Northern Virginia
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Northern Virginia (NoVA) is a region in the U.S. state of Virginia consisting of Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, and Stafford counties and the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, and Manassas Park. Together with Washington, D.C. and parts of Maryland and West Virginia, it makes up the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country.
The Northern Virginia area forms part of the Virginia portion of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA, a Metropolitan Statistical Area. Northern Virginia as a whole is very diverse and wealthy and is the richest area in Virginia.
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[edit] Demographics
2 million people (about 1/4th of Virginia's total population) live in Northern Virginia.
The racial breakdown of the population of Northern Virginia is as follows:
[edit] Politics
Despite being the home of the Pentagon and well over 100 defense contracting companies, Northern Virginia is becoming known for favoring candidates of the Democratic Party in its voting patterns. The area went for Democrats Jim Webb in 2006 for U.S. Senator, Tim Kaine in 2005 for Governor, John Kerry in 2004 for U.S. President, and Mark Warner in 2001 for Governor. In three out of four of these races, the convincing margins tallied in Northern Virginia have swept the Democratic candidate into office.
The most recent election in Virginia was an extremely close one statewide. Democrat Jim Webb defeated incumbent Senator George Allen by the slim margin of 49.6% to 49.2%[1]. However, that margin ballooned to 58.1% to 40.7% in favor of the Democratic challenger in the counties and cities of Northern Virginia, whereas Webb ran behind Allen, 46.1% to 52.7%, in the entire remainder of the Commonwealth. Webb carried Fairfax County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County, as well as the more urban areas of Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church. Allen's sole wins in Northern Virginia were Stafford County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, winning the latter two only by the razor-thin margins of 298 votes and 47 votes, respectively.
In the 2004 presidential elections, 53% of Northern Virginia voters voted for John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, and 46% voted for George W. Bush, the Republican candidate. This contrasted with the rest of Virginia, where 43% of voted for John Kerry and 56% for George Bush. Kerry also carried Fairfax County, the most populous county in Virginia, and Fairfax City, the first time those jurisdictions had voted Democratic since Johnson's national lanslide in 1964 (although now the county is almost consistently voting Democratic). The strongest support in the area for the Democrats lies inside the Beltway, in Arlington, Alexandria, and parts of Fairfax County. The more distant areas (i.e., Loudoun County and Prince William County) are generally more conservative though as they have increased in population they have also become more liberal. In 2005 65% of the voters of Northern Virginia voted for Democrat Tim Kaine for governor over Jerry Kilgore, who received only 32% of the vote, easily 14 points lower than George W. Bush's showing only a year earlier.
The 8th, the 10th, and the 11th congressional districts lie within Northern Virginia. The 8th district votes overwhelmingly Democratic while the other two districts generally elect Republican congressmen but by smaller margins. The current congressman from the 8th district is Jim Moran (D), the current congressman from the 10th district is Frank Wolf (R), and the current congressman from the 11th district is Tom Davis (R). All three districts have moved toward the Democratic Party in recent years, though the Republicans Wolf and Davis have not yet seen serious threats to their seats.
In the 2005 Gubernatorial election, the entire region continued to move away from the Republicans. Fairfax County, Arlington County, the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax City, and Falls Church, and for the first time, Loudoun County and Prince William County, went to Tim Kaine, the Democratic candidate. The area continued to be more Democratic the closer it was to Washington, D.C., but Richmond native Kaine was able to accomplish what Northern Virginian Mark Warner had been unable to do just four years earlier in 2001: carry Loudoun County and Prince William County (as well as win over 60% of the vote in Fairfax County).
In 2006, Democrat Mark Herring swept every precinct in the 33rd state Senate District Tuesday, Jan. 31, en route to beating Republican Loudoun County Supervisor Mick Staton by a wide margin of 62 to 38 percent, evidencing Loudoun's transformation into a liberal county. The district sits primarily in Loudoun County but also includes nine precincts in western Fairfax County: Floris, Fox Mill, Frying Pan, McNair, Franklin, Kinross, Navy, Lees Corner East and Lees Corner West.
[edit] Culture
Northern Virginia is widely considered to be more Northern in its culture than the rest of Virginia. This can be attributed to the movement of Northerners to the area and its location near Washington D.C. and the BosWash megalopolis, as well as the fact that more urban areas in Virginia tend to have more frequent migration and mixing of cultures.
