Small town feel in Northern Virginia? (Lynchburg, Winchester: house, neighborhood, schools)

[Deluusions]

Originally Posted by lovnova

If you're really that interested in my history. I have lived in Arlington, Falls Church, Bull Run Mountain Estates and McLean for a total of 57 years. Try to get that through your head. Where are you? China, Texas, Ohio, Canada, Rockville?

As far as very rude, some should take a good look in the mirror before accusing others.

Finally, you can have the last word. Cause I've noticed you like it be that way.

Lol where did you come up with China, Texas, Ohio, Canada and Rockville? Grow up right?

Some should take a look in the mirror? The only poster I've ever argued with is YOU in the NoVa forum besides dylanfurr but who hasn't with him. You've been fighting with NoVa posters before I even activated this account. Did you not just get called out by spencergr?

Yes, I like having that last word and good thing you noticed it

[lovnova]

Originally Posted by spencgr

Gee, and I thought you lived in Falls Church/ McLean for over 55+ years...but those are your words.

Yes they are my words, and I did for a little over 55 years of 57 in NoVa. So whats the point?

U and Illusions need to get up off the constant rude with people you don't agree with!

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by lovnova

U and Illusions need to get up off the constant rude with people you don't agree with!

What is rude is disparaging a town that you last knew 30-40 years ago. I live there today. I know what it is like today. Your knowledge is from the 70s and 80s. I wouldn't pretend to know areas I lived in 10 years ago. You don't know Middleburg.

Originally Posted by lovnova

Some people just don't know what they are talking about when it comes to Middleburg.

Look, I agree with you on something.

[Deluusions]

Originally Posted by lovnova

Yes they are my words, and I did for a little over 55 years of 57 in NoVa. So whats the point?

U and Illusions need to get up off the constant rude with people you don't agree with!

Why are you still here? Go back to HR forum and stop causing so much drama with every poster. You're not the victim.

[Off4Fun]

I've lived in NoVA for 10 years - I came here single and now am married with 3 kids. I know what you mean by small town feel and I don't think you'll find it in NoVA -I want to get out of here for that exact reason. It's rather impersonal, lots of chain stores and restaurants and more popping up every day because the independent places can't afford the rent (there are 5 empty spaces in the closest shopping area to me and all of them were independently owned, only the big chains remain, no character, no personal service), and with the exception of a few neighborhoods that I've yet to discover, there's relatively little true community feel although some of the individual events are nice - it doesn't equal small town feel. Everyone is too busy to be bothered with neighbors and the community.

I just want to mention since you said that you have one on the way that in addition to location you'll want to consider daycare costs (if you'll need daycare - they are exhorbinant in much of NoVA) so that's a good reason to stay further out. But if ether of you will be commuting to DC or Arlington your family life will suffer if you live too far west. I live ~20 miles west of DC and when my husband worked there he was gone for ~11-12 hours every day due to the commute. That's a lot of family time he missed with a baby and a lot of special things he missed at the school with the older one.

I made the mistake of buying a house and then the market tanked and we still can't sell it 8 years later and it's too small for a family of 5, so I'd recommend renting for a while until you know where you'd like to live.

All of that said, my favorite areas are those with charm (though none have a small town feel): Old Town Alexandria, Leesburg, and Fredericksburg.

Best wishes in finding a great place for yor family.

[FindingZen]

Going forward, avoiding personal attacks will maximize the life of this thread and minimize infractions.

[lovnova]

Originally Posted by spencgr

What is rude is disparaging a town that you last knew 30-40 years ago. I live there today. I know what it is like today. Your knowledge is from the 70s and 80s. I wouldn't pretend to know areas I lived in 10 years ago. You don't know Middleburg.



Look, I agree with you on something.

I see what you are saying but I doubt if things have progressed (backwards) in time to make it a STF today vs. back in the 70s and 80s. When I knew it.

[newnewsmama]

Purcellville.
Warrenton.

Winchester doesn't have any small town feel to me. It is a medium sized, working class city.

[LynchburgLover]

Originally Posted by newnewsmama

Purcellville.
Warrenton.

Winchester doesn't have any small town feel to me. It is a medium sized, working class city.

