Vienna - Info (Reston, Winchester, Fairfax: middle-class, apartment, movie theater)

[Fern435]

Originally Posted by FromVAtoNC

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.

A selective memory on your part does not obligate me to go back and look, does it?

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by Fern435

A selective memory on your part does not obligate me to go back and look, does it?

In other words, you can't back up your accusation. Ok, moving on... As for the question about an inexpensive neighborhood that you can ride bikes to book stores, etc. Hmm, that's a tough one. Leesburg or some of the towns further out in the country might work (Warrenton, for example). But they might be too far for a commute. Where do you work?

[Alicia Bradley]

Let me share a 'fat people' story - my parents and I back in the '80s (when I was in high school) believed that the Maryland/Delaware cost would be a nice place to visit, due to its positive PR. (The Midwest has the opposite problem - mostly due to the bulk of the U.S. population's *total ignorance* of a gigantic, diverse, and way-less-rural-than-you'd-think region. But I'm not even going to go there - especially on CD. ) Anyway, when my parents and I got to MD/DE, we were painfully underwhelmed. We expected a kind of Maritime setting with cute villages, while what we found was something out of a horror movie (Ocean City, MD) and a candidate for deadest-city-on-earth (Wilmington, DE). Luckily, we ran into some people who recommended we change our itinerary and visit Philly, which was indeed a very good/interesting experience. (We also liked the old parts of Baltimore and the waterfront in Annapolis.) Oh, the 'fat people' part is about the strange beings on the beach in Ocean City.

The college towns I've lived in are Columbia, Missouri and Evanston, Illinois, so if you know anything about them, you'll know what my background is like. Columbia is my favorite place on earth (in addition to Chicago and Vancouver, B.C.).

As for NoVA, thanks for your replies/advice, everyone. Yes, I do have to get out of Huntington - I moved here (to Huntington, specifically, that is) due almost entirely to my naivete, thinking it would be a huge improvement over PG County (where I'd also moved due to my naivete, having thought 'College Park = college town = like college towns I'm used to!'). I love Old Town Alexandria (and parts of D.C. - Eastern Market rocks), but both those areas are too pricy (and, honestly, too dense) for me. What I like most about Vienna (having visited once) are THE SIDEWALKS. Even if they just take you past strip malls. If I ever do end up moving to Vienna, I would like to kiss the feet of the person who is responsible for those sidewalks being there.

p.s. I don't mean to jump in in the middle of the fight, but 'Midwest' does not equal 'rural.' There are tons of cities in the Midwest, and Chicago, for one, puts D.C. to shame.

Yeah, the Mid-Atlantic is the paragon of cultural excellence.

[normie]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

The College towns I've lived in are Columbia, Missouri and Evanston, Illinois, so if you know anything about them, you'll know what my background is like. Columbia is my favorite place on earth (in addition to Chicago and Vancouver, B.C.).

Evanston! Wow, this is my day for having things in common with people moving here. I went to school in Evanston, lived in Sargent Hall. Great town. Wish I could suggest a place like it, but all I know are expensive places like Arlington and Georgetown.

Had to chuckle at the idea people would mock Ohioans for being fat. LOL, like Virginians are super skinny! I know I've put on too many pounds, despite all the hiking I do. There's just too much good food here.

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by normie

Evanston! Wow, this is my day for having things in common with people moving here. I went to school in Evanston, lived in Sargent Hall. Great town. Wish I could suggest a place like it, but all I know are expensive places like Arlington and Georgetown.

Had to chuckle at the idea people would mock Ohioans for being fat. LOL, like Virginians are super skinny! I know I've put on too many pounds, despite all the hiking I do. There's just too much good food here.

I also feel like a number of posters went off here debunking myths about the Midwest that aren't widely held here to begin with.

One of my best friends went to Northwestern; went to Evanston for a visit and thought it was incredible. The town...the lake-front beach....the university. Great place.

Went to Cleveland on business and loved it. I still think Shaker and University Heights have some of the most beautiful collections of residential architecture anywhere in the country. But try finding a decent job in the Cleveland area in a whole host of fields - it can't be done. I feel the same way about St. Louis - absolutely beautiful neighborhoods around Washington University and a great vibe, but what are the long-term prospects? Doesn't some company from Brazil or Belgium own Anheuser-Busch now?

So back to the NoVa suburbs - good schools and safe neighborhoods, decent if expensive housing, and roads and public facilities that you recognize after any trip to Pennsylvania are incredibly well-maintained. Much to be thankful for here, so call me an apologist.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by FromVAtoNC

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.

1.) My intention is not to "stir the pot." Time after time I've posted my OPINIONS on this forum, and time after time I've been attacked personally with people going off-topic to question my motives instead of being debated, as would be preferable. It's not my fault some on here can't properly debate without resorting to nastiness.

