Stone Ridge, Virginia

Seriously, what's with all these artificial communities popping up in random article lately? It's creepy to know that there are so many of them around. Stone Ridge, Virginia, is a mixed-use community near WDI (Washington-Dulles Airport). FYI, I like using airport codes whenever possible, although Chicago's "ORD" and "MDW" are very inconspicuous and nobody would ever guess "Chicago" when looking at them. "MKE" is another story, which is why I'm proud to be from the Greater Milwaukee Area originally (y'know, where teachers like to hook up with each other a lot).

In any event, Stone Ridge is what I like to call a "fake town." Developers come in, take a giant plot of land and put in a diversified mix of living arrangements: houses, town homes, condos & apartments (like M.A.S.H). Then they build cute little downtown areas with chain restaurants and generically well-liked (but discount) retail stores like JoS. A Bank and Ann Taylor Loft. Then they build a school or two. And if they're totally into the creepy pod-person Pleasantville feel of the whole thing, there's a church of some sort. Oh, and all the trees are new and tiny because they were planted specifically for the fake town. It's so weird.

They built one near my grandma's condo in Glenview like 6-ish years ago. Coincidentally (or on purpose), it was called The Glen. The year I lived with Grams (The C-dubs if you're really tight with her) after college, it was being finished and expanded. This one was much more upscale than Stone Ridge, Virginia, though. Whereas SRV's got Wendy's, Cingular, Walgreens and Subway, The Glen's got Noodles, Ulta, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Wildfire (which is actually an excellent restaurant despite the fact that it's a small chain). They've even got a golf course.

They weren't messin' around when they built The Glen. It's very lovely. But Grams & I still mockingly called it the fake town whenever we'd go there for dinner and/or shopping and/or movies (and/or church...NOT).

The Glen does have one huge flaw, though: no back yards! Seriously. In the area where they have single family homes, the driveways are all in the BACK of the houses. If you live there, you go around back to a shared alley, and that's where your garage & driveway are. So it's like you've got TWO front yards because there's yard there...it's just adjacent to road and other houses. Again. So weird. Let's hope SRV thought about that when buidling so close to WDI. The last thing I want to see when I'm flying into DC is a neighborhood with no yards.