What Makes a Neighborhood a Great Place to Live?

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it is that makes a neighborhood a great place to live. What is it that moves a group of structures from dwellings to community? It helps to have a location that has a sense of “place” a sense that once you arrive you are someplace.

We are fortunate in Reston to have many gathering places—public use spaces that were designed into and planned for from the beginning. What a difference it makes to the character of our neighborhoods.

Lake Anne Plaza, Reston Town Center, Hunters Woods, all of the Village Centers encourage people to take their time; this is a big part of what makes Reston a wonderful place to live—but still there is something else here. It's community, people from all kinds of backgrounds that choose to live in close proximity to one another.

We are bound by our love of this place—it gives a common connection, something we value together; and I wonder if that’s it, is that what makes this neighborhood a great place to live?

What makes your neighborhood a great place to live?