Clarendon

Clarendon was once a really, really cool place to hang. All sorts of independent stores and restaurants and bars thrived. There were plenty of places to park. Now, everyone wants to live there. A billion condos are built there. Chain places are cropping up — restaurants, stores. Fer crying out loud, there’s even a Cheesecake Factory there. It’s like it turned into a mall, with more expensive parking. Restaurants that made the place special — the Vietnamese restaurants that gave the area the nickname “Little Saigon” — as well as some of the quirky independent places — are being chased away by high rental prices. Congratulations, town planners and business people — you’ve stripped away the character of a great neighborhood. The way things are headed, I suspect there will be an Olive Garden there next. ::Sigh::

They repaved paradise and put up a strip mall.

I just moved here a month ago (from Vienna, which is about 10 miles west), and I like it. I like it especially later at night, around 10 or 11, when the night traffic has died down a bit and it’s busy but not too busy. I like walking down to Courthouse Plaza and sitting by the fountain there because there are less people there than at Market Common.

I like the fact that I can actually walk places, and I like that I can go to Whole Foods, get my groceries, and then walk back to the apartment and cook the things I just bought. Nothing like freshly bought, freshly made food.

I do agree with alykat that it’s a bit more busy than I remember it being growing up, and perhaps at times too busy. This is true of the whole DC area, I think, but especially Arlington because of its proximity to the city. I still like it here, but it’s getting too crowded and I’m starting to want to live somewhere else. With luck, that may happen within the next year or two…

This is my favorite neighborhood in Arlington, and the place where I spend a good bit of my free time. There are some great restaurants — my favorites being Kabob Bazaar and Faccia Luna — some good shopping and a Whole Foods grocery store, among other things.

Lately, though, it’s become almost too hopping a place. Rents are high, street parking is hard to find and the streets have a few too many wannabe-hipsters en route to happy hour and out-of-towners crowded around the Cheesecake Factory.