Impressions of NoVA/Metro DC...(so far) (Arlington, Alexandria: best neighborhood, condo)

[rsh56]

Originally Posted by michgc

Which old mall in Rockville? The town center I am thinking of is literally where the "downtown" of Rockville is located - near Maryland Avenue/Washington Street, etc. It has California Tortilla and a movie theatre there.

I've heard about the proposal to revamp White Flint. Anything to make that area more walkable would be great. That whole corridor is so traffic-y. I'd be interested to see what they do with it. I used to live walking distance to White Flint.

Before town center was built, there was this old strip mall with a magruders, some small stores and a huge parking lot. I think that's what he meant by that.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by rsh56

Before town center was built, there was this old strip mall with a magruders, some small stores and a huge parking lot. I think that's what he meant by that.

no, it was an old enclosed mall. In its dying days it held mostly county offices. Most of it was torn down in 1995. I didn't realize, but have just learned, that part of it is still there as an office/health care/fitness complex next to the metro.


apparently its first anchor was a Lansburghs. Though it had problems from the get go.

Rockville Mall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[tysonsengineer]

Not sure if people saw this but its an interesting graphic of dying versus surviving malls

All sizes | Open and closed malls in the DC region | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/beyonddc/7009211299/sizes/l/in/photostream/ - broken link)

Clearly we are seeing a new renaissance in street side retail which I am all about... even though my city is founded around a mall (irony)?

[srussell252]

Thanks for the detailed posts Tiger Beer! As someone who is definitely moving to the area within the next 2 - 3 mos it was great to hear an outsiders impression of the various towns you visited!

[rsh56]

Originally Posted by brooklynborndad

no, it was an old enclosed mall. In its dying days it held mostly county offices. Most of it was torn down in 1995. I didn't realize, but have just learned, that part of it is still there as an office/health care/fitness complex next to the metro.


apparently its first anchor was a Lansburghs. Though it had problems from the get go.

Rockville Mall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh. I was only a toddler though so.

[JD984]

Though it's not my beach, I don't think it's a bad time to be looking at South Arlington. In another 5-10 years, it may be very different and possibly much more expensive.

We did almost move to North Bethesda/Rockville (Old Farm area) many years ago, and it seemed very suburban to me at the time.

[michgc]

Originally Posted by brooklynborndad

this old mall

Rockville Mall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

the new town square is located there, and thats about 2-3 blocks north of where the movie theaters and calif tortilla are.

Wow, it must have been dying even before that. I lived in "West" Bethesda (near Montgomery Mall) from 1990 until about 1995 and I don't remember ever hearing of "Rockville Mall." And one of my roommates was a Rockville native.

The Rockville Town Center looks nice! I guess it's been quite awhile since I've been there - I stopped working right near there when my son was born in 2007. (Just looked it up and that's when it opened!) Reminds me of Reston Town Center from the pics. (and with the ice skaing rink). I like seeing some walkable centers being built. I bet it was great for Rockville's development.

I guess I need to take a drive up there one of these days when I'm in town and check it out.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

Not sure if people saw this but its an interesting graphic of dying versus surviving malls

All sizes | Open and closed malls in the DC region | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/beyonddc/7009211299/sizes/l/in/photostream/ - broken link)

Interesting graphic. The one that always makes me wonder when I see graphics like this is Ballston's mall. Ballston is thriving, you'd think a mall there would thrive too. Might make a good topic for a new thread, if you have any interest in starting one.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by michgc

That really surprises me! They are generally the epitome of the suburbs. When I lived in Rockville (North Bethesda ) in the 1990's, the "downtown" area was not really built up. Then they put in movies, Calif. Tortilla and some other places that had a nice, walkable "town center" feel, but it was pretty small. The older homes in that area are gorgeous, though! Maybe they've built up the downtown a lot since I was last there (when was that???), but based on all of your posts in the past year, Rockville would pretty much be the last place I would think would be the top of your list. The rest of Rockville is very suburban with subdivisions and Route 355 (Rockville Pike) with strip mall after strip mall and matching traffic to boot. Nothing wrong with it if you like suburbs but I am just surprised it was that attractive to you.

Gaithersburg has alway had a nice, small organic downtown, although in the past it was a bit rough around the edges. And I believe there is a push underway (perhaps it's already started?) to get that built up. But again, Gaithersburg to me is the land of subdivisions and big box stores and a place where people moved who couldn't afford closer-in Rockville or Bethsda. Nothing wrong with it if you are into suburbs, but again, with your list of requests, Gaithersburg would have been pretty far down the list of my suggestions to you.

Again, I'm not dissing either place, but my idea of what Rockville/Gaithersburg are and what you want in a city/town just do not jive at all.

Actually, I didn't explore Rockville much at all. I guess seeing there was a Rockville Town Center seemed quite interesting to me, after seeing nothing like that in Fairfax County.

I think the proximity to Bethesda (which seems out of my price range), also made Rockville be a quick acceptable place along with the town center. Probably the other part was that Rockville had both MARC and METRO....(Gaithersburg does as well). Whereas when I was over in Fairfax, it seemed more depressing knowing that they seemed a bit less accessable.

However, you're making me rethink Rockville, which is good! If Rockville Town Center is pretty much 'it' for that suburb...than it certainly makes it less interesting.

That's interesting that you mentioned Gaithersburg being more organic. I did drive between the two metro stations in gaithersburg, and they both had a lot of interesting things around them. I also liked that suddenly I was 'in the woods' on curvy roads very nearby to those metro stations. Very interesting. I didn't even find Kentlands...so I figured seeing what little I saw, made it appealing enough.

Regarding suburbs...yeah, I'm not generally that interested in suburbs. However, they are pretty much the only choice. I also started thinking that as far as suburbs goes, that MD corridor is pretty central for going in either direction - towards Silver Spring direction or Tyson's direction. Probably the Metro and MARC stations both going up and down that corridor pushed it more towards that area.

Anyways, you're making me rethink taking Rockville out, and placing Gaithersburg as the more interesting one of the two.

If anyone is interested, I also found some of the older towns along Route 1 to be interesting - Greenbelt, Laurel, Savage, and even all the way up to Arbutus/Elkridge/Halethorpe (I'm grouping them altogether, as I can't really distinguish which is which yet). I also drove up to Ellicott City (which is definitely very nice, but very expensive)...but it's right next to Cantonsville, which had some similar topography and a nice downtown as well, but just not as popular, which makes it stand out as more attractive to me .

[athensvaasi]

Tiger, did you visit the Fair Oaks Mall / Fair Oaks area? It is very diverse, nice, and affordable. It is kind of the burbs though.