Moving from NYC to DC suburbs...tell me why you like the DC suburbs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved from NY suburb to McLean. I would choose Westover in Arlington if I had it to do over. For me, walkability is important. We can’t walk to library (only a small part of McLean can) and I don’t like that library anyway. Also, McLean has no ice cream shops. Go figure! Westover has Toby’s, which is a gem. Also, the Italian Store right there is the closest you’ll get to NY pizza You are also close-ish to the metro, which you will appreciate.

Lower your expectations with respect to pizza and other Italian food. I am Italian and grew up around great Italian delis, bakeries and restaurants, and the Italian Store is just not a great replica. But unfortunately, it is the only game in town in Arlington and that is why it is so popular.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

No. Close-in Arlington or Bethesda have excellent schools and walkable (to coffee) neighborhoods.

- resident of (the horror!!) Reston

+1 I moved from another large city (not nyc) to Arlington (westover). What I like - best of both worlds, I can be downtown at a museum with my kid in about 10 minutes by car on a Saturday morning, I can still walk to coffee, a few of our favorite restaurants and the farmers market, lots of playgrounds, but I also can easily get to a grocery store (with my cargo bike on the trail or by car and enjoy the large parking lot and ease), I can easily drive places when it’s easier to with my kids but I also hate the in and out of car seats so we also have a cargo bike and tote the kids on the trails as much as possible. Next year my son will start kindergarten and we have a great public school that the neighbors all seem happy with a short walk away. No stress there which is very nice and obviously a huge privilege. Life is pretty easy. Parks and trails a block away. Neighbors who have become good friends, I can text on a Saturday morning and have impromptu get togethers with friends and their kids who are similar ages. I probably outed myself to anyone who knows me traipsing around westover on our bike but they are becoming more common by the day.

If you end up further out, we have family farther out in a suburb that isn’t walkable to shops etc and the benefits there I do see too - it’s quiet, there is a lake nearby, lots of culdesacs and neighbors are chill and friends. Kids run around (they do in Arlington too).

Whoa! This sounds great! Do you mind sharing the name of the elementary school? Is it Arlington Traditional? Is that hard to get into with the lottery? Sorry so many questions.

I’m a NYC girl who has lived in Arlington for many years now. I can’t think of any place in Arlington (the smallest county in the US) where you cannot walk to some kind of green space or park, and where you cannot walk to an elementary school. Now, because they have to balance ratios and they have a prohibition on elementary school children crossing certain major roads, your child might be bussed to school. My child was scheduled for a bus before we moved to a townhouse in a different part of Arlington, but if I wanted to walk to a school playground there were three closer to my condo than the one we were zoned for. ALL elementary schools in Arlington are good. The ones with the high proportion of lower income kids have smaller student to teacher ratios. If you stay along the Orange Line (center) of Arlington, you can definitely walk to many things. If you move to the far north, yes, you will want to drive to most things with kids.

But nothing is Manhattan or Brooklyn, so don’t expect to find it anywhere else, or NY style pizza and good bagels. But you must be coming here for a reason, so just shift your mind space.

I’m the westover pp and will just say I totally agree with this and the food.. basically my taste buds have adjusted but I swear even in the city most places aren’t as good as my previous city. There are good places but not the same so, you accept that and take the other good things. The food is probably the one thing I still miss sometimes.

The food in Arlington is just plain bad. Nearly all of it is bland and overpriced.

Moved from NYC to Arlington and it’s the one place in the DC area I’d never live in again. It’s really the worst of both worlds. It’s crowded but not sophisticated and suburban yet heavily paved over. And Westover is basically a giant nothingburger - the Italian Store (either location) is barely one step up from a Sbarro.

[Anonymous]

I feel like DCUM attracts a lot of people who like to spout off about “everything in DC is trash! The housing stock is trash! There’s nothing like a good croissant in this whole God forsaken region!”

I haven’t met these people in real life, thankfully, but here on DCUM they’re abundant and a source of amusement.

