Vienna - Info (Alexandria, Fairfax, Lorton: big house, living in, restaurants)

[neighborhoodfind]

Originally Posted by michgc

Hi,

I am new to this forum but wanted to add my 2 cents. I own a house and live in the Town of Vienna and have been here for 9 years. I used to live in Bethesda, MD which is a pretty walkable city, so when I moved across the river I was looking for something like the OP is. I wanted a walkable town that looked nice, too. My husband suggested Vienna and I poo-pooed it because it just didn't have "the look" that I had in my mind. I wanted to buy a house in a town with a central business district that was pedestrian friendly. Because of job locations, Alexandria and Arlington were not considered. It had to be Fairfax County. We looked far and wide and after a detailed search, Vienna came out on top. No it wasn't the quaint picture I originally had in my mind of a pretty town. But it was the best I could find in Northern Virginia. And it is a real town - not a fake town that developers build. What we did was make sure we bought a house in walking distance of Maple Avenue. I walk EVERYWHERE around town - not just to shops and restaurants on Maple Avenue, but to parks, the community center, preschool, the library, the bike trail, and Church Street. We walk to Viva Vienna (carnival over Memorial Day Weekend), Fourth of July Fireworks (when they were near the Community Center), the FireStation Open House, book sales at the library, and flea markets at the Community Center. There are dozens of activities throughout the year in this town. You CAN walk along Maple Avenue. I walk to Giant, Magruder's, and Whole Foods quite often as well as the library. No, it's not perfect. Sometimes you have to switch sides of the street to stay on a sidewalk. But really no place is perfect. I love living here. The Town of Vienna is among the best that Northern Virginia has to offer.

Thanks, that is really encouraging!

[Alicia Bradley]

I'm sort of in the same boat as the OP, ScranBarre, and others who have had trouble living a normal/comfortable lifestyle in NoVA - I'm a transplanted Midwesterner who is used to a mid-sized, funky college town where I rode my bike everywhere. And there were coffee shops, and book stores, and cafes, and cute residential neighborhoods, and <sniff>

I moved out of PG County because I was sick of living in a place with "no there there," and sick of not being able to ride my bike without running into an exurban motorway from hell (complete with rusty metal posts and straggling weeds blooming out of the cracking concrete medians).

Now I'm across the Beltway from Old Town Alexandria in an area called Huntington that actually makes College Park (formerly my #1 pick for "Devil's Armpit of the U.S.") look nice.

SAVE ME! I want to be able to ride my bike out my door and to a place I can get lunch! And then go on long ride down neighborhood streets where I won't get hit! But I'm not a millionaire, so certain parts of NoVA are out of my reach financially! I'm leaning towards Fairfax City (near the sadly tiny "Old Town"), but there are still major problems with this choice.

NoVA = clogged (with both traffic and the aforementioned rusty signposts and struggling.. uh.. native vegetation) motorways and crap McMansions.

[Fern435]

Anyone who starts jumping on Alicia Bradley's post and bashing the midwest will look very intolerant and insecure.

Back off, noVA cliques!

[ScranBarre]

Alicia, I have since spoken to some on other social networking sites AWAY from "Suburban-Data" who agree with us, some very poignantly may I add. I'm confident I'll LOVE NoVA overall and WANT to help make it a better place for everyone through volunteering and being kind to my neighbors, but heaven forbid you question what urban planners 30 years ago were thinking when they allowed the rampant unchecked sprawl with no sidewalks, bike lanes, or viable mass transit options to occur, as you're immediately discounted as a "basher" for asking an honest question! Everyone, no matter where they live, should feel unobstructed to walk out their front door to go for a jog or to take their bikes for a ride. Why must everyone jockey for position with vehicles on clogged roadways in so many parts of the region? (I think it's counter-productive to sit in traffic for 20-minutes just to drive somewhere to safely run). I don't want this to erupt into yet another flame war with the "you suck" crowd coming out because they don't wish to counter my point with anything other than a hurtful insult, but I want an honest answer as to why no long-timers in NoVA demanded accountability from their elected officials YEARS AGO, before the massive transplant influx, to plan ahead with everyone's best interests in mind instead of only those who enjoy driving everywhere or who are affluent.

