Move from city to outer 'burbs?

[Anonymous]

"Does that mean everyone in Loudon County is equally mediocre? "

I'm not the Loudon poster but that is the one thing I like do like about the suburbs. No ones tries, claims to be, or really is extraordinary or put another way more than mediocre. Seriously, most people in the city are also mediocre but so many strive to appear to be more than what they are and always worried about how they stack up. People who wouldn't normally be his way get caught up in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Does that mean everyone in Loudon County is equally mediocre? "

I'm not the Loudon poster but that is the one thing I like do like about the suburbs. No ones tries, claims to be, or really is extraordinary or put another way more than mediocre. Seriously, most people in the city are also mediocre but so many strive to appear to be more than what they are and always worried about how they stack up. People who wouldn't normally be his way get caught up in it.

ESPECIALLY people who move to the city from small towns. SOme have a small town inferiority complex. I know a girl who developed a slight british accent after living in DC for a few years...odd.

[Anonymous]

PP here - the one who said it TOTALLY SUCKED to live in the outer suburbs.

Question to the PP who posted after me - did you drink in the woods? We sure did. And then we drove home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did it (District to Rockville). We regretted it terribly, and moved back to close-in Mo Co right over the District line.

Rockville the outer burbs?! And more Rockville bashing, too boot (on another DCUM thread). I'm not a Rockville resident and have never lived there, so have no dog in any fight. I also know it's outside of the beltway. But it's still in the same time zone as, say, the mecca that is Bethesda.

Another poster suggested Silver Spring might be in the outer burbs. That's probably closer in than any other MD suburb!

Isn't outer burbs, at least in MD, something like Clarksburg or Boyds, which this close in city dweller has never laid eyes on, but heard about?

[Anonymous]

Silver Spring is HUGE and definitely extends to what I would consider the outer burbs - as far as ten miles north from downtown Silver Spring. The Silver Spring poster herself said she was "pretty far north in Silver Spring." There are also parts of Rockville that are right next to Bethesda vs. others that are way up and west of 270, far from Rockville Pike and Metro, that I think would seem way exurban to someone coming from DC.

[Anonymous]

You all REALLY need to get a life. From reading through these posts I've come to the conclusion TON of very bored (and nasty) people with a lot of time on their hands inside DC and out.

Why aren't you all at the museums, restaurants, people watching, or working blissfully in your yards as you so proclaim?

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but I've never heard of Clarksburg or Boyds. Did you make those places up?

[Anonymous]

21:22: We didn't actually have woods... I lived in the middle of extensive suburban sprawl, but that didn't stop friends from drinking, etc. in unsupervised rec. rooms. My own clique spent a lot of time in unlit, unpatrolled parks after hours-- a really stupid thing to do. What we didn't have, that we needed, were busy public gathering places open late-ish with more temperate eyes on the street. I will say that they have more of that nowadays, though.

Somehow, our parents worried more when we drove to more central hang-outs. That was a mistake, because when we drove over the hill into denser neighborhoods, we went to open-mike poetry nights and the cutesy college card shops/bookstores around UCLA. Or we had theater tickets and enjoyed grown-up dinners afterward. The danger, for us, was that bored, unsupervised time after all the decent suburban family folk went to bed, or at least holed up with their home theater systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Does that mean everyone in Loudon County is equally mediocre? "

I'm not the Loudon poster but that is the one thing I like do like about the suburbs. No ones tries, claims to be, or really is extraordinary or put another way more than mediocre. Seriously, most people in the city are also mediocre but so many strive to appear to be more than what they are and always worried about how they stack up. People who wouldn't normally be his way get caught up in it.

ESPECIALLY people who move to the city from small towns. SOme have a small town inferiority complex. I know a girl who developed a slight british accent after living in DC for a few years...odd.

The worst is people who move to the city from small towns in places like Arkansas, Mississippi (and dare I say it: Texas). DC is filled with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did it (District to Rockville). We regretted it terribly, and moved back to close-in Mo Co right over the District line.

