News and notes from Reston (tm).

Friday, April 11, 2014

Shocker: Yet Another Reston Found, This One On The Illinois Prairie

Reston Ponds mapAs regular readers of this "web log" know, our extensive team of cartographers are constantly scouring the globe for evidence that the Reston Way of Life has spread. So far, their tireless efforts have uncovered Reston doppelgängers in England, Scotland, Ireland, Maryland, and Canada. Their most recent discovery was in Florida, but now we've found yet another Reston, this one in Illinois.

Welcome to Reston Ponds, a housing development in Sycamore, Illinois, which the developer's website calls "a place where smiles are a way of life." Wow, the parallels are uncanny. With ranch and two-story homes from $199,900, Reston Ponds has... ponds. And some lovely, not-so-Restony tract housing:

Ashburn prairie
Welcome to Ashburn on the Prairie.

There are other dissimilarities. There's no ersatz Fake Downtown gritty urban core, but rather a historic downtown dating to the 1850s. Yawn, someone wake us up when they start attracting gritty flash mobs.

But Reston Ponds does have one thing its namesake doesn't. According to the developer's website, the town's Barnes & Noble appears to still be in business.

BURN.

Posted by Restonian at 10:08 AM

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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 11, 2014 at 11:34 AM

    I wouldn't be surprised if there as many "Restons" as there are towns named "Springfield". There certainly is no shortage of so-called "planned communities" of varying descriptions. Having lived here for so long, it seems clear that Reston as it is currently understood (however the p.r. folks at RA spin it) is soon to be gone the way of the dodo. My contrarian side suspects that the "new" Reston of the 21st century will be different, but no better than the "old" Reston, moving from a rather conventional suburb to a super-developed, almost urban setting. Some future. I never bought into the commutarian, smiley-face shtick that RA, the local chamber of commerce-types, and the local relators promulgate, and the new Reston will be even worse--a more expensive and more congested place to live. Thank god we can all vote with our feet.

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  2. Bowling for BollardsApril 11, 2014 at 11:38 AM

    Regarding that $199,999 suburban cottage pictured above---do they come in Russet Brown with Navaho White trim? Otherwise, what would be the point?

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  3. AnonymousApril 11, 2014 at 12:41 PM

    This fake fake Reston does not boast a McTacoHut!

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  4. The ConvictApril 12, 2014 at 6:31 PM

    Our Restongorod doesn't have tract housing? You can't tell that from my townhouse community. Every unit looks exactly the same as one of the three or four models, right down to the same front door light fixture. Want a different front door? You can have any door you like as long as it looks exactly like the one hanging there now.

    Considering the way RA and the DRB seem to go out of their way to squash individuality in our homes, it seems they're enamored with keeping us looking like a tract housing sales brochure from the 1960's and 1970's.

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  5. AnonymousApril 14, 2014 at 10:13 PM

    Harrumph. THEY may have ponds; WE'LL always have our phalanx o' fake lakes!

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