Any other Alexandrians heartbroken about ACPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I keep noticing posters writing about the Old Town lifestyle. As someone who does not live there, what is so special about it? That makes it somehow more special than the a walkable downtown with many small businesses and restaurants? Yes, the buildings are very pretty, but other than the aesthetics, what else makes up this "old town lifetstyle" and I am not a troll asking to be a jerk.

It's perfect setting for when you're coupled up and ready to end the night before midnight. Also, it's walkable like downtown but significantly less crime or homeless people bothering you. Not sure what you mean about small businesses in DC as I remember downtown being nothing but chain restaurants and stores.

As a family that has lived around the world and the country - Alexandria is a special place outside of old town. In our north ridge neighborhood, kids run barefoot from house to house excitedly showing new dance moves or toys. Neighbors watch your dog and hide your keys. Teens meet up with friends from school while walking the dog or hanging out at the neighborhood school playground with kids from all backgrounds

So the fact that our schools are failing us and our kids hits a particular nerve because the potential is astronomical. Alexandria is a mere couple miles from downtown dc and incredibly diverse and offers our kids the potential to be an everlasting place to call home. Parents stay because they see the potential....

I live in north ridge too. This is how things look on the surface. But if you've every stood up and disagreed on anything that the city or ACPS is doing...the toxic AWFLs will come out, direct their kids to bully yours, call you a racist and pat themselves on the back for doing it. All while sticking a "Kindness" sign on their front lawns. It's a toxic, tribal bubble. Keep quiet and keep supporting the establishment so that it never happens to you. And so that nothing every changes in the city or at ACPS. There are a lot of bullies and cowards in our neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Time to grow up and move out of Old Town and Del Ray. You won’t miss it nearly as much as you think you will.

"Grow up?" What a spiteful recommendation. You may not share the values of people who live here including walkability and sense of community. It's a rare thing in this area.

My sense of community was destroyed by Alexandria and ACPS. If you go along to get along, don't complain and follow the orders of the political establishment, you can enjoy the illusion of community. Trying speaking out against ACPS and the establishment. There is no community here just like there is no open mindedness.

I'm OP and I have read and considered all the responses here. I completely understand what you mean PP... the very few times I've spoken out against ACPS leadership I've been met with cult-like disdain. It is, I realize, eroding my sense of community. With some thought I don't think I'll miss this aspect of living here at all.

Cult-like is a perfect description. I used to be very involved in ACPS and events across the city. I regret the time, it was totally wasted.

Sorry to hear that (OP again). What motivates these people to behave the way they do? Is it really as simple as they benefit from being UMC and white and don't want that to change, lest it threaten their kid's position/rank in school?

NP. I think these people have a lot invested in convincing themselves staying in ACPS is the right thing and the choices they’ve made to date are valid. Calling it out would be calling out their own choices as parents on some level.

They also value things like the brand of car they drive and lots of pricey vacations over their kids' education and safety. You can't post pictures of your kid not going to the bathroom all day because of violence or the metal detectors in their school but you sure can post pictures of the vacation you took to Europe or wherever. And scream at anyone who raises safety and education issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I keep noticing posters writing about the Old Town lifestyle. As someone who does not live there, what is so special about it? That makes it somehow more special than the a walkable downtown with many small businesses and restaurants? Yes, the buildings are very pretty, but other than the aesthetics, what else makes up this "old town lifetstyle" and I am not a troll asking to be a jerk.

It's perfect setting for when you're coupled up and ready to end the night before midnight. Also, it's walkable like downtown but significantly less crime or homeless people bothering you. Not sure what you mean about small businesses in DC as I remember downtown being nothing but chain restaurants and stores.

As a family that has lived around the world and the country - Alexandria is a special place outside of old town. In our north ridge neighborhood, kids run barefoot from house to house excitedly showing new dance moves or toys. Neighbors watch your dog and hide your keys. Teens meet up with friends from school while walking the dog or hanging out at the neighborhood school playground with kids from all backgrounds

So the fact that our schools are failing us and our kids hits a particular nerve because the potential is astronomical. Alexandria is a mere couple miles from downtown dc and incredibly diverse and offers our kids the potential to be an everlasting place to call home. Parents stay because they see the potential....

