. Bais Yaakov is an excellent school, large but with small classes (generally up to 20 girls in elementary school); you really feel the administration and teachers care about the girls. When deciding on a boys' school, we were torn between TA and TI but eventually decided on TA; although the population is more mixed, there are a lot of solid bnei Torah families (though probably few in kollel) and I have been pleased with the hashkafos of the school--there is real ruach for Yiddishkeit.

Though I understand your desire to just be settled already, I also think that in the long run, you will be happier if you rent in the community for a little while to get a feel for different neighborhoods and where you'd be most comfortable. Though the city as a whole is less gashmiusdik than many other frum communities, the growing population of people coming from "in-town" communities has made some parts of community not as simple as I would like. Particularly as my daughters become teenagers, they are dealing with more peer pressure about shoes (check the Venettini thread!), clothing and the like. I do think that the Seven Mile area, and Darchei as a shul, as mentioned by other posters, are less materialistic (and parts of it are in zip code 21215), but I think you may want to check things out yourself and see where you feel comfortable.

BTW, most Baltimore houses are 50 years old and not very large (compared to, say, Monsey houses) and your typical original house has only 3 bedrooms. Many people have added on--either basement bedrooms or by extending the house in other ways. You might find a house that has already had renovations, or you might buy a house and do some work to make it meet your criteria. You can probably buy a decent house in many areas that would interest you in the mid-300K range, but there are cheaper houses (say, semi-detached on Nerak/Hatton) for $200K or so and others over $400K (though many of those might be in overall "fancier" areas where there might be more peer pressure).

Hatzlacha with your decision!