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

I'm sort of in the same boat as the OP, ScranBarre, and others who have had trouble living a normal/comfortable lifestyle in NoVA - I'm a transplanted Midwesterner who is used to a mid-sized, funky college town where I rode my bike everywhere. And there were coffee shops, and book stores, and cafes, and cute residential neighborhoods, and <sniff>

I moved out of PG County because I was sick of living in a place with "no there there," and sick of not being able to ride my bike without running into an exurban motorway from hell (complete with rusty metal posts and straggling weeds blooming out of the cracking concrete medians).

Now I'm across the Beltway from Old Town Alexandria in an area called Huntington that actually makes College Park (formerly my #1 pick for "Devil's Armpit of the U.S.") look nice.

SAVE ME! I want to be able to ride my bike out my door and to a place I can get lunch! And then go on long ride down neighborhood streets where I won't get hit! But I'm not a millionaire, so certain parts of NoVA are out of my reach financially! I'm leaning towards Fairfax City (near the sadly tiny "Old Town"), but there are still major problems with this choice.

NoVA = clogged (with both traffic and the aforementioned rusty signposts and struggling.. uh.. native vegetation) motorways and crap McMansions.

It's hard to see how you'll find the City of Fairfax much of an improvement over where you are now - except for a few dense blocks of shops and restaurants.

Have you looked at some of the apartments in either the Town of Vienna or the City of Falls Church that are near the W&OD trail? You'd be able to bike to the town/city and also do bike trips out to Loudoun or into Arlington from Fairfax County on the weekends, etc.

I'm assuming you need to be in the immediate area for a job - otherwise, I'd tell you to go scout out towns such as Chestertown, Maryland (home of Washington College) or Charlottesville, VA. It would be great if we had a Middlebury, Vermont, Williamstown, Massachusetts or Madison, Wisconsin plunked down in the middle of Fairfax, but it's not going to happen.

Good luck.

[normie]

Originally Posted by JEB77

It's hard to see how you'll find the City of Fairfax much of an improvement over where you are now - except for a few dense blocks of shops and restaurants.

Yup, I agree. If Alexandria doesn't fit your needs, I'm not sure any other place around here would be better. Maybe you could check out some of the college campuses and see if the neighborhoods right around them would work for you. But most of the college neighborhoods probably don't fit your budget. Anyway, good luck to you and I hope you find a place you like better.

[normie]

Originally Posted by Fern435

Anyone who starts jumping on Alicia Bradley's post and bashing the midwest will look very intolerant and insecure.

Back off, noVA cliques!

??? I don't believe I've ever seen anyone on this forum bashing the midwest. In fact, someone just asked for comparisons between Dayton and Nova and the comments about Dayton were mostly positive. Check it out, if you don't believe me: http://www.city-data.com/forum/north...west-nova.html I talk a lot about travelling to Cleveland and Chicago and have never heard any bashing from people on the Nova forum.

[ScranBarre]

I think Fern435 was jumping onto the defensive "ahead of the game," fearing that Alicia's last sentence or two in her reply would really anger a lot of people. While not worded the best way, it is still just her opinion of the area.

[terrence81]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

I'm sort of in the same boat as the OP, ScranBarre, and others who have had trouble living a normal/comfortable lifestyle in NoVA - I'm a transplanted Midwesterner who is used to a mid-sized, funky college town where I rode my bike everywhere. And there were coffee shops, and book stores, and cafes, and cute residential neighborhoods, and <sniff>

I moved out of PG County because I was sick of living in a place with "no there there," and sick of not being able to ride my bike without running into an exurban motorway from hell (complete with rusty metal posts and straggling weeds blooming out of the cracking concrete medians).

Now I'm across the Beltway from Old Town Alexandria in an area called Huntington that actually makes College Park (formerly my #1 pick for "Devil's Armpit of the U.S.") look nice.

