Vienna - Info (Arlington, Alexandria, Reston: cul-de-sac, safe neighborhoods, high school)

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by normie

??? 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.

OK, I'll bite.

I went to Milwaukee a few years ago - it seemed very pleasant (great addition to the Art Museum), but it took no time mid-day to get downtown from the airport, and there wasn't much traffic at all - people or cars. Coming from this area, it felt like the "body snatchers" had just been in town! It was like moving from New York City to the countryside and not being able to sleep because there wasn't ENOUGH noise at night!

In any event, Midwestern and college towns both have a lot of character, but places like Vienna and Falls Church do - at least for many of us - strike an appealing and acceptable balance between character and practicality.

[neighborhoodfind]

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.

The crap McMansions are especially distressing. I have never seen so many atrocious homes in my life as there are in NOVA. Must be all of the engineers who live here. (Kidding)...but so many of the homes ARE butt ugly. I will never understand why people want these monstrous, multi-peaked, hideous homes. I don't even have a problem with ugly if it's modest, cuz not everyone can afford a great house. But if you have the money and you still choose to build or buy crap? That I just don't get.

[Fern435]

Originally Posted by normie

??? 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.

Frequently, noVA comments read something like:

-No culture in the midwest (as in--the midwest doesn't have any restaurants besides the Golden Corral/Old Country Buffet).

-Schools are terrible in the midwest.

-Most people are white, fat, and intolerant in the midwest. No diversity.

and so on...

Yes, I posted on the thread you linked. The midwest is certainly not the right place for some, but it has plenty of wonderful regions. The United States became what it is for the westward movement.

[Fern435]

Originally Posted by neighborhoodfind

The crap McMansions are especially distressing. I have never seen so many atrocious homes in my life as there are in NOVA. Must be all of the engineers who live here. (Kidding)...but so many of the homes ARE butt ugly. I will never understand why people want these monstrous, multi-peaked, hideous homes. I don't even have a problem with ugly if it's modest, cuz not everyone can afford a great house. But if you have the money and you still choose to build or buy crap? That I just don't get.

Oh my goodness, thank you. THANK YOU! For having the courage to put these thoughts into words on here, I salute you!

In every price range, these are some of the most unattractive homes I have ever seen in the U.S.

Even people with plenty of money seem diabolically compelled to build the ugliest homes here. Can't they hire someone with better taste?

I prefer homes in "The Not-So-Big House." It's a book about building smarter, not bigger.

[neighborhoodfind]

Lisaloo99,

You should start your own thread so your questions don't get lost in this one. I think there are some nice areas around Lorton but I'm not that familiar with the area. You can have a nice lifestyle here and find interesting things to do but most areas are very car dependent.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

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.

1. Kind of passive-aggressive, dontcha think? You keep saying you don't want to fight about urban planning issues, and yet you're the one who continues to bring the subject up. I think you DO want a flame war, to be honest I think you're bored and want to stir the pot.

2. The honest answer to your question is the same answer we've told you a million times before. The reason "no long-timers in NoVA demanded accountability from their elected officials" is that we long timers like our part of the world the way it is. I'm sorry you don't want to believe this, but there you go.

3. I have never seen anybody say to you "you suck." Not once. What people say is this: You've been very blunt that you've moved to NOVA strictly to make money and for no other reason. You have said repeatedly that you intend to move to Pittsburgh just as soon as you can, probably within a year or two. By the time anything you wanted was actually built, you would have moved on to another town, anyway. So why should we change a place that we love to accommodate your preferences? That is a lot different from saying "you suck."

If you really think so many people agree with you, the solution is simple. Register to vote in this state and get your friends together to vote for the changes you want.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by neighborhoodfind

The crap McMansions are especially distressing. I have never seen so many atrocious homes in my life as there are in NOVA. Must be all of the engineers who live here. (Kidding)...but so many of the homes ARE butt ugly. I will never understand why people want these monstrous, multi-peaked, hideous homes. I don't even have a problem with ugly if it's modest, cuz not everyone can afford a great house. But if you have the money and you still choose to build or buy crap? That I just don't get.

Obviously, the answer is that people have different tastes.

[neighborhoodfind]

Originally Posted by Fern435

Oh my goodness, thank you. THANK YOU! For having the courage to put these thoughts into words on here, I salute you!

In every price range, these are some of the most unattractive homes I have ever seen in the U.S.

Even people with plenty of money seem diabolically compelled to build the ugliest homes here. Can't they hire someone with better taste?

I prefer homes in "The Not-So-Big House." It's a book about building smarter, not bigger.

Oh man, I thought I was gonna get totally slammed for that. Nice that someone agrees!! We should really post pictures...we'd never run out of stuff to post.

[Tone509]

Originally Posted by neighborhoodfind

Lisaloo99,

You should start your own thread so your questions don't get lost in this one. I think there are some nice areas around Lorton but I'm not that familiar with the area. You can have a nice lifestyle here and find interesting things to do but most areas are very car dependent.

Already done.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by Fern435

Frequently, noVA comments read something like:

-No culture in the midwest (as in--the midwest doesn't have any restaurants besides the Golden Corral/Old Country Buffet).

-Schools are terrible in the midwest.

-Most people are white, fat, and intolerant in the midwest. No diversity.

and so on...

Yes, I posted on the thread you linked. The midwest is certainly not the right place for some, but it has plenty of wonderful regions. The United States became what it is for the westward movement.

I see you saying things like this a lot but I never see you backing it up. Frankly, I don't recall seeing a lot of comments like "Most people are white, fat, and intolerant in the midwest." In fact, I don't recall anyone making comments like that. Do you have a link? IMO, the link from normie is a typical example of how people here discuss other cities. Read through that thread and you see posters complimenting a variety of cultural opportunities in Ohio.

If anything I think the people on this forum are very polite when talking about other areas.