Leaving Brambleton and NoVa behind

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01/04/2017 12:26

Subject: Leaving Brambleton and NoVa behind

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Anonymous

After about 3 years of being in NoVa (1yr in Fairfax and 2+ years in Brambleton) it’s time to say adios. Came here from Texas and our experience has been anything but pleasant.

My list of observations:

1) Property taxes are a little on the high side and all the other taxes are crazy!!
2) Houses are all cookie cutter farm like, no Spanish, French or Mediterranean or any other style really, translates into boring as they all look exactly alike
3) Big brother HOA that sends out endless announcements and reminders and is basically in your business 24x7x365 from where your trash cans are stored to your backyard to lights out on your carriage post.
4) personal property taxes ala your car tax, WTF is that? Never heard of that until we came here and it sucks because one sees absolutely nothing in return for that. And the whole "1-800-turn-your-neighbor-in" for people who have out of state plates is crap too. Spy vs Spy sorta thing.
5) State income tax, again, like the above, and first time I have ever had to pay and sucks because, again, nothing in return.
6) Companies and contractors feel that because one lives in this area, they can tack on an additional 20-25% in fees/cost because they feel you can pay for it? WTF?? Like the Sports and Health Club in Brambleton with their $79 "annual maintenance fee" which I inquired about and they responded with the below:
"This fee goes towards facility maintenance and general upgrades in the club. At Brambleton alone, we invested over $500,000 this year." That is THEIR cost of doing business to stay current with the technology and competitive with other health clubs, never ever had a charge like that and cancelled with them and stayed with 24hr fitness instead. Told them to Go F**k themselves as it was not pointed out when we signed up (although it appears that now they are asking people to initial that when they sign up, they did not for us)
7)Schools, one of the few, if only, decent thing, but not stellar. Teachers are decent, but admins are a pain. For example, the whole Sex Ed class thing, I opted out and sent the form with the kids back to school, also scanned and sent in and did the same on their website and they still said they did not receive it, so I had to go there and hand it to them!! VA forces me to enroll my 5 year old in kindergarten, then at the last moment, pulls him out of full day kindergarten and puts him into half day so they can make space for "disadvantaged, ESL, etc" kids who are priority for Full day and now have to pick him up midday and take home and then go back to drop off from after school program (CASA). Then I live 1.1 miles away via sidewalks and the same school pulls bus service saying that I am under a mile if you measure walking through fields that are not paved and go through people's back yards. I appeal along with others and denied from the principal due to budget issues. Same principal who said budget issues sets up some school program called WATCH DOGS and caters in food and drinks...WTF?? What happened to budget issues? Okay to make the kids walk through a field that was tested and confirmed for Lyme Ticks and gets muddy during rain/snow, but his pet project is more important!?!
8) Over development of the area and worthless board of supervisors who sold all the land on the cheap to developers, they had dollar signs in their eyes that blinded them to the real needs of the community. Endless committees that get nothing done and take a very very long time to do nothing.
9) Toll roads, don't use them much, but they are $$ and what’s up with the brick that they give you to mount on your windshield? Back in Texas the toll tags where the size and width of a credit card and not sure huge 1980's garage door opener size.
10) technology is either old or non-existent. For an area where 70% of the worlds internet traffic flows through and the hundreds if not thousands of technology companies here, they (schools, government, etc) are behind. LCPS website and TeacherVUE are basic and look to be done by a 8 year old. Loudoun water company site for billing down for a year while they worked on a payment process??? Couldn't get detailed billing AND pay online at the same time?? WTH?? LCPS doesn't communicate with other county agencies, so endless paper work and things done manually...so 10+ years ago.
11) Stickers all over the car, registration, inspection, county tags on the license plates and windows!! In Texas, Nevada and several other states, its one small sticker on the bottom left hand corner for both registration and inspection, and nothing on the license plates. Has bar codes and can be scanned. BAM!! Simple. Who wants to have a nice car that you are paying taxes on twice a year and have damn stickers all over it??? I sold both my nice cars due to that and can't wait to rip off those stupid stickers.
12) Fairfax meal tax, Fairfax was worse than Brambleton, if you can imagine that and those people I know who still live there hate it and voted down that silly tax. Which I started off with on my #1 point.

For all the fun they make of Texas, at least everything is online and they use current technology. NoVa is backwards compared Texas in so many ways.

I think people who like this area must be used to being ruled and having no freedom. Back in Texas and Nevada, you have much more freedom. Guess people like being regulated to death by endless agencies and organizations and being told what to do every min of the day. I can't even enjoy living here in the place I built because someone is either peeking over the fence to make sure I didn't build something I shouldn't have or to make sure I don't have an extra patio chair that is not pushed in or a shovel left out leaning against the wall or a paver put down that they don't like or changed the light bulb wattage on the back lights or something lame like that.

Most of the people are not bad, that’s a good thing, friendly for the most part. But I noticed a lot buy into this whole "master" planned community/area, etc. Like something out of the movie The Firm. Weird. I don't think they have ever really tasted freedom that’s why. The whole "we know what is best for you and force it down your throat" type of spinach mentality is unhealthy. I also notice a lot of forced diversity, from the schools to the neighborhoods which leads to racism. Being 100% Latino, I know prejudice first hand and speak from experience and can say it is worse here than either Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, etc. At least we all got along and went our own way. Here they force you all to be together in the name of "diversity." In stark contrast to assumed beliefs, people living (and by extension, working) in ethnically diverse settings tend to withdraw inward rather than fuse together. Forced diversity leads to a society where people stay home more, inter-mingle less, and trust one another and their elected officials in reduced numbers. This is in stark contrast to the common assumption that diversity will bring together “individuals of diverse backgrounds.” Given that I am a minority, I can tell by looking at people here that this is what is happening here. The notion that we can all coexist peacefully is an attractive ideal, but one that isn’t founded on much evidence. The truth instead seems to be that humans prefer to surround themselves with like-minded people, and are naturally hesitant and fearful of the unfamiliar. This is not to suggest that people never choose to diversify—or that we should do anything to discourage it from happening. It is simply an argument for voluntary association; evidence that people are happier deciding who they interact with rather than it being forced upon them. (FYI, my ethnicity is Latino, my race is Caucasian)

Not much as the way of scenery either, rather ho hum.

All in all and having lived in Texas, Nevada, Washington state, Indiana and right in the middle of the Big Apple, NYC, I give NoVa a C-/C grade.