What’s the allure of Fairfax County

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Raised the kids in North Arlington and moved to downtown DC as youngish empty nesters. Bought a second home in the country about 90 minutes from the city when Covid started. None of our places is particularly fancy, and we’re well off but I wouldn’t say wealthy.

Was in Fairfax County today having car work done. Spent a couple hours walking around the area (more or less the between Vienna and Merrifield) while I waited.

I found it horrifying. Strip malls followed by town houses and single family homes hugging congested highways, no real sidewalks (mostly asphalt), and all the same in every direction. Walked into what looked like a quiet leafy ‘hood to get away from it and quickly found myself walking into a sound wall for I-66.

I’m sorry, but why does anyone with any other options choose to live in an area like that? It raised my blood pressure!!

did you use a time machine to go back 30 years to merrifield and walk around?

Huh? I don’t get it.

[Anonymous]

OP, can you tell me which neighborhood you actually like? That might give us a clue on which aspects to talk about.

As of now I can only say try living here, it’s great. Everything I need can be reached under 20 minutes; my kids have wonderful teachers and friends at public schools; my neighbors are class acts. The only quibble I might have is that we are all busier than we’d like, but that is by choice and we probably wouldn’t have it any other way anyways. I have friends who live an hour away who come to my two-acre lot in McLean and complain about how horrible the traffic was to get here while they battle 66 every day and live in a duplex. I say sour grapes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, can you tell me which neighborhood you actually like? That might give us a clue on which aspects to talk about.

As of now I can only say try living here, it’s great. Everything I need can be reached under 20 minutes; my kids have wonderful teachers and friends at public schools; my neighbors are class acts. The only quibble I might have is that we are all busier than we’d like, but that is by choice and we probably wouldn’t have it any other way anyways. I have friends who live an hour away who come to my two-acre lot in McLean and complain about how horrible the traffic was to get here while they battle 66 every day and live in a duplex. I say sour grapes.

I don’t like any part of Fairfax, period. It’s just too endless and too suburban and too ugly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County is huge. Inside the beltway is of course very crowded for the most part. But there is also Burke, Clifton, GMU, Fairfax Station, and Old Town Herndon etc. You just can't paint the whole place with one wide brush.

This. What a stupid post.

Troll nonsense... walked into a leafy hood!... friggin' sidewalks. walked into a wall for I66... What empty nester talks like that? And if OP really lived in North Arlington and now lives in DC (though they are getting their car worked on in Merrifield?), they would have to be utterly clueless to not understand why Fairfax County would appeal to many, for a variety of reasons. I call shenanigans!

+1. If not a troll, OP is one of those types who visits France for a week and spends the rest of her life talking about how much higher the quality of life is in Europe than in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County is huge. Inside the beltway is of course very crowded for the most part. But there is also Burke, Clifton, GMU, Fairfax Station, and Old Town Herndon etc. You just can't paint the whole place with one wide brush.

This. What a stupid post.

Troll nonsense... walked into a leafy hood!... friggin' sidewalks. walked into a wall for I66... What empty nester talks like that? And if OP really lived in North Arlington and now lives in DC (though they are getting their car worked on in Merrifield?), they would have to be utterly clueless to not understand why Fairfax County would appeal to many, for a variety of reasons. I call shenanigans!

+1. If not a troll, OP is one of those types who visits France for a week and spends the rest of her life talking about how much higher the quality of life is in Europe than in the US.

OP here. How are empty nesters supposed to talk exactly? I have to say “friggin’” because this site won’t let me say what I really would say. 😊

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County is huge. Inside the beltway is of course very crowded for the most part. But there is also Burke, Clifton, GMU, Fairfax Station, and Old Town Herndon etc. You just can't paint the whole place with one wide brush.

This. What a stupid post.

Troll nonsense... walked into a leafy hood!... friggin' sidewalks. walked into a wall for I66... What empty nester talks like that? And if OP really lived in North Arlington and now lives in DC (though they are getting their car worked on in Merrifield?), they would have to be utterly clueless to not understand why Fairfax County would appeal to many, for a variety of reasons. I call shenanigans!

+1. If not a troll, OP is one of those types who visits France for a week and spends the rest of her life talking about how much higher the quality of life is in Europe than in the US.