This is what a PP was talking about a couple pages back. People convincing themselves they've found the one place on earth where these things go on. It's genuinely nuts. I also live in Arlington and all the things you are talking about happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I keep noticing posters writing about the Old Town lifestyle. As someone who does not live there, what is so special about it? That makes it somehow more special than the a walkable downtown with many small businesses and restaurants? Yes, the buildings are very pretty, but other than the aesthetics, what else makes up this "old town lifetstyle" and I am not a troll asking to be a jerk.

It's perfect setting for when you're coupled up and ready to end the night before midnight. Also, it's walkable like downtown but significantly less crime or homeless people bothering you. Not sure what you mean about small businesses in DC as I remember downtown being nothing but chain restaurants and stores.

As a family that has lived around the world and the country - Alexandria is a special place outside of old town. In our north ridge neighborhood, kids run barefoot from house to house excitedly showing new dance moves or toys. Neighbors watch your dog and hide your keys. Teens meet up with friends from school while walking the dog or hanging out at the neighborhood school playground with kids from all backgrounds

So the fact that our schools are failing us and our kids hits a particular nerve because the potential is astronomical. Alexandria is a mere couple miles from downtown dc and incredibly diverse and offers our kids the potential to be an everlasting place to call home. Parents stay because they see the potential....

I have all those things in my neighborhood in Arlington and only a few families in our neighborhood go to private school - all of them for religious reasons.

I was about to post the same about Vienna. It describes here too, except a little farther from downtown DC.

I'm an ACPS parent who would love to move to Vienna (or Arlington) but am priced out. We are middle class, on the low end, and cannot afford private school and feel stuck here.

[Anonymous]

I live in Rosemont with high schoolers. Our neighborhood elementary is Brooks. When our kids were in preschool, so many neighborhood parents were so smug about how they were supporting ACPS, that people who send their kids to private are "bad for the system", etc. They were often very rude and aggressive, in particular a few parents were systematic about calling people out for no reason and without being provoked. It was terrible.

We toured Brooks, but for our own person reasons went private. These people couldn't stand it. My decision had nothing to do with their decisions, their families, etc. We never discussed it in social settings, but several people would laser in on us and our educational decisions. It was beyond bizarre. And their children started repeating things they obviously heard their own parents say to our children, essentially bullying them (only dumb kids go to private, you're just a spoiled rich kid, you're gross, private schools are for losers, etc)

Then enter covid. Suddenly, some of these same parents start sending their kids to Catholic, private or boarding school. The ones who just a few years ago wouldn't shut up and took every opportunity to shame us and others. And the ones that kept their kids in ACPS (with the at home school pods, private tutors, etc) double downed and dug in their heels about how amazing ACPS, that their kids never see any fights, that their kids don't know anything about gangs, that their kids are doing great in all their self selected honors classes, that only fools and racists pull their kids from ACPS.

Those nut job parents are still here. They have those kindness or hate is not welcome (and one had a BLM garland in their window similar to a happy birthday garland), but yet they're not acknowledging any of the serious issues at ACPS because they keep their kids segregated from it. They are the biggest hypocrits and rudest people in the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I keep noticing posters writing about the Old Town lifestyle. As someone who does not live there, what is so special about it? That makes it somehow more special than the a walkable downtown with many small businesses and restaurants? Yes, the buildings are very pretty, but other than the aesthetics, what else makes up this "old town lifetstyle" and I am not a troll asking to be a jerk.

It's perfect setting for when you're coupled up and ready to end the night before midnight. Also, it's walkable like downtown but significantly less crime or homeless people bothering you. Not sure what you mean about small businesses in DC as I remember downtown being nothing but chain restaurants and stores.

