Rockville, MD vs. Rockville Centre and Lynbrook, NY (living, best, cost)

[Borntoolate85]

Here are two relatively affluent suburbs with urban downtowns near two of the largest cities in the East, each with a rather jagged shape, with RVC established earlier and more compact, with Rockville having a new urbanist downtown, a smaller historic district, and more closely resembles a sunbelt-type suburb despite being one of Maryland's oldest cities. I've added Lynbrook to RVC because since Rockville, MD has a larger area, its neighborhood on the south end is called Twinbrook and since it rhymes and is also a stop closer on its major transit system to its city, have also decided to include it, not to mention NY 27 and MD 355 have a lot of similarities being multi-lane commercial strips.

Please rate based on the following categories:

Location (proximity to downtowns, bad areas, natural features)
Transportation
Housing Stock
Infrastructure
Parks/recreation/natural features
Education/Schools
Economy/Jobs
Shopping
Dining
Arts/Culture
Diversity/People
Crime
Medical services
Traffic
Cost of Living
Future potential

[tman7117]

Grew up in NY and have family in MD so i can give input.

Location - RVC, IMO. I like NYC more than DC, so this is subjective. Also, close to LI beaches (however, it borders Hempstead which isn't a good area)
Transportation - RVC has the Long Island Rail Road and is a 30 minute ride into Manhattan.
Housing Stock - RVC has different types, ranging from more colonial to tudors especially on the north side of town.
Infrastructure- RVC/Lynbrook
Parks/recreation/natural features - All are good in this aspect
Education/Schools - RVC and Lynbrook both house some of the best schools on Long Island/ in New York state.
Economy/Jobs - Both have access to large cities for this
Shopping - Both have malls nearby (RVC has Roosevelt Field, a pretty high end and large mall)
Dining - Both have downtowns with good restaurants/bars
Arts/Culture - Both have access to large cities for this as well
Diversity/People - Not sure about the demographics of Rockville, but RVC/Lynbrook both have a heavy Irish, Catholic presence.
Crime - Lynbrook and RVC are both pretty safe
Medical services - All are good
Traffic - RVC traffic is terrible IMO.
Cost of Living - Long Island in general is one of the most expensive places to live in the country. Taxes and home prices are a killer
Future potential - Rockville MD probably. Long Island is very very crowded and expensive.

[Borntoolate85]

My thoughts:

Location: RVC, due to its proximity to the coast, although Rockville MD isn't too far from Baltimore and the mountains via 270 and the ICC
Transportation: Rockville (Metrorail, MARC commuter rail, AND Amtrak, while RVC has only the LIRR)
Housing Stock: RVC due to the greater variety and generally nicer buildings, but Rockville has a good selection of early-mid 20th century housing styles in addition to some modern apartments downtown
Infrastructure: Rockville
Parks/Recreation/natural features: Tie. RVC has a couple lakes and a river, while Rockville has better forested areas
Education/schools: Tie. A slight edge to RVC for K-12, but Rockville has Montgomery College and Shady Grave as starter colleges and one of the best Jewish schools (Melvin J. Berman) just outside its border.
Shopping: Tie overall, with RVC having the better town center, but Rockville has better access to the high-end areas of Bethesda, Tysons Gallerie, and White Flint.
Dining: Rockville, thanks to the better Asian food options
Arts/Culture: Edge to RVC. Rockville has an 18-screen movie theatre compared to RVC's 5, and nearby Strathmore is year round compared to seasonal Jones Beach. However, RVC has far more homegrown talent (Billy Idol, Joan Jett, Howard Stern, and more) and this allows for better community activites compared to the STEM/government-focused lifestyle of the DC area.
Diversity/People: Rockville. Related to the dining category, one major demographic difference is that Rockville is much more Asian than RVC, yet also has a nice mix of WASP, Jews, Irish, and some Italinas.
Crime: Tie. Both are pretty safe, with some slight seediness as you head east into adjacent towns/CDPs
Medical Services: Tie
Traffic: Rockville
Cost of Living: Rockville
Future Potential: Rockville, but both have strong development going on in their downtowns, and in Rockville's case, its Twinbrook and White Flint sections to the south.

Overall: Rockville (I live just 20 miles away), but I wouldn't mind RVC if I end up working in the Tri-State area.