Photo by Flickr user Elvert Barnes. http://bit.ly/1gZSM5G
Hyattsville is a pretty friendly place to live for members of the U.S. military and veterans.
The Hyattsville Wire noticed that more than a few of our neighbors worked for the U.S. military, so we poked around and came up with a few interesting facts.
The 2012 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that about five percent of people living in Hyattsville over the age of 18 were veterans, compared to a national rate of around 3.7 percent.
It’s hard to say how many active-duty servicemembers there are, but there are some indications that it’s also higher than average.
Part of the reason is location. Hyattsville is about a 20-minute drive from the Naval Research Laboratory, a 25-minute drive from the Fort Meade Army base and a 30-minute drive from Andrews Air Force base. On the Green Line, it’s about 30 minutes from Prince George’s Plaza to the Pentagon, with no transfers.
Another tipoff is banks. The Rite Aid on Route 1 in Riverdale Park has an ATM for the Pentagon Federal Credit Union, while the CVS in College Park has one for USAA.
There’s even a U.S. military recruiting office next to the Prince George’s Plaza Metro station.
You can’t take the Green Line to the Pentagon, although transferring from Green to Yellow is very easy because you don’t have to change platforms. If you manage to catch a Yellow Rush Plus train from one of the Hyattsville stations, then you don’t have to transfer.