Can somebody please exain why South Arlington is considered inferior to North Arlington?

[Anonymous]

N. Arlington is not better, and there are plenty of expensive neighborhoods in S. Arlington, we looked. Neither is very affordable and both have good schools. This thread is ridiculous, yet I'm here reading this crap. Everyone needs to get over themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:North Arlington has more white people, South Arlington has more brown people. It's a race and money thing. End of story.
Is there anyone on DCUM who isn't white?

I am not white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The interesting thing is that no one talked about "North Arlington" and "South Arlington" until all the white yuppies started piling into Arlington. It used to just be Arlington, with different mailing addresses depending on whether you were north or south of Route 50.

It all seems a little over-the-top, given that the real money is still mostly elsewhere.

Native Arlingtonian here and I agree with this assessment. There was no "North" and "South" distinction when I was growing up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:N. Arlington is not better, and there are plenty of expensive neighborhoods in S. Arlington, we looked. Neither is very affordable and both have good schools. This thread is ridiculous, yet I'm here reading this crap. Everyone needs to get over themselves.

Joke of the day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The interesting thing is that no one talked about "North Arlington" and "South Arlington" until all the white yuppies started piling into Arlington. It used to just be Arlington, with different mailing addresses depending on whether you were north or south of Route 50.

It all seems a little over-the-top, given that the real money is still mostly elsewhere.

Native Arlingtonian here and I agree with this assessment. There was no "North" and "South" distinction when I was growing up.

Not exactly. It was always S and N in my lifetime. Maybe in the olden days there wasn't a dichotomy, but that's when the county was homogeneous, and there were no run down garden apartments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:North Arlington blends into mclean and is an easy hop over scenic Chainbridge into DC. Beautiful neighborhoods and surroundings. South Arlington blends into highways, commercial, etc. Nothing special.

All of my observations exclude what i consider City arlington- Ballston, Pentagon City etc.

McLean equals beautiful neighborhoods?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The interesting thing is that no one talked about "North Arlington" and "South Arlington" until all the white yuppies started piling into Arlington. It used to just be Arlington, with different mailing addresses depending on whether you were north or south of Route 50.

It all seems a little over-the-top, given that the real money is still mostly elsewhere.

Native Arlingtonian here and I agree with this assessment. There was no "North" and "South" distinction when I was growing up.

Yep. North Arlington is trying to distinguish themselves from the middle class South Arlington. Yes, it's a step up the socioeconomic ladder, but it's still not McLean, Georgetown, Wesley Heights, Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Potomac, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP, here's the bottom line: N. Arlington is wealthier than S. Arlington. If you like living in a bubble - income-wise, ethnically, and culturally, N. Arlington would be a better fit for you. If you want more diversity, S. Arlington is a better bet. Both are close to DC, and both have pockets that are nicer and less nice. The schools in N. Arlington are considered better mainly because the schools are less socio-economically diverse, which generally tends to mean more highly motivated/ primed to succeed kids.

The bolded part is bullshit. We have tons of friends in North Arlington, and none of them are born Americans. About half are Arabs, a quarter Eastern European and the rest is everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The interesting thing is that no one talked about "North Arlington" and "South Arlington" until all the white yuppies started piling into Arlington. It used to just be Arlington, with different mailing addresses depending on whether you were north or south of Route 50.

It all seems a little over-the-top, given that the real money is still mostly elsewhere.

Native Arlingtonian here and I agree with this assessment. There was no "North" and "South" distinction when I was growing up.

Yep. North Arlington is trying to distinguish themselves from the middle class South Arlington. Yes, it's a step up the socioeconomic ladder, but it's still not McLean, Georgetown, Wesley Heights, Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Potomac, etc.

I am someone who looks at purchasing in expensive and high quality neighborhoods and would never consider south Arlington due to schools and lower property values.

When looking at places I always start with schools and location then adjust until I can be in budget without compromising those two items.

I consider most of North Arlington to be a similar price point and comparable to Mclean, Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Potomac, the prices of the new homes speak for themselves. So yes it is quite comparable and since the middle class can range from 100-500k in the DC area I would consider it to be middle to upper class. The reality is that south Arlington has a lot of poverty and it ranges from poverty to middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The interesting thing is that no one talked about "North Arlington" and "South Arlington" until all the white yuppies started piling into Arlington. It used to just be Arlington, with different mailing addresses depending on whether you were north or south of Route 50.

It all seems a little over-the-top, given that the real money is still mostly elsewhere.

Native Arlingtonian here and I agree with this assessment. There was no "North" and "South" distinction when I was growing up.

