Living in Centreville, Chantilly, Burke... need real insight

[Anonymous]

Arlington resident but have family in Burke - I think it’s great. Yes you won’t be able to walk to restaurants etc. but the families are down to earth, there are lots of culdesacs, lots ofkids who play outside, you can live walkable to a lake potentially, it has a lot of upsides especially if you don’t have to commute to dc. I think the poster at the beginning talking about consolation prizes was just trolling. Most people can love where they live and also recognize there are plenty of other great places to live in the dc area. Burke is a good place to live op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people still prefer the schools, parks, restaurants, charn of Arlington to Centreville, Burke, etc.

Arlington has 0 charm. It has advantages, but charm isn't one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people still prefer the schools, parks, restaurants, charn of Arlington to Centreville, Burke, etc.

Arlington has 0 charm. It has advantages, but charm isn't one of them.

Can someone point me to some “charm” in Arlington? Okay, maybe Westover is cute. Other than that, Clarendon, Pentagon City, Ballston, etc. are literally full of chains. Schools? Let’s not even go there. The system is a joke. I lived in various parts of Arlington for 9 years and don’t feel like I prefer it over anything else. Quite frankly I don’t miss it much. If I ever do it’s only 30 minutes away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke: where your minivan is one of thousands in a sea of cars at the shoppers food warehouse parking lot. Everything: library, orthodontist, dry cleaner, is just a 5-15 min drive away. Blink and you’ll miss the strip malls because they are all in these sort of pits so they are not visible from the parkways.#suburbanplanning

Curiously the only thing you can walk to is the pool (center of social universe) or or a slug line (“slug lines: we made driving with strangers cool before Uber”). Enjoy a night out with the DH at your choice of strip mall Italian/Thai restaurants. Bask in the warm security of a community where everyone is basically the same.

Burke: 12 miles/15 minutes* from DC and yet, a world away.

*disclaimer: an hour and fifteen minutes in during rush hour, 6 am-9 pm.

OMG - this describes Burke perfectly

Except the Shoppers Food Warehouse is now a Lidl. And there are many more bus stops than slug lines (plus the VRE), and Burke Centre is criss-crossed with walking and bike trails, but otherwise pretty accurate, sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke: where your minivan is one of thousands in a sea of cars at the shoppers food warehouse parking lot. Everything: library, orthodontist, dry cleaner, is just a 5-15 min drive away. Blink and you’ll miss the strip malls because they are all in these sort of pits so they are not visible from the parkways.#suburbanplanning

Curiously the only thing you can walk to is the pool (center of social universe) or or a slug line (“slug lines: we made driving with strangers cool before Uber”). Enjoy a night out with the DH at your choice of strip mall Italian/Thai restaurants. Bask in the warm security of a community where everyone is basically the same.

Burke: 12 miles/15 minutes* from DC and yet, a world away.

*disclaimer: an hour and fifteen minutes in during rush hour, 6 am-9 pm.

OMG - this describes Burke perfectly

Except the Shoppers Food Warehouse is now a Lidl. And there are many more bus stops than slug lines (plus the VRE), and Burke Centre is criss-crossed with walking and bike trails, but otherwise pretty accurate, sure.

Is there a slug line in Burke area at all? I live in Fairfax and I've never seen one but I guess I don't bother looking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke: where your minivan is one of thousands in a sea of cars at the shoppers food warehouse parking lot. Everything: library, orthodontist, dry cleaner, is just a 5-15 min drive away. Blink and you’ll miss the strip malls because they are all in these sort of pits so they are not visible from the parkways.#suburbanplanning

Curiously the only thing you can walk to is the pool (center of social universe) or or a slug line (“slug lines: we made driving with strangers cool before Uber”). Enjoy a night out with the DH at your choice of strip mall Italian/Thai restaurants. Bask in the warm security of a community where everyone is basically the same.

Burke: 12 miles/15 minutes* from DC and yet, a world away.

*disclaimer: an hour and fifteen minutes in during rush hour, 6 am-9 pm.

OMG - this describes Burke perfectly

Except the Shoppers Food Warehouse is now a Lidl. And there are many more bus stops than slug lines (plus the VRE), and Burke Centre is criss-crossed with walking and bike trails, but otherwise pretty accurate, sure.

