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Couldn't rep you again, but great street views! Really highlights the beauty and diversity of the Chicagoland suburbs. Some of the most beautiful collection of suburbs in my book.
yes suburbs of DC quiet livable, nice, walkable, and very very expensive right now, but people are blah, they are like all the same and NOVA is very cookie cutter esp Farifax, highways, strip malls now, MD has some quirkier suburbs and more diversel actually most interesting suburbs are around baltimore because there are some wealthy areas, Annapolis, and some country areas, and yup ghetto areas
NOVA is like all the same until you hit Loudoun county which used to be all wineries but is slowly becoming more like farifax with lots of malls and live to work space and new metro opening at dulles airport
but yup DC burbs are nice and convenieent
now lets talk NYC and NJ< every single town in NJ is so so unique and different and has amazing character, yup i said it, character, it matters, people are different in each town, i am from upper class white town with pretty parks, nice schools , great resturants, but then 2 towns away is elizabeth, a port town full of industry, most immigrants, great bodegas, then you have all the amaxing quirky beach towns, upper nj is mountain towns and south jersey is rural, but mostly around NYC its cool people working hard,and i dont feel unsafe like i do in DC , cops do their jobs and families are important, in DC nobody has kids
Which Baltimore suburb is "interesting", though? Dundalk and Essex? .
More seriously if anything none of the suburb really stands out THAT much. Columbia is there as an early master-planned community, there is Ellicott City with an old town (but also strip malls full of tasty Korean foods along US-40), there's Towson which is a mix of "new urban" downtown (TTC area), north of that more strip malls along York Road towards Hunt Valley.
The eastern (NE) suburbs are...what's really there?
Then there's southern suburbs...the inner southern suburbs are somewhat ghetto (Glen Burnie / Brooklyn Park), you have some elitism at Severna Park. Otherwise along 95/US-1/295 it's basically endless business parks. Yeah, part of AA County does have those "water access" areas which is definitely different than DC suburbs overall.
And the MD suburbs of DC are not that much quirkier. Ok you got Greenbelt (New Deal era "new town"), you have Takoma Park which is small but semi-quirky. Silver Spring ranges between hood (those old apartments), mixed-bag downtown area, and old sprawls. Chevy Chase is nice...but small. Potomac MD is identical to McLean VA. Bethesda is good inner suburb but it's not that different from Arlington VA. Further up 270 / Rockville Pike it's strip mall hell in MoCo anyway, not too different than FFX.
Which Baltimore suburb is "interesting", though? Dundalk and Essex? .
More seriously if anything none of the suburb really stands out THAT much. Columbia is there as an early master-planned community, there is Ellicott City with an old town (but also strip malls full of tasty Korean foods along US-40), there's Towson which is a mix of "new urban" downtown (TTC area), north of that more strip malls along York Road towards Hunt Valley.
The eastern (NE) suburbs are...what's really there?
Then there's southern suburbs...the inner southern suburbs are somewhat ghetto (Glen Burnie / Brooklyn Park), you have some elitism at Severna Park. Otherwise along 95/US-1/295 it's basically endless business parks. Yeah, part of AA County does have those "water access" areas which is definitely different than DC suburbs overall.
And the MD suburbs of DC are not that much quirkier. Ok you got Greenbelt (New Deal era "new town"), you have Takoma Park which is small but semi-quirky. Silver Spring ranges between hood (those old apartments), mixed-bag downtown area, and old sprawls. Chevy Chase is nice...but small. Potomac MD is identical to McLean VA. Bethesda is good inner suburb but it's not that different from Arlington VA. Further up 270 / Rockville Pike it's strip mall hell in MoCo anyway, not too different than FFX.
I'm certainly aware of that (I've been there a few times). It's definitely not so much the "commercial heart" of EC though as that would definitely be the US-40 strip mall hell. Especially when you compare that to King St. in Old Town Alexandria.
Plus NoVA also has Manassas and Leesburg for somewhat pleasant "small town downtown in suburbia". MD suburbs of DC doesn't really has anything (Unless you count Frederick a DC suburb).