2.) By "long-timers" let me clarify that I meant the NoVA residents of, perhaps, the year 1965---BEFORE the massive transplant influx got fully underway. Planners at that time and in each successive generation SHOULD have planned better so that TODAY we would NOT have such terrible traffic congestion, Metrorail lines being built long after they SHOULD have been built to accommodate shifting population centers, a lack of sidewalks and bicyclist- and pedestrian-friendliness in many areas, a car-centric lifestyle, etc. What efforts were made by people in the 1960s and 1970s to plan ahead for the growth of the 1990s and 2000s? What efforts were made by long-time residents to question and needle their elected officials for how they would account for anticipated growth projections with PROPER infrastructural improvements (i.e. road-widening), new mass transit routes, locating new aquifers, planning out proper zoning charts to best utilize limited space, etc. A lot of you slammed me when I criticized the lack of affordable housing in the area, saying that sprawl was necessary to increase the housing supply to, in turn, lower housing prices. What if instead of building so many low-density sprawling neighborhoods in every corner of NoVA people had decided to better plan with more mixed-use and higher-density neighborhoods from the get-go? Then Fairfax County wouldn't have such a land crunch, and people who earn a high salary, even by national standards, wouldn't be confined to living in exurban areas because they couldn't afford to live anywhere closer to the city.

3.) I was using an example. One person called me a "jerk," so in my humble opinion that's on par with "you suck." I'll be in NoVA much longer than "just a year," much to my chagrin. I'm going to try to make the best of it, and you can bet your derriere I'm going to be rallying troops not unlike myself, Quiet Walker, Fern435, Alanboy, Alicia, etc., etc. to vote for change. Loudoun and Fairfax Counties are projected to continue be two of the nation's fastest-growing counties, and yet I now see Loudoun County making the SAME stupid low-density zoning mistakes that Fairfax County did when IT was growing rapidly from the 1980s to present. The answer, folks, isn't to "keep on building out." Do you really want to pave over all of the wine country and all of the exurban frontier on out to Winchester or Front Royal with low-density housing subdivisions and strip malls, or do you want some people to rock the "comfort zone" NOW to prevent that from happening? People just sat back for years while Fairfax County was paved over into the generic suburbia it is today. Do you want to see that happen to all of Loudoun County as well?

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by FromVAtoNC

As for the question about an inexpensive neighborhood that you can ride bikes to book stores, etc. Hmm, that's a tough one.

...and yet you see no problem with the long-range urban planning of the past or present generations in NoVA, when EVERY area SHOULD have AMPLE opportunities for environments like that? Interesting indeed. See my point. Not everyone wants to live on a sidewalk-less cul-de-sac and sit in traffic for 15 minutes just to get to a store. Some of us want to be able to grab our bikes or use our own God-given two legs to WALK or BIKE to amenities. Why is everyone in NoVA so NIMBY about mixed-use zoning? Someone opening a bank, book store, or coffeehouse near your tract homes is NOT going to devalue your properties. On the contrary I know of MANY people, including myself, willing to pay a PREMIUM for a subdivision with very easy walkability to businesses.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

What I like most about Vienna (having visited once) are THE SIDEWALKS. Even if they just take you past strip malls. If I ever do end up moving to Vienna, I would like to kiss the feet of the person who is responsible for those sidewalks being there.

Same here. I don't know why some on this forum don't see the value in a community having ample sidewalks?

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by neighborhoodfind

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.

DON'T DO IT!!!! I posted two satellite images on here last month of two neighborhoods that were the poster child for poor long-range urban planning (and ironically why Fairfax County ran out of developable land so quickly, driving up the cost of housing for the rest of us), and I was chewed to bits because I had actually posted a picture of one member's neighborhood. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. What are 75% of the people in NoVA going to do when gas prices spike, and they can't afford to drive from Point A to Point B? Once the automotive era is extinct many parts of this nation (not only NoVA) are in SERIOUS trouble.

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

...and yet you see no problem with the long-range urban planning of the past or present generations in NoVA, when EVERY area SHOULD have AMPLE opportunities for environments like that? Interesting indeed. See my point. Not everyone wants to live on a sidewalk-less cul-de-sac and sit in traffic for 15 minutes just to get to a store. Some of us want to be able to grab our bikes or use our own God-given two legs to WALK or BIKE to amenities. Why is everyone in NoVA so NIMBY about mixed-use zoning? Someone opening a bank, book store, or coffeehouse near your tract homes is NOT going to devalue your properties. On the contrary I know of MANY people, including myself, willing to pay a PREMIUM for a subdivision with very easy walkability to businesses.

One of the NICE things about VIENNA is that there are both compact and friendly neighborhoods in the TOWN with sidewalks where one can WALK to a store, and cul-de-sac (some with sidewalks, some without) neighborhoods in the COUNTY where one can have a bit more LAND and PRIVACY and still BIKE quickly to the W&OD TRAIL, where it's but a short and healthy ride to the TOWN of VIENNA or even RESTON!! Different STROKES for different FOLKS.