Moving from Orange County, CA to Ashburn (Arlington, Alexandria: appointed, to rent)

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

I don't know if I'd go that far. There are such tensions here - whites' perceptions of PG County, Herndon day laborers, and PWC's stance on illegal immigrants, just to name a few. Compared to CA's issues with illegal immigration from Mexico though, they're not quite as intense. I could add "driving while black" but that's more of a Maryland issue.

None of this affects Ashburn. For Ashburnites, all these might as well be taking place on Mars.

Also, there are no areas of NoVA where I will be killed just for my ethnicity and for walking into the "wrong" neighborhood. Seriously, any ethnic tension as such here is so miniscule compared to parts of SoCal that it's not even worth discussing in this context.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by IndiaLimaDelta

None of this affects Ashburn. For Ashburnites, all these might as well be taking place on Mars.

Also, there are no areas of NoVA where I will be killed just for my ethnicity and for walking into the "wrong" neighborhood. Seriously, any ethnic tension as such here is so miniscule compared to parts of SoCal that it's not even worth discussing in this context.

Then why would you mention that about where he's coming from? The guy's making $125K, living near the beach in OC. Not exactly coming from an area of heavy racial tension or one where he's going to get killed walking into the wrong neighborhood I can assure you. They don't even have the "dizzying array" of ethnicities there. It's pretty white bread, even by Ashburn standards.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Then why would you mention that about where he's coming from? The guy's making $125K, living near the beach in OC. Not exactly coming from an area of heavy racial tension or one where he's going to get killed walking into the wrong neighborhood I can assure you. They don't even have the "dizzying array" of ethnicities there. It's pretty white bread, even by Ashburn standards.

Merely to point out that here in NoVA there are not wide areas of "no go" zones with intense ethnic tension are are found in SoCal.

I lived in OC some years ago and really disliked that aspect of living in SoCal. I don't particularly like ethnic segregation enforced by street violence.

By the way, OC is not as "white bread" as people think. It's about 60 percent white, 20 percent Asian and 15 percent the rest (Hispanics are about 30 percent). It's just that the area has very few blacks.

Sociologists say that, in general, close contact by different ethnic groups tends to increase, rather than diminish, inter-ethnic hostility. That certainly seems to be true in areas like SoCal, but in NoVA that is not the case. There is almost no ethnic hostility and violence in this area.

[irvine]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Then why would you mention that about where he's coming from? The guy's making $125K, living near the beach in OC. Not exactly coming from an area of heavy racial tension or one where he's going to get killed walking into the wrong neighborhood I can assure you. They don't even have the "dizzying array" of ethnicities there. It's pretty white bread, even by Ashburn standards.

Yes. The vast majority of the residents of the beach communities in LA and Orange Counties and the City of Los Angeles are white.

LA's diversity is inland from the beaches. Upper middle class Irvine and Fullerton have very large Asian populations for example. Santa Ana is largely latino, etc... The San Fernando Valley (in the City of LA), once a bastion of WASP conservative values, is now one of the most ethnically diverse and liberal suburbs in the US.

In Northern Virginia, diversity is more evenly spread out than in LA/Orange county. But, there are distinctions here as well, for example, Vienna is very white, while parts of nearby Reston and Herndon are quite ethnically diverse.

[CAVA1990]

Yes, I'm intimately familiar with the differences since I was born in Southern CA and lived, went to school, and worked in Orange County from the age of 9 until moving here to NoVA 21 years ago. I also go back to visit friends so can tell you that IDL's portrayal is way overblown, even now. I can only guess he must have lived in the worst part of Santa Ana than where I did down in Dana Point and Lake Forest. I'm assumiing the OP lived in one of the better sections also, which would encompass the entire South part of the county as well as the coastal side of the North. His comparison was misinformed. I'm surprised he'd slam OC considering it votes fairly reliably Republican.