Ironically, the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War was the primary army for the former Confederate States of America. Important battlefields and other Civil War themed attractions dot the region, most notably Manassas National Battlefield Park, and many area schools, roads, and parks are named for Confederate leaders.
Northern Virginia's population is ethnically diverse with significant numbers of immigrants. There are large numbers of restaurants, and international food of nearly any type is easy to find. Immigrants have established many shops and many in ethnic centers, such as the Eden Center. Some are highly-educated doctors, engineers, diplomats, and other professionals, while others work in construction, landscaping, airport services, restaurants and convenience stores, vendors, taxi drivers, custodial services, and parking garages.
Due to the proximity to the capital, many Northern Virginians go to Washington D.C. for cultural outings. The Kennedy Center is a popular place for performances as is Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts near Vienna. Nissan Pavilion (near Manassas), the Patriot Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, and the Verizon Center in Washington serve as popular concert venues and Verizon Center also serves as the home of sporting events. Smithsonian museums also serve as local cultural institutions with easy proximity to Northern Virginia, and the new Udvar-Hazy center of the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport is popular as well.
Tysons Corner Center ("Tysons I") is one of the largest malls in the country and is a hub for shopping in the area. Tysons Galleria ("Tysons II"), its counterpart across Route 123, carries higher-end stores. Other malls include Springfield Mall, Fair Oaks Mall, and The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. Dulles Town Center is the region's newest mall and serves the eastern Loudoun County area. Reston Town Center is a high-density mixed-use retail, commercial, and residential development located just off the 267 Toll Road in Reston. Potomac Mills is also one of the largest outlet malls in the region and is located in Prince William County. The Town of Leesburg, in Loudoun County, is locally famous for its outlet mall, Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets.
Since the mid-1990s, Loudoun County has become known as America's fastest-growing county, having grown by almost 50% from 2000 though 2005. Since the 2000 census, both Loudoun and Fairfax counties are the top two large Highest-income counties in the United States by median household income. Loudoun County has branches of at least five higher education institutions.
[edit] Transportation
The area has two major airports, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport. While flights from the older National Airport are restricted for distance, frequency, and flight paths due to the proximity to federal facilities, Dulles is the fastest-growing airport in the world, and as of this writing is number five in terms of aircraft movement. In recent years it has become a major center for low-cost flights as it is the primary hub of (now defunct) Independence Air as well as a major hub for jetBlue, Ted, and others.
Commuters are served by the Washington Metro subway and the Virginia Railway Express, a commuter railroad. Metro is the second-busiest subway system in the nation; only New York City's subway system carries more passengers. A planned expansion project will, if built, extend the system past Dulles Airport. Bus service is provided by WMATA's Metrobus, and many local jurisdictions also provide bus service. Parking lots at metrorail stations fill up very early in the morning, but are gradually being expanded. Virginia Railway Express commuter trains have also seen increased ridership but are plagued by frequent delays for various reasons. Major highways include interstates 495 (Capital Beltway), 95, 395, and 66; US routes U.S. Route 1, 29, and 50; and local routes Fairfax County Parkway and Franconia-Springfield Parkway. High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are used for commuters and buses in I-66 and I-95/395. (Also see slugging.)
