By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 21, 2007
After her marriage broke up last year, Raquel Fuentes, an Arlington County mother, knew she needed a new life. A marketing manager in the District, the 38-year-old wanted to live somewhere safe but lively, too, with plenty of people around so she wouldn't feel lonely.
Weary of driving everywhere from her Arlington neighborhood of tidy brick colonials filled mostly with families, she yearned for a more urban lifestyle, where she could walk to shops and restaurants. She wanted to take Metro to work but also stay close to her daughter's day care and friends, because she shared custody with her ex-husband.
Fuentes was drawn to Clarendon, in the heart of Arlington's bustling Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, a three-mile stretch of dense development concentrated around five Metro stops just across the Potomac River from the District.
Long known as a magnet for young singles just starting out, Arlington's "R-B corridor" is quietly attracting a large number of middle-aged people looking to start over. The rapidly urbanizing stretch of suburbia is becoming the place to move in Northern Virginia after a life-changing event, like divorce, the loss of a spouse, a cross-country move, kids moving out or parents dying.
"The boomers are here in big numbers now," said Jay Fisette (D), a member of the Arlington County Board. "Two acres of grass to cut on an isolated cul-de-sac with two tense hours of bumper-to-bumper commute time becomes less appealing when personal circumstances change."
The reasons for the boomers-in-flux become more clear with the opening of each new high-rise: close proximity to the District and jobs, Metro within walking distance, and more and more places to frequent: new restaurants, upscale shops, dance studios, coffee bars, bike trails, dog parks, gyms and live entertainment.
And lots of other people going through similar life changes.
"The fact that there are other people like them who they can establish a relationship with, whether it's a romantic relationship or friendship, is very important," said Ralph Rosenbaum, a demographer with the city of Alexandria. "These people are looking for a social life outside of their family, because their family may not be local anymore or may not exist in the same way."
Demographer Roberto Ruiz of Arlington's planning office estimates that Arlington's baby boomer population -- residents ages 45 to 64 -- has increased 34.4 percent to about 54,300 since the 2000 Census. The population of the county is just under 200,000.
And the number of single people in Arlington continues to soar from an already high level. In the 2000 Census, 40.8 percent of Arlington's households were made up of single people, among the top U.S. localities. Since then, the population of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor has shot up by about 6,000 people, or 17 percent, while the household size there has decreased, Ruiz said, meaning more singles are taking up residence in the urban-suburban strip.
The new real estate doesn't come cheap -- another reason higher-income boomers are filling in the gaps.
"It can't all be 20-somethings," said Robert E. Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech and the author of "Boomburbs," a new book on the suburbs. "They couldn't foot the bill."
The new buildings in Arlington are attracting such boomers as Robert Hand, Dee Emma and Susan Cherney, who moved there after major life upheavals, all with the disposable cash to live in the pricey area, where a one-bedroom condominium can cost up to $425,000.
Hand, 58, rented a studio apartment in a new building in Ballston last May after his marriage broke up in Maine and he decided to chuck the corporate life. When he arrived in the area, he first lived in Germantown and then discovered the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.
Hand walks to his job as a personal trainer at Sport & Health at Ballston Common mall. He hangs out at the neighborhood's dog parks with his sheltie, Dodger. He regularly goes to the opera and ballet in the District. And he lingers over the long city view from his 18th-floor apartment.
"My life is packed," Hand said. He's now looking to buy a condo in the area, perhaps in the same building. "I wasn't anticipating putting roots down here at all," he said.
Arlington planners have been encouraging growth along the Metro corridors for decades, but only in the past few years has it really taken off.
From 2000 through the end of the decade, the fast-developing area will have had more than 8,000 new homes -- mostly apartments in high-rise buildings -- built or in the planning stages, planning officials said. Despite a slower housing market, agents and county officials remain bullish on the area because of its popularity.
Dee Emma, 55, and Susan Cherney, 55, met in the elevator in their building in Court House, where they were both renting, soon after they moved to the area following major life changes.
Emma's marriage had just broken up. Cherney, divorced and living in San Francisco for more than 20 years, moved back to Arlington, her home town, just one week after her youngest daughter went off to college.
The two women became fast friends, taking long walks into the District together, strolling through the weekend farmer's market, taking dance lessons and meeting up for dinner or cocktails on Wilson Boulevard in the evening.
Sally Sislak, manager of the Dance Factory in Virginia Square, said she has lost count of how often she's heard a version of the same boomer story of loss -- and then renewal -- over the past few years. "It's almost like a church in that way," she said.
While Emma and Cherney were on the studio floor practicing new moves, a fresh love was tentatively blossoming just a skirt swing away.
Ray Tenenholtz, 63, who recently separated from his wife of more than 35 years, and Kim Slade, 63, a widow, got together at the dance studio after Slade shyly asked Tenenholtz to dance. They now go dancing together four nights a week.
"People like us, who are divorced or widowed or their kids have grown up, we need to have social lives and make new friends," Tenenholtz said.
"It's not easy to find the right person," Slade, a Rosslyn resident, said as she held Tenenholtz's hand before they took another twirl on a recent open-dance night. "I'm so lucky that I met Ray here."
Meanwhile, Fuentes is settled comfortably into her two-bedroom, 830-square-foot condo that she bought last year for $422,000. She's looking forward to sipping wine on her south-facing balcony on summer evenings after work and taking her daughter to the building's pool.
"The more I live here, the more I know I made the right choice," she said.
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