Moving from NYC to DC suburbs...tell me why you like the DC suburbs

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:DC suburbs absolutely suck. This place is basically like Ohio or Indiana but if the residents were 10,000% more pretentious and arrogant and full of themselves. And that 10,000% figure isn't an even an exaggeration. People will live in bland-as-f*ck Virginia and pretend they're the center of the universe.

LOL. So spot on. They crap all over “flyover country” when most of that is much nicer than where they live.

“Most of that is much nicer than where they live”

Oh, my sweet summer child. As someone who has family in poor and middle class regions of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri…you know not of what you speak. I love Cracker Barrel as much as anyone, but let’s not be silly. Most of it is not much nicer.

Go fly a kite. Have you ever seen some of rhe beautiful suburbs and city neighborhoods in the Midwest or the South. They blow their analogues in DC out of the water. It is not all farmland and poor/middle class people, “my sweet summer child.”

Only a person who has not been to most of flyover country would say that most places there are much nicer than DC. That’s not to say that DC is something amazing, but it’s not reality that most places in what’s known as flyover country are much nicer. To say that is pure silliness.

I am from the Midwest and have relatives in nearly every Midwestern state. I spent my first 30 years in the Midwest and then 18 in the DC area before moving back to my hometown. I am sure that I am more qualified to make a comparison as almost anyone. The housing stock, parks, and neighborhoods in the Midwest are far superior to the analogous areas in DC. I was actually shocked at how poor the housing stock was when I first moved to DC. Everyone raves about Arlington, but it honestly by appearance would only be a middle of the road suburb in my hometown. Call me “silly” if that’s all you’ve got.

I’m
Not from the Midwest, but yes. No one with our income would live in a place that looks like Arlington in our home city.

The NoVa housing stock, in particular, is terrible. So much of it was thrown up quickly post WW2, and it very much has a “thrown together” feel about. There are nice pockets here and there, but let’s stop pretending the area is what we all fantasized about in our “when I grow up” days.

NP. This isn't really accurate now, and it's too broad a generalization anyway.

I'm not sure how long ago you drove around much of NoVa, PP or where you live now, because there is huge variation between different suburbs in NoVa, and huge variation even within any one suburb.

Where we live, in Vienna, those old "thrown up quickly post WWII" houses are going, going, gone, increasingly knocked down and replaced, often with far larger houses in a wide variety of styles. Constant building of new homes where old ones were, over here. Yeah, there are still 1950s-60s houses around (I live in one) but on our suburban VA street almost all the houses now are at most 15 years old and several new homes are being built right now. Large houses, big garages, trendy styles. All over this part of NoVa.

We used to live on the Falls Church-McLean border, basically, and when I drive over that way now I see gobs of newly built apartments replacing old complexes and I see SFHs going up constantly in old neighborhoods. And that area was developed right after WWII and still had many tiny 1940s-60s houses. It's no longer correct to give a sweeping characterization of ALL of NoVa as made up of post-WWII, old, small houses with "nice pockets here and there." That has flipped and I'd say it's increasingly the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even McLean or Chevy Chase, the two most expensive suburbs in the DC area, are going to be a lot more relaxed than NW or NYC. City living is just way more competitive overall, at least for families with kids. If you live in NW you’ll be spending half your time angling for privates or explaining why you went ahead and sent your kid to Jackson-Reed or SWW. In the nicer suburbs, you have more space and privacy, people will assume you belong if you can live, and no one really cares whether you send your kids to good publics or good privates.

I get that the aesthetics of the DC suburbs aren’t on par with a lot of older suburbs in other areas, but the houses are still nice and the convenience is just as great if not greater, plus you’re not paying the exorbitant taxes that you might be paying in, say, a Larchmont or Scarsdale.

Ahh, Old Town disagrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC suburbs absolutely suck. This place is basically like Ohio or Indiana but if the residents were 10,000% more pretentious and arrogant and full of themselves. And that 10,000% figure isn't an even an exaggeration. People will live in bland-as-f*ck Virginia and pretend they're the center of the universe.

LOL. So spot on. They crap all over “flyover country” when most of that is much nicer than where they live.

+100%. I’ve grown to believe that many, many DMVers are genuinely delusional. The way they look down on the rest of the country is genuinely puzzling.

Yeah, Dubuque is real nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even McLean or Chevy Chase, the two most expensive suburbs in the DC area, are going to be a lot more relaxed than NW or NYC. City living is just way more competitive overall, at least for families with kids. If you live in NW you’ll be spending half your time angling for privates or explaining why you went ahead and sent your kid to Jackson-Reed or SWW. In the nicer suburbs, you have more space and privacy, people will assume you belong if you can live, and no one really cares whether you send your kids to good publics or good privates.

I get that the aesthetics of the DC suburbs aren’t on par with a lot of older suburbs in other areas, but the houses are still nice and the convenience is just as great if not greater, plus you’re not paying the exorbitant taxes that you might be paying in, say, a Larchmont or Scarsdale.

Ahh, Old Town disagrees.