As a family that has lived around the world and the country - Alexandria is a special place outside of old town. In our north ridge neighborhood, kids run barefoot from house to house excitedly showing new dance moves or toys. Neighbors watch your dog and hide your keys. Teens meet up with friends from school while walking the dog or hanging out at the neighborhood school playground with kids from all backgrounds

So the fact that our schools are failing us and our kids hits a particular nerve because the potential is astronomical. Alexandria is a mere couple miles from downtown dc and incredibly diverse and offers our kids the potential to be an everlasting place to call home. Parents stay because they see the potential....

I have all those things in my neighborhood in Arlington and only a few families in our neighborhood go to private school - all of them for religious reasons.

I was about to post the same about Vienna. It describes here too, except a little farther from downtown DC.

I'm an ACPS parent who would love to move to Vienna (or Arlington) but am priced out. We are middle class, on the low end, and cannot afford private school and feel stuck here.

People that are going on about North Ridge, Old Town, Del Ray, Rosemont, etc. Not any cheaper than Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, I keep noticing posters writing about the Old Town lifestyle. As someone who does not live there, what is so special about it? That makes it somehow more special than the a walkable downtown with many small businesses and restaurants? Yes, the buildings are very pretty, but other than the aesthetics, what else makes up this "old town lifetstyle" and I am not a troll asking to be a jerk.

Walkability and transportation in a historic neighborhood older than the District. It’s regularly on the same lists as Charleston, Savannah, (and Annapolis and Boston - because they’re all the same).

Some homes are from the 1700s. Most are from the late 1800s and early 1990s. This is same time period as most of Europe. So while Alexandria is not European (and not all Europeans live like this either), aspects are.

Relevant to Old Town, Alexandria, and schools (which do suck), there’s a reason and it is code when someone says they grew up in Alexandria (better schools) but actually lived in Fairfax County (not actually Alexandria).

You could argue Georgetown is more iconic, almost as old, and definitely more expensive, but DCPS is even worse and it is less quaint.

Arlington has the same economy, access, and better (not failing) schools, but without most of the history.

So if you live in Old Town, you prioritize what it has to offer, and it’s not schools. Or rather you accept that you need to send your children to private, which most Old Town families do at some point (or move).

The ACPS apologists and hypocrites live elsewhere. Starting with Del Ray.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I keep noticing posters writing about the Old Town lifestyle. As someone who does not live there, what is so special about it? That makes it somehow more special than the a walkable downtown with many small businesses and restaurants? Yes, the buildings are very pretty, but other than the aesthetics, what else makes up this "old town lifetstyle" and I am not a troll asking to be a jerk.

It's perfect setting for when you're coupled up and ready to end the night before midnight. Also, it's walkable like downtown but significantly less crime or homeless people bothering you. Not sure what you mean about small businesses in DC as I remember downtown being nothing but chain restaurants and stores.

As a family that has lived around the world and the country - Alexandria is a special place outside of old town. In our north ridge neighborhood, kids run barefoot from house to house excitedly showing new dance moves or toys. Neighbors watch your dog and hide your keys. Teens meet up with friends from school while walking the dog or hanging out at the neighborhood school playground with kids from all backgrounds

So the fact that our schools are failing us and our kids hits a particular nerve because the potential is astronomical. Alexandria is a mere couple miles from downtown dc and incredibly diverse and offers our kids the potential to be an everlasting place to call home. Parents stay because they see the potential....

I have all those things in my neighborhood in Arlington and only a few families in our neighborhood go to private school - all of them for religious reasons.

I was about to post the same about Vienna. It describes here too, except a little farther from downtown DC.

I'm an ACPS parent who would love to move to Vienna (or Arlington) but am priced out. We are middle class, on the low end, and cannot afford private school and feel stuck here.

People that are going on about North Ridge, Old Town, Del Ray, Rosemont, etc. Not any cheaper than Arlington.

Middle class PP here. We live in one of those, but we don't have the HHI/DTI to support buying a place in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Rosemont with high schoolers. Our neighborhood elementary is Brooks. When our kids were in preschool, so many neighborhood parents were so smug about how they were supporting ACPS, that people who send their kids to private are "bad for the system", etc. They were often very rude and aggressive, in particular a few parents were systematic about calling people out for no reason and without being provoked. It was terrible.

