does anyone else hate it here? (for rent, condos, how much)
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JEB, a couple of the things you said were downright inaccurate, and I'd appreciate it if you and some of the other "holier than thou" NoVA forum members would double-check your sources and references sometimes before making such bold statements. An example of this would be to imply that I recently stated that "Falls Church = Tijuana." I NEVER said that, and I take offense to people like you tarnishing my credibility and reputation with downright LIES, as this is not the first time you or others have tried to portray me as a racist in order to get your way. Show me where I made a remark towards Falls Church that compared it to Tijuana. Show me. Au contraire I recently said that I was in Falls Church for a concert at the State Theatre and really enjoyed my visit to the city. Some on the popular Restonian blog jokingly reference Tyson's Corner as "Tegucigalpa," but it has more to do with using satire to poke fun at our county's poor excuse of a downtown and NOTHING to do with flaring racial tensions.
The "Daily Whine?" Really? Would you rather the NovA sub-forum be dominated by the "puppies here crap ice cream" well-to-do housewives crowd so that MORE people like me move here thinking the area has a good quality-of-life for young singles only to find out it was all a farce? I'm going to continue to offer my insights into Fairfax County life, and just because I'm not adoring every blade of grass (or cul-de-sac lined by drab houses) contained therein doesn't mean I lack any sort of credibility. "Oh no! If someone speaks out against the almighty Fairfax County in a widely-publicized forum then our housing values might drop! Better eliminate the threat!"
I'm not just going to "fall into rank." I'll continue to offer helpful advice and insight to those who request it. I've actually CHAMPIONED Reston in a few replies lately to people with children for its great recreational amenities, above-average public schools, etc., but I can't in good faith recommend it as being a good place to live for fellow young single professionals. I refuse to deceive others into making the same misake that I did by moving here. I'm not going to "sugar coat" things. If you don't wish to see what I have to say, then do me a favor and put me on "ignore."
ScranBarre would have a bit more credibility when he decries the lack of diversity in area neighborhoods if he didn't get quite so agitated every time he came across Hispanics in Sterling, Herndon and Falls Church (which he compared to Tijuana in a recent post on the NoVa forum).
The ONLY time I got into some racial "heat" was when I complained that my very long wait at the Sterling Park DMV was largely attributed to the many Hispanic individuals in front of me in the line that snaked out the building who didn't understand what a social security number or request for identification were. If they hadn't been holding up the line, the rest of us who were prepared could have been in and out in HALF the time. That was IT. How is it "racist" of me to complain that there was no valid reason as to why I was standing in line for over an hour behind people who could have been and should have been better prepared BEFORE getting in line? I also was accused of inventing the name "Herndondez" to make fun of Herndon by FromVAtoNC, but I NEVER did that. Yes, I typed it once or twice, but that was when I was saying I've heard OTHERS say the name "Herndondez", NOT MYSELF. It's funny, actually, the way many of you NoVA forum people grab at straws and exaggerate as a means to try to plead your cases.
21 years later, I'm still making adjustments in Washington, not excuses or making sterotypical remarks about people (groups) a part of my life manual. Who cares as long as my house is in order. Its a waist of energy.
So you're 42 and still sacrificing and making "adjustments" in order to try to live here? While you're perfectly fine and free to be doing this that's part of what irks me about this place. By your age you should be living VERY comfortably and be nearing the peak of your earning potential, and your years of hard work should have paid off by now. It's not "normal" for someone of your age to still be compromising in order to try to make the city work for you, nor is it "normal" for my supervisor, who is also around your age, to be relegated to living with her sister in an apartment in the suburbs, even though she earns twice what I do. Why do so many (pardon my language) willingly "bend over and take it" for decades when there are so many other cities that offer comparable amenities for a fraction of the cost-of-living with salaries that, while lower, are more often than not BETTER with the cost-of-living differential taken into consideration. I'm not necessarily citing ONLY Pittsburgh as an example either.