City of Alexandria would be like moving from Manhattan to Bushwick.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

Look at Bethesda/ Chevy Chase, OP. I am talking 20816 and 20815 zip codes. Check them out. Schools are good and not far from downtown DC or downtown Bethesda.

+1 I used to live in Chelsea and Chevy Chase worked for my family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC suburbs absolutely suck. This place is basically like Ohio or Indiana but if the residents were 10,000% more pretentious and arrogant and full of themselves. And that 10,000% figure isn't an even an exaggeration. People will live in bland-as-f*ck Virginia and pretend they're the center of the universe.

LOL. So spot on. They crap all over “flyover country” when most of that is much nicer than where they live.

“Most of that is much nicer than where they live”

Oh, my sweet summer child. As someone who has family in poor and middle class regions of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri…you know not of what you speak. I love Cracker Barrel as much as anyone, but let’s not be silly. Most of it is not much nicer.

Go fly a kite. Have you ever seen some of rhe beautiful suburbs and city neighborhoods in the Midwest or the South. They blow their analogues in DC out of the water. It is not all farmland and poor/middle class people, “my sweet summer child.”

Only a person who has not been to most of flyover country would say that most places there are much nicer than DC. That’s not to say that DC is something amazing, but it’s not reality that most places in what’s known as flyover country are much nicer. To say that is pure silliness.

I am from the Midwest and have relatives in nearly every Midwestern state. I spent my first 30 years in the Midwest and then 18 in the DC area before moving back to my hometown. I am sure that I am more qualified to make a comparison as almost anyone. The housing stock, parks, and neighborhoods in the Midwest are far superior to the analogous areas in DC. I was actually shocked at how poor the housing stock was when I first moved to DC. Everyone raves about Arlington, but it honestly by appearance would only be a middle of the road suburb in my hometown. Call me “silly” if that’s all you’ve got.

I’m
Not from the Midwest, but yes. No one with our income would live in a place that looks like Arlington in our home city.

The NoVa housing stock, in particular, is terrible. So much of it was thrown up quickly post WW2, and it very much has a “thrown together” feel about. There are nice pockets here and there, but let’s stop pretending the area is what we all fantasized about in our “when I grow up” days.

NP. This isn't really accurate now, and it's too broad a generalization anyway.

I'm not sure how long ago you drove around much of NoVa, PP or where you live now, because there is huge variation between different suburbs in NoVa, and huge variation even within any one suburb.

Where we live, in Vienna, those old "thrown up quickly post WWII" houses are going, going, gone, increasingly knocked down and replaced, often with far larger houses in a wide variety of styles. Constant building of new homes where old ones were, over here. Yeah, there are still 1950s-60s houses around (I live in one) but on our suburban VA street almost all the houses now are at most 15 years old and several new homes are being built right now. Large houses, big garages, trendy styles. All over this part of NoVa.

We used to live on the Falls Church-McLean border, basically, and when I drive over that way now I see gobs of newly built apartments replacing old complexes and I see SFHs going up constantly in old neighborhoods. And that area was developed right after WWII and still had many tiny 1940s-60s houses. It's no longer correct to give a sweeping characterization of ALL of NoVa as made up of post-WWII, old, small houses with "nice pockets here and there." That has flipped and I'd say it's increasingly the opposite.

So, wait, they’re knocking down old charmless houses to put up new charmless houses (people used to call them McMansions, and yes, I’ve seen them popping all over). You aren’t helping the case for NoVa aesthetics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even McLean or Chevy Chase, the two most expensive suburbs in the DC area, are going to be a lot more relaxed than NW or NYC. City living is just way more competitive overall, at least for families with kids. If you live in NW you’ll be spending half your time angling for privates or explaining why you went ahead and sent your kid to Jackson-Reed or SWW. In the nicer suburbs, you have more space and privacy, people will assume you belong if you can live, and no one really cares whether you send your kids to good publics or good privates.

I get that the aesthetics of the DC suburbs aren’t on par with a lot of older suburbs in other areas, but the houses are still nice and the convenience is just as great if not greater, plus you’re not paying the exorbitant taxes that you might be paying in, say, a Larchmont or Scarsdale.

Ahh, Old Town disagrees.

City of Alexandria would be like moving from Manhattan to Bushwick.

Does Bushwick predate Manhattan by a century and a half?

[Anonymous]

Lots of haters here. The assignment from the OP is to "tell me why you like the DC suburbs"...not to rant about how you won't live in a post WWII colonial just to be 15 minutes away from a non-world class museum that has terrible pizza.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of haters here. The assignment from the OP is to "tell me why you like the DC suburbs"...not to rant about how you won't live in a post WWII colonial just to be 15 minutes away from a non-world class museum that has terrible pizza.

Lol OP here. I didn’t expect the posts about post WWII colonials. I don’t even know what that means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of haters here. The assignment from the OP is to "tell me why you like the DC suburbs"...not to rant about how you won't live in a post WWII colonial just to be 15 minutes away from a non-world class museum that has terrible pizza.

Lol OP here. I didn’t expect the posts about post WWII colonials. I don’t even know what that means.