Winchester has a small town feel if you live in the Historic District/Meadow Branch areas that feed into John Kerr. And, that is a fairly large geographic area. It is very typical of a small Southern town. There is tremendous civic involvement -- city committees, Rotary, Churches, Blue Ridge Hospice, garden clubs, etc etc. and everyone gets to know everyone.

[SteelCityRising]

I think a distinction needs to be drawn between a neighborhood have a feeling of "small town intimacy" and an entire community having that same feeling.

For example, I've just perused this entire thread (including the childish back-and-forth borderline personal attacks from 50-somethings, but I digress) and saw Old Town categorized as having that "small town feel". Old Town is a NEIGHBORHOOD within Alexandria, a city of 150,000 people. Similarly, Del Ray is another neighborhood with a "small town feel" within that same large city. I'd never say "Alexandria has the small town feel you're looking for", but I WOULD say "parts of Alexandria have that small town feel you're looking for".

I grew up in a true "small town" in Pennsylvania and lived in Northern Virginia in 2009-2010. I moved back to Pennsylvania because the entire area overall didn't have that "small town feel" I was looking for, even though select pockets (often either affluent, distant, or BOTH) did. If something in Northern Virginia was designed to be relatively affordable to the middle-class masses, which I was a part of, then, most likely, it also felt cold, sterile, homogenized, and soulless. If something in Northern Virginia was designed either before the post-WWII suburban boom OR intentionally crafted to cater to affluent elites seeking an intimate lifestyle, then it had that "small town feel".

For example, I lived in Reston, which is always championed on this sub-forum as being heaven on Earth for reasons I have yet to determine. I lived in two separate neighborhoods within Reston---near Reston Town Center and North Reston---and, despite trying to make in-roads via volunteering and being sociable, never felt like I was truly "fitting in" or becoming "part of the community". I became very lonesome and despondent and moved, ironically, to a neighborhood of 1,300 souls on a rugged hillside adjacent to Downtown Pittsburgh, a city of 307,000 within a metropolitan area of 2.5 million, and feel like this place within walking distance to the hustle and bustle of the big city is more "intimate" and has more of a "small town feel" than any part of Reston ever did.

OP, I know what you're looking for. It DOES exist in NoVA; however, be prepared to shell out big bucks to make it happen OR be chained to your car with a long commute to make it happen. When I lived in Reston I'd drive all the way out to Winchester and spend a lot of time just strolling around Old Town to soak up some of that good old-fashioned hospitality and charm to medicate myself mentally. Although I lived walking distance to Reston's stretch of the Washington & Old Dominion Trail I'd often drive all the way out to the trailhead at Purcellville just because people on the trail seemed friendlier and returned my greetings and pleasantries as we passed one another while I was largely ignored by passersby on the Reston stretch because people are more stressed and don't care as much to be polite to strangers.

What I noticed in Northern Virginia, too, is that unfortunately MOST of the TRUE "small towns" are very sprawl-threatened due to inept county officials and poor long-range urban planning guidelines. Leesburg years ago was probably quite charming. Now it's an oasis of a gorgeous historic district surrounded by seas of unsightly McMansions housing 50,000 people all spilling out onto very wide and very congested roadways linking them to big-box stores and strip malls. Winchester proper remains one of the best small cities I ever enjoyed while living in NoVA; however, surrounding Frederick County is absolutely exploding in sprawl now. Even Berryville, Purcellville, and Round Hill are all being gradually enshrouded by tacky tract housing developments---sort of like picking up elements of inner-NoVA and plopping them down all around the cores of these quaint communities, making them more congested and less appealing in the process in the long-run.

This country at-large has no clue about urban planning. Many areas are building faux "lifestyle centers" to replicate the Main Streets that no longer exist due to decades of short-sightedness as people once again return to seeking places that have a sense of place---not driving in an SUV from box store to box store in a power center while you listen to Kenny Chesney. Brambleton, although it feels a bit sanitized and creepy, is a great example of RESPONSIBLE new development designed to foster greater social interaction among residents and walkability, too. Otherwise I still left NoVA just thinking to myself, overall, "How could urban planners let that happen?!" In terms of those "sprawl-threatened small towns", such as Purcellville, why couldn't the existing laid-out street grid simply be extended/expanding to promote urban continuity instead of leaving the streets dead-ended as adjacent properties were turned into dueling cul-de-sacs galore? What is the appeal of a cul-de-sac, anyways, as all they do is impede walkability?