DC area Dopers: could you share your knoweldge with me please?

In My Humble Opinion
41

[QUOTE=Nightsong]
With a grin like that, dare I ask? :slight_smile:
[/QUOTE]

Nothing is up with the grin (was meant to be a happy smile instead of a ‘hehe’ grin)…It simply is one of the best and most authentic chinese restaurants around (and I don’t mean withn authentic having dogs or whatnot on the menu) - dumplings with actual pieces of shrimp and mushrooms instead of that sausagelike stuffing abomination that most places do, ginger chicken casserole but also more ‘adventurous’ dishes like sauteed duck tongues or fried ducks feet

42

[QUOTE=Future Londonite]
Nothing is up with the grin (was meant to be a happy smile instead of a ‘hehe’ grin)…It simply is one of the best and most authentic chinese restaurants around (and I don’t mean withn authentic having dogs or whatnot on the menu) - dumplings with actual pieces of shrimp and mushrooms instead of that sausagelike stuffing abomination that most places do, ginger chicken casserole but also more ‘adventurous’ dishes like sauteed duck tongues or fried ducks feet
[/QUOTE]
Ooo, I will have to check them out then. By any chance do they do dim sum?

43

[QUOTE=Nightsong]
Ooo, I will have to check them out then. By any chance do they do dim sum?
[/QUOTE]

Sadly no…however for good dim sum you’re better off crossing into North Virginia. Check out the Washington CityPaper - their restaurant reviews are pretty reliable. Plus I used to discover a bunch of new places through the “young and hungry” section.

44

[QUOTE=Future Londonite]

Silver ‘Sprung’ is nice and brand new. Lots of brand new apartment buildings are rising left and right, attracting new business. However somehow I find that Silver Spring lacks soul. A good friend of mine moved there after I left for Germany and what I read on his blog he seems to be loving life there so things might have changed…

[/QUOTE]

I was there recently and still have that feeling. We went to the Town Center that they built there. It reminded me a little too much of other Town Centers and there weren’t any restaurants or businesses there that didn’t exist elsewhere. There are some places opening up that look pretty good like Ray’s the Classics though, so that could be changing. Silver Spring has a Metro Station and is pretty close to the city so you could do a lot worse. It is also cheaper than Arlington and Bethesda. *

A lot of people I know find rentals through Craigslist so keep checking there as well. When we moved in 2005, we were paying 1200 a month for a 1 bedroom in Roslyn (an Arlington Neighborhood with a Metro Stop, across the river from Georgetown) with parking and most utilities included. The only thing we didn’t have was a washer dryer but they had a laundry room in the building on the floor below ours. Our unit was individually owned and rented out. You may find a better deal renting from the unit owner.

  • at least it was when I was looking but it has been a few years.
45

Looks like **Mama Zappa ** is living in my backyard.

If you plan to work in DC then Windsor at Arbors is no where near the best choice. Its quite a trek to the metro.

If I were a young man again, moving new to the area, I would consider Clarendon (sp) or Annandale (VA) around the Ballston area. Both near metro lines with things that can be easily walked to. I would think $1500 a month would get you something there.

Also consider the Yellow line. My wife drives to the metro, takes the Yellow, then Blue lines and she manages to get to work in about 30 miuntes. On the Yellow line you could find lots of nice places in Old town Alexandria, Crystal city or Potomac Yard .

One last piece of advice - If I had it to do over I would have rented a nice apartment for a couple of months, to do some local leg work, before settling on an area. Greater “DC” includes a lot of stuff.

46

[QUOTE=shiftless]
Looks like **Mama Zappa ** is living in my backyard.

If you plan to work in DC then Windsor at Arbors is no where near the best choice. Its quite a trek to the metro.

If I were a young man again, moving new to the area, I would consider Clarendon (sp) or Annandale (VA) around the Ballston area. Both near metro lines with things that can be easily walked to. I would think $1500 a month would get you something there.

Also consider the Yellow line. My wife drives to the metro, takes the Yellow, then Blue lines and she manages to get to work in about 30 miuntes. On the Yellow line you could find lots of nice places in Old town Alexandria, Crystal city or Potomac Yard .

One last piece of advice - If I had it to do over I would have rented a nice apartment for a couple of months, to do some local leg work, before settling on an area. Greater “DC” includes a lot of stuff.
[/QUOTE]

That’s an excellent suggestion (of course it must be, as it’s exactly what we did!). We sublet a study apartment near Dupont Circle for about 5 months, to give us a chance to get more acquainted with the area. It was quite a dump, actually :eek: - the landlord was attempting to renovate the building (half-empty) without obtaining the proper permits, so he removed the furnace right about the time we moved in, leaving us with nothing but space heaters all winter. We were not yet 30, and in good health, and also on the third floor… the elderly woman on the first floor, who had a completely unheated basement below her, nearly froze. Cracked walls, roaches, a 1930s-era stove that halfway worked… But it was walkable to the Metro.

