Help me understand Manassas, Clifton, Fairfax Station

[vermonter16]

Originally Posted by km41

Your schedule sounds dauting! If you ever come back to VT, you could always try farming to suck up those extra hours and early morning energy. : ) I'll let you know where we end up. Thanks again!

That's just the nature of the area. You'll figure it all out in the end. There are pros and cons to everything and as always the grass is always greener on the other side.....the grass is green on both sides....you get to one, and the other looks better - change sides and there you go again!

Good luck in whatever you decide! I could go for some Al's French Fries right now!

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by km41

?

This potential move is forcing us to confront the major questions of life...how do quality of life and job satisfaction resonate with and against each other. Is a large, lauded school in NOVA better than a smaller one in VT? Is it better to have kids in an environment where they have mulitiple enrichment opportunities and probably clubs, etc. for any potential interest...or better to have them in a place where berry picking, and streams, and back yard sledding are part of life?

Go with the berry picking.

I grew up in this area (mainly Maryland and then moved to NoVA). Back then, it was very rural and I lived a mile from farms and picked berries yearly. I have great memories of that. It's all pretty much gone now and what is left is some commercialized "outing" of picking berries. Not the same.

Anyway, I don't mind living here at all but I can certainly wish for and appreciate what you have in Vermont. A simplicity that kids just don't get here and there's something to be said for it.

If you can do well, career-wise, where you are and you basically enjoy your life, don't leave.

[Manassas Man]

Manassas has some very nice new neighborhoods. I live in a newer neighborhood and love the complex. The only major problem, and I do mean major, is the traffic on VA 28. It is a killer both in the mornings and afternoons. I think more people would have move into Manassas if the traffic wasn't so bad. That is probably why it is cheaper to buy a house in Manassas. We want to move out because of that.

[Alicia Bradley]

I'm still waiting for my promised (by my fiancé, who drives - I don't) visit to Manassas, but I find it hard to believe that the area 'looks worse' than Fairfax Co. - most of which looks pretty bad ('devil's armpit bad' when I'm feeling particularly grumpy) to me. 'Highest median income' is something of a misleading statistic, IMO, since Fairfax is dealing with a few special situations (fewer service jobs per-capita than a lot of otherwise similar suburban areas, quite a few immigrants' service-job incomes quite possibly not being counted, *extremely* low unemployment [basically, no one unemployed], etc.). I think other statistics - average income, % earning more than <some arbitrary high salary - maybe $250k?> - would tell you more about the socioeconomic 'flavor' of a particular area than median income.