OP here. How are empty nesters supposed to talk exactly? I have to say “friggin’” because this site won’t let me say what I really would say. 😊

You could say things that make sense? Like "I couldn't find anything to do while my car was worked on" would make sense (although it would remain unclear why you felt this worth sharing). "I dislike Fairfax County" does not make sense, in that same way that saying "I dislike things whose name contains the letter R" would make no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County is huge. Inside the beltway is of course very crowded for the most part. But there is also Burke, Clifton, GMU, Fairfax Station, and Old Town Herndon etc. You just can't paint the whole place with one wide brush.

This. What a stupid post.

Troll nonsense... walked into a leafy hood!... friggin' sidewalks. walked into a wall for I66... What empty nester talks like that? And if OP really lived in North Arlington and now lives in DC (though they are getting their car worked on in Merrifield?), they would have to be utterly clueless to not understand why Fairfax County would appeal to many, for a variety of reasons. I call shenanigans!

I don’t think this person is a troll. I think they just don’t really know the area.

It sounds like they were at the Nutley steet Exxon which is right off of 66, so they walked behind the garage into the neighborhood that was there before they expanded 66, and put in the toll lanes, anyone who has a house around there got screwed who knew 66 was going to go from a simple 4 lane hwy to a 16 lane behemoth.

I’ve been here all of my life and didn’t see it coming. I assumed they would expand metro, added a third rail to do
express trains, etc. which would have left a much smaller footprint and enticed a whole lot of people to take the metro into Tysons and DC, but we got what we got.

OP Fairfax definitely has issues, one they are too developer friendly, but even close in Fairfax and Vienna have neighborhoods that are far from
what you describe.

That area is a cluster F because FFX didn’t do what it was supposed to do, create a town center at Vienna, shops, groceries, offices, restaurants and some more housing, instead it’s all housing, with a slow metro, so more people and cars and still needing to drive to get anywhere.

Adding the lanes to 66 and the extra complicated on off ramps just made it uglier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County is huge. Inside the beltway is of course very crowded for the most part. But there is also Burke, Clifton, GMU, Fairfax Station, and Old Town Herndon etc. You just can't paint the whole place with one wide brush.

This. What a stupid post.

Troll nonsense... walked into a leafy hood!... friggin' sidewalks. walked into a wall for I66... What empty nester talks like that? And if OP really lived in North Arlington and now lives in DC (though they are getting their car worked on in Merrifield?), they would have to be utterly clueless to not understand why Fairfax County would appeal to many, for a variety of reasons. I call shenanigans!

+1. If not a troll, OP is one of those types who visits France for a week and spends the rest of her life talking about how much higher the quality of life is in Europe than in the US.

OP here. How are empty nesters supposed to talk exactly? I have to say “friggin’” because this site won’t let me say what I really would say. 😊

You could say things that make sense? Like "I couldn't find anything to do while my car was worked on" would make sense (although it would remain unclear why you felt this worth sharing). "I dislike Fairfax County" does not make sense, in that same way that saying "I dislike things whose name contains the letter R" would make no sense.

I felt it “worth sharing” that I found it difficult to get a decent walk in - even on a beautiful day - in the largest suburban county in the region because there were so many missing sidewalks, so much insane traffic, and an incredible amount of ugly and boring monotony. I’ve seen far less important things shared on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County is huge. Inside the beltway is of course very crowded for the most part. But there is also Burke, Clifton, GMU, Fairfax Station, and Old Town Herndon etc. You just can't paint the whole place with one wide brush.

This. What a stupid post.

Troll nonsense... walked into a leafy hood!... friggin' sidewalks. walked into a wall for I66... What empty nester talks like that? And if OP really lived in North Arlington and now lives in DC (though they are getting their car worked on in Merrifield?), they would have to be utterly clueless to not understand why Fairfax County would appeal to many, for a variety of reasons. I call shenanigans!

I don’t think this person is a troll. I think they just don’t really know the area.

It sounds like they were at the Nutley steet Exxon which is right off of 66, so they walked behind the garage into the neighborhood that was there before they expanded 66, and put in the toll lanes, anyone who has a house around there got screwed who knew 66 was going to go from a simple 4 lane hwy to a 16 lane behemoth.

I’ve been here all of my life and didn’t see it coming. I assumed they would expand metro, added a third rail to do
express trains, etc. which would have left a much smaller footprint and enticed a whole lot of people to take the metro into Tysons and DC, but we got what we got.

OP Fairfax definitely has issues, one they are too developer friendly, but even close in Fairfax and Vienna have neighborhoods that are far from
what you describe.

That area is a cluster F because FFX didn’t do what it was supposed to do, create a town center at Vienna, shops, groceries, offices, restaurants and some more housing, instead it’s all housing, with a slow metro, so more people and cars and still needing to drive to get anywhere.