Is there a slug line in Burke area at all? I live in Fairfax and I've never seen one but I guess I don't bother looking.

There's one at the park and ride at Rolling Valley on Old Keene Mill. That's technically still Burke. That's the only one I'm aware of until you get into West Sprinfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke: where your minivan is one of thousands in a sea of cars at the shoppers food warehouse parking lot. Everything: library, orthodontist, dry cleaner, is just a 5-15 min drive away. Blink and you’ll miss the strip malls because they are all in these sort of pits so they are not visible from the parkways.#suburbanplanning

Curiously the only thing you can walk to is the pool (center of social universe) or or a slug line (“slug lines: we made driving with strangers cool before Uber”). Enjoy a night out with the DH at your choice of strip mall Italian/Thai restaurants. Bask in the warm security of a community where everyone is basically the same.

Burke: 12 miles/15 minutes* from DC and yet, a world away.

*disclaimer: an hour and fifteen minutes in during rush hour, 6 am-9 pm.

+1 about it!
Would add:
- The starbucks, grocery store & seasonal farmers market are walkable from some of the Burke Centre neighborhoods (ours is one) which can be nice but traffic/parking are so little hassle that it's just not a chore to drive either. The Burke Centre area has tons of walking trails winding throughout the various neighborhoods.

- It's very family-focused so if you're in that kid-stage of life it's good; I wouldn't want to live her as a young person though (20s)

- It's very heavy military presence; that has plus's (like tons of great people we've met and many military families tend to be friendlier we've found since they have a limited time to jump into a community; rented houses tend to be to military families so pretty good neighbors) and minus's (more flux in kids' friends as families get restationed). I've never lived somewhere with so many people either actively in the military or retired from it / working as a contractor for it. It's not bad - but it's definitely part of the "vibe" to know of.

- Being a transplant from a non-urban area, it just feels very comfortable and "normal" feeling. People tend not to be pretentious or outwardly uber competitive - just feels sort of "sane".

All very true, though we walk to VRE rather than the slug line.

We moved here from a very "urban" part of DC, and the only thing I miss are the restaurants. It is not at all what people think of when they say they want a walkable neighborhood, but we walk a ton here and love all the trails/green space. We're at the stage of life where kids are playing lots of sports, and practices are all within a 15-minute drive. I've found Burke to be a very easy place to live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in the Chantilly HS district, right on the line between Fairfax and Chantilly. Fair Lakes is right around the corner and has everything you need. Our neighborhood is lovely, has a private pool (but it’s hard to join), parks, walk to all 3 school levels, etc. Really just a nice laid-back place and so much more affordable than closer-in. I don’t feel like we settled at all, and we used to live in Arlington for years.

I can’t speak for further out in Chantilly/Centreville.

Hmm, this sounds like that ugly neighborhood behind Bob's Discount Furniture right off route 50. Glad you have a positive attitude about it. But I would not consider that area "lovely" or "walkable".

Wow, okay. That’s on you then. I live in a perfectly nice neighborhood where the people are very friendly and yes, it is walkable whether or not you enjoy what it’s walkable to. You forgot to mention the Starbucks, Giant, many restaurants, Total Wine, etc. in that same shopping center. But you sound snobby so I’m not surprised you pick the one store you find crappy to deride my neighborhood.

+1 Hello, neighbor! I love our neighborhood. It is one of the most affordable with all the amenities WE need. We actually bought when my husband worked in Ashburn and I went to Lorton a couple days a week. I now work in Reston and my husband in Stafford.

Walkability to all 3 levels of school was so important to us when we bought. We also walk to the shopping center in nice weather and the library (I used to hold Girl Scout meetings over there when my daughter was a little younger). There are a couple parks we can easily walk to, and the little one loves the trail by the creek in the middle of the hood. We haven't paid the ridiculous fees to join the pool since I am not a SAHM and we just can't spend the entire summer at the pool, but we have enough friends with memberships that my kids can usually go a few times in the summer.

