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

[Anonymous]

There’s a lot to like about the dc area but our suburbs are some of the lamest. The schools are massively overhyped on this site. Bethesda, Alexandria, Great Falls, parts of Potomac are all intriguing. The housing stock in places like Silver Spring, Rockville Annandale, Springfield, Burke, etc is pretty boring.

Id look at either the leafier suburban neighborhoods actually in DC and send your kids to private school. After that look at Bethesda, Great Falls, and Alexandria based on your budget and keep an open mind for about private so you can get a house you like without considering the local schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just stay away from PG and PW counties.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot to like about the dc area but our suburbs are some of the lamest. The schools are massively overhyped on this site. Bethesda, Alexandria, Great Falls, parts of Potomac are all intriguing. The housing stock in places like Silver Spring, Rockville Annandale, Springfield, Burke, etc is pretty boring.

Id look at either the leafier suburban neighborhoods actually in DC and send your kids to private school. After that look at Bethesda, Great Falls, and Alexandria based on your budget and keep an open mind for about private so you can get a house you like without considering the local schools.

No, the public schools aren’t overhyped - DCUM parents are out of control obsessed and competitive when it comes to education and many needlessly throw their money away on private schools that are overhyped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please only share positive things. I need a morale boost! I’m gonna miss stepping out of my apartment and walking to my favorite coffee shops, restaurants, playgrounds, etc. I don’t mind driving but getting the kids in and out of car seats vs. taking them places in a stroller seems like a hassle. I know I’ll get used to it but would love to hear why you love living in this area!

Few things off the top of my head:

Probably the best paste selection on the East Coast (NYC included!)
Green grass in winter
Many optional traffic lights
Free water (or at least cheap)
Everyone seems OK with the color yellow
Solid roofs on schools
Political know-how
More choices around electronics
Neighbors not afraid to put cellphone on vibrate
Nighttime excursions
Free statues everywhere
Donny's Hot Shop(s)
Peaceful feelings
Wind when you need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why New Yorkers do this. They leave NY, move to a soulless suburb of another city and then complain nonstop how they hate X city. No, you hate the burns.

OP here - I’m not from NY, I grew up in the suburbs elsewhere. I live there for school/jobs and am moving for a job as well.

Gen Xer here. Both NYC and DC lost their souls a long time ago. I’ll stick to living in the suburbs now!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please only share positive things. I need a morale boost! I’m gonna miss stepping out of my apartment and walking to my favorite coffee shops, restaurants, playgrounds, etc. I don’t mind driving but getting the kids in and out of car seats vs. taking them places in a stroller seems like a hassle. I know I’ll get used to it but would love to hear why you love living in this area!

Few things off the top of my head:

Probably the best paste selection on the East Coast (NYC included!)
Green grass in winter
Many optional traffic lights
Free water (or at least cheap)
Everyone seems OK with the color yellow
Solid roofs on schools
Political know-how
More choices around electronics
Neighbors not afraid to put cellphone on vibrate
Nighttime excursions
Free statues everywhere
Donny's Hot Shop(s)
Peaceful feelings
Wind when you need it.

You had me til I got to Peaceful feelings. Wind, yes. Peaceful feelings, no. Paste, yes!

Also we have bike lanes the size of a constitutional scroll, happy hours for when we’re blue, and the Rothko Room at the Phillips Collection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate DC suburbs and am in the process of moving my family back to Boston. Looked at many and lived in some of the neighborhoods mentioned in these posts in NOVA and hated them all. Yes, even NWDC and CCMD. Old Town is the closest you will get to the urban feel of New York, but with mediocre restaurants, cafes, and no culture to speak of. I'm sorry you have to move.

All I want to know is why you revived a 9 month old thread.

[Anonymous]

Live near a bethesda, alexandria, or alexandria metro station (or heck, even one in DC - NW DC schools are fine)

you don't need a car for day-to-day life near those. walk to groceries, playgrounds, stores, coffee, etc. most have a good neighborhood school that kids can walk to also!

It looks that you have ruled out the dense parts of the city, but there are some good former 'streetcar' suburbs (which mostly now have metro) that have really high quality of life (mostly stemming from the pro-walking config)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot to like about the dc area but our suburbs are some of the lamest. The schools are massively overhyped on this site. Bethesda, Alexandria, Great Falls, parts of Potomac are all intriguing. The housing stock in places like Silver Spring, Rockville Annandale, Springfield, Burke, etc is pretty boring.

Id look at either the leafier suburban neighborhoods actually in DC and send your kids to private school. After that look at Bethesda, Great Falls, and Alexandria based on your budget and keep an open mind for about private so you can get a house you like without considering the local schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot to like about the dc area but our suburbs are some of the lamest. The schools are massively overhyped on this site. Bethesda, Alexandria, Great Falls, parts of Potomac are all intriguing. The housing stock in places like Silver Spring, Rockville Annandale, Springfield, Burke, etc is pretty boring.

Id look at either the leafier suburban neighborhoods actually in DC and send your kids to private school. After that look at Bethesda, Great Falls, and Alexandria based on your budget and keep an open mind for about private so you can get a house you like without considering the local schools.

Or send your kids to public school either in the city or the suburbs.

If you think Potomac and Bethesda are "intriguing" but Silver Spring and Rockville are "boring," I don't really think I understand what your tastes are, though.

