When 51-year-old Pazit Aviv walks her dog in her Silver Spring, Md., neighborhood, it takes an extra 30 minutes as she inevitably gets lost in an impromptu chat with a neighbor.
“I know every single person in a three-street radius,” says Aviv, who has lived in the Washington, D.C., suburb for a decade and raised two children here. Silver Spring, which ranks No. 1 on this year’s Fortune Best Places to Live for Families, has been an ideal hometown for Aviv. It’s close enough to D.C. to enjoy the city’s many amenities, but Silver Spring has its own thriving arts and restaurant scene, plus high-performing schools. It’s the tight-knit community, however, that makes Aviv want to live here into old age. “We have meals together, and meal trains when a family has a baby or if someone is sick,” she says.
