I am very relieved at the new apartment to which my mother and wheelchair- bound brother moved. Although the brownstones where they lived were still okay, there was an increasing deterioration in adjacent areas, and much more crime. Given the feral nature of some of the thugs in the area, I am amazed that my brother was largely unmolested, since he is a sitting duck when he is out, especially on side streets. Just the other day, a neighbor was robbed at gunpoint at the front door of his building.
Additionally, the building is connected by a skywalk to a Safeway, and there are many other stores in ready walking distance, so it is not as necessary to pull their van out for errands. There is a Metro stop nearby, on a line going directly to Metro Center, so it is not hard for my brother to visit his friends on the Capitol Police Force, or to go to his favorite downtown haunts. Downtown Bethesda is quite attractive, and both the building and the area afford more things to do then where they lived. There is a community room with occasional activities, for example, and this weekend there are free movies on the grounds of the National Institutes of Health, which is a couple of miles up Wisconsin Avenue, sponsored by a cable company.
Finally, when we move next year, we will be pretty close to them, and it will be easier to stop by...... |
