Also, rents are not cheap in Arlington and they haven't been for a long time. In fact, unlike most cities where a decent credit rating will suffice, you have to meet a minimum salary requirement in Arlington for most places. And if you consider yourself to be be poor or lower-income, well there is housing for you. But be aware, Arlington considers low-income to be at least $35,000, so don't plan on getting that subsidized place to live in if you actually "work" for a living. And if you are Hispanic, well then thanks for stopping by all these years, but we need your affordable land so fuck off. Good luck Angela!

Your right, the Royal Lee is one of the last great "dive bars" in Arlington, but it won't last too much longer I assume. Dont' think you are going to find some great places nobody knows about, for the most part, those places are gone, demolished by the developers who would rather have density and the Cheesecake Factory.

Again, the Royal Lee Deli? That strip mall you talk about is just about dead. What you are seeing is not some great found dive bar that will save your soul. Years ago there was the "Sweet Shop" , a hardware store (where I worked for one summer, ages ago), a drug store and a slightly better version of the supermarket that exists. The Royal Lee has always been a dive bar where the Army brats from Fort Myer love to hang out. And for one last point of history, the owner, Jaspani "Paul" Narang once tried to steal a $6 million dollar winning lottery ticket from one of his loyal customers. He claimed he had found it on the floor. Luckily for that winner, Paul was caught.

Sorry, Arlington is not some East Coast version of Portland, Oregon. It may have been at one time or had the chance to be now, but they fucked it up. Some of the changes have been good, most have been bad.

There are still a few remenants of a once great neighborhood (Iota, Galaxy Hut for instance), but they're disappearing all the time.