JEB, a couple of the things you said were downright inaccurate, and I'd appreciate it if you and some of the other "holier than thou" NoVA forum members would double-check your sources and references sometimes before making such bold statements. An example of this would be to imply that I recently stated that "Falls Church = Tijuana." I NEVER said that, and I take offense to people like you tarnishing my credibility and reputation with downright LIES, as this is not the first time you or others have tried to portray me as a racist in order to get your way. Show me where I made a remark towards Falls Church that compared it to Tijuana. Show me. Au contraire I recently said that I was in Falls Church for a concert at the State Theatre and really enjoyed my visit to the city. Some on the popular Restonian blog jokingly reference Tyson's Corner as "Tegucigalpa," but it has more to do with using satire to poke fun at our county's poor excuse of a downtown and NOTHING to do with flaring racial tensions.
Here you go (FYI - Route 50 goes through Falls Church, not Annandale, and the areas in question aren't rotting). I'd recommend Mount Pleasant in DC - a great place for those in their 20s - to you as an alternative to Reston with the type of architecture you're seeking, but you'd probably say the same thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScranBarre
In other words a lot of people are okay with letting the area go downhill in the coming years? Not all of us come to NoVA just to "take the money and run." I still haven't 100% ruled out the possibility as of yet of planting down roots here permanently, raising a family, and becoming a very good citizen here, which is why I get so ANGRY during my weekly country runs when I see more trees coming down out in Loudoun County for more McMansions that will put more SUVs on my bumper along Route 7 while I drove recently along a stretch of Route 50 through Annandale that looked like Tijuana. If many of the current existing "built-up" parts of NoVA are NOT being fully realized to their fullest potential, then why not start there first before automatically increasing the footprint of the area? Why not focus first on brownfield redevelopment instead of letting these areas sit and rot?
Stephen81 - another smart post. I think when Scran keeps emphasizing that he wants to live among "down-to-earth" people, he really means he wants to be back among white (and perhaps a few black) middle class residents. People with more money get under his skin, so he pretends that all the women are SUV-driving, latte-sipping soccer moms living in McMansions on cul-de-sacs, and people with less money are intimidating Hispanics who've turned Herndon into "Hernondez" and led him to compare Falls Church to Tijuana. The irony is that, in stereotyping our region and its residents, he's living up to the stereotype that others have of middle-class whites from small towns and cities in PA and other states - they are "real people" who are the victims of all the bad decisions made by everyone else (in particular, by people living in DC or NYC). They are as friendly and "down-to-earth" as you could hope for - so long as your values, politics and favorite sports teams are the same as theirs. They aren't always too keen on gay rights - but they do have sidewalks!!
You are right to note that Baileys is obviously very different from Great Falls, but the kids from Culmore/Baileys go to school with wealthy kids from Lake Barcroft in Falls Church (OTOH, the kids from Great Falls go to schools with more wealthy kids from McLean and North Reston, but that's another story). The same mixing and integration takes place in the schools in Central Arlington as well. In a lot of areas with town-based schools, you wouldn't get that integration at all - there would just be the wealthy school district and its considerably poorer neighbor, as is often the case in the NY/NJ schools...
Once again if you're not going to verify your assertions with evidence of my blatant racism I'm going to report your posts. Show me where I said "Falls Church = Tijuana" recently. Show me where I coined the term "Herndondez" vs. the one or two replies many months ago where I typed that and said I "had heard other people use that name for Herndon..." Show me all of the other examples in which you are trying to tell others I'm a racist.
I'll stand by my "SUV/cul-de-sac/McMansion/Starbuck's/big-box-store/chain restaurant" comments because that IS the reality of the lifestyle for a GOOD CHUNK of Northern Virginia (save for Arlington/Alexandria), and there IS a disgusting level of materialism here. By "down-to-earth" I do NOT mean "white." I mean I want to live amongst people who don't all drive SUVs or luxury cars, brag about expensive foreign trips, shop at designer clothing stores, wear sunglasses at bars, have braggart-like bumper stickers about their children all over their minivans/SUVs, etc., etc. If you are going to put the blinders on and pretend these sorts of things don't exist in Fairfax/Loudoun Counties, then by all means prove me wrong.
