Was Your Neighborhood Nicer 20 Years Ago?

[Anonymous]

Chantilly 20151. It was nicer 20 years ago before thousands of new condos and apartments came in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:22044 doesn't seem to have changed much (unfortunately). It's overdue for an overhaul.

I really like 22044. It could be a great area, not sure why the development was mostly low-income housing and strip malls. I would much rather live there than my outside the beltway home.. but the schools....

Most of 22044 consists of expensive single-family houses in nice neighborhoods. And then you get to Leesburg Pike, and most of what's on the other side of Leesburg Pike is low-income garden apartments and an aging shopping center (Seven Corners). There are more kids crammed into the low-income apartments than there are in the single-family houses, so they account for the school demographics. If you look at the latest FCPS boundary proposals, however, they are proposing to make Sleepy Hollow ES in 22044 fairly high-income; the lower-income apartments would end up at Beech Tree ES, Bailey's ES, and Glen Forest ES.

[Anonymous]

Alexandria City. Our neighborhood was nice when we moved in nearly 20 years ago and now it might be considered "nicer" because so many people have expanded and renovated their houses. When we moved there, many of the neighbors were retired military who were very neighborly. The "neighborliness" has declined significantly.

[Anonymous]

The West End of the City of Alexandria used to be so much nicer. Now they have installed a lot of affordable housing buildings mostly all clustered in the West End. It's way too dense and crime, that never used to be a huge issue is now a very big problem for residents daily. It's depressing.

[Anonymous]

20002. It peaked about 10 years ago. Downhill since.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda, yes. Way more trees and no huge new houses on small lots. Our town picnic was grilling and potluck, now it’s catered - because it’s less work.

It's catered because people are wary of how clean (or unclean) neighbors and their kitchens are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The West End of the City of Alexandria used to be so much nicer. Now they have installed a lot of affordable housing buildings mostly all clustered in the West End. It's way too dense and crime, that never used to be a huge issue is now a very big problem for residents daily. It's depressing.

The west end has been a dump since at least 1996

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:20002. It peaked about 10 years ago. Downhill since.

Absolutely this. The standard of living has nosedived. Nearly everyone I know on my block -- one block south of H Street, which has gone to shit -- is talking about moving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what you mean by “nicer.” Are you equating it with “wealthier?“

For example, a previous poster from 22207 says that that area was not “nicer“ 20 years ago. Actually, we were in the thick of raising kids there 20 years ago and from what I read on DCUM now I would argue that it was, in fact, “nicer” then. It was more affordable, the schools were smaller and less crowded, and the people generally seemed a lot nicer. We still live in the area and on occasion find ourselves in 22207, and the only thing different that we say about it now is that the smaller houses have been replaced with McMansions and I don’t think that makes it a “nicer” neighborhood. It just makes it a less affordable one.

Spoken like a true middle classer who would probably complain about their increased property taxes. I’d much rather have a $3m house in my neighborhood than the $500k teardowns that were there 20years ago.

So you’re confirming you’re one of the elitists who don’t feel like middle class families deserve to live in decent neighborhoods. You also are confirming you’re one of the people who doesn’t believe in cohesiveness or charm within neighborhoods. Putting up the $3 million huge homes among houses in a more modest neighborhood changes the entire dynamic and not in a positive way.

You realize your nitwit argument works both ways, right? Why are you too good for a regular working class or middle class neighborhood? Why do you need to be in a ritzy neighborhood amongst multi-million dollar new builds? Because you’re a shallow elitist without the bank account to back it up.

[Anonymous]

It has always been very nice but we now have people tearing down houses and doing 5, 10, 20 million dollar upgrades. It’s getting crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20002. It peaked about 10 years ago. Downhill since.

Absolutely this. The standard of living has nosedived. Nearly everyone I know on my block -- one block south of H Street, which has gone to shit -- is talking about moving.

Yep. Areas like H Street had a magic and energy to them in the 2010s. Then cracks started to show in 2018/2019 and it went to h*ll during COVID and has never bounced back.

[Anonymous]

Nope NE DC. Little bit terrible 20 yrs ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20002. It peaked about 10 years ago. Downhill since.

Absolutely this. The standard of living has nosedived. Nearly everyone I know on my block -- one block south of H Street, which has gone to shit -- is talking about moving.

Yep. Areas like H Street had a magic and energy to them in the 2010s. Then cracks started to show in 2018/2019 and it went to h*ll during COVID and has never bounced back.

This happened in Columbia Heights, Petworth, and U Street as well. 2010-2015 was the peak for these areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what you mean by “nicer.” Are you equating it with “wealthier?“

For example, a previous poster from 22207 says that that area was not “nicer“ 20 years ago. Actually, we were in the thick of raising kids there 20 years ago and from what I read on DCUM now I would argue that it was, in fact, “nicer” then. It was more affordable, the schools were smaller and less crowded, and the people generally seemed a lot nicer. We still live in the area and on occasion find ourselves in 22207, and the only thing different that we say about it now is that the smaller houses have been replaced with McMansions and I don’t think that makes it a “nicer” neighborhood. It just makes it a less affordable one.

Spoken like a true middle classer who would probably complain about their increased property taxes. I’d much rather have a $3m house in my neighborhood than the $500k teardowns that were there 20years ago.

So you’re confirming you’re one of the elitists who don’t feel like middle class families deserve to live in decent neighborhoods. You also are confirming you’re one of the people who doesn’t believe in cohesiveness or charm within neighborhoods. Putting up the $3 million huge homes among houses in a more modest neighborhood changes the entire dynamic and not in a positive way.

You realize your nitwit argument works both ways, right? Why are you too good for a regular working class or middle class neighborhood? Why do you need to be in a ritzy neighborhood amongst multi-million dollar new builds? Because you’re a shallow elitist without the bank account to back it up.

+1. The browbeating is hilarious. You’re classist and pretentious for… not wanting my social climbing broke ass family in your neighborhood!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20002. It peaked about 10 years ago. Downhill since.

Absolutely this. The standard of living has nosedived. Nearly everyone I know on my block -- one block south of H Street, which has gone to shit -- is talking about moving.

Yep. Areas like H Street had a magic and energy to them in the 2010s. Then cracks started to show in 2018/2019 and it went to h*ll during COVID and has never bounced back.

It's baffling that things got significantly worse after the addition of so much high-end residential and retail on H Street, but it did. A big part of it were the illegal weed shops that swooped in to fill vacancies created by businesses that closed during the pandemic. At one point, there were 15 weed shops in a 10-block stretch of H Street. I have no problem with legalized weed and smoke it myself from time to time, but 15 is far too many.

There's also the eternal problem of the bus stops at 8th and H, which have been a problem for decades and apparently will never be solved.