Maybe you could find something via Craigslist that would do for short-term (roommate situation).

Um, Ballston is not all that near Annandale; in fact nothing in Annandale would be all that near a Metro station. Ballston itself, however, is a great location (it’s part of Arlington county). Ditto Clarendon. Both would have a fairly “urban” feel (high rises).

Windsor/Arbors may not be the best choice, but location-wise it’s not all that awful - bearing in mind that there’s not much “fun” nearby, it isn’t walkable to the Metro, and I don’t know what bus service options would be there if you miss the workday shuttle. Road access to any metro other than Van Dorn would sorta suck but is certainly doable if you wish to drive / park. You’d be going counter to the prevailing traffic to Franconia-Springfield (south on Van Dorn for about 3 miles, then west for 2ish miles). Traffic can be pretty bogged down getting to Huntington that time of day though.

47

There is superb dim sum in Wheaton, MD at Hollywood East Cafe on the Boulevard:

http://hollywoodeastcafe.com/

48

Yum, places to get good food are always appreciated! (I’m pretty omnivorous: Chinese, Thai, Indian, Italian, so long as it isn’t deep fried to death or trying to bite me back.)

On a non-housing hunt subject:

Looks like I’ll need to obtain a front license plate bracket for my car, ah well. I see that there are inspections, and depending on where I end up X amount of days for me to transfer stuff over, but are there any issues I should keep an eye out for? Things that need to be done, or would be very helpful to have done, but aren’t clearly spelled out on the respective DMV sites? At least I know my car won’t have problems passing emissions.

49

It depends on where you live. I’ve lived in Virginia and DC. If you choose to live in DC, there is only one inspection station. Try to go on a workday if possible and it would be better if you go in the middle of the week, preferably early in the morning. Getting your license in DC is a pain. You will need to have a bunch of paperwork but the DMV website will guide you through it. The DMV is a bit of the pain in the ass to get to. Don’t drive there, take the Metro.

Virginia is generally easier since there are a ton of stations that can do inspections. There are multiple DMVs and for the most part they are relatively efficient.

50

[QUOTE=divemaster]
I’ve lived the last 6-7 years in the Manassas area and am closing on a house next week a little further out, in Gainesville. I commute into the city on VRE. That’s the commuter train; like Amtrak. It takes about an hour on the train each way, but that’s time you can spend reading, napping, working on your laptop, doing a crossword, whatever. The VRE makes several stops that are only a 5 minute walk from the Metro (and on the Blue line).

Living out this far is good if you want the typical suburban lifestyle. You know, Home Depot, Best Buy, lots of shopping centers and grocery stores. A 20-30 minute drive (off peak) takes you into Fairfax or Annandale where there is a TON of Korean retail, grocery, cafe, and restaurants.

And with home prices the way they are now, it’s a great time to buy. The house we are closing on was built in 2005. Sold then for $700,000 and we are getting it for $387,000. Lots of similar deals out this way.

And of course you can still hit DC on the weekends. Drive or Metro. Other nice places to check out (not in DC) are Old Town Alexandria and Occaquan.

Feel free to ask specifics about the Manassas / PWC experience. I’m somewhat familiar with DC, but mainly for things related to the commute and touristy things. Not so much the out-of-the-way places.
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I just bought a house in Wellington. We just moved here. I’m stunned at the number of Mexican immigrants here. It’s unreal. South Georgetown is a real fucking nightmare too. I drive to Chantilly each day and need a better route than 28 or PW to 66. The commute can really blow.

51

Mama Zappa is correct regarding Annandale/Ballston. I get my Annandales and Arlingtons mixed up.

As for getting your car setup here, Caffeint.addict covers it. Every DC resident I know has a story about getting their car registered there. It is not quick, especially the inspection - get there early in the morning. Virginia is pretty easy - get a new license, register the car, emissions and safety inspections. I think I did this in an hour or so when I moved from DC. You may be surprised by the insurance rates here.

You sound like you like food. There are many neighborhoods with a particular ethnic flavor, everything in the world, but you can get practically any kind of food in the world around here.

52

[QUOTE=Nightsong]

Looks like I’ll need to obtain a front license plate bracket for my car, ah well. I see that there are inspections, and depending on where I end up X amount of days for me to transfer stuff over, but are there any issues I should keep an eye out for? Things that need to be done, or would be very helpful to have done, but aren’t clearly spelled out on the respective DMV sites? At least I know my car won’t have problems passing emissions.
[/QUOTE]

In VA, you’ll need emissions and inspection to register the car; I honestly forget whether you need to have those done before or after you go to the DMV. There are a number of locations for license plates and driver’s licenses - you do go to separate locations for those, but it’s not like the District where it’s all badly run and in one location as another poster mentions. It can get crowded at the end of the month for obvious reasons. Virginia has “personal property tax” which is based on the value of the car(s) you own and is payable every fall. It used to be quite onerous (when we bought a minivan in 1996, the tax bill the next year was a thousand dollars) but it’s decreased substantially. I think we paid a couple hundred dollars for both cars this year.

