Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean does absolutely nothing for me. Sure, the folks are generally rich and the schools have a great reputation, but if you don’t have school aged kids and are rich yourself there’s no reason to live there. Boring and cookie cutter. Yuck.

Give me the city life.

And yet here you are, feeling a need to weigh in? You sound like quite the loser.

What is wrong with you? The question being asked is “Is McLean really that desirable?” I answered the question directly and gave my opinion. The question wasn’t “please post here only if you find McLean desirable.”

Calling an area that has one of the highest concentrations of custom homes in the region “cookie cutter” betrayed your stupidity. It’s odd you think your opinion counts for anything under the circumstances.

As someone who grew up in Cleveland Park, moved to Bethesda, attended UMD, lived in DuPont Circle and Adam’s Morgan through most of my 20s, and then lived in Clarendon and Ballston through much of my 30s (after a handful of years elsewhere‎), I really like living in west McLean. It really boils down to one reason: it maximizes my available time with family and my time for personal and family activities and hobbies. While it is car dependent, outside of a neighborhood park, the amount of time I spend in a car and the amount of time it takes to perform errands and travel for family activities and outings is much less than was required when I was living in DC and Arlington. Driving anywhere in east Arlington typically required sitting through a bunch of stoplights and competing with all the traffic heading to and from DC. In DC, I could walk to a bunch of bars and restaurants, but doing almost anything else outside the early morning hours typically required sitting in a lot of traffic where vehicles move at the pace of 5-10 minutes per mile, and for many destinations, another 5+ minutes searching for street parking to avoid a $$ parking fee.

In west McLean, I have a short walk to a great park and quick access to the McLean business district, Tysons, Vienna, and Merrifield. That means that, in 10 minutes or less (including parking), I can access Wegman’s, Trader Joes, Safeway, Giant; many boutique gyms and fitness classes; multiple local parks; indoor and outdoor swimming facilities and tennis courts; all sorts of entertainment options including multiple movie theaters, concert venues, and comedy shows; every type of boutique class/activity imaginable for my kids; numerous fields where my kids can play soccer and little league; and dozens of restaurants. A few more minutes in the car, 15 minutes or less, gets me to Scott’s Run Nature Preserve or Great Falls NP. Traffic to/from most destinations is virtually non-existent outside of rush hour, and parking is virtually always available without having to hunt for it. Outside of rush hour, I can get to almost anywhere in Arlington in 15-20 minutes and to Bethesda in under 20 minutes. The trip to/from Dulles Airport is also around 15 minutes. And when I want to head into DC, I can use the McLean Metro or EFC Metro (if I need to park all day).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean does absolutely nothing for me. Sure, the folks are generally rich and the schools have a great reputation, but if you don’t have school aged kids and are rich yourself there’s no reason to live there. Boring and cookie cutter. Yuck.

Give me the city life.

And yet here you are, feeling a need to weigh in? You sound like quite the loser.

What is wrong with you? The question being asked is “Is McLean really that desirable?” I answered the question directly and gave my opinion. The question wasn’t “please post here only if you find McLean desirable.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean does absolutely nothing for me. Sure, the folks are generally rich and the schools have a great reputation, but if you don’t have school aged kids and are rich yourself there’s no reason to live there. Boring and cookie cutter. Yuck.

Give me the city life.

And yet here you are, feeling a need to weigh in? You sound like quite the loser.

You do realize that an Internet forum is for discussing things? Why do you feel so personally attacked by a negative comment about McLean?

Anonymous wrote:McLean does absolutely nothing for me. Sure, the folks are generally rich and the schools have a great reputation, but if you don’t have school aged kids and are rich yourself there’s no reason to live there. Boring and cookie cutter. Yuck.

Give me the city life.

And yet here you are, feeling a need to weigh in? You sound like quite the loser.

McLean does absolutely nothing for me. Sure, the folks are generally rich and the schools have a great reputation, but if you don’t have school aged kids and are rich yourself there’s no reason to live there. Boring and cookie cutter. Yuck.

Give me the city life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that McLean doesn't have a downtown feel to it, even though there is a concentration of businesses near the intersection of Old Dominion Drive & Chain Bridge. The trendy new "Downtown," if you want to call it that, is now "The Boro": one Metro stop beyond Tysons Corner. The Fairfax counterpart to Pike & Rose in MoCo.