Not exactly. It was always S and N in my lifetime. Maybe in the olden days there wasn't a dichotomy, but that's when the county was homogeneous, and there were no run down garden apartments.

I'm sorry but I beg to differ. Growing up no one ever said they were from "North" Arlington or "South" Arlington. They might say what high school they went to or what neighborhood they lived in if asked what part, which was the logical next question. And when you did say "I went to Yorktown" or "I went to W-L" it wasn't perceived that one was better than the other, in spite of their rivalry. I also don't recall any discussion of Wakefield being a horrible school. I knew kids at all three schools and everyone was happy with their high school, kids and parents both.

When I was growing up, average working families (which, in the 70s and 80s usually meant dad was working while mom stayed home) could buy homes in nice neighborhoods in North Arlington. Back in those days you didnt need to be a two-income family of doctors and lawyers to live in a nice house in Arlington. My dad was a federal employee, as were many of my friends' dads, and my mom was a teacher who only went back to work when I was in middle school. They bought their home in the 60s and could never afford to buy in that neighborhood today. They were typical of the families that lived in all parts of Arlington in that era, before Metro, before people began to flee DC schools, before people began to live in Chantilly and South Riding and Ashburn and commute daily from those places to DC, before people decided that 4 bedroom/2 bath houses without a great room and commercial kitchen were too small for their families.

I agree with the PP who said that the influx of Yuppies, (and in my opinion also increasing wealth, competition, and snobbery), has created the "distinction" between North and South Arlington. You can decide for yourself, OP, whether you want to use standardized test scores, income statistics, and "greatschools.com" to inform your real estate decisions (or the advice of the pro-North anti-South Arlington DCUM crowd).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The interesting thing is that no one talked about "North Arlington" and "South Arlington" until all the white yuppies started piling into Arlington. It used to just be Arlington, with different mailing addresses depending on whether you were north or south of Route 50.

It all seems a little over-the-top, given that the real money is still mostly elsewhere.

Native Arlingtonian here and I agree with this assessment. There was no "North" and "South" distinction when I was growing up.

Yep. North Arlington is trying to distinguish themselves from the middle class South Arlington. Yes, it's a step up the socioeconomic ladder, but it's still not McLean, Georgetown, Wesley Heights, Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Potomac, etc.

You are correct. That is because a lot of N Arl neighborhoods are much more expensive than CC DC, Bethesda, AU Park, Potomac, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The interesting thing is that no one talked about "North Arlington" and "South Arlington" until all the white yuppies started piling into Arlington. It used to just be Arlington, with different mailing addresses depending on whether you were north or south of Route 50.

It all seems a little over-the-top, given that the real money is still mostly elsewhere.

Native Arlingtonian here and I agree with this assessment. There was no "North" and "South" distinction when I was growing up.

Yep. North Arlington is trying to distinguish themselves from the middle class South Arlington. Yes, it's a step up the socioeconomic ladder, but it's still not McLean, Georgetown, Wesley Heights, Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Potomac, etc.

You are correct. That is because a lot of N Arl neighborhoods are much more expensive than CC DC, Bethesda, AU Park, Potomac, etc.

Yes. My friend recently bought a 5 bedroom house in McLean for 1.3 and I bought a 3-bedroom house for the same $ in NArl. Her house would have been $2.2 mill if it were located on my neighborhood. People move out to McLean when they can't afford the size house they want here. This classist shit passed around has not kept up with the times.

[Anonymous]

I lived in Rosslyn for a few months while getting settled here and it felt like a slum (River Place). Now I live in a luxury building in Pentagon City. In my mind the latter is better...especially since now I'm about to be married and not into the party scene anymore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in Rosslyn for a few months while getting settled here and it felt like a slum (River Place). Now I live in a luxury building in Pentagon City. In my mind the latter is better...especially since now I'm about to be married and not into the party scene anymore

When kids come you will move to a place with better schools and a house

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes. My friend recently bought a 5 bedroom house in McLean for 1.3 and I bought a 3-bedroom house for the same $ in NArl. Her house would have been $2.2 mill if it were located on my neighborhood. People move out to McLean when they can't afford the size house they want here. This classist shit passed around has not kept up with the times.

Really? I bought a $1.8 million house in McLean and could have purchased a house with the same square footage in North Arlington for roughly $1.4 or $1.5M. Smaller lot, of course, in Arlington, so not completely comparable.

The fact that people sometimes buy in McLean when they can't find what they'd want in Arlington doesn't necessarily mean Arlington is more desirable. Sometimes it just means Arlington doesn't have that much to offer.