Gang Problems in Ashburn? (Arlington, Annandale: middle-class, apartment complexes, violent crime)

[momookie]

Hi-my family is considering moving to Northern Virginia in the next few years. Recently, we have been looking into Ashburn, which looks like a nice place to raise a family. However, I recently heard that there is a large gang presence in Ashburn and that there have been numerous problems with the MS-13 gang. Does anyone have any information regarding this issue?

[5stones]

Herndon some areas and Sterling yes.
Ashburn? not to my knowledge. maybe some spill over but nothing that has has made any big news in the last 2 years. Ashburn has less of a crime problem than even Leesburg.

Ashburn is very safe and has excellent schools and amenities. It's a planned community with shopping, schools, rec facilites, neighborhood pools etc mostly bulit in the last 20 years.

we live in Leesburg and I go to Ashburn all the time (my daughter plays tennis at the sports pav there) and I have never seen any potential problems...I don't think I even seen any grafitti there.

[dullnboring]

If you consider soccer moms sipping on frappuccinos with one hand as they spank their children with the other, to be members of a vicious street gang (which I do), then Ashburn is FILLED with them.

No, seriously, I just moved from Ashburn and there is no real gang problem to speak of. As a whole, the gang situation, with MS-13 in particular, is incredibly overblown by the media. It really isn't much of an issue anywhere in Northern Virginia outside of maybe one neighborhood in Bailey's Crossroads. In the rare instances when there is a violent incident, it is breathlessly covered by the media. There are people here and there involved, I'm sure even a few in Ashburn (I'm talking, out of a high school of around 1600, MAYBE 20 kids are somewhat involved in a gang, and probably very loosely involved in non-violent wannabe gangs at that) but there is little to no gang culture here. No graffiti, no large numbers of loitering men up to no good at shopping centers, no drive-bys, etc. Crime is very very low. You have nothing to fear. It's like every other Wisteria Lane suburb where there will always be a handful of bad apples but gangs likely pose no greater threat here than they do in any other upper-middle class suburb.

[MovefromFla]

Originally Posted by dullnboring

If you consider soccer moms sipping on frappuccinos with one hand as they spank their children with the other, to be members of a vicious street gang (which I do), then Ashburn is FILLED with them.

No, seriously, I just moved from Ashburn and there is no real gang problem to speak of. As a whole, the gang situation, with MS-13 in particular, is incredibly overblown by the media. It really isn't much of an issue anywhere in Northern Virginia outside of maybe one neighborhood in Bailey's Crossroads. In the rare instances when there is a violent incident, it is breathlessly covered by the media. There are people here and there involved, I'm sure even a few in Ashburn (I'm talking, out of a high school of around 1600, MAYBE 20 kids are somewhat involved in a gang, and probably very loosely involved in non-violent wannabe gangs at that) but there is little to no gang culture here. No graffiti, no large numbers of loitering men up to no good at shopping centers, no drive-bys, etc. Crime is very very low. You have nothing to fear. It's like every other Wisteria Lane suburb where there will always be a handful of bad apples but gangs likely pose no greater threat here than they do in any other upper-middle class suburb.

Thanks, Dullnboring..
I am glad you wrote the above mentioned. My husband and I are moving to Nova from South Florida and we were blown away by the "gang violence". However, my sisters, who currently live in Nova, explained to me that the media does exxagerate the gang violence.
Would you say that Woodbridge has a lot of gang violence?

[tenken627]

There is MS-13 in Northern Virginia, but you rarely hear about them as actual gang members make up so little out of the 2+ million people living in the area.

I don't know why people make such a big fuss about gangs in this area when there is so few gang crimes at all or even crime period. Northern Virginia is not East Los Angeles or Brooklyn.

[dullnboring]

Originally Posted by MovefromFla

Thanks, Dullnboring..
I am glad you wrote the above mentioned. My husband and I are moving to Nova from South Florida and we were blown away by the "gang violence". However, my sisters, who currently live in Nova, explained to me that the media does exxagerate the gang violence.
Would you say that Woodbridge has a lot of gang violence?

Nope. There is NO place in all of Northern Virginia that I would say has a lot of gang violence. There ARE areas with a higher gang PRESENCE (Bailey's Crossroads, Seven Corners, south Arlington, Lincolnia, etc.) but that doesn't necessarily translate to violence.

