Reply to Considering a Move to Alexandria or Arlington Questions Re: Neighhborhoods

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
The West End can be a great place to live but don't get too focused on its walkability or drivability to Old Town.  [b]There are three main roads leading from the West End to the East End - Duke, King and Braddock.  All three of them are very bad slogs in the afternoon running from 2:30 to about 7.  I know because I work in the West End and live in the East End.  [/b]On the other hand, if you are on the West End then it is pretty easy to get to 2 or 3 big shopping centers (2 on Duke and 1 off of Seminary) that are nearby, there are 2 big public libraries in that area, and of course the Alexandria Hospital and assorted supporting medical buildings are right there.  Further west in Fairfax County is the Skyline area with tons of big box stores and fast casual restaurants.  I don't know as much about the elementary schools but the middle school in the West End is much better than the middle school on the East End although I doubt many of the East End parents realize it.  You can get a much better house and yard on the West End than you will in any of the other areas of the City.[/quote]

I live in the West End, up King Street past Bradlee.   I work in DC.    My wife and I go to Old Town mostly on weekends, or (less often) after I get home from work.   I can't recall King or Braddock being backed up any of those times.  My understanding is that Duke Street is worse though, but even is fine on weekends AFAICT.

Also your take on Francis Hammond MS vs GWMS is, I think, not shared by many people in any part of Alexandria.[/quote]

Jeez, how do you not "get" that there is a difference between RUSH HOURS on the weekdays between 3 and 7, and the weekend?  Your posting about no traffic on the weekend is irrelevant to the first post.  When you are making the same commute then you'll have something to comment on.[/quote]

OP said  [i]We are looking for areas that are safe, walkable to stores and not far from metro and Old Town, or [b]that feel similar to Old Town [/b][/i]

Clearly OP is not commuting to Old Town, just mainly wants to go there for fun.

Most of their trips to Old Town will be on weekends.

As for PM rush hour, I have made it a point (for other reasons) to check traffic conditions on King and Braddock at PM rush, using google traffic. They are in fact not bad most of the time, with back ups only at certain noted problem intersections (like King-Callahan-Russell).  Duke on the other hand, looks terrible at PM rush esp near the Telegraph interchange. [/quote]

King Street and Braddock are major blockages during evening commutes, too.  They probably don't register because most people going into Old Town at that time don't use Google Map or Waze since they know where they are going.  I can tell you from my experiences that it is never less than 27-28 minutes to go from Alexandria Hospital or the medical building on Seminary to Old Town any time after 2:30 pm.  Given that this drive is only 3 miles or so, that is a really striking amount of time.

And thank you for your statement regarding the schools.  It is a good time to point out to OP that Alexandria is a great place to live if you are white.  Not so much if you are a POC.[/quote]

I have heard the claim about people not using waze etc before. Somehow  Duke,  the beltway, etc all show up as congested every PM rush hour anyway, so there must be something else going on.

BTW, where in Old Town are you going?  If the waterfront, you have slow streets with lots of lights just heading from King Street Station to the watefront.  I mean it's showing as 14 minutes  (inova Alex to waterfront) now Christmas week, govt shutdown.  Clearly it just takes a while to sit through traffic lights, even when those lights are at "level of service A".[/quote]

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