Is McLean Really That Desirable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean has the most high-end houses in the DC area, along with some of the top public schools in the region, an enviable location between DC and Tysons (the region's two biggest job centers), good access to DCA and IAD, and proximity to the only malls in the region that have weathered the trend towards online shopping.

Every discussion devolves into an attack on its central area and its food scene, because those are its weak spots, but the reality is that this keeps people who don't live there out, which is fine with most residents. Things might be different had the CIA allowed for more commercial development along the Route 123 (Dolley Madison) commuter route in McLean, but then the traffic would be worse.

Now that metro goes to IAD, what was once a hassle to get to from DC has become very easy.

+1. I took metro to Dulles from Eastern Market this past summer, and the whole ride cost $6.75.

And only took one hour and 45 minutes!

Wrong -- and you're so dumb that you don't even know how to figure out how long the trip actually takes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mclean is the best neighborhood in the DMV for good schools, easy commute, shopping, parks, and it's clean and safe (unlike Maryland).

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at who buys in McLean you see a lot of rich 1st generation immigrants (Indians love McLean). DC has no appeal to them, they are not white Gen X or Millennial hipsters. They do not care about the hottest new restaurants or anything DC has to offer, plus all the Asian grocery stores are in VA or MD and they tend to cook at home or have multigenerational households so they need more space. Asian immigrants also want the best school pyramid with access to advanced academic programs plus they want to apply to TJ and top VA colleges.

Yes, two new houses on my street were sold within the past two years, one to an Indian family with a doctor, and the other to a Chinese family with an engineer. They all have young kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at who buys in McLean you see a lot of rich 1st generation immigrants (Indians love McLean). DC has no appeal to them, they are not white Gen X or Millennial hipsters. They do not care about the hottest new restaurants or anything DC has to offer, plus all the Asian grocery stores are in VA or MD and they tend to cook at home or have multigenerational households so they need more space. Asian immigrants also want the best school pyramid with access to advanced academic programs plus they want to apply to TJ and top VA colleges.

Yes, two new houses on my street were sold within the past two years, one to an Indian family with a doctor, and the other to a Chinese family with an engineer. They all have young kids.

Yes. It seems like the overall trend is the UMC / wealthy white “young” families stick to moco or N Arlington and McLean is the goal for the UMC / wealthy Indians and Asians. Putting young in quotations because they usually have young kids but the parents are minimum early / mid 40s. Lots of people having their first kid at or over 40 here and lots of second marriages w a younger wife who also wants kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dont move there if you like to eat out. Worst restaurants- it makes no sense!

Dumb comment. L'auberge chez francois. In McLean, 2941, Nostos, Modan, Capital Grille and the other great Tysons steakhouses.

Capital Grille is a damn chain

[Anonymous]

I am Indian (mentioning because someone above assumed that every Indian who lives in McLean has no interest in DC) and lived in Spring Valley for more than a decade. It was fine. I now live in McLean and love it. I can actually walk to more things now, and I disliked the social climbing /anxiety driven/ comparison culture of upper NW (but I too thought the area was classy when I lived there, because of the prevailing perception that it’s elite ). I was nervous to move to McLean because I assumed it would be even worse but I have found it much easier to avoid that here. There’s just more people and more diversity, so it feels easier to find good people and not be bothered by others who feel differently. The public schools are so much better (but not the case with privates). In SV, nearly everyone sent their kids to private after elementary school. We toured some but didn’t love the culture, so we are happier in public in McLean.

I think it’s a very individual preference and a lot depends on whether you tend to try to find happiness where you’re at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at who buys in McLean you see a lot of rich 1st generation immigrants (Indians love McLean). DC has no appeal to them, they are not white Gen X or Millennial hipsters. They do not care about the hottest new restaurants or anything DC has to offer, plus all the Asian grocery stores are in VA or MD and they tend to cook at home or have multigenerational households so they need more space. Asian immigrants also want the best school pyramid with access to advanced academic programs plus they want to apply to TJ and top VA colleges.

Yes, two new houses on my street were sold within the past two years, one to an Indian family with a doctor, and the other to a Chinese family with an engineer. They all have young kids.

Yes. It seems like the overall trend is the UMC / wealthy white “young” families stick to moco or N Arlington and McLean is the goal for the UMC / wealthy Indians and Asians. Putting young in quotations because they usually have young kids but the parents are minimum early / mid 40s. Lots of people having their first kid at or over 40 here and lots of second marriages w a younger wife who also wants kids.

Honestly these kinds of generalizations are so dumb. I feel like it’s mostly based on your perceptions from reading DCUM vs actually knowing these areas well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From McLean our commute to DC is 16 minutes with only one red light. When we drive home it’s like returning to a private resort.

I've lived there 35 years. It may have once upon a time been 16 minutes but post-covid it is not. The commute from McLean is STILL a far better commute than anyone has in Bethesda, Potomac, etc., because at least there are three or four avenues of ingress from McLean to DC, whereas most of those living north of D.C. are stuck with the Clara Barton highway or horrible stop-and-go commute on Wisconsin or Connecticut

You are on point about this. It can take 16 min to go to Gtown off key bridge if you take GW pkwy AND it's not clogged. It usually isn't super busy because it serves areas of lower density, which adds to the desirability of the areas of Mclean that are 1-2 lights away from the GW PKWY entry point. But with construction this can be hit of miss and other avenues of getting to DC are not really that fast

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Different places are desirable to people with different preferences.

