Living in Columbia Heights, Washington DC
Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant & PetworthDC USA's five-story retail complex, anchored by a Target and a Best Buy, opened in 2008 above the Columbia Heights Metro station and remains the commercial center of the neighborhood, its plaza fountains drawing kids on hot summer afternoons. The Tivoli Theatre, a 1924 movie palace restored after decades of vacancy, now houses GALA Hispanic Theatre a few blocks north on 14th Street. Restaurants and bars line 11th Street through the heart of the neighborhood, filling rowhouse-lined blocks that fan out in every direction from the Metro plaza. The Green and Yellow Lines run directly beneath the neighborhood, giving Columbia Heights some of the best rail access of any residential neighborhood outside downtown.
Columbia Heights carries one of the lower safety ratings among the neighborhoods near it, and the blocks immediately around the Metro plaza stay crowded and loud well into the evening on weekends.
Columbia Heights' Metro plaza remains the busiest crossroads in this part of the city, a role it has played since long before the big-box stores arrived, and the neighborhood's identity still centers on that intersection as much as on any one block within it.
Rent & move-in cost
Typical upfront cash for a 1-bed in DC — first month plus a deposit (DC caps it at one month's rent). No broker fee, unlike some cities.
≈ $4,700 to move in
Safety
About 89 violent offenses within about ½ mile of the center so far this year.
Source: Open Data DC.
Getting around
Nearest station: Columbia Heights (Green,Yellow) — about 1 min walk.
WMATA Metrorail lines that stop nearby. Red runs its own line end to end; Orange, Silver, and Blue share one downtown trunk (Foggy Bottom through Stadium-Armory) before splitting east; Green and Yellow share the other downtown trunk (Mount Vernon Sq through L'Enfant Plaza) before Green continues south and Yellow crosses into Virginia. The system reaches well into Maryland and Virginia, but only its District stations are tagged here.
Livability
From 824 illegal dumping reports and 204 pothole reports 311 complaints within ~½ mile so far this year.