My one experience with the District, car-wise, was to obtain a temporary parking permit when we were subletting. We had to go to 3 separate windows. One to pay the fee and get a receipt. Another to have the receipt reviewed and stamped, and the forms for the pass stamped. And another to get the actual pass. All in one big room. :rolleyes:

53

My gripes about DC aside, the City is getting better at handling things. The last time I went to get my car inspected, we went in the middle of the week, and we got out of there in 20 minutes. I was absolutely stunned. I was talking to another guy who was getting his car inspected. He was as stunned as I was.

However, my wife isn’t a citizen but rather a green card holder. She couldn’t get her license in the Downtown DMV but rather had to go to the one in Georgetown which handles all of the ones for green card holders. She was there all morning since there is one clerk who knows what she is doing for them.

54

[QUOTE=Cubsfan]
I just bought a house in Wellington. We just moved here. I’m stunned at the number of Mexican immigrants here. It’s unreal. South Georgetown is a real fucking nightmare too. I drive to Chantilly each day and need a better route than 28 or PW to 66. The commute can really blow.
[/QUOTE]

Hey! I owned a townhouse in Wellington for the 6 years I lived in Manassas. Sold it last fall. Been renting the last 6 months or so while we searched for a new house.

I saw the writing on the wall last year for that area and decided to get out while I still had good profit in the townhouse. I woke up one day and say there were about 15 For Sale signs on my street (And my street was not that long). And yards were starting to be unkempt. Many of these were houses abandoned by the illegals who had up to that point been making good money with the housing boom (construction work and such) but were now upside down on their recently-converted ARMs. Plus, the whole political thing. If you’ve been following the news, you know the immigrant issue is HUGE in Prince William County and Manassas. Very heated feelings on all sides of the issue.

I don’t know of any way to get to Chantilly other than 28, and that’s just no fun. The only time I have to drive that is getting to/from Dulles when I travel. Ah, those return flights at 4:00 in the afternoon. The hour+ drive to travel the 15 miles to get home. No thanks!

(I love my VRE commute into the city, though.)

Sorry for the hijack. I do hope Nightsong, you find a good place and that this thread has helped you some.

55

A. If you want restaurants I reccomend checking out Chow Hound link on DIm Sum (authentic)

B. I did not weigh in on Silver Spring because I am stuck in the 80’s and it will always be the way it was then to me - really though the Discovery Channel HQ all the re-doing and the AFI Cultural Center which really is a hard to match out of LA/NY draw if you are a film person. Still, in my mind Silver Spring is stuck on what it was & I can’t get past it. Having said all that Cubanos is someplace you should try wherever you end up.

56

[QUOTE=jimmmy]
B. I did not weigh in on Silver Spring because I am stuck in the 80’s and it will always be the way it was then to me
[/QUOTE]

What is your impression of midtown 14th Street? I find an awful lot of people draw back and gasp when I tell them I live in midtown. "Ooooh I bet you see a lot of action on 14th Street! Wink wink, nudge nudge :wink: "

The infamous 14th Street red light corridor disappeared 20 years ago but I guess people still love to reminisce.

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Update:

Wooo! The formal offer came in today, so the countdown to me saying goodbye to Memphis and hello to DC has begun!

tosses confetti

58

Shall we do a Dopefest for you?

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That’d be great! It may have to be after I’ve gotten a chance to settle in, find my long-term accommodations, etc., else I fear I may be too tired/frazzled to have a good time.

60

Did you make a choice on MD vs. VA. vs. Possibly DC?

[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture]
What is your impression of midtown 14th Street? I find an awful lot of people draw back and gasp when I tell them I live in midtown. "Ooooh I bet you see a lot of action on 14th Street! Wink wink, nudge nudge :wink: "

The infamous 14th Street red light corridor disappeared 20 years ago but I guess people still love to reminisce.
[/QUOTE]

I missed this until it was unseemly to answer and revive a zombie thread to talk about “my impressions” and I really appreciate fate giving me a chance to answer with the sudden revival

  • I find an awful lot of people draw back and gasp when I tell them I live in midtown. "Ooooh I bet you see a lot of action on 14th Street! Wink wink, nudge nudge :wink: "

That would be me but I also have sense enough to know that is in the past and that you live in the land of +$500K Condos & cool City life (vs. its ugly side)