[Anonymous]

Don’t do the real suburbs! We moved down from the Uws 10 years ago and spent a year in real suburbs. Was soul suckingly awful and not friendly. We bought a house in Upper NW DC and love the walkability and the schools. We can be at museums and downtown with an easy 20 minute drive or metro. My kids get the independence that comes with living in a walkable area with easy access to public transport and we are close to all the nature etc that the suburbs offer. Folks are very comfortable financially but it’s nothing like what we experienced in the City.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like DCUM attracts a lot of people who like to spout off about “everything in DC is trash! The housing stock is trash! There’s nothing like a good croissant in this whole God forsaken region!”

I haven’t met these people in real life, thankfully, but here on DCUM they’re abundant and a source of amusement.

+1

I would also say if you really want city life then probably Capitol Hill is best but I’d also second the people who said that parts of NW are actually more “suburban” than some close in suburbs like Bethesda.

Bethesda gets a lot of hate here because a chunk of the commercial area is all owned by one company with high rents and mostly high end chains but that’s not all of Bethesda and it’s actually a great to place to live in want density but also some green space.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

No. Close-in Arlington or Bethesda have excellent schools and walkable (to coffee) neighborhoods.

- resident of (the horror!!) Reston

+1 I moved from another large city (not nyc) to Arlington (westover). What I like - best of both worlds, I can be downtown at a museum with my kid in about 10 minutes by car on a Saturday morning, I can still walk to coffee, a few of our favorite restaurants and the farmers market, lots of playgrounds, but I also can easily get to a grocery store (with my cargo bike on the trail or by car and enjoy the large parking lot and ease), I can easily drive places when it’s easier to with my kids but I also hate the in and out of car seats so we also have a cargo bike and tote the kids on the trails as much as possible. Next year my son will start kindergarten and we have a great public school that the neighbors all seem happy with a short walk away. No stress there which is very nice and obviously a huge privilege. Life is pretty easy. Parks and trails a block away. Neighbors who have become good friends, I can text on a Saturday morning and have impromptu get togethers with friends and their kids who are similar ages. I probably outed myself to anyone who knows me traipsing around westover on our bike but they are becoming more common by the day.

If you end up further out, we have family farther out in a suburb that isn’t walkable to shops etc and the benefits there I do see too - it’s quiet, there is a lake nearby, lots of culdesacs and neighbors are chill and friends. Kids run around (they do in Arlington too).

Whoa! This sounds great! Do you mind sharing the name of the elementary school? Is it Arlington Traditional? Is that hard to get into with the lottery? Sorry so many questions.

I’m a NYC girl who has lived in Arlington for many years now. I can’t think of any place in Arlington (the smallest county in the US) where you cannot walk to some kind of green space or park, and where you cannot walk to an elementary school. Now, because they have to balance ratios and they have a prohibition on elementary school children crossing certain major roads, your child might be bussed to school. My child was scheduled for a bus before we moved to a townhouse in a different part of Arlington, but if I wanted to walk to a school playground there were three closer to my condo than the one we were zoned for. ALL elementary schools in Arlington are good. The ones with the high proportion of lower income kids have smaller student to teacher ratios. If you stay along the Orange Line (center) of Arlington, you can definitely walk to many things. If you move to the far north, yes, you will want to drive to most things with kids.

But nothing is Manhattan or Brooklyn, so don’t expect to find it anywhere else, or NY style pizza and good bagels. But you must be coming here for a reason, so just shift your mind space.

I’m the westover pp and will just say I totally agree with this and the food.. basically my taste buds have adjusted but I swear even in the city most places aren’t as good as my previous city. There are good places but not the same so, you accept that and take the other good things. The food is probably the one thing I still miss sometimes.

The food in Arlington is just plain bad. Nearly all of it is bland and overpriced.