If you asked me, the answer is no, it’s not desirable to me— it’s too far outside the city and car-dependent. The thought of spending that much daily time driving is simply a nonstarter for me. But obviously it’s desirable to many who live and are hoping to live there, given the real estate values.

This is absurd and must have been written by someone not from here.. Parts of Mclean (huge parts actually) are waaaaay closer to DC than there are parts of DC. For instance, if you are a physician at Georgetown, Mclean is so much closer to work than Navy Yard is. And on and on and on.

+1

My commute to Georgetown was quicker than many of my DC colleagues' commutes.

In a car?

DP.

For me it was on bike. Straight down Chain Bridge, hook a right then a left on Arizona and boom I'm at work.

You are very brave going on these roads on a bike I know people do, but it's so not for everyone. I would not consider anything universally bike friendly unless it had dedicated protected bike lanes. DC itself has a lot of this, it's a super bike-friendly city, but not residential suburban parts of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at who buys in McLean you see a lot of rich 1st generation immigrants (Indians love McLean). DC has no appeal to them, they are not white Gen X or Millennial hipsters. They do not care about the hottest new restaurants or anything DC has to offer, plus all the Asian grocery stores are in VA or MD and they tend to cook at home or have multigenerational households so they need more space. Asian immigrants also want the best school pyramid with access to advanced academic programs plus they want to apply to TJ and top VA colleges.

Yes, two new houses on my street were sold within the past two years, one to an Indian family with a doctor, and the other to a Chinese family with an engineer. They all have young kids.

Yes. It seems like the overall trend is the UMC / wealthy white “young” families stick to moco or N Arlington and McLean is the goal for the UMC / wealthy Indians and Asians. Putting young in quotations because they usually have young kids but the parents are minimum early / mid 40s. Lots of people having their first kid at or over 40 here and lots of second marriages w a younger wife who also wants kids.

Honestly these kinds of generalizations are so dumb. I feel like it’s mostly based on your perceptions from reading DCUM vs actually knowing these areas well.

Except I live in one of these places with friends in the other and it’s based on that? But thanks for your perspective

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean has the most high-end houses in the DC area, along with some of the top public schools in the region, an enviable location between DC and Tysons (the region's two biggest job centers), good access to DCA and IAD, and proximity to the only malls in the region that have weathered the trend towards online shopping.

Every discussion devolves into an attack on its central area and its food scene, because those are its weak spots, but the reality is that this keeps people who don't live there out, which is fine with most residents. Things might be different had the CIA allowed for more commercial development along the Route 123 (Dolley Madison) commuter route in McLean, but then the traffic would be worse.

Now that metro goes to IAD, what was once a hassle to get to from DC has become very easy.

Obviously if you live in DC central area anything along metro lines is accessible. If you live in more residential parts of DC where Metro lines are different and you have to walk a mile or more to get to your nearest metro stop (Hardly unusual for DC residential areas) then driving is a lot better choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We lived in North Arlington just off of the Chesterbrook neighborhood for many years and it served its purpose then. As young empty nesters, though, we fled to the city the minute we could and haven’t looked back. I cannot imagine anyone without children wanting to live in a place like that. It is boring as hell.

We like McLean but I’m sorry you found North Arlington so boring. There are probably more amenities in both areas than when you lived there.

No they’re aren’t. Just fewer older homes and more McMansions. The fundamentals haven’t changed one bit.

WTF are you talking about? Chesterbrook shopping plaza was completely revamped and 'downtown' Mclean got a new grocery store and a dozen restaurants.

Lol yea I’ve seen the new Chesterbrook and sure it’s nicer than it was but it’s not exactly National Harbor or Navy Yard. No one is moving to Chesterbrook for the shopping plaza.

Nobody would say it's a destination place. It's just a convenient suburban shopping plaza for people's daily needs , it has limited amenities, it's also not DT Mclean, it's a short drive away.

As far as National Harbor, Navy Yard and the Wharf why would you even compare? These are not real towns either, they are dining/entertainment/promenade weekend destinations, and which is why they are also not desirable for everyday living IMHO. Very few everyday routine living amenities, they feel disconnected and bubble-like and poorly served by Metro (incomparable to central parts of DC where you can walk from one line to another). They are essentially weekend promenades off the HWy with atrociously priced parking. Mclean DT has more of a town feel than any of these and serves communities nearby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d argue that Yorktown zoned Arlington is much better than McLean because schools are as good, just as safe, better housing stock and much closer to DC.

There isn't a lot of difference between the 2 parts as far as residential areas are concerned. You wouldn't notice where the border of Mclean ends driving into N.Arlington. It's a nice area with hilly scenic terrain, but it's not walkable unless your house is very close to shopping areas. It's not less car dependent than Mclean overall. You'd have to go closer to denser parts of Arlington for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d argue that Yorktown zoned Arlington is much better than McLean because schools are as good, just as safe, better housing stock and much closer to DC.

Yorktown HS is not on par with Langley HS or McLean HS, as any comparison of the annual number of National Merit Semifinalists will reveal, and the housing stock isn’t as nice. You get a lot of the same types of new builds, but they are on smaller lots in North Arlington with all the aesthetic compromises that entails (for example, more houses where the most prominent feature is the garage). That’s why the average prices are lower even though it’s closer to DC.

[Anonymous]

This thread is as useless as the 15+ previous threads on the same topic. Sigh.