Life in Falls Church

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"downtown vibe??" I'm not sure what you're referring to here. Do you just mean that there are things you can walk to?

Yes, just the sense of some walkability compared to many of the suburbs in Northern Virginia that seem almost exclusively car-bound. Again, we are searching from a distance and not from the area so we might not be seeing things correctly.

It's not really as walkable as it seems, honestly. The roads are very busy and other than a couple blocks, there isn't much to walk to. That may change with the new developments popping up, but I'm just concerned that it will make the roads even busier and unsafe.

I dont agree about walkability--I am on the west side and daily walk to the east side and back--never had any issues with cars. its obviously not like walking around NYC or Chicago but for a city burb its pretty good.

[Anonymous]

Op I live nearby in Westover, neighborhood nearby over the line in Arlington, and have a lot of friends in FCC because I grew up in this area so we are a little scattered now. I think they would describe it the way you did and all are very happy. We were looking in both westover and FCC when we bought for the same reasons you are. We are very happy in westover and I feel confident we would have been happy in FCC too. Posters on here will always have some negativity of these slightly more walkable areas with high price tags for a variety of reasons so take some of it with a grain of salt. I think if you talked to most FCC'ers on the street they would say they agree with your assessment and are happy!

[Anonymous]

There are a bunch of "slightly more walkable areas" scattered around NoVa, but (1) the only truly walkable areas are in Alexandria and (2) people in the other "slightly more walkable areas" spend a lot of time making the case they are slightly more walkable than other slightly more walkable areas.

[Anonymous]

I live in FCC, and I consider it highly walkable. Within ten minutes of my house, I can easily walk to the pedestrian/bike trail, several parks, the library, community center, grocery stores, restaurants, hardware store, etc. I've never had any issues with cars/traffic while I am walking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCC is not diverse, if that matters to you.

What does that even mean?

I mean, it's pretty uniformly affluent, so there's that.

What many people describe as school quality is just a reflection of the school's SES/demographics. The schools offer the same curriculum and it could be argued the same kid would do the same at any of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, our taxes, not are! Been a long day.

LOL completely understand. Is the tax difference really that much? I see something like 1% property tax in Arlington versus 1.25% in FCC?

It's $5k a year on a $2m house.

[Anonymous]

I really love it, plus the housing stock is generally more attractive. Pretty leafy streets and parks are always full (compared to my local Ffx County 22043 park) and people seem like they are connected. I would totally live there if I could afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really love it, plus the housing stock is generally more attractive. Pretty leafy streets and parks are always full (compared to my local Ffx County 22043 park) and people seem like they are connected. I would totally live there if I could afford it.

Apart from Broadmont, I don't find the housing stock in FCC especially attractive, and less attractive than nearby areas in the county.

[Anonymous]

The best compromise is being in the adjacent falls church, Fairfax area. Great schools (haycock, Longfellow and McLean) that have larger pool of students so your kids aren’t stuck in the same group of kids K-12, greater variety of academic programs and more diversity (at least in terms of Asian Americans), lower tax rate, and still walkable to FCC locations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"downtown vibe??" I'm not sure what you're referring to here. Do you just mean that there are things you can walk to?

Yes, just the sense of some walkability compared to many of the suburbs in Northern Virginia that seem almost exclusively car-bound. Again, we are searching from a distance and not from the area so we might not be seeing things correctly.

It's not really as walkable as it seems, honestly. The roads are very busy and other than a couple blocks, there isn't much to walk to. That may change with the new developments popping up, but I'm just concerned that it will make the roads even busier and unsafe.

It's walkable enough for the middle school and high school students to swarm Birch and Broad after dismissal. I'm another 22043 interloper who uses a few services in FCC and I've never gotten a "small town" vibe from it. It's sandwiched between Tysons and Arlington! It's by no means an isolated community, and when we're at swim class or the pediatrician or picking up dinner, we don't feel like outsiders. The vibe is no different from running to the dentist in Tysons, or going to a store in McLean. Maybe it's different if you live there, but this area is just so densely populated that any activities you do outside of school is going to overlap with multiple school clusters.

Don't live in FCC, as have no interest in paying higher taxes or sending my kids to IB schools like Meridian (prefer AP), but one thing I've noticed is that the FCC residents seem to be much more invested in local elections. In particular, if you drive around FCC near an election, it seems like every house or every other house has campaign signs out in front, presumably supporting someone they know running for local office. Cross a block or two into parts of 22046 that are in the county, and there are far fewer signs.

It's a mixed bag. Not sure I'd really want to get pressured by a neighbor to put up their campaign signs in my yard, but some of the local representatives in Fairfax County (thinking of the low-life, despicable Karl Frisch) could care less about being responsive to the needs of the community.

Meridian HS is only IB? They don't have any APs?

What are the schools that have both?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"downtown vibe??" I'm not sure what you're referring to here. Do you just mean that there are things you can walk to?

Yes, just the sense of some walkability compared to many of the suburbs in Northern Virginia that seem almost exclusively car-bound. Again, we are searching from a distance and not from the area so we might not be seeing things correctly.

It's not really as walkable as it seems, honestly. The roads are very busy and other than a couple blocks, there isn't much to walk to. That may change with the new developments popping up, but I'm just concerned that it will make the roads even busier and unsafe.

