"Where do you live?" "Oh we're in North Arlington"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the person you're telling is familiar with the area, then North Arlington makes sense. In the same way you'd tell a local you live in Dupont (instead of saying DC). Not boastful. There are very few ways to describe where you're from in Arlington to a local. It's pretty much North or South.

This. Don't overthink it. It's no different from the major gripe of whether someone in the DMV area identifies as being "from DC" when talking to someone who doesn't know the area at all. Not everything is about status or virtue signaling.

I would assume this, too, as someone who grew up in Bethesda and now lives in Silver Spring. When locals ask where we live, I say “close-in Silver Spring,” or “Silver Spring, right by Kensington.” Silver Spring is *huge*, as is Arlington, so giving a little more information makes sense. It’s not like the person said Lyon Village or something.

Agree with other PP that Lyon Village is fine, but not rich. Reminds me of when I was at a party, and some couples in my group were talking about a street in (one of the DCUM approved places). One couple asked where couple number two lived. Couple number two answered. Couple one cockily assumed it was the "old section/cheaper houses section" of a long street (where couple one lives). When couple two pleasantly corrected them to say near (landmark within new house section) - couple one was visibly taken aback, and pretty quiet for the rest of the night. My down to earth friends in the new house barely noticed, but I found it hilarious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Silver Spring is *huge*, as is Arlington, so giving a little more information makes sense.

Wikipedia says Silver Spring is <8 square miles with population of 81,000 - that's way, way smaller than Arlington. Do people use Silver Spring to refer to a much larger area that isn't actually SS?

Also according to Wikipedia, it’s the fifth most populous place in Maryland; beyond that census-designated place, the Postal Service assigns SS addresses to much of Eastern MoCo. So, yeah. Me saying Silver Spring is roughly equivalent to “eastern MoCo.” It’s not very specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"North Arlington, not to be confused with South Arlington," is how I would take that comment.

this. it's definitely this. people have been saying this since the 80s, at least.

to follow up on this, what I understood was South Arlington was where poor immigrants lived in apartments (the horror!) whereas north arlington was "old virginia families" who were "wealthy" and lived in "single family homes." The people who said "North Arlington" would always sort of pause right after they said north, just to give it some emphasis. "North [breathy pause] Arlington [looks around the group for acknowledgement]."

Growing up in NoVA, people were so snobby about North Arlington that when I visited Yorktown HS for an event, I thought it was going to be some kind of amazing school with chocolate milk in the water fountains and mercedes in teh parking lots. Was disappointed to find it was just another NoVa high school, although i remember getting super lost on my way there, driving through the wilds of arlington in the pre-GPS days.

I think you are fabricating this story, right up to your stupid “breathy pause.” Arlington was not know for wealthy families until recently. That has anlways been what McLean has been know for. And some parts of North Arlington were in fact crappy. When I moved to Arlington after college from up north, one of my college classmate’s mom was nervous about me living in Ballston because “it was such a bad area.”

Lol, so glad someone else said this. I had friends who lived in a Ballston townhouse circa 1990, and it was considered borderline unsafe (not to mention my friends who dared live on the Hill).

[Anonymous]

I tell people I’m from NYC as if I grew up waltzing through Manhattan with sophistication

I’m from Staten Island

[Anonymous]

I live in S Arlington and typically many N Arlington people I encounter think N Arlington=Arlington. Even in posts here on the Real Estate forums, "I'll never be able to afford a close-in hom in Arlington." That typically means N Arlington. So, in some ways mentioning N Arlington at least makes me happy that they acknowledge S Arlington exists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assume the person asking also lives in the DMV and is thus familiar with the area. Is specifying North Arlington unnecessarily boastful or merely descriptive?

Help me settle a debate on the topic.

Who is having the debate?

My own hunch is whoever thinks this is boastful is deeply insecure because that is a really strange lens through which to look at this comment.

Ha disagree. Do you know people who live in North Arlington? Many are really snobby and uptight, and have hangups about status. I wouldn't assume the comment is boastful but it very well could be. There just really is no way to know. And I'm not insecure (in that way, I'm insecure about other things).

Pp here. I used to live in North Arlington. CC Hills. I never encountered this attitude.

[Anonymous]

OP you feel insecure which is why you're asking this question.

I am born and raised in Montgomery County - for as long as I can remember people have always distinguished between North Arlington and the rest of Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you feel insecure which is why you're asking this question.

You're not the first person here to suggest I must be insecure but I'm not following the logic - what insecurity might I have that would prompt me to ask the question in the OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you feel insecure which is why you're asking this question.

I am born and raised in Montgomery County - for as long as I can remember people have always distinguished between North Arlington and the rest of Arlington.

Due to redlining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you feel insecure which is why you're asking this question.

You're not the first person here to suggest I must be insecure but I'm not following the logic - what insecurity might I have that would prompt me to ask the question in the OP?

The fact that it bothers you tells me you're insecure. No different than someone being annoyed if a friend brings up that their kid got into an Ivy. It hits a sore spot - it's normal. But it's still an insecurity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"North Arlington, not to be confused with South Arlington," is how I would take that comment.

this. it's definitely this. people have been saying this since the 80s, at least.

to follow up on this, what I understood was South Arlington was where poor immigrants lived in apartments (the horror!) whereas north arlington was "old virginia families" who were "wealthy" and lived in "single family homes." The people who said "North Arlington" would always sort of pause right after they said north, just to give it some emphasis. "North [breathy pause] Arlington [looks around the group for acknowledgement]."

