Don't get too hung up on the distance between Clarendon and Courthouse. The two Metro stops are barely a 10-minute walk from each other on mostly flat ground; it's only when you get east of Courthouse Road and the elevation starts to drop that you incur any serious effort walking or biking to get from one to the other.

If you don't need to drive to work, you can indeed live in that part of Arlington without a car. Beyond Metro and Arlington's ART buses, you've got Zipcar and car2go car sharing (although the latter will only allow trips that start and end in the county when it launches) and also Capital Bikeshare. Meanwhile, Arlington-based taxi companies are predictable and fair, while Uber and Lyft almost always have cars available.

Grocery stores: In addition to Whole Foods, there's a Trader Joe's across an intersection from the Clarendon Metro and multiple convenience stores for the things that WF and TJ's don't stock (like, for some insane reason, tonic water). There's also a great farmers market on Saturday mornings by Courthouse and an okay one Wednesday afternoons in the summer next to the Clarendon Metro.

These two neighborhoods, Clarendon especially, offer an avgeek bonus if you're around during a workday: Anytime there's a flyover of Arlington National Cemetery, the aircraft involved are liable to go right over your head.