For those of you not familiar with where I live, allow me to fill you in. I live Springfield, a suburb of Washington DC. Drive due south on 395 and you’ll hit it. Actually, drive south on 495 (in either direction), 95, or 395 and you’ll hit it. The locals call the nexus of all of these interstates “the mixing bowl.” As far as I can tell, it is why Springfield exists at all. They have done a good job in making the traffic flow better so the mixing bowl isn’t as bad as its reputation has been.
So being close to all of those interstates makes getting anywhere you’d want to go in the NoVA area pretty easy. It’s also the end of the blue line of the metro. I live about a mile from that. The blue line gives me a straight shot into the District, and more importantly, to Pentagon city where I work.
Springfield seems to have inherited or extended the low rent areas of South Arlington and Annandale. That makes for nicer rent payments, but there are some issues. I don’t have to worry about the schools, but I’m sure they’re not as good as they are in Falls Church, Fairfax, etc. I have the impression that crime is higher as well, but I haven’t experienced any. The good thing about this is that I live with a bunch of immigrants. That’s good? Sure it is. I got used to a lot of ethnic diversity when I was in Yemen and it’s nice to get back to that.
Consider this. Both of my neighbors are from muslim countries (Afghanistan and some other, unidentified country). This means that they are much less likely to have a dog. That’s nothing but a plus in my book! In my experience, immigrant communities tend to be hard working and down to earth, and my current neighborhood seems to fit that to a tee.
Of course the real reason you want to live in an immigrant rich area is for the food. I went up to the local strip mall today and Holy ethnic dining Bat Man! There were Indian, South Indian, Thai, and several kabob places (with the innovative names of Kabob house II and Kabob house III). That, along with several latin grocery stores makes me wonder what else is around this area. If I ever make enough money to go out to eat again, I’ll be eating well!
So I’m digging the new place so far. It’s cheap, it’s convenient, it has good food, what else can you ask for in a place to live?