Interested in living in DC proper or no? Makes sense if you are relying on public transit. Columbia Heights could be good on a budget. I lived there for two years. NoMA is cool and not that expensive.
interested in a place that's safe, affordable, has stuff around like groceries in walking distance, and is at least a 30 minute commute to downtown.
It depends on where downtown you are going - there is an (unofficial - as all of them are) district referred to as 'Downtown.' Still, lots of people (including myself) would include DuPont Circle (worth a look), Capitol Hill, and Foggy Bottom (farthest thing from affordable, close to White House) as being 'downtown.' My commute from Columbia Heights was about 40 minutes to get 'downtown' to campus in Foggy Bottom. The only thing that I would be concerned about is 'affordable' - most of DC is very safe, and frankly, if you don't have a car, that gets you out of the worst in terms of crime. Columbia Heights Petworth NoMa Dupont Circle USt/Shaw Adams Morgan ("AdMo") are all 'cool' young people neighborhoods that have Metro stops as well.
i'm now afraid i signed a lease with a luxury apartment riddled with problems per some reviews i just found.
NoMA is cool. I lived with my landlord in a 8x6 room for grad school, so I have little insight into that side of living in DC
I'm in a big luxury place right by the tracks of Union Station. kinda nervous cause it's my first lease with a big property management company and all big property management companies apparently suck. and all these amenities like my gym and pool might be like paper elephants and apparently according to reviews people constantly attempt to get into the gargage to steal cards and its not too far from "the element" over on North Cap?
Never heard of the element, but I never messed with anything besides weed, which was easily found for delivery. The area near Union Station is really nice, as is Union Station. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the people you are talking about are some of the homeless people who panhandle at Union Station. Amenities are a crap shoot but if you lived in NYC I'm sure you'll be right at home pretty quickly, although people are (I would imagine, by and large) way more stuffy here