Honestly, surprised DC area is winning. Don't get me wrong, I grew up here and have lived here most of my life (with the exception of living in NYC and Richmond for a bit) and there are some nice suburbs here but the cost of living is getting out of control. In LA, NYC or SF you expect to pay crazy prices but for an average SFH, not fancy in a decent school district you're looking at easily $1M-$1.5M... $850k-$950k if you're lucky but then you have to fight 300 other people who also are trying to find something under the $1M range. And it's just like... for what - are you working with Congress or on The Hill, if not... for what?
But to move on from my rant, I voted Boston, LA and NYC. I really liked Quincy, MA when I visited which I believe is right outside of Boston. El Segundo, CA is nice. LA has a ton of really nice suburbs. And NYC, of course.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sg8910
i am from NJ and live in Arlington VA near DC
yes suburbs of DC quiet livable, nice, walkable, and very very expensive right now, but people are blah, they are like all the same and NOVA is very cookie cutter esp Farifax, highways, strip malls now, MD has some quirkier suburbs and more diversel actually most interesting suburbs are around baltimore because there are some wealthy areas, Annapolis, and some country areas, and yup ghetto areas
NOVA is like all the same until you hit Loudoun county which used to be all wineries but is slowly becoming more like farifax with lots of malls and live to work space and new metro opening at dulles airport
but yup DC burbs are nice and convenieent
now lets talk NYC and NJ< every single town in NJ is so so unique and different and has amazing character, yup i said it, character, it matters, people are different in each town, i am from upper class white town with pretty parks, nice schools , great resturants, but then 2 towns away is elizabeth, a port town full of industry, most immigrants, great bodegas, then you have all the amaxing quirky beach towns, upper nj is mountain towns and south jersey is rural, but mostly around NYC its cool people working hard,and i dont feel unsafe like i do in DC , cops do their jobs and families are important, in DC nobody has kids
New Jersey has such a neat collection of towns. It gets an undeserved bum rap from many who are not familiar with it. Yes, it's expensive, but many of the suburbs have character with walkable downtowns, good schools, train access to New York City or Philadelphia, plus the shore and the mountains. I have never even lived in New Jersey so not a homer. I just really like a lot of their towns.
New Jersey has such a neat collection of towns. It gets an undeserved bum rap from many who are not familiar with it. Yes, it's expensive, but many of the suburbs have character with walkable downtowns, good schools, train access to New York City or Philadelphia, plus the shore and the mountains. I have never even lived in New Jersey so not a homer. I just really like a lot of their towns.
Yeah and just in the near surrounding little towns to Ridgewood you have Ho-ho-kus, Glen Rock, Wyckoff, Allendale and Ramsey, and they all have lovely walkable downtowns with train stations (except Wyckoff does not have a train station). That's just one part of one county. Agreed, they're all over for sure.
Honestly, surprised DC area is winning. Don't get me wrong, I grew up here and have lived here most of my life (with the exception of living in NYC and Richmond for a bit) and there are some nice suburbs here but the cost of living is getting out of control. In LA, NYC or SF you expect to pay crazy prices but for an average SFH, not fancy in a decent school district you're looking at easily $1M-$1.5M... $850k-$950k if you're lucky but then you have to fight 300 other people who also are trying to find something under the $1M range. And it's just like... for what - are you working with Congress or on The Hill, if not... for what?
But to move on from my rant, I voted Boston, LA and NYC. I really liked Quincy, MA when I visited which I believe is right outside of Boston. El Segundo, CA is nice. LA has a ton of really nice suburbs. And NYC, of course.
I'm pleased to see that Chicago and Philadelphia are now tied for third.
Maybe I should post some Philadelphia-area suburban streetscapes. michgc posted one from New Jersey: Haddonfield, the toniest of the city's South Jersey suburbs. Princeton, in Mercer County, is in the New York CSA but the Philadelphia media market, and the university is located there partly because it's equidistant from both cities, so we can claim it too, at least partially.
Princeton strikes me as though it had been surgically removed from the Hamptons and plopped down in the middle of Central New Jersey.
Yeah and just in the near surrounding little towns to Ridgewood you have Ho-ho-kus, Glen Rock, Wyckoff, Allendale and Ramsey, and they all have lovely walkable downtowns with train stations (except Wyckoff does not have a train station). That's just one part of one county. Agreed, they're all over for sure.
I am slowly compiling a list across CT/Westchester/Northern Jersey/Long Island.
Lot of trial and error, as I’m not as familiar with all suburban belts equally as compared to the metros I’ve lived.
I’ll toss it on here once it’s done.
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