Why does anyone want to live in Arlington?

[Anonymous]

I don't think Loudoun is any better than APS
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/man-charged-in-loudoun-county-school-board-meeting-incident-appears-in-court/3246121/

[Anonymous]

A lot of people have already moved from the area. For so many the HCOL isn’t worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people have already moved from the area. For so many the HCOL isn’t worth it.

Yeah...they probably moved to Loudoun and that's why the Loudoun parents are as obnoxious as the APS parents. Ha ha!

[Anonymous]

We are waiting for our oldest to finish 5th and then we are moving. APS probably was amazing back in the day, but, there are a lot of other places with good school systems in areas that cost less, have less congestion with less competitive tendencies than the type As this area breeds.

[Anonymous]

Asking my family this …. Every. Single. Day.

[Anonymous]

The only time I was truly unhappy with APS was during COVID. But otherwise we’ve had a great experience at least so far at the elementary school level. My kids have had nothing but terrific teachers. I think the fact there are numerous threads about APS on here just speaks to the extent of parental involvement in the schools. For better or worse, the parents around here are really involved with keeping up with what is going on with the school board and at their kids’ schools. Sometimes that isn’t 100% a good thing, but I love that we’ve really gotten to know a lot of other parents because they are active with volunteering in the classroom, coaching sports, meeting up for after school park play dates, etc. And the focus on walk zones/neighborhood schools really creates a nice community where you see your kids’ classmates when out for bike rides or after dinner walks.

Beyond schools we just much prefer the lifestyle here. Even with the ability to be close to fully remote/one of us has a reverse commute, we like all the stuff we can walk to. We like not spending a lot of time in our car. There’s a ton of really good rec level and travel sports offerings. We have multiple really nice parks within a few blocks of us. We can easily get into DC for a date night, show, etc., but have all the benefits of a SFH on a quiet street.

[Anonymous]

APS parents are overly active on this forum which is why you hear and see so many APS posts.

[Anonymous]

We love Arlington but APS has gone downhill, which is why there are so many APS posts. And it’s not like everyone can just pick up and move because they don’t like the schools - Arlington is great, however, the schools are not and some of us are stuck but trying to make it the best we can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m on this board because Jeff inexplicably thinks LCPS has more in common with APS than FCPS. So while I’m looking for the rare posts about LCPS, all I see is a list of APS complaints a mile long. People are so unhappy and pay through the nose for a small house to be unhappy in. Why do people stay?

You don’t think people overpay for places in Loudon, Fairfax or Alexandria?!?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only time I was truly unhappy with APS was during COVID. But otherwise we’ve had a great experience at least so far at the elementary school level. My kids have had nothing but terrific teachers. I think the fact there are numerous threads about APS on here just speaks to the extent of parental involvement in the schools. For better or worse, the parents around here are really involved with keeping up with what is going on with the school board and at their kids’ schools. Sometimes that isn’t 100% a good thing, but I love that we’ve really gotten to know a lot of other parents because they are active with volunteering in the classroom, coaching sports, meeting up for after school park play dates, etc. And the focus on walk zones/neighborhood schools really creates a nice community where you see your kids’ classmates when out for bike rides or after dinner walks.

Beyond schools we just much prefer the lifestyle here. Even with the ability to be close to fully remote/one of us has a reverse commute, we like all the stuff we can walk to. We like not spending a lot of time in our car. There’s a ton of really good rec level and travel sports offerings. We have multiple really nice parks within a few blocks of us. We can easily get into DC for a date night, show, etc., but have all the benefits of a SFH on a quiet street.

This. Also, when my kids were in ES (youngest just graduated W-L) the strength of Arlington vs. neighboring districts was that they consistently had smaller class sizes and, with two kids with very inconsistent strengths, we preferred the APS model for gifted services to Fairfax's AAP. You also never had to worry about getting a spot in extended day while that was an issue in Fairfax. But, I don't know how much of this is still true given the growth in APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only time I was truly unhappy with APS was during COVID. But otherwise we’ve had a great experience at least so far at the elementary school level. My kids have had nothing but terrific teachers. I think the fact there are numerous threads about APS on here just speaks to the extent of parental involvement in the schools. For better or worse, the parents around here are really involved with keeping up with what is going on with the school board and at their kids’ schools. Sometimes that isn’t 100% a good thing, but I love that we’ve really gotten to know a lot of other parents because they are active with volunteering in the classroom, coaching sports, meeting up for after school park play dates, etc. And the focus on walk zones/neighborhood schools really creates a nice community where you see your kids’ classmates when out for bike rides or after dinner walks.

Beyond schools we just much prefer the lifestyle here. Even with the ability to be close to fully remote/one of us has a reverse commute, we like all the stuff we can walk to. We like not spending a lot of time in our car. There’s a ton of really good rec level and travel sports offerings. We have multiple really nice parks within a few blocks of us. We can easily get into DC for a date night, show, etc., but have all the benefits of a SFH on a quiet street.

This. Also, when my kids were in ES (youngest just graduated W-L) the strength of Arlington vs. neighboring districts was that they consistently had smaller class sizes and, with two kids with very inconsistent strengths, we preferred the APS model for gifted services to Fairfax's AAP. You also never had to worry about getting a spot in extended day while that was an issue in Fairfax. But, I don't know how much of this is still true given the growth in APS.

Lots of APS schools now have waitlists for extended day. Our 2nd grader didn’t get in so we have to do a MMA after school program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ones without a bunch of complaints aren’t coming here to post their complaints. They’re just living life.

This

+1

Some bumps for us but overall happy with APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't you want to live in Arlington?
I love it here. For the most part, the people are highly educated but not snobby at all. They are fun and like to hang out and be social. We have great parks for little kids, it's fairly walkable and schools are decent.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't you want to live in Arlington?
I love it here. For the most part, the people are highly educated but not snobby at all. They are fun and like to hang out and be social. We have great parks for little kids, it's fairly walkable and schools are decent.

+1

You wouldn’t know it by this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't you want to live in Arlington?
I love it here. For the most part, the people are highly educated but not snobby at all. They are fun and like to hang out and be social. We have great parks for little kids, it's fairly walkable and schools are decent.

+1

You wouldn’t know it by this forum.

Because this forum isn’t real life. You do know that, right?