I feel that Del Ray being a streetcar suburb is more of a historical accident than an important part of the narrative. What makes Del Ray is Mount Vernon Ave., not Commonwealth Ave. It's the semi-urban fabric that makes it a walkable neighborhood and why young upper middle families have been gentrifying everyone else out over the course of the last 20+ years. (I like nearly all the new families, but let's face it, the only diversity is which schools their children go to.)
Regardless, this is the kind of neighborhood city planners refuse to allow today. Why wasn't Main Line Blvd. in Potomac Yard modeled after MVA instead of being exclusively townhouses? Why is there almost no street-level commerce in the dozen new apartment buildings near Braddock Rd. Metro? Why does a resident in either need to cross Rt. 1 or go half a mile to the north (PY) or south (BR) to get as much as a cup of coffee? This is city planning idiocy.
So yes, we need more housing in Del Ray because a) people want to live there and b) doing so will only strengthen the neighborhood. However, we need to build more neighborhoods like it. If you know of one anywhere near Alexandria, I want to hear it.
And I would say the diversity of del ray and the local schools compares favorably to most of the rest of NoVA due to the variety of housing types Luca describes.
I feel that Del Ray being a streetcar suburb is more of a historical accident than an important part of the narrative. What makes Del Ray is Mount Vernon Ave., not Commonwealth Ave. It's the semi-urban fabric that makes it a walkable neighborhood and why young upper middle families have been gentrifying everyone else out over the course of the last 20+ years. (I like nearly all the new families, but let's face it, the only diversity is which schools their children go to.)
Regardless, this is the kind of neighborhood city planners refuse to allow today. Why wasn't Main Line Blvd. in Potomac Yard modeled after MVA instead of being exclusively townhouses? Why is there almost no street-level commerce in the dozen new apartment buildings near Braddock Rd. Metro? Why does a resident in either need to cross Rt. 1 or go half a mile to the north (PY) or south (BR) to get as much as a cup of coffee? This is city planning idiocy.
So yes, we need more housing in Del Ray because a) people want to live there and b) doing so will only strengthen the neighborhood. However, we need to build more neighborhoods like it. If you know of one anywhere near Alexandria, I want to hear it.
- @slarjy
I stand by the idea that the small lots and fairly dense housing in Del Ray is a byproduct of the streetcar line.
And I would say the diversity of del ray and the local schools compares favorably to most of the rest of NoVA due to the variety of housing types Luca describes.