Yes. I remember saying that about Annandale (which I later found out was unincorporated Falls Church), but I also remember why I posted what I did. It had NOTHING to do with racism, and I'd thank you in advance to once again NOT grab at straws to try to defame me in that way. At the time I didn't even realize it was a minority-dominated area. I had just driven through it, and I was commenting on the type of urban development in that area as being mostly one-story, lots of surface parking, abandoned buildings, billboards, etc.---not at all unlike a Mexican border city like Tijuana (or to be fair even inner-city Detroit neighborhoods, but if I had said that people would have assumed I was pouncing upon African-Americans too, right?) Perhaps so the racially-sensitive types like you wouldn't say "A-ha! I found me a racist!" I should have instead said "it was ugly" or something more appropriate. A city that was sprawling, low-density, and didn't have much charm could have been any number of examples, and Tijuana was just the first that popped into my head. In hindsight I should have made it more clear I wasn't poking fun at the community's minority-dominated residents but rather questioning the lack of redevelopment of the unattractive built environment. If that area was 95% Caucasian I still would have said "it resembled Tijuana" without a second thought.
The point of that argument was to provide examples of the MANY areas in Fairfax County in sore need of redevelopment and infill while trees are still coming down left and right at the suburban periphery for MORE buildings and homes.
To say DC has nothing for 20-somethings to do is a pretty outlandish statement. I can't imagine a better city to be and educated young professional in your twenties.
And I'm not sure what your gripe is with the attitude. People go to places like DC, NY, and LA to work in the upper echelons of their fields. Of course there's going to be an attitude that down-to-earth Pittsburgh hasn't been since the industrial revolution. And, I can assure you, back when the upper Midwestern cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, etc... were running the global economy, you had the same attitudes there. They've just been humbled as economies have moved.
As I mentioned elsewhere, just look at how Baltimore used to be the place everybody flocked to and DC was a backwater joke. If you can't handle living in an epicenter of global political power, then perhaps Pitt would be better.
So you're making excuses for "the attitude?" Why? Wouldn't it be better to try to knock the smugness and self-righteousness down a few levels to encourage more humility? Is your argument essentially "In its Industrial-era heyday Pittsburgh was successful and smug about it, so now it's DC's turn?" If so, then why? Ever hear the old adage "two wrongs don't make a right?" I've also noticed that you are the third or fourth person on this forum that has attempted to tout DC as the world's most dominant and superior city. Nobody likes a braggart; people get rubbed the wrong way, especially people like me who do NOT agree that DC is an unrivaled global superpower. There are many, many, MANY cities that are just as important on a global scale as DC (New York City, London, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Madrid, etc.)
That last sentence takes the cake. Nice way to politely and clandestinely say "Pittsburgh sucks."
Yes. I remember saying that about Annandale (which I later found out was unincorporated Falls Church), but I also remember why I posted what I did. It had NOTHING to do with racism, and I'd thank you in advance to once again NOT grab at straws to try to defame me in that way. At the time I didn't even realize it was a minority-dominated area. I had just driven through it, and I was commenting on the type of urban development in that area as being mostly one-story, lots of surface parking, abandoned buildings, billboards, etc.---not at all unlike a Mexican border city like Tijuana (or to be fair even inner-city Detroit neighborhoods, but if I had said that people would have assumed I was pouncing upon African-Americans too, right?) Perhaps so the racially-sensitive types like you wouldn't say "A-ha! I found me a racist!" I should have instead said "it was ugly" or something more appropriate. A city that was sprawling, low-density, and didn't have much charm could have been any number of examples, and Tijuana was just the first that popped into my head. In hindsight I should have made it more clear I wasn't poking fun at the community's minority-dominated residents but rather questioning the lack of redevelopment of the unattractive built environment. If that area was 95% Caucasian I still would have said "it resembled Tijuana" without a second thought.
The point of that argument was to provide examples of the MANY areas in Fairfax County in sore need of redevelopment and infill while trees are still coming down left and right at the suburban periphery for MORE buildings and homes.
There are minorities living in that area; whether it is "minority-dominated" is a different question. It may just be diverse, as is the case in a lot of neighborhoods in NoVa, but that doesn't mean "minority-dominated." It could just mean there is no majority ethnicity.
Not many billboards on that stretch (try Phoenix or Florida if you want to see a lot of billboards); while there may be some vacant retail space, there aren't many "abandoned buildings" and the adjacent neighborhoods are densely settled with few, if any, abandoned properties. Pittsburgh, for its other charms, has far more abandoned properties that anything you'll come across in NoVa.