Rockville the outer burbs?! And more Rockville bashing, too boot (on another DCUM thread). I'm not a Rockville resident and have never lived there, so have no dog in any fight. I also know it's outside of the beltway. But it's still in the same time zone as, say, the mecca that is Bethesda.

Another poster suggested Silver Spring might be in the outer burbs. That's probably closer in than any other MD suburb!

Isn't outer burbs, at least in MD, something like Clarksburg or Boyds, which this close in city dweller has never laid eyes on, but heard about?

It's not "Rockville bashing," either to boot or "too" boot. I liked Rockville very much, as a city. But if you work in the District and NoVa, which we did, it's a very long commute and at that time Metro access was not quite as easy. And if you're driving to NoVa, it can seem like the outer burbs.

As PPs have noted, Silver Spring is a huge, unincorporated area and some of it is quite far out. Downtown Silver Spring is close in, but that's probably not what the original Silver Spring poster was talking about.

Don't be offended if some of us choose shorter commutes that are easier on ourselves and on the environment.

[Anonymous]

"Isn't outer burbs, at least in MD, something like Clarksburg or Boyds, which this close in city dweller has never laid eyes on, but heard about? "

LOL. The outer burbs is wherever a city dweller lands outside the beltway, myself included. We moved to North Potomc which I consider it the outer burbs, though Boyds and Clarksburg are furher out. We drive in to Rockville or Bethesda for an urban experience

Big Reasons Not To Do It

Commute
Restaurants
Things to do
End up with a bigger house and unanticipated costs that come with a bigger house

Big Reasons to Do It

Avoid stress of whole private school thing and tuition costs
More and better preschool options
More grocery store options
End up with an older house with unanticipated repair costs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:21:22: We didn't actually have woods... I lived in the middle of extensive suburban sprawl, but that didn't stop friends from drinking, etc. in unsupervised rec. rooms. My own clique spent a lot of time in unlit, unpatrolled parks after hours-- a really stupid thing to do. What we didn't have, that we needed, were busy public gathering places open late-ish with more temperate eyes on the street. I will say that they have more of that nowadays, though.

Somehow, our parents worried more when we drove to more central hang-outs. That was a mistake, because when we drove over the hill into denser neighborhoods, we went to open-mike poetry nights and the cutesy college card shops/bookstores around UCLA. Or we had theater tickets and enjoyed grown-up dinners afterward. The danger, for us, was that bored, unsupervised time after all the decent suburban family folk went to bed, or at least holed up with their home theater systems.

Very interesting point! And here I've been worrying that my too-young-to-drive teenager is able to get into more trouble than many suburban teenagers because she can take metro all over the map. I'm going to rethink that now!

But now that I think about it, she generally goes to various commercial districts (Bethesda, Friendship Hts, Georgetown) to hang out with her friends. We have a strict rule against hanging out at people's houses when parents aren't home but generally she's not so interested in doing that. (At least that is what she tells me!)

[Anonymous]

My commute from Rockville (albeit very south - 20852 ZIP) to Arlington is about 35 minutes with a total of two traffic lights before I hit Arlington. It is actually a reasonably enjoyable commute, as I take GW Parkway and get off before the backup closer to the city. It takes me less time to get here than a lot of people that commute from the city or areas of Fairfax County. I also could take metro, but it's not ideal because I pick up the kids at daycare on my way home.

[Anonymous]

I'm another one that grew up in a small town and got into tons of trouble. Like PPs said nothing to do at night except go to random parks at night and drink....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My commute from Rockville (albeit very south - 20852 ZIP) to Arlington is about 35 minutes with a total of two traffic lights before I hit Arlington. It is actually a reasonably enjoyable commute, as I take GW Parkway and get off before the backup closer to the city. It takes me less time to get here than a lot of people that commute from the city or areas of Fairfax County. I also could take metro, but it's not ideal because I pick up the kids at daycare on my way home.

A Rockville to Arlington commute?

Why not just live in Virginia?