Would you move to Arlington or Mclean for SFH living?
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Anonymous
| Thanks to PP for putting to rest any claim that Arlington residents are even remotely laid back. They just pick different areas to reveal their nerdy competitiveness (walk scores rather than SAT scores). |
Anonymous
| ^ You sound laid back too. |
Anonymous
Arlington is divided because of historical housing patterns based on race and SES. Poor and minority families have lived here - segregated - for many years and, sadly, the effects of segregation are still seen today. Even today, new affordable housing developments are not well distributed across the county. McLean doesn't have that issue because historically it didn't have a significant # of poor or black/brown residents. Maybe little pocket here or there. But most of "those" people were segregated further south in Fairfax County. Even today there is very little SES diversity. How much affordable housing is there in McLean today? |
Anonymous
It's not hard when you don't misread what I wrote. So you agree with me that "many of the walkable areas are in N Arlington"? Great. Could have just agreed with me a few pages ago. |
Anonymous
I clearly said "overall" and gave the link for all of Arlington... Anyway, like I said, many of the walkable areas are in N Arlington. Not in S Arlington like the PP mistakenly thought. 
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Anonymous
Lol the classic “moving the goalposts”. Nice. And from your own post, S Arlington is ...fairly..walkable. Shirlington, Columbia Pike, Pentagon and Pentagon City, Arlandria suddenly aren’t walkable now? News to me.
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Anonymous
My bad. I forgot to throw in Crystal City and Fairlington in there. |
Anonymous
OMG - are you being intentionally obtuse? Or can you really just not read? I said MANY of the walkable parts are in N Arlington. Not ALL or even MANY. PP thought that Ballston-Clarendon-Courthouse areas were in S Arlington. Here was PP's comment that I responded to: "The nicer neighborhoods of McLean are way nicer looking than Arlington. The N Arlington and McLean neighborhoods that border Arlington and falls church look very similar. Then parts of south Arlington are more urban and walkable. I would not say N Arlington is a walkable area either." How many more pages are you going to completely misread what I wrote?
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Anonymous
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^^ and the PP came back to admit her mistake:
"PP here. I stand corrected. I didn't realize that Ballston, Ballston and Clarendon were in N Arlington. I thought that was S Arlington. I can admit when I am wrong." |
Anonymous
| ^^ and that should say "Not ALL or even MOST" |
Anonymous
I am the pp who mistakenly thought Clarendon and Ballston were in S Arlington. Both S AND N Arlington are more walkable than McLean. Can we just give it a rest? |
Anonymous
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OP here. Lots of info to process, thank you all for informative input! I didn't realize it would be controversial and certainly was a bit surprised it turned into a political discussion. I do find some things said about Arlington to be a turn off, but I think there are other pragmatic issues to decide upon as well.
We drove around different areas last year, there is a part where Arlington meets Mclean and these parts are very similar and indistinguishable to me looking at them from the car, very similar homes and yards and walkability, which seems non-existent. We aren't looking into these areas because we need some walkability, we will have our foreign family living with us 6 months out of the year and they don't drive, don't want them to feel trapped without being able to walk to coffee shop or at least a couple of restaurants. We also want our older kids to be able to walk to some places without driving, so areas where teens are seeing walking around to coffee/ice cream/fast food/each other's homes are preferred. It appears that both Mclean and Arlington have areas with some walkability while being SFH suburban communities. Mclean has downtown area with SFH communities around it and Arlington areas we would look into are around Highway 29, so it would be walking to strip mall type of places in both locations. Comparing areas walkable to DT Mclean and Arlington areas walkable to businesses along its busier streets, Arlington still seems a bit more urban by character and what I would personally prefer, plus closer to DC. I also like descriptions some poster shared of their Arlington neighborhoods, and it's what we are looking for, especially if considering that there are enough kids of MS/HS age, we aren't interested in toddler/ES kid age only type of areas. Proximity to Metro is better in N.Arlington, but it's still not walkable in my eyes for commute, maybe as a backup option very occasionally? We are coming from a very dense urban area, lived in apartments and a rowhouse, N.Arlington and Dt.Mclean still are very suburban areas for us and we will be relying on a car, which is ok, but want to also have an option to walk somewhere. Schools might be something I would want to discuss further, as I didn't feel Arlington schools would be a good fit, as they were described as laid back. We are not looking for laid back environment, we actually had to switch our kids from a more laid back good school to another more academically intense school. Kids are happier in more rigorous academic setting after having tried both. If schools are considered more rigorous and academically advanced in Mclean, this is what might be a deciding factor for us as we cannot afford private schools. Ideally if we had a lot of money we would live in a very urban area and go to private schools, but we also need more space (5 bedrooms) and our budget won't allow living in places like Clarendon/Ballston or parts of DC. This would be a compromise. So, I am wondering if there are any people who can chime in from Mclean who live in more walkable parts of it closer to downtown strips and whether anyone is walking there. Arlington posters say that people generally do walk in their suburban neighborhoods. I like that. Basically we would prefer somewhat walkable suburban community with academically rigorous public schools, with decent commute to DC/Tysons/Amazon campus where we can get a 5-bedr house for under 1.2m (older home and small yard are ok) and a short drive into the city on weekends (10-20min max). If there are any other areas that meet the needs I haven't considered, please chime in. |
Anonymous
We live in McLean behind Total Wine etc. We can walk to Giant, Total Wine, Cava, AutoZone, Starbucks, 3 7/11s, 6 banks, Balducci's, Salons/Spas/Barbers/Dry Cleaning/Music and Arts, 2-3 good restaurants and to Lewinsville Park. My house has a walk score of 84, which I think is pretty decent for a suburb. In McLean you have to focus on neighborhoods around Franklin Sherman ES close to Old Dominion and/or Chain Bridge Rd, you will find a lot walkability in this area. This area can be expensive, TH's go for 950k+ and SFH start at 1.2mil, just to give you an idea. Good luck with your search! |
Anonymous
| PP above. Yes, we do walk a lot, especially in Summers. |
Anonymous
You're going to have a tough time in either location for a 5 BD with that budget. Check out Pimmit Hills as a PP joked about earlier. I believe Marshall offers an IB program which is academically rigorous. Falls Church or Falls Church City might have more options in your budget and still be walkable. And FWIW I do think the laid back comments were describing parents, not academics... McLean: https://www.redfin.com/VA/McLean/1601-Evers-Dr-22101/home/9398785 (bit of a walk to DT McLean but you could do it) Arlington: https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/5805-26th-St-N-22207/home/11226263 (Yorktown area - walkable near Rt 29) https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/5709-6th-St-N-22205/home/12027083 (west of Ballston - little bit walkable along Wilson) Pimmit Hills: https://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/7413-Sportsman-Dr-22043/home/9473414 https://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/1823-Olney-Rd-22043/home/9398518 Dunn Loring: https://www.redfin.com/VA/Dunn-Loring/2169-Harithy-Dr-22027/home/9833786 (near Tysons/Mosaic) |