I couldn't care less about DT McLean. I live in the Hamptons of McLean, and I am a few minutes walk to Balducci, Giants, Starbucks, Lidl, Bagel place, CVS, and so many restaurants. I am also a few minutes from I-495, I-66, GW Parkway, and 15 minutes from Great Falls Park. The people are highly educated from all over the world, so I love McLean. It is very desirable, unlike places like Culmore in Falls Church or Annandale.

For someone new to the area, where is the Hamptons of McLean?

Langley near hickory hill.

The Hamptons of McLean is 1M+ townhouses right across from Balducci on Old Dominion Dr.

Ugly, densely populated housing.

Location, location, location.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that McLean doesn't have a downtown feel to it, even though there is a concentration of businesses near the intersection of Old Dominion Drive & Chain Bridge. The trendy new "Downtown," if you want to call it that, is now "The Boro": one Metro stop beyond Tysons Corner. The Fairfax counterpart to Pike & Rose in MoCo.

I couldn't care less about DT McLean. I live in the Hamptons of McLean, and I am a few minutes walk to Balducci, Giants, Starbucks, Lidl, Bagel place, CVS, and so many restaurants. I am also a few minutes from I-495, I-66, GW Parkway, and 15 minutes from Great Falls Park. The people are highly educated from all over the world, so I love McLean. It is very desirable, unlike places like Culmore in Falls Church or Annandale.

For someone new to the area, where is the Hamptons of McLean?

Langley near hickory hill.

The Hamptons of McLean is 1M+ townhouses right across from Balducci on Old Dominion Dr.

Ugly, densely populated housing.

DP. They are actually very nice townhouses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that McLean doesn't have a downtown feel to it, even though there is a concentration of businesses near the intersection of Old Dominion Drive & Chain Bridge. The trendy new "Downtown," if you want to call it that, is now "The Boro": one Metro stop beyond Tysons Corner. The Fairfax counterpart to Pike & Rose in MoCo.

I couldn't care less about DT McLean. I live in the Hamptons of McLean, and I am a few minutes walk to Balducci, Giants, Starbucks, Lidl, Bagel place, CVS, and so many restaurants. I am also a few minutes from I-495, I-66, GW Parkway, and 15 minutes from Great Falls Park. The people are highly educated from all over the world, so I love McLean. It is very desirable, unlike places like Culmore in Falls Church or Annandale.

For someone new to the area, where is the Hamptons of McLean?

Langley near hickory hill.

The Hamptons of McLean is 1M+ townhouses right across from Balducci on Old Dominion Dr.

Ugly, densely populated housing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The simple answer to OP’s question is: yes. Yes, McLean really IS that desirable. End of story.

Yes. And I lived there for 35 years. Happily. End of story. . Everything else you read here is sour grapes from those who can't afford it. Imagine a kind thread about Beverly Hills in DCUrbanmomsLos Angeles. Same thing. People would be dumping on what they can't have.

Not to pile on, but that comparison is ludicrous.

Anonymous wrote:Agree that McLean doesn't have a downtown feel to it, even though there is a concentration of businesses near the intersection of Old Dominion Drive & Chain Bridge. The trendy new "Downtown," if you want to call it that, is now "The Boro": one Metro stop beyond Tysons Corner. The Fairfax counterpart to Pike & Rose in MoCo.

It's not "new" or "trendy". Someone bullying everyone to admit that there is "no downtown in Mclean" and "we all agree" means absolutely nothing. It's simply a central business district of Mclean (CBD) which is what the definition of "downtown" is, nothing more. When you drive on Chain Bridge there are signs "downtown Mclean" , I guess somehow it weirdly bothers people :roll:

If we are talking about suburbia then its "downtown" or business district will have car oriented nature, there is nothing more to it. It's going to be different from the downtown of an older pre-car, pre-suburbia town. As demand for pedestrian lifestyle rises with more multifamily going up and more local people preferring to walk if nicer businesses open up then area starts getting gradually redeveloped. Clarendon wasn't always what it is now either. I remember very well when a lot of it was strip malls.. We used to go out to restaurants with parking lots up front and drink in some of the "strip mall bars" :lol: