Distinguishing differences between (inside)/(outside) the beltway? (Arlington, Alexandria: HOA, how much)

[normie]

Originally Posted by Denton56

Reston is a far flung suburb? An exburb?! I thought Winchester was an exburb and Haymarket, but Reston?

LOL "far flung" is in the eye of the beholder. There are people who live in Adams Morgan who say Alexandria is far flung.

Personally, I think of DC as being the place that's far flung. I live in Virginia. DC is a nice city, but it's not the center of my universe--the tech corridor is. People live, work, and play here--they only go into DC a few times a month when they want to see a show at the Kennedy Center. Even the majority of the topics on this forum focus on the tech corridor, because this is where all the jobs and growth and news are.

So the way I see it, DC is far flung from us.

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by normie

LOL "far flung" is in the eye of the beholder. There are people who live in Adams Morgan who say Alexandria is far flung.

Personally, I think of DC as being the place that's far flung. I live in Virginia. DC is a nice city, but it's not the center of my universe--the tech corridor is. People live, work, and play here--they only go into DC a few times a month when they want to see a show at the Kennedy Center. Even the majority of the topics on this forum focus on the tech corridor, because this is where all the jobs and growth and news are.

So the way I see it, DC is far flung from us.

Gotta disagree on that. There's a separate forum for DC topics, so of course the DC stuff doesn't show up often on the NoVA board.

It really, really depends on your industry and your interests. I don't go outside the beltway for anything, save going to classes in Reston every weekend, or my once monthly chiropractor appts in fairfax. But living/working/shopping/dining? That's all inside the beltway for me.

All my work events, all my networking activities, all my professional development courses for school--it's all in DC. I live in NoVA not because it's convenient, but because it's cheaper than the same thing in DC would be.

You really can't generalize this area. Everyone's situation is different. The traffic on 66/267/95/395 in the morning suggests that hundreds of thousands of people work in DC each day, so it's a pretty vital part of the NoVA resident's world.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by CaliTerp07

Gotta disagree on that.

LOL, actually I think you just agreed with her. She said far flung is in the eye of the beholder, which means it's different for everyone. Which you demonstrated by sharing how, in your eye, you'd have a different view. I think you summed it up perfectly when you said "Everyone's situation is different."

Here in Nova there really isn't a hub, so what you see as the center depends on where each person works and lives. For some that hub might be DC, but it's not the hub for a lot of people. To me, DC is out of state, out of town, and (mostly) out of mind. But that's just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

Reston doesn't strike me as being a far flung suburb. I live and work in Loudoun County, so if anything I think of Reston as being toward DC. To me, Winchester or Front Royal would be the types of towns to be called far flung. But maybe I just have more oomph in my fling!

Getting back to the topic, I don't think you'll find that much difference between the inner ring suburbs and the outer ring suburbs. I suppose a lot of the inner beltway communities look different because they're older, but as Stephen pointed out there are outlying suburban areas that are also older, like Sterling Park and Manassas, and those areas closely resemble other older communities inside the Beltway. And there are new developments inside the beltway where the houses look like those in Ashburn.

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by Caladium

LOL, actually I think you just agreed with her. She said far flung is in the eye of the beholder, which means it's different for everyone.

I was disagreeing that all the jobs/growth/news are in NoVA.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

I've noticed that western DC's suburban area is arranged in a pretty straightforward concentric ring pattern, socioeconomically. (We're not going to talk about eastern DC for now - first, it doesn't pertain to NoVA, and secondly, it's a more complicated situation. Also, be aware that NoVA places north of 66 are susceptible to a sort of 'North Arlington effect,' IMO.) Far inside the Beltway you have the higher-cost, higher-prestige areas with fewer recent immigrants.. places that have either always been considered 'desirable' or whose super-convenient location is causing them to gentrify rapidly. Places on the outer fringes of inside-the-beltway (or even just outside of it, in some cases) are the 'aging suburbs' whose comparatively low prices (associated with architecture that's now considered 'dated' and 'ugly' and a location that's not quite convenient enough to spur gentrification) draw lots of recent immigrants. Farther out are the, well, 'fresher' suburbs that those C-Ders who prefer "outside the Beltway" locales tend to describe as 'nice' and 'family friendly' and all of that good stuff. (Vienna and Fairfax City are sort of special cases in that they have just enough pre-WWII charm to make them 'desirable' in themselves. Also, Fairfax City has GMU, and Vienna has the "North Arlington effect,' to some extent.) What's really interesting to me is the 'mix' that you'll find outside of *that* 'belt' - suburbanites who want bigger homes than are common (or they could afford) in the previous 'belt' (or a bit of land, or some horses, or a sort of 'country'-feel or whatever), combined with populations of recent immigrants who are, again, attracted to the area because of the lower prices - this time, because of its comparatively great distance from DC.

I just saw a KEY phrase in here that I like - "pre WWII charm"!!

That is what I'm looking for!! Places that were developed before the massive auto-centric period of the day. Sounds like Fairfax and Vienna are two of those places? (Alexandria & Arlington & Falls Church are probably 3 others).

Anywhere else is good for that? Anything like that in Annandale?

[bmwguydc]

Annandale has neighborhoods like that, but most of the commercial areas are strip mall heaven. There's no town area that you would find in other areas; and, it's not a realistically walkable community.

[robbobobbo]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

I just saw a KEY phrase in here that I like - "pre WWII charm"!!

That is what I'm looking for!! Places that were developed before the massive auto-centric period of the day. Sounds like Fairfax and Vienna are two of those places? (Alexandria & Arlington & Falls Church are probably 3 others).

Anywhere else is good for that? Anything like that in Annandale?

People, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Vienna has much pre-WWII charm at all, and Fairfax city doesn't have a whole lot, either. I sure didn't notice it when I lived around there, as opposed to how in-your-face it is in parts of Arlington, where I lived in a bungalow reminiscent of my grandparents' home. Alexandria obviously has old architecture in Old Town as well as in Del Ray and Rosemont.

There is a small section of Falls Church with homes dating before the 1940s. I don't think Annandale has anything like this unless there are a few original farmhouses from the days before the land was sold to developers. You see that in some parts of the county.

[robbobobbo]

Originally Posted by normie

Even the majority of the topics on this forum focus on the tech corridor, because this is where all the jobs and growth and news are.

Like CaliTerp, I disagree with this. Both on the claim that the majority of C-D Nova posts are on the tech corridor*, and that all the jobs, growth, and news are there. Especially news - exactly what news is coming out of western Ffx Co or Loudoun that is of greater import or in greater amount than news closer to DC? The Silver Line? Exxon potential firings?

Seems to me this weeks' big news in the metro area is Fenty's loss in DC's election. The big news out of Ffx county is some poor guy getting killed over a speed bump.

* although SB/RR's voluminous posts about mauve Reston do add up.

[Alicia Bradley]

Originally Posted by robbobobbo

People, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Vienna has much pre-WWII charm at all, and Fairfax city doesn't have a whole lot, either. I sure didn't notice it when I lived around there, as opposed to how in-your-face it is in parts of Arlington, where I lived in a bungalow reminiscent of my grandparents' home. Alexandria obviously has old architecture in Old Town as well as in Del Ray and Rosemont.

There is a small section of Falls Church with homes dating before the 1940s. I don't think Annandale has anything like this unless there are a few original farmhouses from the days before the land was sold to developers. You see that in some parts of the county.

I would agree that Vienna has very little pre-WWII charm, but it does have Church St. (and a small bit of older housing?). Old Town Fairfax City, on the other hand, is absolutely charming, IMO.. the only place in NoVA besides Old Town Alexandria that really appealed to my parents when they were here visiting (it reminded them a tiny bit of the cute, older western and northern suburbs of Chicago that generally all have small historic downtown areas with independent - almost touristy, in some cases - little boutiques and restaurants and stuff like that). Interestingly, Falls Church didn't do it for them, but then we didn't explore very far from Broad St. Like Vienna (but to a lesser extent, possibly), Fairfax City has a small bit of older housing (to the north and west of downtown), but it's admittedly quite weak in that area. Falls Church's historic homes are plentiful and gorgeous, though - I'd actually consider this its greatest strength (proximity-to-DC issues aside).

[JD984]

Originally Posted by robbobobbo

People, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Vienna has much pre-WWII charm at all, and Fairfax city doesn't have a whole lot, either. I sure didn't notice it when I lived around there, as opposed to how in-your-face it is in parts of Arlington, where I lived in a bungalow reminiscent of my grandparents' home. Alexandria obviously has old architecture in Old Town as well as in Del Ray and Rosemont.

There is a small section of Falls Church with homes dating before the 1940s. I don't think Annandale has anything like this unless there are a few original farmhouses from the days before the land was sold to developers. You see that in some parts of the county.

There is a small part of NW Vienna (Windover Heights) where many of the houses were built before WW II. Same is true for Herndon. Did I mention Windover Heights was a small part of Vienna? Anyone looking for a lot of bona fide "pre-WWII charm" is wasting their time in Vienna. And, as far as I know, there are even fewer pre-WWII properties in Annandale than in Vienna or Herndon.

There are quite a few houses being built today in neighborhoods in Arlington, Falls Church, McLean and Vienna in a Craftsman-like style that are intended to be reminiscent of homes from prior decades (with better appliances and more closet space, of course). But people who are only going to feel at home in a compact, intact pre-WW II neighborhood should save themselves the time and energy and stay out of Fairfax County and look instead at Falls Church City, Alexandria or Arlington (or, better yet, places like Evanston, IL, Shaker Heights, OH or Newton, MA). I don't know Fairfax City very well, but would be surprised if there was too much there to get excited about from a pre-WW II fan's perspective.