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Sorry, as I know this comment will enrage everyone, but for me this is like choosing between a hemmorhoid or a bunion. I currently live in Fairfax County, Virginia and am very unhappy here. It is stereotypical Stepford suburbia with tract-housing, cul-de-sacs, big-box stores, seas of asphalt parking lots, a dearth of sidewalks in many areas, terrible traffic congestion, and chain restaurants on every corner. If you envy the "drive my over-sized SUV alone while texting through a Sunday traffic jam to the overcrowded grocery store to buy my organic bon-bons" then you'll love Fairfax County. If you're a soccer mom, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you don't really care much about being "neighborly" because you live in a transient area, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you think driving a hybrid somehow compensates for the carbon footprint of your vinyl-sided McMansion, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you love to bring up your Ivy-league degree at every opportunity, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you love to brag about being "ahead of the curve", then you'll love Fairfax County.
Overall I just don't see what the "allure" is to living here. I'm told "lots of good jobs." There's much more to life than just trying to make progressively more and more money just to "one-up" your peers and neighbors, and that "keeping up" attitude is VERY prevalent here; we are one notch below being considered "The O.C." of the Mid-Atlantic. I'm told "great schools." Fine. That's good if you have school-aged children. What about the rest of us? I'm told "proximity to DC." Good luck with our traffic jams and limited Metro accessibility! I'm told "low violent crime." LOTS of suburban areas have low violent crime because they are mostly inhabited by the upper-middle-class who don't have the "street thug" mentality.
No offense intended to Houston, but I envision it to be, more or less, the same way---Tysons Corner, VA on steroids for a downtown (i.e. big shiny yet soulless office buildings surrounded by high-traffic roads) surrounded by seas of tasteless tract suburbia (i.e. Reston, VA). At least Fairfax County gets four solid seasons (40" of snow on the ground the first week of February and 93-degree weather just two months later). Excuse me, now while I go hop in my Range Rover and go to Starbuck's to be a poseur for a little while.
Fairfax County all the way. Tysons Corner has more office space than DT Houston. That should tell you something.
It tells me that corporate America doesn't give a damn about locating in areas ripe for transit-oriented development or reinvesting in existing parts of the urban core of a metropolitan area to help "give back" to the community. Mark my words when I tell you Northrop Grumman, which is currently in the process of moving its HQ here from CA, will choose the poorly-transit-serviced suburban option in unincorporated Falls Church in Fairfax County over the new Metro-accessible office building in Ballston. Do you work in Tysons Corner? I do. It's NOT a pleasant place. It is a solid reminder of everything that is WRONG with post-WWII development patterns across our nation, and is the poster child for why Fairfax County has the nation's second-worst gridlock. Show me areas in Fairfax County that have even a FRACTION of the walkability afforded to those inside the Beltway. Where is Fairfax County's version of Old Town Alexandria? The Ballston/Rosslyn Corridor of North Arlington? Georgetown? Didn't think so.
Sorry, as I know this comment will enrage everyone, but for me this is like choosing between a hemmorhoid or a bunion. I currently live in Fairfax County, Virginia and am very unhappy here. It is stereotypical Stepford suburbia with tract-housing, cul-de-sacs, big-box stores, seas of asphalt parking lots, a dearth of sidewalks in many areas, terrible traffic congestion, and chain restaurants on every corner. If you envy the "drive my over-sized SUV alone while texting through a Sunday traffic jam to the overcrowded grocery store to buy my organic bon-bons" then you'll love Fairfax County. If you're a soccer mom, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you don't really care much about being "neighborly" because you live in a transient area, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you think driving a hybrid somehow compensates for the carbon footprint of your vinyl-sided McMansion, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you love to bring up your Ivy-league degree at every opportunity, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you love to brag about being "ahead of the curve", then you'll love Fairfax County.
LOL, I agree Fairfax County is VERY stereotypical Yuppieville. But what are you gonna do? If you live and work in the D.C. area, you're basically limited to 3 choices - either you're a (1) politician, (2) yuppie or (3) ghetto. At least the first 2 have ample opportunity to develop some sort of class if they want. So take your pick.
Last edited by BigCityDreamer; 05-09-2010 at 12:06 PM..
LOL, I agree Fairfax County is VERY stereotypical Yuppieville. But what are you gonna do? If you live in the D.C. area, you're basically limited to 3 choices - either you're a (1) politician, (2) yuppie or (3) ghetto. Take your pick.
