SO SICK of the DC metro area!!!! (Richmond, Arlington: environment, attorney)

[DestinationSeattle]

Originally Posted by VT Hokie 2007

I think we should levy a $20,000 per year tax on any personal (not business) vehicle registered in Fairfax County, Loudon, Prince William, etc. that gets less than 20 mpg city/highway.

Now THAT is a tax I would support in a heartbeat. Tax the people putting a strain on the planet and its resources.

[tenken627]

Oh, I am not saying that anyone specifically is a "complainer". It's just that people will complain wherever they are.

Do you know that if you go to every single individual forum in city-data, and I mean every state and every sub-forum, you will find a thread, usually large, that is exactly similar to this one. Exactly similar. It's so similar that it's kind of funny. That's like 80 message boards on here.

Check it out. It won't take you long to find them at all.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by YoAdrian

Now THAT is a tax I would support in a heartbeat. Tax the people putting a strain on the planet and its resources.

I have a real problem with that sort of tax:

I happen to drive a 1990 Suburban; gas hog I know , but, I paid $1,500 cash for it and my commute is a 10 mile round trip.

In other words; I could buy a 30 MPG Nissan Versa, etc. pay $400 a month for 5 years and be a lot further behind every month on my bills------again, remember my 10 mile roundtrip commute.

[car54]

What I find amazing are all the posts in this thread from people who have left! Especially the guy a few pages back that left in 1978. Gosh, what would possess someone to bash a place they left almost 30 years ago? I guess I've never gotten THAT bored! LOL

The place sure has changed, that's for sure, and not for the better. But it's my home of almost 60 years. Man, I wish you guys could have been here in the '50s and 60's! No Beltway, no Tyson's Corner (well, it was there...an old timey store at Rt 7 & 123 surrounded by dairy farms) going to the Bailey's Crossroads Airport to watch private planes take off and land. Going downtown during Christmas to see the windows of the F St stores...Except for Parkington (now Bakllston Commons) and Seven Corners there WAS NO shopping in NOVA. Trains used to cross Shirley Hwy (now I-395) near Glebe Rd. I could go on and on.

I was born in Arlington and spent my early years there. When my parents couldn't find an affordable house in Arlington they moved to out to the middle of nowhere....ANNANDALE! Friends were incredulous asked them, "You're moving where...Annan-what??"

They bought a nice home on 2 acres right off Hummer Rd for $28,000 and lived there until their deaths. I inherited the place and live here still. My biggest gripe is the real estate taxes! Even in the current slump...a similar house (but smaller lot) sold last month for $869K! I'm not rich, but I want to stay here... I don't know how much longer I can pay these taxes!

I feel for all of you in this horrendous traffic...I'm lucky, I probably put more miles on my lawnmower than I do my car. LOL

[geometricdisaster]

Originally Posted by car54

What I find amazing are all the posts in this thread from people who have left! Especially the guy a few pages back that left in 1978. Gosh, what would possess someone to bash a place they left almost 30 years ago? I guess I've never gotten THAT bored! LOL

The place sure has changed, that's for sure, and not for the better. But it's my home of almost 60 years. Man, I wish you guys could have been here in the '50s and 60's! No Beltway, no Tyson's Corner (well, it was there...an old timey store at Rt 7 & 123 surrounded by dairy farms) going to the Bailey's Crossroads Airport to watch private planes take off and land. Going downtown during Christmas to see the windows of the F St stores...Except for Parkington (now Bakllston Commons) and Seven Corners there WAS NO shopping in NOVA. Trains used to cross Shirley Hwy (now I-395) near Glebe Rd. I could go on and on.

I was born in Arlington and spent my early years there. When my parents couldn't find an affordable house in Arlington they moved to out to the middle of nowhere....ANNANDALE! Friends were incredulous asked them, "You're moving where...Annan-what??"

They bought a nice home on 2 acres right off Hummer Rd for $28,000 and lived there until their deaths. I inherited the place and live here still. My biggest gripe is the real estate taxes! Even in the current slump...a similar house (but smaller lot) sold last month for $869K! I'm not rich, but I want to stay here... I don't know how much longer I can pay these taxes!

I feel for all of you in this horrendous traffic...I'm lucky, I probably put more miles on my lawnmower than I do my car. LOL

Ah well, I left to sort of "weather" the housing boom and figured a downturn was looming. I moved to an area with less of a boom and projected downturn and bought something decent there; so I think it was a decent financial move (so far). I plan to go back, though, because I like NoVa despite a few criticisms I had of it when I lived there.

I think people in NoVa enjoy complaining and don't personally see this as a negative. I live in a place where natives will defend their city to a fault and it's a syrupy, annoying difference from the more realistic DC area gripefests I used to hear.