It's walkable enough for the middle school and high school students to swarm Birch and Broad after dismissal. I'm another 22043 interloper who uses a few services in FCC and I've never gotten a "small town" vibe from it. It's sandwiched between Tysons and Arlington! It's by no means an isolated community, and when we're at swim class or the pediatrician or picking up dinner, we don't feel like outsiders. The vibe is no different from running to the dentist in Tysons, or going to a store in McLean. Maybe it's different if you live there, but this area is just so densely populated that any activities you do outside of school is going to overlap with multiple school clusters.

Don't live in FCC, as have no interest in paying higher taxes or sending my kids to IB schools like Meridian (prefer AP), but one thing I've noticed is that the FCC residents seem to be much more invested in local elections. In particular, if you drive around FCC near an election, it seems like every house or every other house has campaign signs out in front, presumably supporting someone they know running for local office. Cross a block or two into parts of 22046 that are in the county, and there are far fewer signs.

It's a mixed bag. Not sure I'd really want to get pressured by a neighbor to put up their campaign signs in my yard, but some of the local representatives in Fairfax County (thinking of the low-life, despicable Karl Frisch) could care less about being responsive to the needs of the community.

Meridian HS is only IB? They don't have any APs?

What are the schools that have both?

In NoVa, it's really Washington-Liberty in APS that has full IB and a full menu of AP courses. Some IB schools like Meridian and Robinson offer a few AP courses like AP Calculus and AP Government, but not many. And you can't offer IB unless you offer the full IB program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCC is not diverse, if that matters to you.

What does that even mean?

I mean, it's pretty uniformly affluent, so there's that.

What many people describe as school quality is just a reflection of the school's SES/demographics. The schools offer the same curriculum and it could be argued the same kid would do the same at any of them.

I used to think this was true- but I don't anymore. We moved from an adjacent highly regarded school to FCC. FCC is different, especially if your kids need extra help. I think the big difference is the class sizes. FCC's are much smaller, and so kids don't get lost in the same way. I think a high performing kid is probably going to have similar experiences in any of the school systems, but a kid who is struggling, or who needs extra help, or isn't reaching their full potential does better with the small class sizes in FCC. I have found FCC much more willing to provide additional hours to IEPs, offer interventions, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCC is not diverse, if that matters to you.

What does that even mean?

I mean, it's pretty uniformly affluent, so there's that.

What many people describe as school quality is just a reflection of the school's SES/demographics. The schools offer the same curriculum and it could be argued the same kid would do the same at any of them.

This is true of all the high outcome schools in the area, the difference in FCC lies mostly in parents ability to communicate with and know those in positions of authority or elected officials such as school board members. This doesn't matter to some people but to many it does.

[Anonymous]

It’s small. That can be good or bad. We live just across the border in Arlington and most of my kids’ preschool buddies went to FCC.

If you have more than 2 kids or 1 parent who doesn’t do school pick-up/drop off, the grade levels of the schools guarantee you almost always have kids at multiple schools.

Camps and other school closure support in the area is based on Fairfax’s schedule first and Arlington 2nd.

If your kids are social, well liked, and well behaved - great! If not, there is no where to go and reinvent themselves or start over. We know a family who moved to Arlington because their son was typecast in Kinder as a “bad kid” and even as he matured, he always had that baggage. Same goes for gossip - kids and adults. If you are an outcast, it is lonely. In Arlington there are more people and more options to change friend groups or try new things.

Personally I don’t see the point in paying a premium. We are so close that we shop at the FCC Harris Teeter and frequent the strip on Broad St, but we live in Arlington and our kids go to APS schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"downtown vibe??" I'm not sure what you're referring to here. Do you just mean that there are things you can walk to?

Yes, just the sense of some walkability compared to many of the suburbs in Northern Virginia that seem almost exclusively car-bound. Again, we are searching from a distance and not from the area so we might not be seeing things correctly.

It's not really as walkable as it seems, honestly. The roads are very busy and other than a couple blocks, there isn't much to walk to. That may change with the new developments popping up, but I'm just concerned that it will make the roads even busier and unsafe.

It's walkable enough for the middle school and high school students to swarm Birch and Broad after dismissal. I'm another 22043 interloper who uses a few services in FCC and I've never gotten a "small town" vibe from it. It's sandwiched between Tysons and Arlington! It's by no means an isolated community, and when we're at swim class or the pediatrician or picking up dinner, we don't feel like outsiders. The vibe is no different from running to the dentist in Tysons, or going to a store in McLean. Maybe it's different if you live there, but this area is just so densely populated that any activities you do outside of school is going to overlap with multiple school clusters.

Don't live in FCC, as have no interest in paying higher taxes or sending my kids to IB schools like Meridian (prefer AP), but one thing I've noticed is that the FCC residents seem to be much more invested in local elections. In particular, if you drive around FCC near an election, it seems like every house or every other house has campaign signs out in front, presumably supporting someone they know running for local office. Cross a block or two into parts of 22046 that are in the county, and there are far fewer signs.

It's a mixed bag. Not sure I'd really want to get pressured by a neighbor to put up their campaign signs in my yard, but some of the local representatives in Fairfax County (thinking of the low-life, despicable Karl Frisch) could care less about being responsive to the needs of the community.

Meridian HS is only IB? They don't have any APs?

What are the schools that have both?

In NoVa, it's really Washington-Liberty in APS that has full IB and a full menu of AP courses. Some IB schools like Meridian and Robinson offer a few AP courses like AP Calculus and AP Government, but not many. And you can't offer IB unless you offer the full IB program.

In FCPS, you can pupil place into a different school if they don’t offer the one (AP or IB) that you want.