Moved from NYC to Arlington and it’s the one place in the DC area I’d never live in again. It’s really the worst of both worlds. It’s crowded but not sophisticated and suburban yet heavily paved over. And Westover is basically a giant nothingburger - the Italian Store (either location) is barely one step up from a Sbarro.

This.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

No. Close-in Arlington or Bethesda have excellent schools and walkable (to coffee) neighborhoods.

- resident of (the horror!!) Reston

+1 I moved from another large city (not nyc) to Arlington (westover). What I like - best of both worlds, I can be downtown at a museum with my kid in about 10 minutes by car on a Saturday morning, I can still walk to coffee, a few of our favorite restaurants and the farmers market, lots of playgrounds, but I also can easily get to a grocery store (with my cargo bike on the trail or by car and enjoy the large parking lot and ease), I can easily drive places when it’s easier to with my kids but I also hate the in and out of car seats so we also have a cargo bike and tote the kids on the trails as much as possible. Next year my son will start kindergarten and we have a great public school that the neighbors all seem happy with a short walk away. No stress there which is very nice and obviously a huge privilege. Life is pretty easy. Parks and trails a block away. Neighbors who have become good friends, I can text on a Saturday morning and have impromptu get togethers with friends and their kids who are similar ages. I probably outed myself to anyone who knows me traipsing around westover on our bike but they are becoming more common by the day.

If you end up further out, we have family farther out in a suburb that isn’t walkable to shops etc and the benefits there I do see too - it’s quiet, there is a lake nearby, lots of culdesacs and neighbors are chill and friends. Kids run around (they do in Arlington too).

Whoa! This sounds great! Do you mind sharing the name of the elementary school? Is it Arlington Traditional? Is that hard to get into with the lottery? Sorry so many questions.

I’m a NYC girl who has lived in Arlington for many years now. I can’t think of any place in Arlington (the smallest county in the US) where you cannot walk to some kind of green space or park, and where you cannot walk to an elementary school. Now, because they have to balance ratios and they have a prohibition on elementary school children crossing certain major roads, your child might be bussed to school. My child was scheduled for a bus before we moved to a townhouse in a different part of Arlington, but if I wanted to walk to a school playground there were three closer to my condo than the one we were zoned for. ALL elementary schools in Arlington are good. The ones with the high proportion of lower income kids have smaller student to teacher ratios. If you stay along the Orange Line (center) of Arlington, you can definitely walk to many things. If you move to the far north, yes, you will want to drive to most things with kids.

But nothing is Manhattan or Brooklyn, so don’t expect to find it anywhere else, or NY style pizza and good bagels. But you must be coming here for a reason, so just shift your mind space.

I’m the westover pp and will just say I totally agree with this and the food.. basically my taste buds have adjusted but I swear even in the city most places aren’t as good as my previous city. There are good places but not the same so, you accept that and take the other good things. The food is probably the one thing I still miss sometimes.

The food in Arlington is just plain bad. Nearly all of it is bland and overpriced.

Moved from NYC to Arlington and it’s the one place in the DC area I’d never live in again. It’s really the worst of both worlds. It’s crowded but not sophisticated and suburban yet heavily paved over. And Westover is basically a giant nothingburger - the Italian Store (either location) is barely one step up from a Sbarro.

This.

Same with most DC area suburbs - totally soul sucking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC suburbs absolutely suck. This place is basically like Ohio or Indiana but if the residents were 10,000% more pretentious and arrogant and full of themselves. And that 10,000% figure isn't an even an exaggeration. People will live in bland-as-f*ck Virginia and pretend they're the center of the universe.

LOL. So spot on. They crap all over “flyover country” when most of that is much nicer than where they live.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand, just move to Nw DC and live in the city. Glover Park is a nice compromise

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:If you haven't already bought in the suburbs, don't do it. You'll be miserable unless you live in a place like parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

If you move to a place like Reston or McLean, you will be miserable OP.

But what about the public schools being way better in a place like McLean? Unfortunately it just seems like the more city-like areas (or DC proper) gave bad public schools.

