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McLean Northern Virginia | How Nice Is This Neighborhood?

McLean Northern Virginia

Location

McLean is positioned in Northern Virginia. It’s in Fairfax County, simply 8 miles Northwest of Washington DC. It’s subsequent to Arlington, sharing its southeastern border with the sting of Arlington. McLean stretches past the beltway to Spring Hill Highway on the western edge. The Dulles Toll Highway is the southern border, the Potomac River is the Northern / Japanese border.

Outdoors of that, there’s additionally Tyson’s Nook, which is thought for being the procuring mecca with its two separate malls and tons of retail. Some elements of Tyson’s have a McLean mailing tackle and a few have Vienna. For this video I’m together with Tyson’s as nicely as a result of McLean and Tysons are considerably tied collectively. If you happen to put Tysons into Google to see the boundaries, it matches in like a puzzle between McLean and Vienna. However for those who click on on something to see an tackle it might have a McLean, it might be Tysons, it might be Vienna. Why?

About 10 years in the past, they created the choice for Tyson’s Nook companies to make use of Tyson’s as an tackle. The reasoning behind this was to assist the companies create a model round Tyson’s which is being revitalized with residential and workplace improvement. Consumers of those new condos could favor a Tyson’s tackle versus McLean which connotes giant properties and estates.

There are a number of entry factors to get into McLean. Chain Bridge connects from the Palisades, you may take 495 or you may go from Georgetown over the Key Bridge up the GW Parkway to 123. There may be additionally the newly constructed Silver Line metro which has stops in McLean, Tyson’s and Greensboro on Leesburg Pike / Route 7.

Historical past

McLean is called after John Roll McLean, a one-time writer and proprietor of the Washington Publish. Within the early 1900’s, he helped fund the railroad which related McLean with DC. The road ran alongside what’s now Outdated Dominion Highway and crossed into DC at Chain Bridge.

Did You Know? The Mars firm is headquartered in McLean. In contrast to how say, Coke is headquartered in Atlanta and also you see Coca Cola sponsorships and advertisements everywhere, we don’t really feel that presence right here in DC. I want we did. I’d like to have M&M’s on each nook. However Mars is a privately held firm owned by the Mars Household.

Actual Property

A lot of the housing in McLean is single household properties. Any single household residence beneath $1M goes to be a teardown. The house costs in McLean begin within the $1M’s however most are within the $2M to $4M vary. Costs rise sharply right here, with many properties over $10M, $20M, and one presently listed on the Potomac River for $50M.

Home sorts fluctuate tremendously. Most of the older colonial properties that was right here have been torn down and McMansioned. A few of these properties are beautiful. Some are…not. I used to be driving round McLean and handed a street which was full of the ugliest homes I’ve seen in my life. And the home was the identical, it was like somebody got here in with one home sort and constructed a dozen of them. It was comical. I wished to chronicle this for you, my favourite folks.

After I grabbed some video, this Karen ran out of her home and began an inquisition. She requested why I used to be filming and I mentioned it was for a consumer. She requested if I used to be with the developer as a result of, and I’m quoting, she mentioned “We don’t need anybody to repeat what now we have right here.” Holy crap woman, nobody, and I imply, nobody desires to repeat this. Then she mentioned she and all her neighbors have been watching. I’m afraid that is McLean for you. I requested in the event that they have been additionally assholes or simply her. She mentioned I used to be the asshole. Then she instructed me to return to DC. I mentioned, “Oh, now I’m going to have to come back again right here and movie your home daily.” She mentioned, “Perhaps you’ll lose some weight.” Right here she goes, stomping off to her home, yelling at me to return to DC.

There are good folks in McLean for positive, however this expertise wasn’t a lot of a shock. There are quite a lot of excessive rating authorities and tech folks in McLean and lots of of them are simply used to everybody doing what they demand.

There are a number of apartment communities, Lilian Courtroom, the Rotonda, Fountains at McLean, Gates of McLean, Regency at McLean, Colonies at McLean – you get it. The excessive rise buildings have very excessive month-to-month apartment charges – suppose within the $1000’s, like New York Metropolis costs. That is because of the dimension of the constructing, facilities and employees on web site.

Meals

There are a ton of selections in the case of Grocery Shops. There’s Safeway, Balduccis, Big, Lidl, Complete Meals. Nearer to Tyson’s there’s Wegmans and Harris Teeter as nicely.

A lot of the eating places in McLean are within the downtown industrial space. Japanese, Italian, pizza, Thai, Persian, Afghan, Center Japanese – there are quite a lot of choices off Outdated Chain Bridge. The eating places in McLean have a small city really feel to them, extra mother and pop than the choices in Tyson’s. By the department stores there’s Founding Farmers, Fogo de Chao, Capital Grille, Maggiano’s. These are extra of the chain eating places however they’re upscale chains.

Buying & Enjoyable

Wolftrap is a nationwide park for performing arts. Numerous live shows occur right here through the season, Might – September, of all music sorts, dance performances, opera.

