moving, trails, bikes, and anxieties – forum, help me.

[lordofthemark]

Help me forum.

My wife and I have been thinking of moving closer to town for a more urban lifestyle for a while. For reasons I’d prefer to not go into, we will be moving sooner than expected, and will be renting an apartment (for the time being.) I want to be frugal, my wife wants as much space as she can get. Its a lot easier to be frugal and get a bit more space if you don’t have to be walking distance to a metro. Currently we are looking at Shirlington, Huntington Station, inner Columbia Pike (near Penrose) and outer Columbia Pike (near the W&OD) (note – if we were new to the area we would look at places like NE DC, or NW PG County – but we are not, we have friends in Va, mostly in the Alexandria-Arlington-inner Fairfax triangle, with the greatest concentration near Agudas Achim in nothern Alexandria)

HS is not a walkable area, has crime issues IIUC, but we would be looking at a newish building, its right near the metro, and close to the MVT. Shirlington is very walkable, and a great biking location, but has only 4 buildings that could work, 2 are too pricey, one is not really nice enough, and the one in between (the Windsor) is pricier than we thought, and we don’t really like the breezeway style. We have not yet looked at the older buildings on Inner Col Pike, but the newer ones are a tad too pricey. Its getting there in terms of walkability, and is really close in, but the biking isn’t so great I guess. Outer Col Pike – seems about the best tradeoff of price and space (I am talking the newish and renovated hirises, not the old low rises) – probably because the transit commute isnt as good and its not as walkable. But as a cyclist, I find it enticing – as good as any place on that list other than Shirlington. Easy access to the W&OD, a 10 mile ride to work, a short ride to Shirlington and to synagogue, a possibly bike oriented lifestyle.

(We are also considering NW and N Alexandria, but the best option we have looked at so far, 3001 Park Center, looks like it might not be as good as outer Columbia Pike)

But. A. Is it insane to make a decision like this based on biking? B. Will I need a road bike to do a 10 mile commute? C. So far I’ve never commuted by bike more than once in a week. This makes sense if I step that up, and would help me to step it up. How can I be sure I WOULD step it up? D. I think if we did move there I would need to get a second decent hybrid, so my wife could ride with me to places more comfortably.

As an aside, if we move to HS I will stay involved with FABB, and if we move to Arlington I intend to get involved there. As it is I ride in Arlco more than in FFX, aside from the short route from where we now live to the bus stop.

Topic

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Terpfan 88834 wrote:

You can easily do 10 without a road bike. I do 16-17 each way on a hybrid.

As for where to live, sort of subjective and based on price. There really isn’t that much crime at Huntington. I live a little further south from there and have used that area many times, don’t really feel unsafe. The sketchy stuff is just mostly those old hotels/motels. Even those, eh, folks stick to themselves.

GL

I agree with this. I lived over there for about 8 years, and I think the neighborhood’s crime problems are several years behind it.

[Anonymous]

I was going to say something similar to terp and dread but then didn’t because I figured I don’t really know a lot about those apartments specifically. They are all shiny and new but I have no idea how well run. But the area overall is fine. I lived there 10 years and am a small-ish female and felt comfortable walking around alone at any hour day and night. Honestly I had more sketchy interactions the two years I lived in the del ray vicinity though I agree that is also a nice area and more urban/walkable at least in the sense of places to walk to. You can walk around Huntington but your destinations are slim pickings.

[ShawnoftheDread]

And with the new ped bridge you can walk or bike to Hoffman Center. Not as nice as Mt. Vernon Ave, but it’s something.

[lordofthemark]

Del Ray – the low rise building did not have any 2 BRs available per their website, so I didn’t press to look there. The newish and brand new buildings were nice, but didn’t quite work in terms of price. Ditto for the older buildings in Crystal City. Ditto for Penrose. We looked at one really old building near inner Col Pike, and it was not nice enough. We are leaning towards either outer Col Pike (I can accept riding a quarter of a mile on the sidewalk to get to the W&OD if I can’t find a short cut) or towards Huntington Station. Maybe 3001 Park Center (I know the bike routes from there, since we lived in that area in the past.)

[chris_s]

Did you look at Shawnee or Fillmore Gardens in Penrose?

[baiskeli]

@Emm 88682 wrote:

and The gardens at Del Ray is right by us, and its a huge complex with some good amenities.

I think that’s where we used to live! I didn’t realize it because they changed their name. Looks like they’ve done some major upgrades too.

[lordofthemark]

@chris_s 88924 wrote:

Did you look at Shawnee or Fillmore Gardens in Penrose?

No, we looked at some oldish hi rise, Dominion something or other. If was QUITE affordable, but the layout of the building (narrow dark hallways, the state of some public areas) and the general vibe turned off my DW. I don’t think an older and cheaper (than that) low rise will work. We are looking for the goldilocks property – not too expensive, and not too inexpensive, I guess (I mean we are talking 50 somethings who have spent the last 12 years in the suburbs – please don’t judge us) There are a couple of newer (but still old) hi rises right on Col Pike that might work though, but we ran out of time.

[Author]

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