I have lived in Fairfax County for over 18 years. And as I have moved from home to home, I have slowly learned about where the nearest parks are, or where the nearest library is. By driving around, I may have noticed a police station, or a hospital. And by necessity, I may have had to look up or ask about where the nearest post office was.
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Station
We don’t usually focus on public services when we look for a home
We are used to buying a home based on its particular characteristics, such as number of bedrooms, the size of the yard, and an updated kitchen. Some of us might further place our focus on a few external characteristics such as the assigned schools.
What we don’t usually do is think about required public services until later, once we’ve moved in.
That’s when we start wondering how to get stuff done…
Shortly after moving to a new home, kids will go to school, visit the park, and perhaps the library. Adults will want to go to the post office and occasionally to their assigned polling location.
Also, while we all hope to never need a hospital or the services of the police or the fire departments, it’s a good idea to know where the closest stations are to home.
Wouldn’t it be great to know about the location and availability of these services prior to moving to a new home?
How can you easily find out about public services nearby?
You’ll be happy to know that Fairfax County maintains a comprehensive resource that displays all of that information together. It’s as simple as entering a home address and out comes general information surrounding a property such as roads and public services such as:
- assigned schools,
- nearby parks, libraries, hospitals, post offices, police and fire stations,
- assigned polling locations, as well as
- elected officials representing the citizens who reside at that address.
There is also demographics information sliced in a few different ways, a searchable map of parks, and a police incidents map.
Try it out for yourself, this resource is called “My Neighborhood” and is available here:
Fairfax County’s My Neighborhood app
Information available on My Neighborhood
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/gisapps/myneighborhood/default.aspx
building photo by fairfaxcounty on flickr
Everybody is welcome to find a home by school boundary. A school boundary
is simply a geographical area, just like a zip code or a postal city.
Does anything on this website bug you? Nothing is too small or too big. If there is something we can fix, we'd love to know.
