What’s the most horribly planned community in the dc area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Route 29 in Montgomery County is a chaotic, poorly planned corridor that feels more like a highway someone dropped in the middle of a suburban experiment. It’s a major road, yet you’ll see people walking along the shoulder because there are barely any sidewalks—just dirt paths worn down over time. It’s incredibly unsafe and makes the whole area feel disconnected and neglected.

The entire surrounding area was master-planned in the 1970s to be affordable, and that legacy is still visible today. Many of the apartment complexes were originally built with 50% low-income units, and townhomes were sold for around $50,000 with government-backed low-income mortgages. There’s nothing inherently wrong with affordability, but the execution left a lot to be desired. The planning was car-centric and patchy, with no cohesive sense of neighborhood design.

Castle Boulevard is a perfect example—just rows of garden apartments, many of them in poor condition, that end abruptly at a townhome complex. Subdivisions all blend together, built from the same tired 1980s designs, and the roads are full of potholes and poorly patched repairs. A significant portion of the housing is still subsidized or Section 8, and while there’s absolutely a need for that kind of housing, the lack of long-term investment in infrastructure and aesthetics has left the area looking neglected.

And yet—despite the similarities to adjacent parts of Prince George’s County in terms of school quality and housing stock—prices are higher here. For what? The same congested roads, similar schools, and aging housing? At that point, you might as well move to PG County and save some money.

I actually love the area—there’s history, diversity, and a kind of charm if you look closely. But damn, it was badly planned.

Nothing about that area is a planned community. I don't think you understand what the question means.

[Anonymous]

A planned community is not the same as an area that grew into housing witg everything else. Reston is a planned community. Columbia is a planned community. Kentlands is a planned community. Maple Lawn in Fulton,Md is a planned community. Everyone here is confusing planned communities with bad urban planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seven Corners

Seven Corners is an intersection, not a community. That said, most of zip code 22042 in Falls Church (Fairfax County) would qualify for discussion as it's jumbled mess of crummy strip malls along Rte 50 with adjacent neighborhoods that are haphazard, especially between Annandale Rd and Graham Rd.

You do not pay enough to the people who take care of your kids, clean your house, cut your grass, cook your food, work in the service indusry so they are forced to live in an area that is not aesthetic pleasing to the mavens of DCUM. Quelle dommage.