[Anonymous]

Don't move to dc suburbs and have an expectation of living your life in nyc. Not only is that impossible, it's impossible in almost any other city in America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are a nice, normal, halfway intelligent person, you will realize in about 10 minutes that this forum generally consists of 20-30 people who post over and over and over again, most of whom hate DC because they’ve been laid off, forced to move, are “too poor” for whatever they deem worthy of their station in life, etc. DC (the real area, not the DCUm version) attracts people from all over the country (and the world) — surely you will get better advice from those people than the ones who tend to hang out here and offer gems like “Bloomington, Michigan” is where things are really happening. I promise you that outside of this forum, many people like DC and even seek it out. This includes those of us who have moved from cities like New York and Chicago. Can’t speak for Bloomington, Michigan, and I’m sure the shopping malls are high end, indeed. For those high class citizens that rank cities on the basis of shopping malls, anyway. It is true that if you make a lot of money, you’ll be happier here because it is very expensive. But there are many great suburbs and areas of the city that people (not anonymous crazies) can tell you all about. Including areas of Bethesda, Chevy Chase, McLean, Arlington. There are beautiful homes and less beautiful homes - much like you’ll see in westchester or newton or, even (I’m just spitballing) the great state of Michigan. I don’t know anyone as miserable in life as I see on this forum. It is just bizarre. Good luck in your move and search for the right suburb for yourself. You’ll love it wherever you end up.

Not OP, but I needed this reminder! I saw family (from another city) recently and they were saying how much they love DC, and I noted that people here complain about the area a lot. And they thought that was bizarre. But these posters may have skewed my memory.

[Anonymous]

After experiencing west coast and midwest, I moved to NoVA 15 years ago. No regrets. Had better offers from jobs in other locations but decided to not move. What I love?
Seasons - all 4 seasons and winters aren't harsh. We often escape severe storms due to geography
Lots of job opportunities
Diversity at workplaces and schools
Existence of metro trains - blessing if you work in DC and live near a metro station
Entertaining guests is cheap - museums and many other places in DC are free, so entertaining guests is easy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are a nice, normal, halfway intelligent person, you will realize in about 10 minutes that this forum generally consists of 20-30 people who post over and over and over again, most of whom hate DC because they’ve been laid off, forced to move, are “too poor” for whatever they deem worthy of their station in life, etc. DC (the real area, not the DCUm version) attracts people from all over the country (and the world) — surely you will get better advice from those people than the ones who tend to hang out here and offer gems like “Bloomington, Michigan” is where things are really happening. I promise you that outside of this forum, many people like DC and even seek it out. This includes those of us who have moved from cities like New York and Chicago. Can’t speak for Bloomington, Michigan, and I’m sure the shopping malls are high end, indeed. For those high class citizens that rank cities on the basis of shopping malls, anyway. It is true that if you make a lot of money, you’ll be happier here because it is very expensive. But there are many great suburbs and areas of the city that people (not anonymous crazies) can tell you all about. Including areas of Bethesda, Chevy Chase, McLean, Arlington. There are beautiful homes and less beautiful homes - much like you’ll see in westchester or newton or, even (I’m just spitballing) the great state of Michigan. I don’t know anyone as miserable in life as I see on this forum. It is just bizarre. Good luck in your move and search for the right suburb for yourself. You’ll love it wherever you end up.

Not OP, but I needed this reminder! I saw family (from another city) recently and they were saying how much they love DC, and I noted that people here complain about the area a lot. And they thought that was bizarre. But these posters may have skewed my memory.

This is straight cope. There are definitely some negative nancies on here, but the dc area still sucks. I just got back from Richmond and the suburbs there make ours look like a joke, and they’re half the price. No one “seeks out” DC, that’s just laughable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are a nice, normal, halfway intelligent person, you will realize in about 10 minutes that this forum generally consists of 20-30 people who post over and over and over again, most of whom hate DC because they’ve been laid off, forced to move, are “too poor” for whatever they deem worthy of their station in life, etc. DC (the real area, not the DCUm version) attracts people from all over the country (and the world) — surely you will get better advice from those people than the ones who tend to hang out here and offer gems like “Bloomington, Michigan” is where things are really happening. I promise you that outside of this forum, many people like DC and even seek it out. This includes those of us who have moved from cities like New York and Chicago. Can’t speak for Bloomington, Michigan, and I’m sure the shopping malls are high end, indeed. For those high class citizens that rank cities on the basis of shopping malls, anyway. It is true that if you make a lot of money, you’ll be happier here because it is very expensive. But there are many great suburbs and areas of the city that people (not anonymous crazies) can tell you all about. Including areas of Bethesda, Chevy Chase, McLean, Arlington. There are beautiful homes and less beautiful homes - much like you’ll see in westchester or newton or, even (I’m just spitballing) the great state of Michigan. I don’t know anyone as miserable in life as I see on this forum. It is just bizarre. Good luck in your move and search for the right suburb for yourself. You’ll love it wherever you end up.

Not OP, but I needed this reminder! I saw family (from another city) recently and they were saying how much they love DC, and I noted that people here complain about the area a lot. And they thought that was bizarre. But these posters may have skewed my memory.

This is straight cope. There are definitely some negative nancies on here, but the dc area still sucks. I just got back from Richmond and the suburbs there make ours look like a joke, and they’re half the price. No one “seeks out” DC, that’s just laughable.

And with “no one” you just made the point. Please tell that to all the people moving to the DC area every year. How about you get off your computer, poster who has probably made 50 of the previous posts, and get outside. Or take some medication that will make you less miserable.