We toured Brooks, but for our own person reasons went private. These people couldn't stand it. My decision had nothing to do with their decisions, their families, etc. We never discussed it in social settings, but several people would laser in on us and our educational decisions. It was beyond bizarre. And their children started repeating things they obviously heard their own parents say to our children, essentially bullying them (only dumb kids go to private, you're just a spoiled rich kid, you're gross, private schools are for losers, etc)

Then enter covid. Suddenly, some of these same parents start sending their kids to Catholic, private or boarding school. The ones who just a few years ago wouldn't shut up and took every opportunity to shame us and others. And the ones that kept their kids in ACPS (with the at home school pods, private tutors, etc) double downed and dug in their heels about how amazing ACPS, that their kids never see any fights, that their kids don't know anything about gangs, that their kids are doing great in all their self selected honors classes, that only fools and racists pull their kids from ACPS.

Those nut job parents are still here. They have those kindness or hate is not welcome (and one had a BLM garland in their window similar to a happy birthday garland), but yet they're not acknowledging any of the serious issues at ACPS because they keep their kids segregated from it. They are the biggest hypocrits and rudest people in the neighborhood.

+1000 you just described north ridge and the george mason "community".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I keep noticing posters writing about the Old Town lifestyle. As someone who does not live there, what is so special about it? That makes it somehow more special than the a walkable downtown with many small businesses and restaurants? Yes, the buildings are very pretty, but other than the aesthetics, what else makes up this "old town lifetstyle" and I am not a troll asking to be a jerk.

It's perfect setting for when you're coupled up and ready to end the night before midnight. Also, it's walkable like downtown but significantly less crime or homeless people bothering you. Not sure what you mean about small businesses in DC as I remember downtown being nothing but chain restaurants and stores.

As a family that has lived around the world and the country - Alexandria is a special place outside of old town. In our north ridge neighborhood, kids run barefoot from house to house excitedly showing new dance moves or toys. Neighbors watch your dog and hide your keys. Teens meet up with friends from school while walking the dog or hanging out at the neighborhood school playground with kids from all backgrounds

So the fact that our schools are failing us and our kids hits a particular nerve because the potential is astronomical. Alexandria is a mere couple miles from downtown dc and incredibly diverse and offers our kids the potential to be an everlasting place to call home. Parents stay because they see the potential....

I have all those things in my neighborhood in Arlington and only a few families in our neighborhood go to private school - all of them for religious reasons.

I was about to post the same about Vienna. It describes here too, except a little farther from downtown DC.

I'm an ACPS parent who would love to move to Vienna (or Arlington) but am priced out. We are middle class, on the low end, and cannot afford private school and feel stuck here.

People that are going on about North Ridge, Old Town, Del Ray, Rosemont, etc. Not any cheaper than Arlington.

Middle class PP here. We live in one of those, but we don't have the HHI/DTI to support buying a place in Arlington.

+1 we rent in Arlington, could afford something in Alexandria but won’t send our kid to the schools

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I find the posts on this site about people being bullied or questioned by other families to be not at all consistent with our experience. To be clear, I am not at happy with ACPS and think it is a mess, and am pretty open about that. However, due to our custody arrangement, religion, financial reasons, and my child's limited acceptances to independent schools within a reasonable commute, here we are. Maybe I'm just not social with the type of parents who would care if someone wasn't satisfied with ACPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I keep noticing posters writing about the Old Town lifestyle. As someone who does not live there, what is so special about it? That makes it somehow more special than the a walkable downtown with many small businesses and restaurants? Yes, the buildings are very pretty, but other than the aesthetics, what else makes up this "old town lifetstyle" and I am not a troll asking to be a jerk.

Walkability and transportation in a historic neighborhood older than the District. It’s regularly on the same lists as Charleston, Savannah, (and Annapolis and Boston - because they’re all the same).

