Vienna vs. Falls Church (Arlington, Seven Corners: homes, neighborhood, schools)

[Ffxdata]

Originally Posted by leighland

I like FCC better than Vienna. Its more walkable. FCC is 2 sq miles and surrounds the Rt7 corridor. Vienna is spread out Both are family oriented. I know its really splitting hairs but IMO Vienna is a bit more McMansion Lexus suv status-y while
FCC is more NPR Volvo stationwagon types lol

Definitely this. FCC also is more liberal in general with the most liberal representative in the nation.

[Pub-911]

Yet "liberal" FCC has fallen victim to TEA Party propaganda and begun backing off on funding for its once excellent city school system.

And the place has come more and more under the thumb of developers. As small as it is, FCC cannot expand horizontally anymore, so it's trying to expand vertically instead. Could end up being a latter-day version of Ballston, but if the likes of Tinner Hill are an indicator, it's not really going all that well.

Vienna of course has issues of its own. How to avoid being gobbled up or paved over by Tysons expansions has to be an important one. But town government has championed the "small town feel" for quite a long time. I doubt they'll give that up easily.

[Hesky]

I personally love Vienna, but I think both areas are great.

Both have great schools, Falls Church HS is probably the only school in the area that I would personally avoid.

Vienna in my opinion has a more family-friendly, small-town feel, but that's of course just my opinion.

Falls Church is often more convenient for commuting into the city.

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by Pub-911

Could end up being a latter-day version of Ballston, but if the likes of Tinner Hill are an indicator, it's not really going all that well.

Can you explain to me what is going on with Tinner Hill please? I pass it weekly and it seems OK to me but I do not spend any time in that area.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by Hesky

I personally love Vienna, but I think both areas are great.

Falls Church HS is probably the only school in the area that I would personally avoid.

Falls Church HS is not in Falls Church City

Thats like saying Falls Church High School is in Bethesda Maryland or Vienna Virginia

[leighland]

Originally Posted by Old Guard

Can you explain to me what is going on with Tinner Hill please? I pass it weekly and it seems OK to me but I do not spend any time in that area.

This is a year old but has some info

[url]https://fcnp.com/2016/06/01/unconfirmed-report-fresh-market-tinner-hill-project/[/url]

Falls Church News Press is the newspaper for FCC and good to peruse for info on the area..

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by leighland

This is a year old but has some info

https://fcnp.com/2016/06/01/unconfir...-hill-project/

Falls Church News Press is the newspaper for FCC and good to peruse for info on the area..

Good info. Thank you.

[Spider93]

Falls Church City is quite progressive (Romney got less than 30% of the vote), so the notion that "tea party propaganda" is catching on here gives me a chuckle. The Falls Church News Press is progressive to the point of being hateful against conservatives.

My family likes FCC in spite of its politics and atrocious local paper. The schools have been great for our kids so far.
Vienna is a pleasant town, but I prefer the pre-World War II architecture, smaller lots, and closer-in location of FCC. The main drawbacks to FCC are probably traffic (probably no worse than nearby areas) and the ever-higher property taxes.

[lovemytoes]

I would go with Vienna for many reasons. Main reason being easy access
to route 29, route 50, i66, i495, Tyson's Corner mall and backroads (Lawyers Road)
to Reston. Most every street has sidewalks. Everyone says Vienna has a small town feel but just remember everyone is as high strung here as other places.

[Vacanegro]

Originally Posted by Mcomisky

My family is relocating to the D.C. area and we have narrowed our search down to Vienna or Falls Church (there was a similar post on here from 2009 but I wanted to see if anyone had any updates). It seems like both towns are very nice with Vienna having slightly better school rankings. We have a 10 year old, 8 year old and 1 year old. I am in sales and will have a territory mainly inside the495 loop and my husband will be taking the metro into the city.
I was just curious if anyone had any insight on the overall differences in the towns or the good and bad points of each. Thank you for any information!

I would recommend FC.

I think it has more character, is better connected (less traffic), better access to metro, greater variety of surrounding neighborhoods (uber expensive to affordable) and closer to both DC and Arlington both nice areas to visit.

Schools are about equal.