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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Lol, FFX county makes some catastrophically bad choices when it comes to infill development. They are getting ready to do much worse along 66 with the redevelopment of the AT&T property. Throwing up a bunch of cheaply constructed dense housing with no thought to how it will actually affect the surrounding infrastructure which clearly can't handle the extra people and traffic.

It's all lets throw a few bike lanes into the mess of traffic that claims at least a few bodies every few years, yeah give the cars speeding through on their way to somewhere else on two lane roads a few more targets. At least Mosaic surrounded by large roads, Lee, 50 and Gallows, a walkable metro stop, and highways (66 and 495) were designed intentionally, with a larger 20-40 yr plan of as to how Merrifield would be redeveloped from an industrial site into an urban lite cluster and fully capable of supporting its resultant density.

Venturing a little farther into Fairfax, 123 and FFX Boulevard, crazy zoning mix of dense apartments and THs all shockingly ugly and cheaply thrown up. FFX County clearly has absolutely no interest in urban planning at all. Just let the developers, throw around some kickbacks and then come in a do whatever they feel like doing which is never in the interest of the broader community.

[Anonymous]

Parts of McLean. In particular something like this house. How do you get in and out of this house at rush house. In fact how do you get anywhere?

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Mc-Lean/613-Rivercrest-Dr-22101/home/9270111

[Anonymous]

Every little development off little river turnpike in aldie. Hundreds of homes empty out on a TWO lane highway. The traffic is awful, and there is Nothing but a farmers market at a traffic circle!!

[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

Amalyn is so nice. Finally something worth spending money on in that area. The 1960s houses are horrible and must go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This a thousand percent. I don't get the appeal at all.

[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.

We lived in Brookdale, 4 blocks from Friendship Heights metro, for 10y. You can’t get closer to DC while remaining in MoCo. Every now & then, there would be a proposal to add sidewalks, but there was *always* a loud contingent of people who believed that sidewalks would destroy the ‘rural’ feel of the neighborhood. Just like anywhere, it’s people who just hate the idea that someplace needs to evolve.

While we’re at it, why are so many electric lines draped overhead? Especially in close-in neighborhoods? They come down during every freaking storm and make the place look third world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I just picture the out of touch storyboarding of the "ideal occupant". "Guys, he's a cool divorcé with one kid every other weekend. He's going to eat at the restaurant, get coffee at the coffee shop, work out at the gym and go on dates with younger women. He'll uber everywhere, including to his law firm job. Of course, Dick, every day. He doesn't want to fuss with a car! He doesn't need parking! The law firm will pick up the tab happily. And he'll send a car for his dates, of course."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about all the "new destinations" to live and shop:
Park Potomac
Pike and Rose

I am sure there are others, but for those who don't live there, parking is a nightmare. I avoid these locations

They’re not bad at all. Park Potomac has a Harris teeter you can walk to. Yea the highway noise is annoying but the townhouses there are really nice, both the old ones and the new ones

Pike and rose has apartments. You’re walking distance to the metro and tons of shopping. You don’t need a car! The rest of the nearby Pike is not as nice, but change is slowly coming

[Anonymous]

The DC Area

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Amalyn is so nice. Finally something worth spending money on in that area. The 1960s houses are horrible and must go.

All that pollution and noise, no thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I just picture the out of touch storyboarding of the "ideal occupant". "Guys, he's a cool divorcé with one kid every other weekend. He's going to eat at the restaurant, get coffee at the coffee shop, work out at the gym and go on dates with younger women. He'll uber everywhere, including to his law firm job. Of course, Dick, every day. He doesn't want to fuss with a car! He doesn't need parking! The law firm will pick up the tab happily. And he'll send a car for his dates, of course."

Haha, well said.
These people exist, but there isn’t enough supply of them to fill the empty glass towers in “dining entertainment” zone neighborhoods. You eventually need to cater to people who cook at home and need functional grocery stores, bakeries, drug stores, banks, dry cleaners, medical and vet offices, reasonably priced workout places, hardware and thrift shopping, etc. NOt only overpriced bars, mediocre food restaurants banking on weekend crowds and a few trinket stores or boutiques.

[Anonymous]

There should be books about this. Ugh. “Planned.” HOAs. All so scary and terrible. N

[Anonymous]

Bethesda is what I would say. Some areas are nice/ok but others are congested, very expensive with county income tax and poor roads. We moved from there to Vienna and I wish we could have done it sooner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about all the "new destinations" to live and shop:
Park Potomac
Pike and Rose

I am sure there are others, but for those who don't live there, parking is a nightmare. I avoid these locations

I don't live over there so I'm not there much, but parking is super easy at Pike and Rose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hyattsville on the University Park side. No planning. No sidewalks but tons of pedestrians. They clearly gave no thought as to how it would work. Now with the never-ending Purple line construction, it's even worse.

Does the purple line even go there?

Confused about which part of Hyattsville they mean. Like by the mall?