It's just a shame how segregated much of the metropolitan region is. In the city proper of Washington you have NW, which is generally very expensive, generally has very low crime, and is generally inhabited by upper-middle-class Whites and Asians (think Georgetown, Kalorama, Rock Creek Park, Adams-Morgan, Tenleytown, Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, etc.). In SE and NE you have much sketchier areas and more of a "hood" element (think Anacostia, Trinidad, etc.), albeit gentrification is pushing through now as well. SW is a very tiny sliver of the city, overall, and isn't really a residential hot-spot.
To the SE and NE of DC you have Prince George's County, MD. MOST of this county inside the Beltway is the "hood", and the number of homicides here is about the same so far in 2010 as DC, which should embarrass the county. Most of the county outside the Beltway is home to hard-working and morally-upstanding African-Americans who resent that the "hood" areas give their county overall a terrible reputation, especially to those of us in VA. Montgomery County, MD is generally very similar in nature overall to Fairfax County, VA---upper-middle-class (think Bethesda/Rockville), well-educated, liberal, and "Stepford" (although NoVA's areas like McLean, Great Falls, Langley, etc. blow places like Potomac out of the water with ritziness).
If you're like me---white, middle-class, and boring---how can you enjoy "city life?" The areas where I won't have to worry about getting mugged much on early-morning runs are all geared towards those earning around $100,000 salaries. The areas I COULD afford in the city, like Anacostia or Trinidad, would eat me alive. Most other cities have plenty of stable middle-class neighborhoods whereas DC has proven itself to me to be VERY segregated. Pittsburgh is a great example of an "urban" area where you can live in a 1-BR apartment right near the heart of the city on a $40,000 salary. How can you do that in DC without roomies out the wazoo? DC isn't NYC---prices should reflect that.
Fairfax for me. Mainly due to family reasons, and I'd personally rather live near DC than Houston.
However, this isn't a fair comparison. It's comparing a mostly suburban county of 1 Million next to a major city vs a county of almost 4 million that has a major city within it.
I've always thought of Fairfax as the East Coast version of Orange County, CA (albeit smaller), but maybe that's just me.
A suburban county of DC vs a city of 2.2million, in a county of 4million? Yep I definitely chose Houston. This isn't even a fair comparison. Fairfax County? Seriously? I've barely heard of it. At least I'll have more variety in Harris County due to the fact that it's larger, so you can chose the urban inner-loop, or the outer-suburbs.
If you're like me---white, middle-class, and boring---how can you enjoy "city life?" The areas where I won't have to worry about getting mugged much on early-morning runs are all geared towards those earning around $100,000 salaries. The areas I COULD afford in the city, like Anacostia or Trinidad, would eat me alive. Most other cities have plenty of stable middle-class neighborhoods whereas DC has proven itself to me to be VERY segregated. Pittsburgh is a great example of an "urban" area where you can live in a 1-BR apartment right near the heart of the city on a $40,000 salary. How can you do that in DC without roomies out the wazoo? DC isn't NYC---prices should reflect that.
I won't lie. You do have to earn a high income to live well in the D.C. area, especially in the more desirable parts of it. It can be difficult for a recent college grad, but things get better with time.
Recently, I've noticed the construction of the new silver line of the metro along the Dulles corridor. It's going to be interesting to see how this affects northern Virginia commuters.
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I currently live in Fairfax County, Virginia and am very unhappy here. It is stereotypical Stepford suburbia with tract-housing, cul-de-sacs, big-box stores, seas of asphalt parking lots, a dearth of sidewalks in many areas, terrible traffic congestion, and chain restaurants on every corner. If you envy the "drive my over-sized SUV alone while texting through a Sunday traffic jam to the overcrowded grocery store to buy my organic bon-bons" then you'll love Fairfax County. If you're a soccer mom, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you don't really care much about being "neighborly" because you live in a transient area, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you think driving a hybrid somehow compensates for the carbon footprint of your vinyl-sided McMansion, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you love to bring up your Ivy-league degree at every opportunity, then you'll love Fairfax County. If you love to brag about being "ahead of the curve", then you'll love Fairfax County.
I'm told "great schools." Fine. That's good if you have school-aged children. What about the rest of us? I'm told "proximity to DC." Good luck with our traffic jams and limited Metro accessibility! 
I'm told "low violent crime." LOTS of suburban areas have low violent crime because they are mostly inhabited by the upper-middle-class who don't have the "street thug" mentality.