OP - one thing you have going for you is being able to live and work in the same place. That eliminates one of the cons of living here -commute traffic.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Yes, I'm intimately familiar with the differences since I was born in Southern CA and lived, went to school, and worked in Orange County from the age of 9 until moving here to NoVA 21 years ago. I also go back to visit friends so can tell you that IDL's portrayal is way overblown, even now. I can only guess he must have lived in the worst part of Santa Ana than where I did down in Dana Point and Lake Forest. I'm assumiing the OP lived in one of the better sections also, which would encompass the entire South part of the county as well as the coastal side of the North. His comparison was misinformed. I'm surprised he'd slam OC considering it votes fairly reliably Republican.

OP - one thing you have going for you is being able to live and work in the same place. That eliminates one of the cons of living here -commute traffic.

I am not slamming OC. I am slamming SoCal and its ethnic ghetto politics and social conditions, which are largely absent in NoVA.

And I lived in Irvine.

When I live in a region, I like driving around everywhere, check out shops and restaurants and generally getting to know areas well. I could not do that in many areas of SoCal because of crime and ethnic tension.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by IndiaLimaDelta

I am not slamming OC. I am slamming SoCal and its ethnic ghetto politics and social conditions, which are largely absent in NoVA.

And I lived in Irvine.

When I live in a region, I like driving around everywhere, check out shops and restaurants and generally getting to know areas well. I could not do that in many areas of SoCal because of crime and ethnic tension.

Oh come on. Then if you're going to include areas those distances from Irvine you'd need to include SE DC, PG County, and maybe even Baltimore. I'd feel no less comfortable driving around just about anywhere in Southern California (with the maybe exception of Compton or South Central L.A. after midnight) than around here. From Irvine South to San Diego there'd have been nothing you couldn't have checked out in complete safety, even at 2 in the morning.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Oh come on. Then if you're going to include areas those distances from Irvine you'd need to include SE DC, PG County, and maybe even Baltimore. I'd feel no less comfortable driving around just about anywhere in Southern California (with the maybe exception of Compton or South Central L.A. after midnight) than around here. From Irvine South to San Diego there'd have been nothing you couldn't have checked out in complete safety, even at 2 in the morning.

Okay, so are you disputing my original contention that the social and ethnic tension here is considerably less than in SoCal, so as to be miniscule? What exactly is your point here?

Your examples of ethnic tension here were PG County (not even Virginia), day laborer center issue in Herndon (seriously, that compares to anything in SoCal?) and PW County's "stance on illegal immigration"?

Moderator Cut

Raw distances do not matter much. Heck, in Texas or Montana I could drive that same distance and not see anyone else for a while (and I have). What counts are relative distances, distances that matter on socio-politico-economic levels as well as traffic patterns, commerce, etc.

How often do people from Ashburn travel to SE DC, PG County or Baltimore?

I knew tons of people who lived in Irvine and commuted to Costa Mesa or Newport Beach or even, gasp, Koreatown. I used to work for a defense contractor in Costa Mesa. A cop was gunned down right outside my gated work "compound" in Costa Mesa. You are just not going to find something like that around Ashburn. My gosh, it's a completely different world.

[CAVA1990]

When did anything like that ever happen in Orange County? That was almost 20 years ago in downtown L.A. Yeah, I can see why the OP probably didn't drive his time machine around there. Took me a second until I noticed the mom jeans and all the 80s vintage cars. Nice blast (pardon the pun) from the past. Gee, I can remember when people were gunned down outside the CIA by a crazed Pakistani around that time.

Moderator Cut

[CAVA1990]

Moderator Cut

Comparing NoVA to all of So Cal is apples and oranges. We're talking Orange County, not L.A. if you include L.A. you'd need to include DC and PGC to be fair. If you're narrowing down to Ashburn or Loudoun County then a good comparison would be Irvine and Mission Viejo. I doubt crime rates and "ethnic tensions" (however you measure those) would be much different between those areas. How much "ethnic tension" did you experience in Irvine other than anglos worried their kids couldn't compete in school with the Asian kids (sound familiar?)