Arlington or Montgomery County? [VA/MD]

[Anonymous]

22-year resident of DC here. We are considering a move to the close-suburbs and are looking at these two areas as well. Bethesda has some beautiful homes and areas (Kenwood especially). Bethesda center is nice and very tidy. I just can't get excited about it. I prefer Arlington and its neighborhood areas, which seem to have a bit more personality. But maybe that's unfair since I don't know MoCo so well. What I was surprised about, though, is the uncertainty of the schools in Arlington. There's so much movement and reorganization and people seem deeply unhappy with ACPS on this forum so it's given me some pause (we are at the elementary level in DCPS right now and quite happy with our school so not in a rush to move). I absolutely love Takoma Park, MD, and agree that someone from the Bay area might find a lot to love about it. It's the DC area at its crunchiest/funkiest!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely Montgomery county.
Virginia has Richmond, the capitol of the confederacy.

Maryland until this year had the most bigoted pro-Confederacy state song, "Maryland, My Maryland." The UMD marching band and the chapel's chimes would regularly play it until recently. Virginia got rid of its state song decades earlier.

Basically anyplace you can commute to DC withing 45 minutes will be MAJORITY liberal and democrat..it will be from 65-85 percent left....does the exact percent matter to you ?

It will matter everywhere in VA if the Ds lose the general assembly this November.

Abortion bans/restrictions, defunding schools, book banning, etc. All kinds of MAGA crazy.

Is there a state without this but without Drag Queen story hours for children at public parks and libraries too? Because that’s what they have in MoCo:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2022/08/13/lgbtq-activists-show-up-to-support-drag-queen-story-hour-at-brookside-gardens/

I’m tired of the extremism on both sides.

-Someone who thinks Obama was our best president in the past 40 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22-year resident of DC here. We are considering a move to the close-suburbs and are looking at these two areas as well. Bethesda has some beautiful homes and areas (Kenwood especially). Bethesda center is nice and very tidy. I just can't get excited about it. I prefer Arlington and its neighborhood areas, which seem to have a bit more personality. But maybe that's unfair since I don't know MoCo so well. What I was surprised about, though, is the uncertainty of the schools in Arlington. There's so much movement and reorganization and people seem deeply unhappy with ACPS on this forum so it's given me some pause (we are at the elementary level in DCPS right now and quite happy with our school so not in a rush to move). I absolutely love Takoma Park, MD, and agree that someone from the Bay area might find a lot to love about it. It's the DC area at its crunchiest/funkiest!

Buy in Arlington for the convenience but not for the schools. We went private during the pandemic and will never go back to those wretched APS schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22-year resident of DC here. We are considering a move to the close-suburbs and are looking at these two areas as well. Bethesda has some beautiful homes and areas (Kenwood especially). Bethesda center is nice and very tidy. I just can't get excited about it. I prefer Arlington and its neighborhood areas, which seem to have a bit more personality. But maybe that's unfair since I don't know MoCo so well. What I was surprised about, though, is the uncertainty of the schools in Arlington. There's so much movement and reorganization and people seem deeply unhappy with ACPS on this forum so it's given me some pause (we are at the elementary level in DCPS right now and quite happy with our school so not in a rush to move). I absolutely love Takoma Park, MD, and agree that someone from the Bay area might find a lot to love about it. It's the DC area at its crunchiest/funkiest!

as someone from the Bay Area, not all of us are cruchy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely Montgomery county.
Virginia has Richmond, the capitol of the confederacy.

LOL. Go spend some time in rural Maryland. It's indistinguishable from rural Virginia. Heck, there are probably more confederate flags in the Maryland countryside than Virginia.

Virginia doesn’t have any area that’s as much of an opiate-loaded, economically downtrodden dump as Cumberland, Maryland.

And the Eastern Shore of Maryland might as well be Alabama.

Petersburg, VA makes Cumberland look like MoCo. I don't know why you have a hard on for Cumberland, but I suspect you are one of the really bad so-called physicians who were fired from Western Maryland Health Care when the University of Pittsburg took over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely Montgomery county.
Virginia has Richmond, the capitol of the confederacy.

LOL. Go spend some time in rural Maryland. It's indistinguishable from rural Virginia. Heck, there are probably more confederate flags in the Maryland countryside than Virginia.

Virginia doesn’t have any area that’s as much of an opiate-loaded, economically downtrodden dump as Cumberland, Maryland.

And the Eastern Shore of Maryland might as well be Alabama.

Petersburg, VA makes Cumberland look like MoCo. I don't know why you have a hard on for Cumberland, but I suspect you are one of the really bad so-called physicians who were fired from Western Maryland Health Care when the University of Pittsburg took over.

Wrong on all counts. As for Petersburg, it’s like a slice of Baltimore in Virginia, but of course it’s much smaller than Baltimore, which is basically the urban area of any size on the entire East Coast.

[Anonymous]

Max class size for elementary school is smaller in APS. I like the housing stock in MoCo more.

[Anonymous]

Wow - tough decision. Really neither county enforces any laws. So they are both a crazy dystopian place to live. They have super high crime that is not reported by county policy and average at best schools. I would keep looking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow - tough decision. Really neither county enforces any laws. So they are both a crazy dystopian place to live. They have super high crime that is not reported by county policy and average at best schools. I would keep looking.

Can you talk more about this, especially in Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in MoCo and one of the reasons we chose it was because you can get into the city without crossing a bridge. The NOVA traffic is horrible everywhere and if something happens on a bridge, woe to those trying to get into town. From MD there are myriad options.

You drank the kool aid huh? I can be i on parked on constitution and inside a museum in under 15 minutes from my house in arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow - tough decision. Really neither county enforces any laws. So they are both a crazy dystopian place to live. They have super high crime that is not reported by county policy and average at best schools. I would keep looking.

Can you talk more about this, especially in Arlington?

There is not a ton of crime in arlington. Hardly. There are the drunk fights in bars in Clarendon and car hackings in pentagon city. Arlington is a very safe place to live. I probably wouldn’t want to live on culpepper st, but other than that, I’d live almost anywhere in arlington and feel safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is overall prettier than Northern Virginia, unless you are in Great Falls or Old Town, Alexandria.

Both have their pluses or minuses.

Check out Takoma Park, MD. It's as close as you will get to the Peninsula in terms of vibe. With your budget, you will be fine.

Schools are Terrible though.

YOUNGKIN WILL DESTROY VA SCHOOLS HE'S ALREADY STARTED

Stop it. MCPS is a great school system move to Russia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22-year resident of DC here. We are considering a move to the close-suburbs and are looking at these two areas as well. Bethesda has some beautiful homes and areas (Kenwood especially). Bethesda center is nice and very tidy. I just can't get excited about it. I prefer Arlington and its neighborhood areas, which seem to have a bit more personality. But maybe that's unfair since I don't know MoCo so well. What I was surprised about, though, is the uncertainty of the schools in Arlington. There's so much movement and reorganization and people seem deeply unhappy with ACPS on this forum so it's given me some pause (we are at the elementary level in DCPS right now and quite happy with our school so not in a rush to move). I absolutely love Takoma Park, MD, and agree that someone from the Bay area might find a lot to love about it. It's the DC area at its crunchiest/funkiest!

Well given Youngkin is going to privatize VA schools Betsey DeVos model good luck with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow - tough decision. Really neither county enforces any laws. So they are both a crazy dystopian place to live. They have super high crime that is not reported by county policy and average at best schools. I would keep looking.

Can you talk more about this, especially in Arlington?

There is not a ton of crime in arlington. Hardly. There are the drunk fights in bars in Clarendon and car hackings in pentagon city. Arlington is a very safe place to live. I probably wouldn’t want to live on culpepper st, but other than that, I’d live almost anywhere in arlington and feel safe.

This is one of the most racist comments I've ever seen on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:22-year resident of DC here. We are considering a move to the close-suburbs and are looking at these two areas as well. Bethesda has some beautiful homes and areas (Kenwood especially). Bethesda center is nice and very tidy. I just can't get excited about it. I prefer Arlington and its neighborhood areas, which seem to have a bit more personality. But maybe that's unfair since I don't know MoCo so well. What I was surprised about, though, is the uncertainty of the schools in Arlington. There's so much movement and reorganization and people seem deeply unhappy with ACPS on this forum so it's given me some pause (we are at the elementary level in DCPS right now and quite happy with our school so not in a rush to move). I absolutely love Takoma Park, MD, and agree that someone from the Bay area might find a lot to love about it. It's the DC area at its crunchiest/funkiest!

Well given Youngkin is going to privatize VA schools Betsey DeVos model good luck with that.

What typical Maryland nonsense/hyperbole, and ironic given the same fools constantly assert a big advantage of MoCo over NoVa is more private secondary schools like Georgetown Prep (Kavanaugh’s alma mater).