Most retail for McLean is off Outdated Dominion Highway. Downtown McLean is the hub of the neighborhood with tons of eating places, retailers.

Chesterbrook Buying Heart has Safeway Grocery Retailer because the anchor and in addition has quite a few smaller companies – eating places, salon, Starbucks. It’s presently getting a makeover so it’s wanting a bit of rundown however it is going to be again!

In Tyson’s Nook, there’s the whole lot else. Two malls – one which is high-end with anchors like Neiman Marcus and Saks, and the opposite aspect has an enormous mall with the whole lot else. Anchor shops there are Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, and you’ve got a pair ranges of principally the rest you’ll need.

Spring Hill Recreation Heart on Spring Hill Highway in McLean is a part of the Fairfax County Park System. Meaning there are not any waitlists, and there are additionally no residency restrictions. They’ve courses, camps, a pool, pre-school for the little ones.

The McLean Neighborhood Heart is for residents solely because it’s funded via taxes. MCC hosts tons of household pleasant occasions, performing arts, video games, sports activities, health, fireworks on the Fourth of July. They’ve a 383 seat theatre, school rooms, a kitchen, little leagues, you title it. They even have occasions for teenagers – journeys to Dave and Busters, and spring break journeys.

If these don’t work otherwise you need one thing else, there are a bunch of personal golf equipment the place membership is required and doubtlessly a wait record exists.

Tuckahoe Recreation Membership is open 12 months spherical. They’ve each indoor and outside swimming pools, tennis courts, mini golf, a playground and a health middle. They’ve a 3-4 12 months wait presently however they provide methods to get into the membership on a restricted foundation for those who stay on their wait record. As a result of it’s a 12 months spherical membership the costs are greater with initiation being $2500 and annual membership for households round $2000 for 4 of us.

Highland Swim & Tennis Membership is open in the summertime solely. They’ve a waitlist and you may generally get a spot in response to their web site for those who pay the deposit and fill out the applying.

Hamlet Swim & Tennis Membership is open in the summertime solely. Their web site presently says they anticipate all new members to be accepted this 12 months. New members pay $1300 a 12 months for household the primary 3 years, then the worth drops to $825.

Kent Gardens Recreation Membership is in Kirby Park. The price is $800 to hitch then $800/yearly.  https://kentgardens.org/

Youngsters

The newest census info states that 40% of the households in McLean have youngsters underneath 18. There’s Youngster’s Play which is a toy and e-book retailer for teenagers, in addition to a MyGym for the little ones. We took numerous ranges of tumble courses on the MyGym in Bethesda and I undoubtedly suggest it.

Clemyjontri Park – one in every of my high 5 must-do parks within the DC Space, Clemyjontri Park has a carousel and several other totally different play areas for numerous ages and skills.

Meadow Lane Park is a neighborhood park with a playground, and you will discover a number of of those neighborhood parks all through McLean.

McLean could be very interesting to households. Between the recreation facilities, parks, trails, proximity to jobs in DC or Tysons for the dad and mom and faculties. Let’s take a better take a look at the faculties.

Faculties

Elementary, center or highschool, the scores are excessive right here. That is Fairfax County, which is commonly thought of as among the best college techniques within the nation. If you happen to go by Nice Faculties, the scores are 8, 9 and 10. All faculties feed to both of two excessive faculties – McLean or Langley.

McLean affords Honors, AP and Twin Enrollment Programs the place you may get faculty credit score. Languages provided are Spanish, French, Chinese language, Latin and German. McLean Excessive Faculty is de facto near the downtown space of McLean. Many college students stroll over to the city to seize Starbucks or hang around with buddies.

Langley affords AP courses. The languages at Langley are Spanish, French, Latin, Russian, Chinese language and Japanese. Langley was not too long ago renovated as nicely.

Traditionally, these faculties have been fairly totally different. A Washington Publish Article from 1978 evaluating the 2 faculties and discussing redistricting quoted a pupil who could be zoned away from Langley to McLean: “It’s an entire totally different class of youngsters that go to Langley,” insisted Marya Palacios, a Langley freshman who would go to McLean if the boundary change is authorised. “The youngsters who go there come from everywhere in the world; they’re extra cultured and intellectually stimulating than those who find yourself going to McLean.”  Marya is 60 now.

Take this with a grain of salt that it was 45 years in the past, however it tells an necessary historical past on the event of those two excessive faculties. Folks nonetheless really feel this technique to an extent, with feedback on the hilarious college message boards citing extra socioeconomic range at McLean. Every highschool in Fairfax County affords demographic info on their web site. Regardless of the feedback you examine there being extra socioeconomic and ethnic range at McLean, the variations are negligible once you take a look at the statistics. I’m telling you this not as a result of it issues, and never as a result of it’s a mirrored image of the schooling your little one will obtain, however to let you understand that very like different locations within the nation you’ll hear quite a lot of “this college is healthier than this one.” If you get into the nitty gritty, and also you notice the premise for the way folks make these determinations, you notice their reasoning is 100% nonsense.

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