Reply to Town near D.C. metro area away from the rat race!

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "Town near D.C. metro area away from the rat race! "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the 22:57 poster had a bad experience in South Arlington years ago, and is now living out in a subdivision in Leesburg.  It's fairly common for some people in Loudoun to argue that everyone who lives there is down-to-earth, and that those who live closer in must either be uber-rich or impoverished (and, invariably, unable to speak English).  It's an exaggeration of something that has an element of truth to it, but it comes across as self-serving and, yes, racist.  And the expiration date of this tired "Yale or Jail" line, which was used years ago to describe TC Williams, has long passed.  It sounds wittier than "Yale, U. Va., JMU, VCU, NoVa, the military, a retail job, or the streets," but it's simply misleading.  [/quote]

Yes I am that poster. FWIW, I don't live in a subdivision or HOA zone -- I live in an neighborhood with a higher Walkscore than most folks in uppermost NW, albeit minus the Metro (I do live within a few blocks of the Loudoun County Government Center which is the origin point for most buses.)

But hey, go ahead and dismiss my bad experiences as simply "me being racist" or "me being unlucky." Most who slink off to Ashburn/outer Fairfax just slink off the site entirely. Someone has to be moving to Loudoun, Frederick, etc. I seem to be the only one who admits it on this site.

There are people closer-in who aren't uber-rich or impoverished; they tend to live in condos or townhouses. My bad experience in South Arlington led my wife to put her foot down; she is NEVER going to live in a shared-wall situation. I'm more open to living in a TH or condo (even  the dreaded closer-in), but I'm more open to staying married -- my wife had more exposure to our terrible neighbors in South Arlington since I was working from noon-8.

I also moved from the James Madison HS zone (which is pretty damn rich and pretty damn White) to the Tuscarora HS zone (which is poorer on aggregate and less White.) I had a stopover in Vienna on my way out here.) So simply dismissing me as racist/classist is a little facile -- if all I wanted was to be around high-achieving rich White folks, I'd have stayed in Vienna.

I got closer in six months to my neighbors in Leesburg than I did over three years in Vienna or six years in South Arlington. We're both happier here than we were in South Arlington and Vienna. Now, your experience may not work the same way, and there's many people for whom Loudoun doesn't work due to their DC-centric jobs/careers. It goes without saying that we could have done better research before deciding where to go in South Arlington.

White poverty has gone out to Winchester, Charles Town, Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Fredericksburg, etc. How is that inaccurate? Poor people closer in are non-White and tend to be non-native English speakers -- and for the most part, don't post on this site. We're like that 1932 Presidential poll where they called all the people who had telephones and predicted a landslide victory for Landon. (I won't address the fact that native-born White poverty will have different strategies/challenges than Black poverty, which has different strategies/challenges than immigrant poverty.)

I voted for Obama and acknowledge the existence of White privilege -- namely that on average, a White person is going to have an easier time doing the same things as opposed to a Black person (Shopping/driving/Presidenting While Black/Brown, for example.)

Finally, how do you (and others) suggest I should address/mention the diversity found in closer-in schools, as compared to the (relatively monocultural) Jefferson County WV schools? [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics