What’s the most horribly planned community in the dc area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kentlands, Gaithersburg.

We all know that is patently false.

All the houses are very close together and the shopping is lacking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tysons

Many years ago, I worked for an ad agency in LA. Our clients were luxury brands like Tiffany and Cartier. While developing advertising plans to support their retail stores, “Tyson’s” was always a key market for the client. Since I had never lived in the DC area, I envisioned a super luxurious Beverly Hills / Rodeo Drive type shopping area, our perhaps an outdoor shopping center like Fashion Island. When I moved to DC five years ago, I was so excited to finally see Tysons! I drove around and around, thinking there was some hidden gem of a high street/shopping area that I kept missing. Nope, Tysons is just a convergence of highways, strip malls and parking lots. I just couldn’t believe the disconnect between my perception and the reality of Tyson’s.

Tysons isn't a neighborhood or a community. There are only apartment buildings/condos there. The people who live near Tysons live in Vienna, Pimmit, Falls Church and frankly avoid the Tysons Corner area like the plague unless they work there..

So you think apartment and condo dwellers can’t be considered part of a community?

+1

What the hell is wrong with that PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amalyn in North Bethesda. 4,000-6,000 sq foot modern houses plopped in an established neighborhood of 1960s homes. Yes, I live in one of them

I disagree. We moved in recently and think it's great: walkable with sidewalks and trails, a community gym and pool, underground utilities, no through traffic, beautiful landscaping (still in progress). You do get some beltway noise but less so as the houses and trees go up (and no different than nearby communities). The design uniformity might not appeal to all, but the surrounding neighborhood (and indeed much of Montgomery county) consists of endless repeats of the same split-level house design from the late 1950s. There must be 1000s of them, many altered in odd ways, or replaced with large pseudo farmhouse designs. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not as if Amalyn is bringing down the charm factor of the area.

[Anonymous]

People loved to hate on Mosaic District but I think that has dissipated. It's not a bad pop up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's Georgetown, or rather how they have NOT planned getting in and out of there.
Key bridge dump at bottom of M street gives me nightmares. That weird exit off key bridge to whitehurst that is like a side highway sidearm is super creepy. A beautiful riverfront area that's now in the shadow of the creepy freeway. I've said creepy a few times, so that's how I feel. Not sure why. I never go there anymore.

Grown is like the prettiest neighborhood in DC and stacks up against prettiest towns around the world. It’s insanely expensive for a reason. Highway is necessary to avoid M st if going into DC, hard to see what else could be done. M st isn’t meant for heavy car traffic, what it needs is wider sidewalks, it’s swamped on the weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People loved to hate on Mosaic District but I think that has dissipated. It's not a bad pop up.

Definitely not, it’s just a very tiny patch of urbanity and human scale grid in the midst of an ugly tangle of highways and strip malls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tysons

Many years ago, I worked for an ad agency in LA. Our clients were luxury brands like Tiffany and Cartier. While developing advertising plans to support their retail stores, “Tyson’s” was always a key market for the client. Since I had never lived in the DC area, I envisioned a super luxurious Beverly Hills / Rodeo Drive type shopping area, our perhaps an outdoor shopping center like Fashion Island. When I moved to DC five years ago, I was so excited to finally see Tysons! I drove around and around, thinking there was some hidden gem of a high street/shopping area that I kept missing. Nope, Tysons is just a convergence of highways, strip malls and parking lots. I just couldn’t believe the disconnect between my perception and the reality of Tyson’s.

I found it pretty shocking too that such a high end shopping area would be a ho hum indoor mall with literally nothing cute to walk to, no sidewalk cafes, not tree lined streets that other major cities have around high end shopping. It’s getting changed though, seems like. There is now Boro which is tiny area, literally a block of what looks like human scale urban grid with sidewalk restaurants. Area around Cap One is gong through changes too. It will take some time for it to get closer to human scale despite already having plenty of high rise development and a skyline similar to a smaller US city.

DC has high end shopping in its downtown area and it cute, although areas around could be sketchy. I am surprised why DC doesn’t have more high end shopping in Gtown (which is its most expensive neighborhood) or nearby West End/Foggy Bottom, Midtown which have nice urban grid and plenty of space for more stores, with Kennedy center drawing people with money, embassies, hotels, luxury condos, $$$ private universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:National Harbor in Maryland. There's one way in and out, it's always a traffic nightmare.

This is a contender. You pay $850k+ for a townhouse in a dense setting and there isn’t even a basic grocery store. I know someone living in National Harbor and they said all of their neighbors are constantly driving across the river to Alexandria for much of their groceries/shopping/dining.