Northern Virginia suffers from severe road congestion. The congestion consistently ranks with Los Angeles, California and San Francisco, California as one of the worst three areas in the nation. To alleviate gridlock, local governments encourage using Metrorail, HOV, carpooling, and other forms of mass transportation. The conditions are only getting worse, however, as the population skyrockets. The roads are one of the biggest local issues. The current reconstruction of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge near Alexandria on the portion of the Capital Beltway which also carries Interstate 95 into Maryland (300,000 vehicles daily) will double the traffic lanes at that particular bottleneck area when completed in 2008. The Springfield "mixing bowl" freeway junction is now seeing some relief as new ramp configurations open as part of a massive interchange reconstruction. Several public-private partnership proposals to increase capacities of the Beltway and Interstate 95 south of Springfield to be funded through collection of tolls are under consideration by VDOT. On November 5, 2002, voters rejected a referendum to raise the sales tax to pay for transportation improvements[2]. The measure was criticized as a subsidy for developers, who would merely build more houses along the new roads and add to the congestion[3]. In such a highly competitive and expensive region (much like urban California), many workers with families feel they cannot afford suitable homes near their jobs, and so must commute from more affordable, far outlying counties, which creates intolerable traffic congestion, as does the limited number and capacity of bridges over the Potomac River (no more bridges have been built since 1965). Unfortunately, all proposals to add more desperately needed Potomac bridge crossings (such as near Leesburg or Quantico as part of a long-proposed "outer beltway") are opposed by communities near the suggested bridge sites who want peace and quiet, and by Marylanders who fear that new bridges would bring new housing development to "open spaces". Furthermore, large-acreage, low-density residential zoning restrictions in parts of Fairfax County such as Great Falls, Dranesville, Clifton and Fairfax Station, also prevent people from living near the highest-density job centers, forcing commuters to leapfrog out to find housing instead in Prince William, Loudoun, Fauquier, Warren, Clarke, Shenandoah, and Frederick counties and causing worse traffic. Workers from these outlying counties face daily commutes that exceed an hour each way. A U.S. Army proposal made in 2006 to relocate 18,000 additional employees to Fort Belvoir, which is already choked with traffic and has few public transportation options, is the newest major area of grave concern to planners.
[edit] Education
Fairfax County has an outstanding public school system, including Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, an award-winning magnet school.
Although Northern Virginia contains about 25% of Virginia's population, there are only a handful of high-learning colleges and universities. The largest and most well-known is George Mason University in Fairfax, the state's largest. There is also a Northern Virginia Community College (known as NOVA) in Annandale with other branch campuses, Marymount University in north Arlington, and the University of Northern Virginia, which is less known than the others.
[edit] Economy
In recent years, Northern Virginia has become so filled with technology companies, especially in the Dulles Technology Corridor, that it is often referred to as the "Silicon Valley of the East." The best-known of these technology companies is AOL. This economic boom has attracted many people from outside the region, from all over the country and throughout the world. The region has recovered relatively quickly from the effects of the dot-com bubble. Other large corporate employers include ExxonMobil in Falls Church, IBM in Manassas, and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in Reston.
It also is a desirable spot for government and defense contractors due to proximity to the Pentagon and the national capital.
The Federal government is a major employer in Northern Virginia, which is home to numerous government agencies; for example, Central Intelligence Agency headquarters and the Pentagon (headquarters of the Department of Defense) are located there, as are Fort Myer, Fort Belvoir, Marine Corps Base Quantico, and the United States Geological Survey. All of this tends to shield Northern Virginia from the effects of recession.
After the large shopping malls such as Potomac Mills and Tysons Corner, the sites which attract the greatest numbers of visitors are Washington, D.C., and Civil War battlefields. Old Town Alexandria is popular with its noted historic townhouses, restaurants, gift and art shops. The waterfront and outdoor recreational amenities such as biking and running trails (the Washington and Old Dominion Rail Trail is the longest paved path in the U.S.; the Mount Vernon Trail, and trails along various stream beds are also popular), whitewater and sea kayaking, and rock climbing areas are focused along the Potomac River, but are also found at other locations in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. Scenic Great Falls Park and historic Mount Vernon (which opened a new visitor center in 2006) are especially noteworthy. Woodbridge is home to two minor-league sports franchises, the Northern Virginia Royals soccer team and the Potomac Nationals baseball team.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Northern Virginia Regional Commission
- Prince William Conservation Alliance
- Northern Virginia - Official State Tourism Website & Map
- Fairfax Underground - a message board designed to improve communication between residents of Northern Virginia
- Fairfax Crime - a crime map of most of Northern Virginia and sex offender locations
- Northern Virginia Hospital Alliance
[edit] Reference
- Melton, R.H.: Voters Reject Roads Tax: Defeat Is a Major Loss for Gov. Warner, The Washington Post, Nov. 6, 2002.
- Schulte, Bridget and Jenkins, Chris L.: So Close, Yet So Far: Once Solidly Part of the South, the Old Dominion Now Encompasses a Widening Cultural Chasm, The Washington Post, Nov. 16, 2006
