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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1. You can have a Silver Spring address and live across the street from people with addresses in Takoma Park, Chevy Chase, Kensington, Rockville, Olney, Burtonsville, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

To be fair, where you live... is not what people think of when someone responds North Arlington. You're on the cusp, its not like you're in CC Hills or Williamsburg where its obnoxious to hear N. Arl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

To be fair, where you live... is not what people think of when someone responds North Arlington. You're on the cusp, its not like you're in CC Hills or Williamsburg where its obnoxious to hear N. Arl.

That's funny - when I think of North Arlington I literally just think of any address with an 'N' designation in it. So CC Hills is North Arlington the same way as Arlington Forest, Buckingham, or Madison Manor are North Arlington. Why would you take something that is well defined and use it to mean a subset of that thing instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. I'm in the DC area and I am not aware that North Arlington is more or less nice than other locations in Arlington.

Ha – that tells me you don’t know Arlington though

DP. Exactly. I live in close-in MD and “North Arlington” means nothing to me, either, except something vague about the missing middle. So I’m answer to OP’s question, people who use that phrase may think they’re conveying something, but for the most part they’re not.

+1 I’ve lived in Chevy Chase forever and only learned about the distinction from DCUM maybe ten years ago.

[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.)

When we were looking at houses 23 years ago, it was this; only north of 29, for schools and safety of the neighborhood

[Anonymous]

Seven pages of drivel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

To be fair, where you live... is not what people think of when someone responds North Arlington. You're on the cusp, its not like you're in CC Hills or Williamsburg where its obnoxious to hear N. Arl.

That's funny - when I think of North Arlington I literally just think of any address with an 'N' designation in it. So CC Hills is North Arlington the same way as Arlington Forest, Buckingham, or Madison Manor are North Arlington. Why would you take something that is well defined and use it to mean a subset of that thing instead?

I'm not debating what is N. Arlington. Yes he lives in N. Arlington. What I'm saying is that the only reason it would be weird/entitled sounding is... when it does. People in Buckingham aren't bragging about living in N. Arl. CC Hills folks want you to know.

[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).

Chip. Meet shoulder.

I have no dog in this fight but candidly you’re the one who sounds like a jerk.

[Anonymous]

Cool thing to debate, OP. Would love to come to dinner at your house.

Also the “close-in” nerds are much worse than the “North Arlington” crew.

[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

Real New Yorkers from the city will ask you where so that won't work on us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cool thing to debate, OP. Would love to come to dinner at your house.

Also the “close-in” nerds are much worse than the “North Arlington” crew.

I've never met a close-in nerd before. Do they exist? Like where do you live? Oh, Arlington but, you know, close-in Arlington. If you can't smell the Potomac what's the point, right?

Also I'm happy to talk about just about anything so you might actually enjoy dinner!

[Anonymous]

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

I get it - I grew up in West Springfield which is not the same as North Springfield nor the same as Springfield. Each have different zip codes and are by the same community. Yes, some snobbery in there with the specification.

[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.)

At no time was Ballston considered “Old South Arlington.” And the delineation between North and South Arlington has always been Route 50, not Route 29. 3/4 of Ballston has always been in North Arlington. So tell me again what people would say in their “breathy voice?” “I live in North Arlington…the good part, not the bad part!”

[Anonymous]

Clarendon was the dump of north Arlington until 2000. Now in my opinion one of the best places to live in the dmv.

I regret selling my house there. But then again I live in ballston and have no mortgage since I paid 1.3 in cash years ago from the cash I made on Clarendon.

Hence, why us snobs say “north Arlington”.

[Anonymous]

I live in DC and would think it was between crystal city and Reston. Would also suspect you tell everyone you live in DC so what difference does it make? North Arlington, Ashburn, Reston, Stafford all the same.