Here's the thing. Thus far, in spite of what the media says, if you're going to look strictly at numbers, MS-13 really has not engaged in many violent acts. Whenever they do, perhaps a handful of times a year in Northern Virginia, it is breathlessly covered by the media. The fact of the matter though is that their threat to the average citizen is incredibly low. The few murders and other violent crimes that have occurred over the years I believe have all involved people who were already affiliated with a gang. It's gang members going after their own. In the few instances where they have lashed out at non-gang members, their targets tend to be immigrant Latinos. I'm not saying that's a good thing by any means, but just saying that if you don't fit either of these two categories, you have little to fear.

The only part of Northern Virginia where I would say there is a visible gang presence that can be intimidating is in Culmore, a community of high-density apartment complexes in Bailey's Crossroads. Even there, violence is rare (petty crime is high though), but the gang presence is noticeable.

As far as Woodbridge is concerned, there are gang members there, just as there are in Ashburn and Culmore and Leesburg and Annandale and Manassas. Woodbridge does have a higher lower-income population than many other DC suburbs so there's likely more of a criminal element, both gang and non-gang related.

Originally Posted by tenken627

I don't know why people make such a big fuss about gangs in this area when there is so few gang crimes at all or even crime period. Northern Virginia is not East Los Angeles or Brooklyn.

I too have a difficult time understanding the paranoia about gangs in this region. Let me break it down for outsiders. I grew up middle-class in Fairfax County, and attended a well-regarded public high school where the majority of the student body was upper middle class. I'm sure there were kids who were in gangs at my school, but it's difficult to say for certain who's in a gang and who's just acting tough. At my high school, there were several kids who fit the MS-13 profile in terms of the shaved heads, the clothing, and the intimidating attitude. I didn't bother them and they didn't bother me. To me, they were no different than any other tough crowd in school. Just because they had this "gang" label to them (assuming that these guys even WERE MS-13), didn't make them any greater threat than the other random "bad crowds" at school that I avoided that were not affiliated with gangs but were known for being rough as individuals and groups. That's really the general situation in the area as a whole. There's gang members here but not nearly as many as the media would have you think, and they aren't running the streets like in South Central. I would worry about crime as a whole, but not let the added "gang" level increase your worries by all that much outside of the few communities I named earlier.

[mdcrim]

It's all about politics and money. Every so often, one of our elected officials gets money to fund the "Gang Task Force". Sounds more impressive than it is. Ashburn is suburbia, plain and simple. It's wonderful for families, has tons of amenities and plenty of shopping (if you don't like the Ashburn Home Depot, you could go to the 2 other Home Depots or the Lowes that are within a 10 mile radius). Same for the Targets-3 in a 10 mile radius. I have a friend whose teenager was threatened by someone who was trying to say he was affiliated with the Crips. The kid lived in a $450,000 townhouse and probably would have been killed if any real Crip ever got wind of his statements.

There is some gang activity in Sterling and Leesburg. They caught a few hundred MS-13 gang members at Algonkian Park in Sterling on videotape a few years ago, having one their meetings. The activity is more prevalant in Sterling than Leesburg but I would say it is almost nonexistant in Ashburn.

Hope my two cents helps.

[MovefromFla]

Thanks.. This helped a lot.. It is so hard when you are moving from another state to get a feel for the different areas..
Never mind adding the gang element to your fears....

[metclubin]

Hey DullnBoring,

In your post you mentioned about the presence of high gang violence in Lincolnia area, I believe zip code 22312. We are looking for a townhouse in that area this weekend. The exact location is exit 2A off 395 to Edsall Rd and first light right on bloomfield dr. Its a new community by Ryan Homes called Sullivan Place. Do you have any information about that community or that area in general?
I would like to know the trends in that area whether its getting better or its going down. Is buying a house will provide a good quality of life (safety, good schools, shopping, commute) and also ability to build equity in the house.

Please throw some light on what MS-13 gang means? Is it something attached to school or in general on street violence? What do you think about the crimes like burglary, property theft etc. in that area?

Awaiting your comments,
Thanks,

Met

[Yankeesfan]

The prime reason that we don't see a lot of gang violence is that the Fairfax County police and recent state Attorneys General have taken the matter very seriously and have kept it from escalating out of control. I'm very grateful for this.