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I've recently spent some time in N. Arlington (am considering moving there from Fairfax City), and I'm frankly shocked at how gritty (as in, post-industrial icky suburban-gritty, not truly urban-gritty [which'd be a big improvement, actually]) it is. I mean, the sort of 'toy city' on Wilson Blvd. that seems to have been the prototype for Reston Town Center *is* nice, but go a few streets in any direction and you're in rusty-pipes-lying-around-randomly, weedy lawns, Sal & Sons lube and auto junk yard, etc. land. Don't get me wrong - I don't *mind* laid-back college-town-type neighborhoods of weathered old homes with upholostered furniture and bikes on front porches (in fact, before I lived in DC, that was the kind of neighborhood you'd find me gravitating to), but they have to have a certain kind of vibe that N. Arlington lacks. (S. Arlington is actually worse - mostly a lot of angry people driving around on tangles of old suburban quasi-highways with gross-looking medians.)
The reason I brought this up in a S. Arlington thread is that I expected N. Arlington to be *massively* different in feel from S. Arlington.. upscale in a charming sort of way or something like that.. and have found that that's not really the case. Really it's sort of analogous to how I felt coming from PG County to NoVA.. I expected a night-and-day aesthetic difference between the two places, whereas the problems (strange zoning?; lack of civic involvement and, dammit, outrage, when it's called for; insurmountably high barriers to entry for creative entrepreneurs; etc.) that affect the one are also found in abundance in the other, if to a lesser extent.
Last edited by Alicia Bradley; 10-01-2010 at 02:58 PM..
actually I think the N Arlington grittiness is natural in an area in transition as it is. Older commercial properties are not going to be substantially improved if the owners expect to sell them to a developer soon. And I guess most owners of low rise commercial properties within walking distance of orange line stations (and maybe elsewhere) expect precisely that. (indeed if you want to see worse looking examples, take a look at the merrifield area of Fairfax)
There are of course many charming parts of N arlington, usually a bit off the main drag though.
As for S arlington - ive driven around there a great deal, I hope I was not angry at the time Certain very visible parts of S arlington are areas where the County has relegated its necessary quasi industrial activities. In fact the whole area around Shirlington has improved markedly in recent years (no, I do not how far that will go, or where the quasi industrial activities will move to).
Arlington has, AFAICT, one of the most activist, least apathetic citizen bodies in the metro area. The fruit of that can be found in their educational system, and, in physical urban terms, the way they focused growth on metro stations before TOD was fashionable, their commitment to bikes, and a number of other things. I think HUD has cited them for the work in creating sustainable communities.
But Arlington doesn't look like say, Westchester. AFAICT thats a legacy of decisions (and also socio economic conditions) made from 1900 through 1960, more than any recent civic apathy.
BTW arlington just announced a plan for major new development in Crystal City, on both sides of Rte 1, IIUC.
My family and I have found the little restaurant row on 23rd street west of Rte 1 to be particularly charming. We would always eat at the VN place and then go down the block for ice cream at this little family owned place where my DD liked to play foosball. We made a point of bringing our FFX county friends down there, to open up there eyes a little and show them some adventure
it should be borne in mind that DC was still a relatively modest place in 1939. A lot of the development in the area, esp multifamily residential and commercial, was built as a response to a massive influx of population during WW2, and in the rush aesthetic and even other planning considerations were secondary, IIUC.
Also many of the people who settled the area were from rural areas in the middle and southern states, and had little interest in or concern for urban form, urban planning, etc.
Also many of the people who settled the area were from rural areas in the middle and southern states, and had little interest in or concern for urban form, urban planning, etc.
I'm from a middle state.
Flyova country has scads of cities with FAR more pleasant suburbs (including ones of Annandale's vintage) with lots more independent, forward-thinking eateries and such (especially per capita) but far less 'oooh posh' reputations. It's a conundrum. I wouldn't care about it so much if I hadn't originally come to DC expecting its suburbs not to resemble a confused pile of industrial refuse. How the grittiness (and, honestly, non-posh-ness, outside of a couple big indoor malls, Old Town Alex., and the outdoor mall/RTC prototype known as Clarendon) of DC's suburbs avoids contributing more to the popular conception of it honestly boggles my mind.
Last edited by Alicia Bradley; 10-01-2010 at 03:59 PM..
Flyova country has scads of cities with FAR more pleasant suburbs (including ones of Annandale's vintage) with lots more independent, forward-thinking eateries and such (especially per capita) but far less 'oooh posh' reputations. It's a conundrum. I wouldn't care about it so much if I hadn't originally come to DC expecting its suburbs not to resemble a confused pile of industrial refuse. How the grittiness (and, honestly, non-posh-ness, outside of a couple big indoor malls, Old Town Alex., and the outdoor mall/RTC prototype known as Clarendon) of DC's suburbs avoids contributing more to the popular conception of it honestly boggles my mind.
I think that's because few people view DC's suburbs as having a lot of industrial grit.
Also, I'm 99% sure Clarendon post-dates Reston Town Center. RTC's core dates back to the 80's, when Clarendon scarcely resembled what it does today (for better or for worse). Not that that should change your mind about either place, but a little history is in order
I think that's because few people view DC's suburbs as having a lot of industrial grit.
Also, I'm 99% sure Clarendon post-dates Reston Town Center. RTC's core dates back to the 80's, when Clarendon scarcely resembled what it does today (for better or for worse). Not that that should change your mind about either place, but a little history is in order
Yep. Clarendon Market Common opened in 2001. RTC was built in 1988, though much has been added to it in the past couple of years.
Yep. Clarendon Market Common opened in 2001. RTC was built in 1988, though much has been added to it in the past couple of years.