Ironically, if you'd opened your eyes, you'd have found that this stretch of Route 50 has wonderful (and affordable) family-owned restaurants, including Vietnamese, Thai and Central American restaurants. You frequently complain about NoVa being overrun with chain restaurants, but when you drive through an area that doesn't have a Macaroni Grill or an Olive Garden, you want to clear it for "redevelopment and infill"?
So you're 42 and still sacrificing and making "adjustments" in order to try to live here? While you're perfectly fine and free to be doing this that's part of what irks me about this place. By your age you should be living VERY comfortably and be nearing the peak of your earning potential, and your years of hard work should have paid off by now. It's not "normal" for someone of your age to still be compromising in order to try to make the city work for you, nor is it "normal" for my supervisor, who is also around your age, to be relegated to living with her sister in an apartment in the suburbs, even though she earns twice what I do. Why do so many (pardon my language) willingly "bend over and take it" for decades when there are so many other cities that offer comparable amenities for a fraction of the cost-of-living with salaries that, while lower, are more often than not BETTER with the cost-of-living differential taken into consideration. I'm not necessarily citing ONLY Pittsburgh as an example either.
Unless you've been under a rock for the last 2 years or your parents are footing your bills we are in a recession. Hello! The bottom fell out of our economy making the norm, not so norm, therefor uncharted waters are are causing many americans to make adjustments in their lives. You haven't heard? I'm not making adjustments to live Washington, I'm making adjustments to keep what I have.
Supervisor? I am my own boss and have been for the last 7 years and its rough. I mean rough! Adjustments are needed to keep the doors open.
How can one peak at 42? Are you serious? You must be kinda young. Life isn't a college course you take young fella. Its actually on the job/life training and at any given time their may be an array of adjusments needed to succeed, stay afloat, keep what you have, make friends, buy a home, etc. I nor you were given a fine print briefing re: the future. I bought a home in Silver Spring, md in 1998 and opened a business in 2001. Should I be satisfied at 41? Yeah, right. I'm not not even close to my peak. I'll be making adjustments for the rest of my life because it will be necessary when econ is good/bad to stay afloat and provide for ones family. You will learn this too young fella once you become of age, marry a beautiful women and raise kids. Its not all about you! Right now you seem to be living gun-hoe with minimal responsiblities. You willl learn young fella.
So you're making excuses for "the attitude?" Why? Wouldn't it be better to try to knock the smugness and self-righteousness down a few levels to encourage more humility? Is your argument essentially "In its Industrial-era heyday Pittsburgh was successful and smug about it, so now it's DC's turn?" If so, then why? Ever hear the old adage "two wrongs don't make a right?" I've also noticed that you are the third or fourth person on this forum that has attempted to tout DC as the world's most dominant and superior city. Nobody likes a braggart; people get rubbed the wrong way, especially people like me who do NOT agree that DC is an unrivaled global superpower. There are many, many, MANY cities that are just as important on a global scale as DC (New York City, London, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Madrid, etc.)
That last sentence takes the cake. Nice way to politely and clandestinely say "Pittsburgh sucks."
Wow. I suspect you're very young and not yet clear on the world around you.
1. To say DC is the most powerful political city is a fact, far from saying it's "the most dominant and superior city". Don't put words in my mouth. Just like people go to NY for finance and fashion and LA for entertainment, people go to DC for politics. Nobody EVER claimed what you claimed.
2. What is so great about being humble? No one should look down on others, but self-confidence is a valued asset to society. People who have worked hard to go to the best schools and build careers that influence the world should not have to placate you.
3. I never said Pittsburgh sucks. I actually love Pitt and see it as a model of rust belt revitalization. But it's not an epicenter of global power. That's simply a fact, not a judgment. People are not flocking there to make a difference in the world.
4. Someone quoted you making the Tijuana statement, then you threatened to report them for not citing something more recent? I don't think I understand how you think.
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Perhaps so the racially-sensitive types like you wouldn't say "A-ha! I found me a racist!" I should have instead said "it was ugly" or something more appropriate. A city that was sprawling, low-density, and didn't have much charm could have been any number of examples, and Tijuana was just the first that popped into my head. In hindsight I should have made it more clear I wasn't poking fun at the community's minority-dominated residents but rather questioning the lack of redevelopment of the unattractive built environment. If that area was 95% Caucasian I still would have said "it resembled Tijuana" without a second thought. 
I don't think I understand how you think.
