Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington was very different in the 90s (I graduated HS in ‘99) A lot of punk and artsy kids went to HB and they had concerts there. There were some indie record stores in Courthouse and group houses around there too. Things started to change in that area when they built the corporate shopping centers.

‘99 is right when it took a big turn for the worse.

The shift in student population/growth trends was very rapid in the early 2000s. I did grad school practicum at an APS elementary school in 2002. The staff was concerned about being shut down because of declining student population. Six years later I had a kindergartener and we considered that school because it was one of our transfer options. Two years after that the school was closed to transfers because it was overcrowded.

APS leadership wasted a lot of time responding to the population growth and I think a lot of that is that the change was so fast that they just kept thinking it was a blip not a long term trend, and they were totally wrong about that!

Anonymous wrote:Arlington was very different in the 90s (I graduated HS in ‘99) A lot of punk and artsy kids went to HB and they had concerts there. There were some indie record stores in Courthouse and group houses around there too. Things started to change in that area when they built the corporate shopping centers.

The 90s were also a lot different in general. Arlington has certainly changed a ton since the 90s in terms of population, wealth and density. And education looks different in 2022 (and it looked different in pre pandemic 2019 also) than in 1998. My nephew is in the small, rural system I grew up in and it's vastly different than it was back then even though there hasn't been nearly as much change in the population there.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington was very different in the 90s (I graduated HS in ‘99) A lot of punk and artsy kids went to HB and they had concerts there. There were some indie record stores in Courthouse and group houses around there too. Things started to change in that area when they built the corporate shopping centers.

‘99 is right when it took a big turn for the worse.

Arlington was very different in the 90s (I graduated HS in ‘99) A lot of punk and artsy kids went to HB and they had concerts there. There were some indie record stores in Courthouse and group houses around there too. Things started to change in that area when they built the corporate shopping centers.

DH did with a child in APS now. He says Arlington in general was very different. A lot more middle class. He says it was like the "Wonder Years" growing up. And definitely less pressure at school.

Curious.

I went to APS 1-12 (K in Montessori here) and my DC will start in APS this coming fall.