I’ve been saying this for a while. These new developments that went up in last 2 decades focus on condos and weekend crowd amenities, like bars/restaurants and a few shops that aren’t for practical living. They lack basic amenities of a livable non-car dependent neighborhood. I can’t understand spending a lot of money to live there to experience urban living and still have to drive for basic errands. It also sucks to visit once you deal with terrible traffic and painful parking situation (and parking costs rivaling Manhattan). I have no desire to go back when you could go to Georgetown or Alexandria for more charming waterfront setting and easier access/parking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's Georgetown, or rather how they have NOT planned getting in and out of there.
Key bridge dump at bottom of M street gives me nightmares. That weird exit off key bridge to whitehurst that is like a side highway sidearm is super creepy. A beautiful riverfront area that's now in the shadow of the creepy freeway. I've said creepy a few times, so that's how I feel. Not sure why. I never go there anymore.

A lot of preservationists disagree and want to keep the historic Whitehurst Freeway. Even if it becomes a high line like park in the future. They like the remaining industrial vibes of the area under the freeway. It has a film noir feel. That’s why that memorable scene in True Lies was filmed there.

Agree. It’s actually kind of cool under the highway. It’s literally a place to cool down due to constant shade in the heat of summer time and it adds extra vibe to the older buildings next to it. The top of the highway could become an amazing urban park, but it won’t happen because highway is necessary for people using Key Bridge to get into DC without choking already congested pedestrian heavy M st. There is no way around having this highway, short of building an underground tunnel

[Anonymous]

All the Ones in Aldie or Ashburn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in DC like 90% of my life and moved to the burbs about 10 years ago. I really don't understand why MoCo doesn't have more sidewalks? There are stretches in Gaithersburg where its a major road and the sidewalks end at some point. 108 is like this. Once you get past the OGBC park, the sidewalks pretty much end on that main road.

Hard to do at this point. But some places I don't get it. For instance the Bullis school on Falls Road in Potomac is a close walk to Potomac Village. Yet Falls Road has no sidewalk. So you have around 1,100 students walking distance to Starbucks, Chipotle, Five Guys, Potomac Pizza etc. and no way to walk there safely. It is a very short distance. Why not?

I see hundreds of things like this all the time. And there are bus stops on Fall Road but no sidewalks. thats weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lived in DC like 90% of my life and moved to the burbs about 10 years ago. I really don't understand why MoCo doesn't have more sidewalks? There are stretches in Gaithersburg where its a major road and the sidewalks end at some point. 108 is like this. Once you get past the OGBC park, the sidewalks pretty much end on that main road.

Hard to do at this point. But some places I don't get it. For instance the Bullis school on Falls Road in Potomac is a close walk to Potomac Village. Yet Falls Road has no sidewalk. So you have around 1,100 students walking distance to Starbucks, Chipotle, Five Guys, Potomac Pizza etc. and no way to walk there safely. It is a very short distance. Why not?

I see hundreds of things like this all the time. And there are bus stops on Fall Road but no sidewalks. thats weird.

+1

It's very strange. I grew up in a neighborhood built in the 1920s and it had sidewalks. Why would a neighborhood built in the 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond not have sidewalks? It makes absolutely no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheverly, and it's not close.

I don't think that Cheverly was a planned community but if it was it was planned to confuse outsiders and vagabonds because everyone gets lost. The two 63rd Places is just weird.

Fun fact - the named streets on the West side of town are in alphabetical order from south to north. Very helpful if you aren't familiar with the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seven Corners

Seven Corners is an intersection, not a community. That said, most of zip code 22042 in Falls Church (Fairfax County) would qualify for discussion as it's jumbled mess of crummy strip malls along Rte 50 with adjacent neighborhoods that are haphazard, especially between Annandale Rd and Graham Rd.

+ 1

I live near East Falls Church. Many of the neighborhoods around there are very pretty (e.g. Broadmont) and I’m not far from the shops/restaurants along Westmoreland and Broad St.

I often have to travel through Seven Corners to get to places like the Target off 50 or Home Depot. And I can just tell the second I cross over into Fairfax County.

There are some cute homes tucked away near the edge of Falls Church City, but most of the area from Seven Corners to Annandale Road along 50 is just old and dumpy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's Georgetown, or rather how they have NOT planned getting in and out of there.
Key bridge dump at bottom of M street gives me nightmares. That weird exit off key bridge to whitehurst that is like a side highway sidearm is super creepy. A beautiful riverfront area that's now in the shadow of the creepy freeway. I've said creepy a few times, so that's how I feel. Not sure why. I never go there anymore.

A lot of preservationists disagree and want to keep the historic Whitehurst Freeway. Even if it becomes a high line like park in the future. They like the remaining industrial vibes of the area under the freeway. It has a film noir feel. That’s why that memorable scene in True Lies was filmed there.

Agree. It’s actually kind of cool under the highway. It’s literally a place to cool down due to constant shade in the heat of summer time and it adds extra vibe to the older buildings next to it. The top of the highway could become an amazing urban park, but it won’t happen because highway is necessary for people using Key Bridge to get into DC without choking already congested pedestrian heavy M st. There is no way around having this highway, short of building an underground tunnel

Whatever it is now or is turned into, I don't think anyone disagrees that it was not an ideal solution from the get-go, and who knows who was in those talks and the concessions that were made. Obviously not interfering with M street. Metro access should have been part of the package and some other bypass or tunnel would have been better in a perfect world.