The public schools in McLean and Great Falls are the best in the state. Great Falls is rural and spread out but parts of McLean are walkable and there is easy Metro access.

I don’t understand people who think walkable to to anything in McLean is a benefit? They truly must never have lived in a city or like cities? It sounds awful to have the only things walking distance be soulless strip malls or a mush mash of little places surrounded by parking lots. It’s not the actual dry cleaner or coffee place that i yearn for, it’s the running into friends while walking all over, the variety of places, charm of the area, multiple options to sit outside, walking distance to parks, etc. and a real sense of community. We moved from the UWS to upper nw. While it was walkable to playgrounds and the library, it still felt isolated. We ended up moving again to old town, Alexandria and it feels a lot like the UWS. While we have cars and it’s easy to drive to the airport or beach or whatever, we pretty much walk everywhere. We go to the playgrounds and run into friends, there are lots of community events, the kids walk to sports, etc. The elementary school is excellent but we chose private for after that, although friends who stayed in public swear that it’s good as long as you’re in the gifted and talented classes

+1

Well, to be fair, once the Chesterbrook shopping center is fixed up, matters will improve.

It is kinda hideous and surprisingly so, considering the $$$ of the area. Friends from Winnetka, IL and Birmingham, MI have been shocked by McLean’s lack of high end shopping centers compared to what they have at home. Some things in “flyover country” can be very nice compared to what we’ve got.

I’ve been to Bloomfield, MI and sure it’s nice but come on, you actually want to live there as opposed to close to all the stuff that DC offers?

I don’t know what Winnetka IL is but same comment as above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC suburbs absolutely suck. This place is basically like Ohio or Indiana but if the residents were 10,000% more pretentious and arrogant and full of themselves. And that 10,000% figure isn't an even an exaggeration. People will live in bland-as-f*ck Virginia and pretend they're the center of the universe.

LOL. So spot on. They crap all over “flyover country” when most of that is much nicer than where they live.

“Most of that is much nicer than where they live”

Oh, my sweet summer child. As someone who has family in poor and middle class regions of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri…you know not of what you speak. I love Cracker Barrel as much as anyone, but let’s not be silly. Most of it is not much nicer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand, just move to Nw DC and live in the city. Glover Park is a nice compromise

OP here - DH and I grew up in the suburbs and always envisioned raising our kids in the suburbs with a yard and plenty of space. After living in a big city for years, it’s hard to let that lifestyle go, but I think raising kids in the suburbs will be easier and better for them. Just my personal opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC suburbs absolutely suck. This place is basically like Ohio or Indiana but if the residents were 10,000% more pretentious and arrogant and full of themselves. And that 10,000% figure isn't an even an exaggeration. People will live in bland-as-f*ck Virginia and pretend they're the center of the universe.

LOL. So spot on. They crap all over “flyover country” when most of that is much nicer than where they live.

+1 I don’t get it. As a native of the dc suburbs, this area is truly nothing special. It’s full of traffic, and it’s a rat race where your standard townhouse can run you a million dollars. Just to be walkable to a town center that’s 2 miles from where you live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand, just move to Nw DC and live in the city. Glover Park is a nice compromise

OP here - DH and I grew up in the suburbs and always envisioned raising our kids in the suburbs with a yard and plenty of space. After living in a big city for years, it’s hard to let that lifestyle go, but I think raising kids in the suburbs will be easier and better for them. Just my personal opinion.

There are plenty of houses with bigger yards in DC. There are plenty of suburbs near DC where you can walk your stroller to cafes, restaurants, ice cream shops (like Downton Vienna, Manassass, Old Town Fairfax, Old Town Alexandria). My kids grew up in DC suburbs and none of them drive, they can walk everywhere, bike or catch the bus to gym, cafes, restaurants, Tysons. They've been using metro with their friends since middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand, just move to Nw DC and live in the city. Glover Park is a nice compromise

Or Woodley. Or Gtown.