Adding the lanes to 66 and the extra complicated on off ramps just made it uglier.

As part of my (two-hour) walk, yes, I ended up at the intersection of Nutley street and Route 29.

[Anonymous]

Town center at Vienna Metro.

[Anonymous]

The allure is that it’s the economic powerhouse of the region, has the top public schools, and has the largest number of nice houses. And it has a very substantial UMC, whereas other areas have turned into “donut holes” with lots of wealthy and poor people, and less and less in between.

OP is a silly pill, who also picked the wrong area to walk or even drive around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am sure that despite not being "wealthy" your housing prices were a lot lower than what young families are paying now. I agree with you that most of Fairfax is kind of depressing but it is what is available to most people. There are pretty, leafier pockets but they can come with other downsides.

+infinity

This, right here! Don’t ever forget how many people literally fund their retirements with sale of their McLean, Vienna, Oakton, FCC, or Arlington family homes

[Anonymous]

I agree it’s not great. I have friends retirees who have time on their hands and big voices and they care about the area because they are natives and have extended families in the area and they do their part to stop and alter development where they can. One such successful effort is often discussed here.

They are successfully Advocating for green space and less density in development in my little corner.

But I think this area suffers from too many transplants who don’t care what it looks like 50 years from now, because they don’t think they will be here.

So FFX govt has no incentive to take urban planning seriously. They changed laws that required developers to provide concessions in exchange for zoning changes to build baby build.

So what you are looking at is infill run amuck.

Yes it’s ugly but it doesn’t affect the entire area. There are plenty of nice areas.

They just tend to be the older more established formally upper middle class areas.

Re that area of FFX, not really Vienna, has seen a lot of development because it was basically industrial office park, land set aside because it was contaminated, or old houses or private business/clubs on large plots of land.

They are fairly new neighborhoods and the land is pricy so they cram cheap large builds on small lots.

Other areas being developed particularly in Vienna were smaller middle class neighborhoods, everyone wants to live in Vienna, so North Vienna was available, 600k tear downs on 1/4 acre lots.

Again that’s pricey for land so, up goes the ugly McCraftman/McFarmhouse box.

You walked for two hours in the heart of infill country. It’s certainly not all of FFX.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County is huge. Inside the beltway is of course very crowded for the most part. But there is also Burke, Clifton, GMU, Fairfax Station, and Old Town Herndon etc. You just can't paint the whole place with one wide brush.

This. What a stupid post.

Troll nonsense... walked into a leafy hood!... friggin' sidewalks. walked into a wall for I66... What empty nester talks like that? And if OP really lived in North Arlington and now lives in DC (though they are getting their car worked on in Merrifield?), they would have to be utterly clueless to not understand why Fairfax County would appeal to many, for a variety of reasons. I call shenanigans!

+1. If not a troll, OP is one of those types who visits France for a week and spends the rest of her life talking about how much higher the quality of life is in Europe than in the US.

OP here. How are empty nesters supposed to talk exactly? I have to say “friggin’” because this site won’t let me say what I really would say. 😊

You could say things that make sense? Like "I couldn't find anything to do while my car was worked on" would make sense (although it would remain unclear why you felt this worth sharing). "I dislike Fairfax County" does not make sense, in that same way that saying "I dislike things whose name contains the letter R" would make no sense.

I felt it “worth sharing” that I found it difficult to get a decent walk in - even on a beautiful day - in the largest suburban county in the region because there were so many missing sidewalks, so much insane traffic, and an incredible amount of ugly and boring monotony. I’ve seen far less important things shared on DCUM.

You’ve seen less important things shared than a story about how you killed time while getting your car repaired? I’m not sure I have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Raised the kids in North Arlington and moved to downtown DC as youngish empty nesters. Bought a second home in the country about 90 minutes from the city when Covid started. None of our places is particularly fancy, and we’re well off but I wouldn’t say wealthy.

Was in Fairfax County today having car work done. Spent a couple hours walking around the area (more or less the between Vienna and Merrifield) while I waited.

I found it horrifying. Strip malls followed by town houses and single family homes hugging congested highways, no real sidewalks (mostly asphalt), and all the same in every direction. Walked into what looked like a quiet leafy ‘hood to get away from it and quickly found myself walking into a sound wall for I-66.

I’m sorry, but why does anyone with any other options choose to live in an area like that? It raised my blood pressure!!

Oh, and Arlington is so beautiful, with no highways or 66.