Wow, there really are lots of newbies on the message board so that this even needs to be said.
Since no one is voicing a point that I've heard many times, it's that the new places aren't necessarily all that better. When RTC was first built, I remember visiting and feeling disturbed. It was like those fake towns that they have at amusement parks. I just don't understand how they can't build a town center that is real, and how they manage to make it fake. Cheap materials, mass production, an phoney baloney marketing I guess. It's better now, but still holds that same spirit.
I prefer a little grit in an area that is real like the old Arlington. These new places build of prefab that cater to the latest trends may not have a lot of fingerprints on them, but they're junk buildings that will have to be torn down in a few years.
I'll take the Rhodeside Grill and Whitmore's on Wilson any day to the phony gas fireplaces in the overpriced, overcrowded, prissy new places down there now.
I wish someone would post a photo tour of these "grittier" areas, so we could compare them with the photos of RTC. Personally, I prefer RTC, but to each his own.
Getting back to the topic, I have a hard time thinking of Arlington or any section in Nova being gritty, but that's because I've lived in some genuinely gritty places like Cleveland and Miami. You don't really get true grittiness unless your town had steel mills and coal-belching factories for 100 years. Or unless you're in a much more tropical climate where the heat and humidity constantly erode everything.
I wish someone would post a photo tour of these "grittier" areas, so we could compare them with the photos of RTC. Personally, I prefer RTC, but to each his own.
Getting back to the topic, I have a hard time thinking of Arlington or any section in Nova being gritty, but that's because I've lived in some genuinely gritty places like Cleveland and Miami. You don't really get true grittiness unless your town had steel mills and coal-belching factories for 100 years. Or unless you're in a much more tropical climate where the heat and humidity constantly erode everything.
I would post the pictures, but it might be dangerous for me to do so. I have already been asked on two occasions in North Arlington when taking pictures if I was a real estate developer. I could run the risk of being accosted by a mob with torches, replete from the Medieval Age, who would smash my camera lenses as instruments of the devil, and then burn me in effigy in front of the shops at Clarendon, likely to be followed by returning to my overturned car in flames. That's how Arlington could pull a Salem on the "witches" in their midst who wish to upset the order of things in their neighborhood. I had to laugh, though, since I think someone suspicious would be questioned as to what they were doing taking pictures, while I get asked if I am planning to raze sections of neighborhood for high rises. That does, however, bespeak the activist mentality that is very prevalent in Arlington neighborhoods where locals want to know what's happening before it happens, so that they can march down to the planning office to register an objection before the plan is even submitted.
I had a lengthy reply about the shifting demographics in Arlington, how it was a Post-WWII affordable suburb, etc. -- the same discussions we have had before on the forum -- but lost it as I was on a mobile device. Suffice it to say, North Arlington was never uniformly wealthy, and DC was the hub of commercial activity. Posh areas in Arlington are limited in scope, not counting the affluenza of former affordable post-war suburbs. The posher areas of Arlington are within easy reach of Chevy Chase, Upper NW, and Georgetown for upscale shopping, and were designed to be suburbs.
As an example, at non-rush hour times, it's only about 15-20 minutes to Chevy Chase from Country Club Hills, much closer than other parts of Arlington. Arlington was a suburb, not a college town, and not a city -- DC was the city, and that's where department stores, boutiques, etc. were located, prior to the advent of the suburban shopping mall in Tysons, and Falls Church. At its inception, Seven Corners was an outpost for Washington's carriage trade department stores. What is now Sears was a large stand-alone Lord & Taylor, and the plaza across Route 7, Seven Corners Center, had Woodward & Lothrop and Garfinckels, among other shops -- all close to the Arlington County line. Arlington, itself, had one of the first shopping malls, Parkington, where Ballston Commons now stands that was very innovative for the 1950s in creating a shopping center with a parking garage. Hecht's also had a department store to rival the downtown store on the site, which was expensive when originally built, as I have been told by a lifelong area resident, and former Arlingtonian who moved to McLean.
Since Arlington was a first suburb in this area, with many starter homes, as families grew with the Baby Boom, families left their 2/3 BR brick colonials for larger, newer housing in Fairfax, Vienna, and McLean on larger parcels of land. Traffic was not bad in the area, and with the advent of the Interstate age that saw the Beltway and 395 added, combined with the decline of the street car age, suburbs to the west/northwest began to flourish as personal automobile travel took hold. Add to that a transient military population that was able to afford Arlington's good neighborhoods, and there was a transience that is not akin to a small city in the Midwest with a relatively stable population. Now, with the advent of the diversified economy in the region, there is much more of a stable population, who will pay premium prices for formerly affordable homes because of the location (and schools for those with children), accounting for some of the disparity between North and South Arlington neighborhoods of roughly similar housing stock.
Arlington, today, is not that gritty, not in comparison to other areas of the country, and not compared to how it was prior to much of the massive redevelopment of certain neighborhoods. A friend of mine lived in a hovel (and I am being kind in that description) on S Fern while in grad school, replete with routine car break-ins, domestic violence calls at 3am to the building, and a host of other problems, both systems-related and social. That was a gritty building/area, and there were even worse areas in South Arlington, not that long ago, but redevelopment and shifting demographics have begun to change the perception/reality of those areas, too.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
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Certain very visible parts of S arlington are areas where the County has relegated its necessary quasi industrial activities. In fact the whole area around Shirlington has improved markedly in recent years (no, I do not how far that will go, or where the quasi industrial activities will move to). 
That does, however, bespeak the activist mentality that is very prevalent in Arlington neighborhoods where locals want to know what's happening before it happens, so that they can march down to the planning office to register an objection before the plan is even submitted. 
