Considering a Move?

By Alex Wendt

A little while ago, fellow colleague and Bully Hill enthusiast Ryan Shepard naively asked me if there was any difference between Northern Virginia and Richmond (i.e., the rest of Virginia). After I stopped laughing, I promised him that I would sit down and write him an answer to his question, since I couldn't possibly explain it all in 30 seconds. The following, while not originally intended to be my next article, is my next article because Shep told me to make it so. And, I think it's a pretty good rundown of the differences in Northern Virginia and The Rest Of Virginia for anyone considering a move to one or the other.

Listening, Christine?

Well, the first thing you need to know about Northern Virginia is that it wasn't always called Northern Virginia. It used to just be Fairfax County, Virginia. This all changed in the 1980's when the area went through an unparalleled economic boom. Northern Virginia always had relied on Washington DC as its surrogate form of activity. Now, Washington DC could blow up, and Northern Virginia would be largely unaffected - it's an independent area, except for the northern part of McLean (which houses the CIA), some parts of Arlington, and the Quantico Marine Base in "southern" Northern Virginia.

Now, due to the complete reshaping (the entire shopping center, office buildings, industrial park, and infrastructure to where I now work did not exist when I moved from the area 8 years ago) of the area, spillage has finally made Northern Virginia a kind of sort of acceptable phrase that used to be simply a media euphemism for Fairfax County. Prince William and Loudoun counties have gotten into the act, as have (to a lesser extent) Stafford and Fauquier counties. Suburbs extend fully down to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County, which becomes painfully evident when you try to make a morning commute up I-95 Northbound.

This isn't to say that Richmond hasn't grown. It has quite remarkably - as has most of Virginia that is not in the Hampton Roads/Norfolk areas. However, it's just no comparison to what's happened in Northern Virginia. NoVA is now the major technological center of the world, home to over 70% (yes that's right) of all worldwide Internet activity through Mae East. Silicon Valley, by comparison, chimes in with 15%. NoVA being the headquarters to America Online doesn't hurt either.

People in Northern Virginia don't fuck around. They're always busy, all the time, and it's very hard to get anything accomplished that isn't scheduled at a specific time to do so. Traffic is a major concern. For example, I drive from Rockville MD to Tysons Corner VA every day. It's a 19 mile drive, and takes me 70 minutes each way. This is not terribly uncommon. Another facet of traffic in NoVA is its unpredictability. There are times when I get to work in 30 minutes. Other times, 100. I just got back from work on a Saturday afternoon, and sat in traffic for 35 minutes over the Cabin John (or whatever they're calling it today) Bridge, because two tour buses decided to greet each other over said bridge. It just depends on traffic, and accidents. Road work is done 100% at night, so that is not a cause of traffic jams.

People have a way of driving around here. There are by comparison very few accidents here, and even fewer which involve natives of the area. The aforementioned tour buses not coincidentally had Pennsylvania plates. However, traffic (when moving) averages about 70 mph on highways (which is not abnormal in a 55 zone) but cars are frequently no further than a yard or two apart. This cuts down on traffic jams.

Northern Virginia is not someplace you'd like to retire. Northern Virginia, however, IS someplace to build a career, along with mad amounts of cash. Virginia in general, however, is the fourth largest state in terms of most popular places to retire (1-3 are Florida, Arizona, and California). What does this mean? It means all the old people are in Richmond, Williamsburg/Yorktown, Charlottesville, and elsewhere in Virginia. Very few are dumb enough to retire in Northern Virginia. It is not a place for old people.

So what does this mean? Northern Virginia is a VERY different place from the rest of Virginia. Almost all NoVA residents come from somewhere else. In the rest of Virginia, most residents are natives or longtime residents unless they are there for college. Northern Virginia is also without question the most politically liberal place south of the Mason Dixon line, and probably one of the top 2 or 3 politically liberal places on the East Coast. This makes for interesting Virginia politics, since the remainder of Virginia is very conservative. In 1994, Senator Chuck Robb (D-VA) ran for re-election. Oliver North ran against him. North took 2/3 of the counties in Virginia. However, he lost 45-40-15 (there was, luckily, another Republican candidate named Marshall Coleman who was running as an independent) because Northern Virginia voted for Robb at a 75% clip. This is not uncommon. Curiously, Virginia also lays claim to electing the very first black governor, Douglas Wilder. It happened in the mid 1980's. Yep, that was the first - scary huh? Last week, The Richmond Times-Disgrace's main story was on Kathleen Willey. The Washington Post's similar main story was on abuse of gay students in public high schools.

People in Richmond move at a much slower rate, have comparably less to do, and are somewhat nicer to be around due to the lack of pressure. Unfortunately, due to the fact that most are from Richmond and their grandpappies are from Richmond (and so forth), they have a tendency to be rather uppity towards people not originally from the area. Even my family, who have lived essentially in Virginia on both sides of the family for 8 generations, and came over on the boat to JAMESTOWN in 1611 (his name was Richard Pace, look it up), caught some of that crap when we moved here from Pittsburgh in 1994. It happens.

You may be asking, "well, how would I ever relax if I were working in Northern Virginia?" Simple. You don't live right where all the action is! Definition of "where all the action is" are places like Arlington, Fairfax, Annandale, Alexandria, McLean, Tysons Corner, Springfield, Falls Church. Instead, the smart thing to do is to live further out, in places like Herndon, Sterling, Leesburg, Chantilly, Manassas, Centreville, Clifton, Burke, Dale City, Woodbridge, Occoquan, Reston, Catharpin, Ashburn, Dranesville, accept the extra half hour in commute time, and be happier. That's my solution in January anyway.

Northern Virginia, Charlottesville, Richmond, etc. are all equally parts of Virginia, despite some efforts by non-NoVA people to distance NoVA from the rest of Virginia. However, they're very, very different places.

Finally, the way in which people in each area regard law enforcement is vastly different. In Richmond, and in particular its suburbs, law enforcement is treated with almost complete impunity. There are frequent stakeouts in upscale suburban neighborhoods to catch people for speeding in 25 mph zones in order to make additional revenue, and there are enough cops to do this on a large scale. Nobody complains. In Northern Virginia - and this holds true for suburban Maryland as well - cops would never attempt to do such a thing. If they pull over the wrong person, which they would inevitably do if they pulled over more than three, they'd be hassled by the "perpetrator," forced to spend a day in court because the other party would almost certainly show up, and bugged about it until either a) the charges were completely dropped, b) the officer gets reprimanded, or c) both. In short, it just doesn't happen. Police in Northern Virginia exist to pull over people doing 100 on the Beltway, to provide order after accidents, check out high schools and try to keep the drugs out, and to help people out with their flat tires. Police in (suburban) Richmond exist to make money.

It's that simple.

Any questions? :) I didn't even mention the existence of Metrobus/Metrorail, which is a huge advantage to living in NoVA. Richmond has absolutely nothing with which to compare.

This all being said, I'm perfectly happy to be in Northern Virginia (or at least, soon-to-be in Northern Virginia), and I guarandamntee that I'll be in Richmond within 15 years, and will probably stay there. It's the nicest place I've never been, and it's my home. But it's a lot different than Northern Virginia.