Centreville to Fairfax City commutte? (Arlington, Alexandria: townhouse, neighborhood, elementary school)

[MovefromFla]

Hello, Everyone.
This forum has helped us explore all of the areas in Fairfax County and Prince William County. We are coming up to Nova very shortly and we have narrowed our choices to
Centreville, Manassas, and Chantilly.
Can anyone tell me how far of a commute we will have on a daily basis to Fairfax City?
from Centreville or Chantilly? On mapquest, it looks like a short distance from Centreville to Fairfax City or Chantilly, but with Nova traffic, you never know.

Can anyone out there please help us?

Thanks!

[car54]

That should be a pretty easy commute...Chantilly is literally next door to Fairfax City on Rt 50 (Main St/Lee Jackson Mem Hwy). Centreville is just a tad further out, and potentially tougher due to the congested Rt 28 corridor.

But hey, in my retirement job, I drive a school bus out of Chantilly High School...and I know lots of short cuts/alternate routes if the main drag is tied up.

Provide your general starting and ending points, and I'll put my thinking cap on!

[sweet-t-virginia]

I agree with Car 54. It would be an easy commute down Route 50 from Chantilly to Fairfax City. During rush hour, however, it will take twice as long as it would on a Sunday morning. Still, you have many options with Chantilly.

Good luck with your search!

[tarp]

Centreville to Fairfax City is extremely easy. It should never be more than 20 minutes even in rush hour. There are multiple routes to take... I-66, 29, Braddock Road, and even some residential backroads.

[MovefromFla]

Thank you, Everyone. This helped a lot.
Also, I hate to bring up a touchy subject, but Nova for the most part seems pretty diverse (which I consider as a great environment to raise children in). However, Centreville, Fairfax City, and Chantilly did not seem as diverse as the areas of Alexandria, Springfield, Lorton, etc.

Is that correct? Any input is greatly appreciated... This really should be a new thread, but I am hoping someone within this forum can respond to this

Thanks!

[saganista]

In general, the more urban an area is, the higher its minority population will tend to be. While there are plenty of exceptions to the rule, each with its own history, in the inner suburbs, whites might comnprise 50-60% of the population, in the middle suburbs, perhaps 60-70%, and in the outer suburbs maybe 70-80% with the exurbs tending higher still. Lorton might be a bit of an outlier, in that it was for decades the home of the DC Prison, and folks escaped from there it seemed like a couple of times a week. This put it on the No-Fly List for a lot of upscale folks, and partly for that reason, the area has always had a very substantial black population.

Development history also plays a significant role. Centreville and Chantilly went pretty much directly from being rural (and red-necky) farmland to being suburban bedroom communities. The population of Centreville, for instance was less than 7,500 in 1980 (the first time it was large enough to be separately enumerated in the Census), while today it is over 50,000. That sort of path disfavors black in-migration, and as the result, blacks are about 3% of the population in Centreville (5% in Chantilly) versus about 35% in Lorton and 22% in Alexandria.

[tarp]

Centreville and Chantilly are very diverse with large populations of Koreans, Indians, Pakistanis, Hispanics, etc. However, whites are still the majority in these areas.

[sandwichkid]

NoVa IS pretty diverse, but you are correct (from my general observations after having lived here for a while), Centreville/Chantilly isn't quite as diverse as Alexandria/Arlington/Springfield area. That's not to say that you aren't going to see non-white people in the Centreville/Chantilly area, on the contrary, you will everyday, just not to the extent you would in some communitites that are closer to DC.

Also, living in Centreville I can drive to Fairfax city in 15-20 minutes in non-rush hour times, and about 30 minutes during rush hour. So, it's not bad at all, especially for the area.

[dullnboring]

Originally Posted by saganista

In general, the more urban an area is, the higher its minority population will tend to be. While there are plenty of exceptions to the rule, each with its own history, in the inner suburbs, whites might comnprise 50-60% of the population, in the middle suburbs, perhaps 60-70%, and in the outer suburbs maybe 70-80% with the exurbs tending higher still. Lorton might be a bit of an outlier, in that it was for decades the home of the DC Prison, and folks escaped from there it seemed like a couple of times a week. This put it on the No-Fly List for a lot of upscale folks, and partly for that reason, the area has always had a very substantial black population.

Development history also plays a significant role. Centreville and Chantilly went pretty much directly from being rural (and red-necky) farmland to being suburban bedroom communities. The population of Centreville, for instance was less than 7,500 in 1980 (the first time it was large enough to be separately enumerated in the Census), while today it is over 50,000. That sort of path disfavors black in-migration, and as the result, blacks are about 3% of the population in Centreville (5% in Chantilly) versus about 35% in Lorton and 22% in Alexandria.

I agree with saganista's post as per usual but just have one minor quibble. Centreville's population as of 2000 was actually 9% black.

Western Fairfax is diverse in it's own right, but looking at numbers as a whole, indeed there's a higher percentage of whites than there are in the inner suburbs and the composition of minorities is generally different (i.e. less blacks and Latinos, more Asians). Herndon is one exception to this rule. Most of the suburbs however were at least 30% non-white as of 2000. In general, the areas with the highest proportion of blacks are in the Eastern portion of the county, Latinos in the central portion of the county (nearest Arlington and Alexandria) and Asians, the western portions of the county. There is such significant overlapping and exceptions that it's not a definite rule to go by by any means, and there is no area that is 100% white or non-white. Northern Virginia as a whole is very well-integrated. Every community has a sizable number of whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians.

The demographics of some of the high schools in Western Fairfax County shows some of the diversity;

Centreville High - 11% black, 10% Hispanic, 25% Asian
Chantilly High - 7% black, 7% Hispanic, 21% Asian
Westfield High - 8% black, 9% Hispanic, 16% Asian
Fairfax High - 9% black, 14% Hispanic, 22% Asian

When I lived in Centreville, my neighborhood (a nice townhouse community) fed into Centre Ridge Elementary School who's demographics were 34% white, 14% black, 21% Hispanic, 25% Asian and 6% Multiracial. Pretty diverse if you ask me.

[MovefromFla]

Thank you, Everyone for these answers!