SAVE ME! I want to be able to ride my bike out my door and to a place I can get lunch! And then go on long ride down neighborhood streets where I won't get hit! But I'm not a millionaire, so certain parts of NoVA are out of my reach financially! I'm leaning towards Fairfax City (near the sadly tiny "Old Town"), but there are still major problems with this choice.

NoVA = clogged (with both traffic and the aforementioned rusty signposts and struggling.. uh.. native vegetation) motorways and crap McMansions.

I don't know I like it here. The traffic sucks but what are you gonna do? Fairfax is cute but it isn't all that if you're really looking for that small town atmosphere. Honestly I think Vienna would be a better fit than Fairfax. But like someone else said you're just not going to find that college town cool atmosphere here. The only big college campus in Northern VA is GMU which I'm sure is a good school but the area around it is just regular suburbia and very car dependent. I remember passing by on a day off in the middle of the afternoon like at 1:00 and the traffic getting on campus was horrible pity the kid that was late to class that day.

You know a place that's really quaint looking is Leesburg. Although it doesn't have the college age crowd. Only went there once last October for the Obama rally and it was so nice. It's super far from the city though. Like an hour without traffic. So nothing is perfect but it was very nice and quaint.

Now I will say that if you're in Huntington I think there's a trail by the river that you can use. Yeah it's next to the GW Parkway. Very picturesque because you're next to the river and after a good little ride you can see the monuments of DC and stuff. That's my recommendation.

Also Vienna has a nice trail that a lot of folks are using now that the weather is nice. So I say if you don't like Huntington maybe find a roommate or another roommate if you already have one and move to Old Town or give Vienna a try. Maybe something more urban in Clarendon or Ballston? So all is not lost.

[Tone509]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Alicia, I have since spoken to some on other social networking sites AWAY from "Suburban-Data" who agree with us, some very poignantly may I add. I'm confident I'll LOVE NoVA overall and WANT to help make it a better place for everyone through volunteering and being kind to my neighbors, but heaven forbid you question what urban planners 30 years ago were thinking when they allowed the rampant unchecked sprawl with no sidewalks, bike lanes, or viable mass transit options to occur, as you're immediately discounted as a "basher" for asking an honest question! Everyone, no matter where they live, should feel unobstructed to walk out their front door to go for a jog or to take their bikes for a ride. Why must everyone jockey for position with vehicles on clogged roadways in so many parts of the region? (I think it's counter-productive to sit in traffic for 20-minutes just to drive somewhere to safely run). I don't want this to erupt into yet another flame war with the "you suck" crowd coming out because they don't wish to counter my point with anything other than a hurtful insult, but I want an honest answer as to why no long-timers in NoVA demanded accountability from their elected officials YEARS AGO, before the massive transplant influx, to plan ahead with everyone's best interests in mind instead of only those who enjoy driving everywhere or who are affluent.

Not to beat a dead horse further into the ground but from what I understand, NOVA circa 30 years ago probably was as rural as much of your own metro area if not even more so. The Metrorail system was designed primarily to get suburban commuters into DC where the bulk of jobs were at the time. Many of the stations inside the city itself are relatively new. You may find it ironic that Reston was hailed as a milestone achievement in urban planning. Even today, if one never needed to leave Reston, one could have their basic needs met with a short drive, bike ride or even by foot in some cases.

Of course, as many of us know, businesses started to find the Virginia business climate to be favorable to DC for a variety of reasons... and thus the onslaught began... with the corresponding adjustment to supply and demand.

While there could have been some NIMBYs that were against impeding suburban sprawl , it's more likely that many didn't see it coming as rapidly as it did.

For another side to this ongoing debate, one could check out the Albuquerque, Tucson and Phoenix forums. The "reward" for the government's seemingly clairvoyant investment in light rail and commuter train systems seems to be accusations of a "boondoggle" by a good number of people.

Getting back to topic... I believe Vienna is rather similar to Reston and Falls Church in that it's not only a virtually self-contained community but it's relatively easy to get elsewhere when necessary... the adverb "relatively" of course being the operative word.

FWIW, I contributed to that Midwest vs. NOVA thread as well, suggesting Dayton would shorten the commute for a family with an imminent newborn whose housing budget was somewhat modest for this area.