Why does anyone want to live in Arlington?

[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.

Yeah, no longer pull out gifted just watered down push in which is busywork overseen by primary classroom teacher already assigned classes 20% bigger than they used to be. Extended day much harder to secure. Larger classes as mentioned. Standards based fake grading. Equity priority over academic rigor so bright kids end up idle or on iPads.

[Anonymous]

I love living in (South) Arlington. I walk to work. I walk to the grocery store. I'm within 3 blocks of 2 different metro stations. I'm only a few blocks from the bike path. I can drive into DC in 5 minutes. My house has a large yard and I'm across the street from a park and a library. Now with Amazon, lots of new retail and restaurants within walking distance. I can't imagine a better situation. My house isn't a mansion but it has plenty of space for our family's needs.

[Anonymous]

Love hate relationship with Arlington and really the whole DMV area. Kind of stuck here for a few more years though.

[Anonymous]

Originally from the Midwest and have a lot of friends and family still out that way. There’s a lot to love about Arlington but we continue to toy with the idea of moving back. Our kids have suffered from learning loss over the past few years. We are all over the “rat race” this area creates. Just need to pull the trigger.

[Anonymous]

Why wouldn’t I want to live in Arlington? I work for the federal government in DC and my commute from Arlington is a breeze. Yes I don’t go in as often but if I ever need to go in I can just hop on the metro or get there in 15 minutes in an Uber. We have four parks walking distance to our house. We have an amazing trail. If we want to go to DC to enjoy all it has to offer it is 15 minutes away. My friends who live further never bother to go to DC unless it’s for some special occasion. The people here are educated and man you feel the difference. So are the kids. APS is a good school system and probably one of the best in the country. Yes, it has gone downhill but the difference is that parents expect the best and that’s why you hear a lot of complaints. These are some of the most educated parents in the nation and have high standards on what they consider a good education to be. So yes arlingtonians will complain and complain but it’s because we only want the best.

[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?

I think it depends on where in Arlington. If you've "got it all" - the best of the schools, subway access, retail/restaurants walking distance, and the income to afford those areas - it's a great lifestyle. If not, or if you don't want or like the ever-increasing density and can't keep up with the rising property taxes, why indeed.

[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.

Half the people in Arlington are as you describe above. The other half are super type A wackadoos. Wackadoo percentage is growing annually fyi. I’ve lived here for 50 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t I want to live in Arlington? I work for the federal government in DC and my commute from Arlington is a breeze. Yes I don’t go in as often but if I ever need to go in I can just hop on the metro or get there in 15 minutes in an Uber. We have four parks walking distance to our house. We have an amazing trail. If we want to go to DC to enjoy all it has to offer it is 15 minutes away. My friends who live further never bother to go to DC unless it’s for some special occasion. The people here are educated and man you feel the difference. So are the kids. APS is a good school system and probably one of the best in the country. Yes, it has gone downhill but the difference is that parents expect the best and that’s why you hear a lot of complaints. These are some of the most educated parents in the nation and have high standards on what they consider a good education to be. So yes arlingtonians will complain and complain but it’s because we only want the best.

One of the best school systems in the country?!?!? Hahaha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t I want to live in Arlington? I work for the federal government in DC and my commute from Arlington is a breeze. Yes I don’t go in as often but if I ever need to go in I can just hop on the metro or get there in 15 minutes in an Uber. We have four parks walking distance to our house. We have an amazing trail. If we want to go to DC to enjoy all it has to offer it is 15 minutes away. My friends who live further never bother to go to DC unless it’s for some special occasion. The people here are educated and man you feel the difference. So are the kids. APS is a good school system and probably one of the best in the country. Yes, it has gone downhill but the difference is that parents expect the best and that’s why you hear a lot of complaints. These are some of the most educated parents in the nation and have high standards on what they consider a good education to be. So yes arlingtonians will complain and complain but it’s because we only want the best.

[Anonymous]

Things have changed in northern Va. not ideal but we can’t move so we are trying to make the most of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t I want to live in Arlington? I work for the federal government in DC and my commute from Arlington is a breeze. Yes I don’t go in as often but if I ever need to go in I can just hop on the metro or get there in 15 minutes in an Uber. We have four parks walking distance to our house. We have an amazing trail. If we want to go to DC to enjoy all it has to offer it is 15 minutes away. My friends who live further never bother to go to DC unless it’s for some special occasion. The people here are educated and man you feel the difference. So are the kids. APS is a good school system and probably one of the best in the country. Yes, it has gone downhill but the difference is that parents expect the best and that’s why you hear a lot of complaints. These are some of the most educated parents in the nation and have high standards on what they consider a good education to be. So yes arlingtonians will complain and complain but it’s because we only want the best.

One of the best school systems in the country?!?!? Hahaha

Yes of course it’s one of the best school systems in the country. The problem is of course that the bar is really low. Arlington parents know this and that’s why there are so many complaints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yeah, no longer pull out gifted just watered down push in which is busywork overseen by primary classroom teacher already assigned classes 20% bigger than they used to be. Extended day much harder to secure. Larger classes as mentioned. Standards based fake grading. Equity priority over academic rigor so bright kids end up idle or on iPads.

Bravo. You covered the issues nicely in one paragraph.

[Anonymous]

We lived in Arlington for 25 years. Our kids all attended Arlington public schools from start to finish. We thought they got good educations from quality teachers. They went to good colleges (UVA etc). We moved into the city as empty nesters a little over a decade ago.

Squeaky wheel parents in Arlington is not a new thing. When we were there there was always a small group of unhappy and vocal parents who complained about everything. They called local government the “Arlington Way,” which was a nice way of saying all anybody did was complain.

One of my kids now works in the Arlington public school system. I think she puts it well: it’s a very good system but given the resources and population that it has it should be even better than that.

[Anonymous]

My husband wants to move, we stay to be close to our extended family. I love the neighborhood. On one side, a large park with bike trail that connects to many other green spaces. On the other side, a short walk/drive to whatever we need.

I agree the school leaves much to be desired. High cost of living, we can't afford private school so daughter has tutor for math/reading/writing and homework he assigns. Seems she mainly goes to school for friends/community/childcare while we work. Rising 4th grader. Hopefully it gets better but the complaints about low standards make me think we will need to keep supplementing.

[Anonymous]

We stay because of the great opportunities for our DC. The schools (regardless of APS Planning's annual school moves chaos) are quite good. The youth activities in the area are well above what I had growing up. Good restaurants and no hour-long travel to get to a Home Depot. Public transportation, trails, and dog parks, etc. are convenient.
Nothing is perfect but Arlington checks off most boxes.