We are in the process of renovating our house right now and should have it all fixed up in the next couple months - new windows, updated bathrooms, new siding, etc. Lots of people have been sprucing their homes up lately.

Yes, we visit a lot of chain stores and restaurants. It's the burbs. We're fine with it.

I had thought about whether we should move early on in this mess for a little more room, but the good things about this neighborhood keep me here. I love being able to hear the games and band over at the HS from my backyard. I love that the Homecoming parade goes right by my house (in normal times). I love that my daughter has a best friend right next door. It is so very small town, honestly. Our neighborhood has an active social media where we all help each other out with recommendations and sharing things, etc. It'sreally nice and I just can't leave it.

[Anonymous]

I’ve lived in Arlington and western Fairfax County. There are pros and cons to both, but they are night and day. I think they really attract people who care about different things.

In Chantilly/Centreville there is a lot more generic 1980s-early 2000s housing. Many neighborhoods are more of your traditional subdivision off a main road nestled between large shopping centers. The houses were bigger/cheaper, but not necessarily that nice (very dated finishes) from what I remember of house hunting. But they are nicer than some of the un-updated older houses in Arlington if that is your price bracket of comparison. Life is based around driving. You need a car to do almost everything unless you’re lucky to have a Starbucks or park right near your neighborhood. Restaurants tend to be large chains or hole in the walls unless you want to drive to Clifton for Trummers or something like that. A pro was that it was more diverse out there than Arlington, but it also felt very transient to me and people kept more to themselves. Some of the strip malls are really worn down and ugly, nothing is quite as nicely planned as Loudoun is (if planned suburbia is your thing). I also never really felt like Centreville or Chantilly have much of an identity to them the way Reston or Town of Vienna do. They feel sort of like unincorporated suburbia, which is maybe why you can’t get a good feel for what they’re like.

That said, you’re near major commuter roads and if you don’t mind driving to shopping centers, then you have everything you need as far as doctors, kids play places, etc. or driving to trails and parks. For a lot of people, this is all they need. They might make a few good friends through their kids’ schools and their dollar goes farther so it is worth it.

It will be very different from Arlington though. In Arlington, there are constantly people biking, jogging, walking dogs, etc. in a way I just didn’t see in my old neighborhood where houses were more spaced out and there wasn’t really anything to walk to.

[Anonymous]

No one has mentioned the amazing Korean restaurants in Centreville yet! Tons of great options.

[Anonymous]

A lot of military in Burke

[Anonymous]

We live in Little Rocky Run, a community in Centreville/Clifton. Its a great place to raise kids—walking distance to elementary, middle and high schools, multiple pools in the neighborhood, etc. Its a very family-focused area, we know a lot of families like ours that moved out here from DC, Alex or Arlington because they can get much more house/yard for the price.

There is a very large Asian (Korean predominantly) community in Centreville, so there are some neighborhoods where you are in the minority if you arent Korean. That happened to us in the first neighborhood we lived in when we moved out here (Centre Ridge). Our neighbors were all very nice and said hello, etc,. But we were clearly not part of the community.

There are good restaurants everywhere. Two great reataurants—Trummers and Villagio—in the town of Clifton. And every shopping center has good non-chain restaurants as well as chain restaurants. Fairfax City also has good spots.

There are good wineries in Clifton and Centreville and of course further West.

I mean, its surburbia. Lots of people drive minivans. If you accept thats where you are in your life, you will be happy.

[Anonymous]

I haven't lived in any of these 3, although we did look there before settling in Reston. Burke seems like a nice community. I agree with a PP that Centreville and Chantilly seem to have less of an identity. I preferred Chantilly over Centreville, but both have good non-chain ethnic restaurants. Pre-covid, that's where we would go for good Korean food.

[Anonymous]

Although some houses and properties in Burke are starting to look really run down, Burke generally feels more like a classically traditional suburban community. It flows well and has a lot of walking trails and is treed nicely. It's also closer to DC and you don't have to use 66 ever.

I find both Centreville and Chantilly to be a little too slipshod in the way they were developed, in that there is all sorts of weird intersections and all sorts of stuff just tossed here and there. They all have good enough restaurants with variety.

[Anonymous]

Centreville has some good Korean food.