Growing up in NoVA, people were so snobby about North Arlington that when I visited Yorktown HS for an event, I thought it was going to be some kind of amazing school with chocolate milk in the water fountains and mercedes in teh parking lots. Was disappointed to find it was just another NoVa high school, although i remember getting super lost on my way there, driving through the wilds of arlington in the pre-GPS days.

I think you are fabricating this story, right up to your stupid “breathy pause.” Arlington was not know for wealthy families until recently. That has anlways been what McLean has been know for. And some parts of North Arlington were in fact crappy. When I moved to Arlington after college from up north, one of my college classmate’s mom was nervous about me living in Ballston because “it was such a bad area.”

Lol, so glad someone else said this. I had friends who lived in a Ballston townhouse circa 1990, and it was considered borderline unsafe (not to mention my friends who dared live on the Hill).

Your anecdote proves my point. Ballston = Old South Arlington, aka "unsafe" and "crime ridden." Basically it went in gradients, with south of Route 50 "really bad" and south of 66 "borderline unsafe." That's exactly why people made such a big deal about living in "North Arlington" aka north of 29, the part of the county that's cuddled up next to McLean.

(Worthy of its own thread is a discussion of how Old McLean transformed from nice ranch houses and ramblers on ample lots to New McLean, a hellscape of colonial mcmansions united by one crappy shopping center.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tell people I’m from NYC as if I grew up waltzing through Manhattan with sophistication

I’m from Staten Island

you are my hero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"North Arlington, not to be confused with South Arlington," is how I would take that comment.

this. it's definitely this. people have been saying this since the 80s, at least.

to follow up on this, what I understood was South Arlington was where poor immigrants lived in apartments (the horror!) whereas north arlington was "old virginia families" who were "wealthy" and lived in "single family homes." The people who said "North Arlington" would always sort of pause right after they said north, just to give it some emphasis. "North [breathy pause] Arlington [looks around the group for acknowledgement]."

Growing up in NoVA, people were so snobby about North Arlington that when I visited Yorktown HS for an event, I thought it was going to be some kind of amazing school with chocolate milk in the water fountains and mercedes in teh parking lots. Was disappointed to find it was just another NoVa high school, although i remember getting super lost on my way there, driving through the wilds of arlington in the pre-GPS days.

I think you are fabricating this story, right up to your stupid “breathy pause.” Arlington was not know for wealthy families until recently. That has anlways been what McLean has been know for. And some parts of North Arlington were in fact crappy. When I moved to Arlington after college from up north, one of my college classmate’s mom was nervous about me living in Ballston because “it was such a bad area.”

Lol, so glad someone else said this. I had friends who lived in a Ballston townhouse circa 1990, and it was considered borderline unsafe (not to mention my friends who dared live on the Hill).

Your anecdote proves my point. Ballston = Old South Arlington, aka "unsafe" and "crime ridden." Basically it went in gradients, with south of Route 50 "really bad" and south of 66 "borderline unsafe." That's exactly why people made such a big deal about living in "North Arlington" aka north of 29, the part of the county that's cuddled up next to McLean.

(Worthy of its own thread is a discussion of how Old McLean transformed from nice ranch houses and ramblers on ample lots to New McLean, a hellscape of colonial mcmansions united by one crappy shopping center.)

And don’t forget that Del Ray, now desirable, was also considered rough.

[Anonymous]

I live in N. Arlington - a stone throw from McLean. If someone in Arlington asks where we live I say "near XYZ landmark" or my cross streets. (For those not familiar, all Arlington streets are in numerical and alphabetical order by syllables so its easy to figure out where someone is based on cross streets). If someone in the DMV asks, I say Arlington. If someone from outside the DMV, I say "Arlington, VA outside of DC."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you feel insecure which is why you're asking this question.

You're not the first person here to suggest I must be insecure but I'm not following the logic - what insecurity might I have that would prompt me to ask the question in the OP?

The fact that it bothers you tells me you're insecure. No different than someone being annoyed if a friend brings up that their kid got into an Ivy. It hits a sore spot - it's normal. But it's still an insecurity.

I'm less bothered than curious. My wife and I live in North Arlington but pretty close to Rt 50 (Ashton Heights/Lyon Park). She tends to respond to the "where are you from" question with North Arlington and I lean towards just saying Arlington. Or, more specifically, my response depends on where I'm having the conversation. If I'm at the park down the street I say which street, if we're in Clarendon I say which neighborhood, and if we're in DC or Fairfax I'd just say Arlington.

I said this elsewhere in the thread but to me "North Arlington" is so broad as to be almost useless in clarifying where you live. I can walk to Columbia Pike a mile away in South Arlington but there are parts of far North Arlington that would be a 12-15 minute drive. The "North Arlington" response strikes me as juuuuuust specific enough to make it clear that you don't live in South Arlington and if that's all you're trying to do it has a whiff of "well I live in the "good" part of Arlington, not that other part".

Anyway, I asked here because I'm curious how other people interpret that response. It looks like most people don't see anything wrong with it but there's certainly a smaller group of people who read it the same way I do.