[adctvmonkey]

I'm totally grateful to live in NoVA with a strong job market, high salaries, good schools, and beautiful environments close by. I just have to add that no matter where we are, superficial stuff, which looks so cool from the outside, is a total killer. Manicured lawns, safe neighborhoods, cookie-cutter homes, and the same people in your entire subdivision is not life, because life is so much more.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by car54

What I find amazing are all the posts in this thread from people who have left! Especially the guy a few pages back that left in 1978. Gosh, what would possess someone to bash a place they left almost 30 years ago? I guess I've never gotten THAT bored! LOL

I am the one who fled DC in 1978.......why I spoke up was in agreement with many other posters who were less than impressed with the place------both locals as well as potential newcomers

The place sure has changed, that's for sure, and not for the better. But it's my home of almost 60 years. Man, I wish you guys could have been here in the '50s and 60's! No Beltway, no Tyson's Corner (well, it was there...an old timey store at Rt 7 & 123 surrounded by dairy farms) going to the Bailey's Crossroads Airport to watch private planes take off and land. Going downtown during Christmas to see the windows of the F St stores...Except for Parkington (now Bakllston Commons) and Seven Corners there WAS NO shopping in NOVA. Trains used to cross Shirley Hwy (now I-395) near Glebe Rd. I could go on and on.

I remember the general aviation field along Rte 7 as well; then the two highrises there that were built and one collapsed ca. 1973 killing an older sibling of a classmate @ my high school.

Saw Tysons Corners for the first time in 1967 (?) but was still living with my parents in Md, I was maybe age 10. That was a really neat mall-----even till when I left the area 10 odd years later.

Ah yes; Seven Corners: colder than a well-digger's butt when the wind howled through there in the winter--------then, ca. 1974 the mall was enclosed and had something called HVAC!

I was born in Arlington and spent my early years there. When my parents couldn't find an affordable house in Arlington they moved to out to the middle of nowhere....ANNANDALE! Friends were incredulous asked them, "You're moving where...Annan-what??"

They bought a nice home on 2 acres right off Hummer Rd for $28,000 and lived there until their deaths. I inherited the place and live here still. My biggest gripe is the real estate taxes! Even in the current slump...a similar house (but smaller lot) sold last month for $869K! I'm not rich, but I want to stay here... I don't know how much longer I can pay these taxes!

I feel for all of you in this horrendous traffic...I'm lucky, I probably put more miles on my lawnmower than I do my car. LOL

That same thing re: psychotic housing prices/taxes happened in California as well-------and, is showing signs of rearing its ugly head here in Arizona

[car54]

Oh, how I remember the collapse of the Skyline Towers building! I worked near there and was walking into the Roy Rogers at Rt 7 & Carlyn Springs Rd. I heard the rumble and saw the huge cloud of dust that went way up in the sky. Awful thing. My father worked for the insurance company that insured the General Contractor (Miller & Long) and we didn't see him for a week. There's probably a dozen of those identical buildings in that complex now....today, I couldn't tell you for sure which is the one that collapsed.

There were actually four general aviation airports in Fairfax County when I was a kid...the one at Bailey's, another in Falls Church where Loehmann's Plaza is now, and two others on the Rt 1 corridor (Beacon Hill and Hybla Valley).

And Old Town Alexandria was a SLUM in the 50's....lots of folks wish they had snapped up a bunch of those delapidated rowhouses!

BTW, it might be cooler in Arizona today...ARRRGHHH!

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by car54

Oh, how I remember the collapse of the Skyline Towers building! I worked near there and was walking into the Roy Rogers at Rt 7 & Carlyn Springs Rd. I heard the rumble and saw the huge cloud of dust that went way up in the sky. Awful thing. My father worked for the insurance company that insured the General Contractor (Miller & Long) and we didn't see him for a week. There's probably a dozen of those identical buildings in that complex now....today, I couldn't tell you for sure which is the one that collapsed.

There were actually four general aviation airports in Fairfax County when I was a kid...the one at Bailey's, another in Falls Church where Loehmann's Plaza is now, and two others on the Rt 1 corridor (Beacon Hill and Hybla Valley).

And Old Town Alexandria was a SLUM in the 50's....lots of folks wish they had snapped up a bunch of those delapidated rowhouses!

BTW, it might be cooler in Arizona today...ARRRGHHH!

Thanks for the name of the complex at the old Piper Aviation location.

As for our weather today: a pleasant 100F but with only about 19% humidity----------think about 87F in Arlington with its typical 80% humidity.

[mark2544]

Anyone remember Hotshoppes in Springfield, or the Super Slide, or the miniature golf? It's ironic that when you could buy a hoem there for 20,000 usd, it was a safer, cleaner, nicer place to live.