Some homes are from the 1700s. Most are from the late 1800s and early 1990s. This is same time period as most of Europe. So while Alexandria is not European (and not all Europeans live like this either), aspects are.

Relevant to Old Town, Alexandria, and schools (which do suck), there’s a reason and it is code when someone says they grew up in Alexandria (better schools) but actually lived in Fairfax County (not actually Alexandria).

You could argue Georgetown is more iconic, almost as old, and definitely more expensive, but DCPS is even worse and it is less quaint.

Arlington has the same economy, access, and better (not failing) schools, but without most of the history.

So if you live in Old Town, you prioritize what it has to offer, and it’s not schools. Or rather you accept that you need to send your children to private, which most Old Town families do at some point (or move).

The ACPS apologists and hypocrites live elsewhere. Starting with Del Ray.

That’s because Arlington was the rural county portion of Alexandria. Arlington was in fact called Alexandria County. Just like how there is a historic Fairfax City and Fairfax County.

The oldest parts of Arlington (as Alexandria County) were developed in the early 1900s along the electric trolley routes. There are some individual homes that date to the 1700s and 1800s but they were farmhouses.

Lots of Arlington families enjoy proximity to Old Town. It is a beautiful part of Alexandria we can all be proud of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Time to grow up and move out of Old Town and Del Ray. You won’t miss it nearly as much as you think you will.

"Grow up?" What a spiteful recommendation. You may not share the values of people who live here including walkability and sense of community. It's a rare thing in this area.

My sense of community was destroyed by Alexandria and ACPS. If you go along to get along, don't complain and follow the orders of the political establishment, you can enjoy the illusion of community. Trying speaking out against ACPS and the establishment. There is no community here just like there is no open mindedness.

I'm OP and I have read and considered all the responses here. I completely understand what you mean PP... the very few times I've spoken out against ACPS leadership I've been met with cult-like disdain. It is, I realize, eroding my sense of community. With some thought I don't think I'll miss this aspect of living here at all.

Cult-like is a perfect description. I used to be very involved in ACPS and events across the city. I regret the time, it was totally wasted.

Sorry to hear that (OP again). What motivates these people to behave the way they do? Is it really as simple as they benefit from being UMC and white and don't want that to change, lest it threaten their kid's position/rank in school?

Another part of this behavior is that there is a very strange worship of local public officials. It's weird and unlike anything I've seen before. People defer to them. It's so pathetic and contributes to the cult-like behavior.

I get why the AWFLs in North Ridge love Wilson. If they have a problem getting permits for their third kitchen remodel (but they send their kids to ACPS naturally) they just have to complain about it on Facebook, he responds and fixes it for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I find the posts on this site about people being bullied or questioned by other families to be not at all consistent with our experience. To be clear, I am not at happy with ACPS and think it is a mess, and am pretty open about that. However, due to our custody arrangement, religion, financial reasons, and my child's limited acceptances to independent schools within a reasonable commute, here we are. Maybe I'm just not social with the type of parents who would care if someone wasn't satisfied with ACPS.

Because it hasn’t happened to you MUST mean the other people are lying. Seriously?

You sound exactly like the people who claim “my kid never has seen a fight or had a disruptive kid in their class so ALL the other people who claim theirs have aren’t telling the truth.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I find the posts on this site about people being bullied or questioned by other families to be not at all consistent with our experience. To be clear, I am not at happy with ACPS and think it is a mess, and am pretty open about that. However, due to our custody arrangement, religion, financial reasons, and my child's limited acceptances to independent schools within a reasonable commute, here we are. Maybe I'm just not social with the type of parents who would care if someone wasn't satisfied with ACPS.

It happened to me and it was brutal. It completely changed the way I see this city, my neighborhood, my neighbors and people I considered friends.

I'm happy it hasn't happened to you but try going to your school's PTA meeting and a PTAC meeting and expressing your views about ACPS. And then run for a position at the PTA or PTAC. They will try to destroy your reputation and they won't even try to hide it.