Tiny generic low-ceiling red brick box houses that were built after WWII.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of haters here. The assignment from the OP is to "tell me why you like the DC suburbs"...not to rant about how you won't live in a post WWII colonial just to be 15 minutes away from a non-world class museum that has terrible pizza.

Lol OP here. I didn’t expect the posts about post WWII colonials. I don’t even know what that means.

Oh, you sweet summer child….

[Anonymous]

Haven't read the entire thread, but the DC suburbs have a pretty good bike trail network. I have no idea how this compares to NY, but I've lived in the DMV for ~ 20 years and have had plenty of places to ride without having to ride on the roads. (and out in the burbs there are also plenty of good road-riding routes, if that's more your thing.)

The W&OD runs through many of the NOVA suburbs (Arlington, Herndon, Reston, Ashburn, and Leesburg) and Silver Spring and Bethesda have easy access to the Capitol Crescent, rock Creek park trail/beach drive, and sligo creek trail.

From Bethesda or downtown Silver Spring, it's a pretty easy 10 mile ride to get downtown DC and it's fun to do a ride, visit a museum, and then ride back home. (I guess that you could take the metro if you didn't want to do the 10 miles back home, but I always just rode back.) In Nova, there are a lot of restaurants and breweries adjacent to the W&OD

Other good trails are the C&O canal trail - it connects to the Great Allegheny passage trail. You can do a long weekend ride up and back to Harpers ferry, or a week+ ride to Pittsburgh. Also the Mount Vernon Trail - also easy to bike over to National Harbor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of haters here. The assignment from the OP is to "tell me why you like the DC suburbs"...not to rant about how you won't live in a post WWII colonial just to be 15 minutes away from a non-world class museum that has terrible pizza.

Lol OP here. I didn’t expect the posts about post WWII colonials. I don’t even know what that means.

Oh, you sweet summer child….

Also just googled sweet summer child. Yeah I guess I am naive and untested. Shrugs

[Anonymous]

I've lived in DC for the better part of my adult life (20+ years, spanning grad school to married with three kids - 12, 10, and 7).

Capitol Hill: I lived the first chunk on the Hill; both House and Senate sides. Really loved it as a young adult; should definitely have bought a place there when I had the chance! But, to be fair - depending where you are, there's not a lot of walkable commerce - ie grocery, Target, etc. Of course delivery services have filled that gap, but it was terrible when I was a carless grad student trying to buy groceries. The metro is so unreliable now too that it's not as great an option. And, as you point out - the schools not great.

Chinatown: I also spent some time in Chinatown/Gallery Place (about when it really turned). So much fun in terms of restaurants/bars, but I wouldn't go near there now for housing.

Old Town: We bought in Old Town when we got married, and I loved it so much. Basically perfect suburban living....apart from the terrible schools and awful zoning rules (if you're a homeowner).

Alexandria (down the GW Parkway) - hated this option - commute was awful, no neighborhood to speak of (though it was pretty, and affordable). Also terrible schools.

Vienna - this is where we are now. I resisted because it was so far out, but virtual work has made it so much easier. I really love Vienna for the neighborhood feel (we lucked into an amazing cul de sace situation with families we really like). Our kids are always out and about; riding bikes, walking to/from school, running dog walking businesses. Our kids able to ride their bikes to sports practices, the pool, etc. The restaurants are not great, but seems to be improving. Traffic on Maple can be terrible, but I'm able to avoid it most of the time. The bike trail is my savior, and there are lots of parks we can walk/scoot/bike to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

No. Close-in Arlington or Bethesda have excellent schools and walkable (to coffee) neighborhoods.

- resident of (the horror!!) Reston

+1 I moved from another large city (not nyc) to Arlington (westover). What I like - best of both worlds, I can be downtown at a museum with my kid in about 10 minutes by car on a Saturday morning, I can still walk to coffee, a few of our favorite restaurants and the farmers market, lots of playgrounds, but I also can easily get to a grocery store (with my cargo bike on the trail or by car and enjoy the large parking lot and ease), I can easily drive places when it’s easier to with my kids but I also hate the in and out of car seats so we also have a cargo bike and tote the kids on the trails as much as possible. Next year my son will start kindergarten and we have a great public school that the neighbors all seem happy with a short walk away. No stress there which is very nice and obviously a huge privilege. Life is pretty easy. Parks and trails a block away. Neighbors who have become good friends, I can text on a Saturday morning and have impromptu get togethers with friends and their kids who are similar ages. I probably outed myself to anyone who knows me traipsing around westover on our bike but they are becoming more common by the day.

If you end up further out, we have family farther out in a suburb that isn’t walkable to shops etc and the benefits there I do see too - it’s quiet, there is a lake nearby, lots of culdesacs and neighbors are chill and friends. Kids run around (they do in Arlington too).

Westover is a perfectly nice and pleasant place to raise a family, so why lie about it? It takes "ten minutes" to get from there to a DC museum only if you go by helicopter. There's a single strip of stores and no more than a few restaurants. The housing stock is charming but also old, dated, and expensive. And there is zero diversity in the local public schools.