Is the split between Northern Virginia and the rest of the state getting worse? (Norfolk: universities, gated)

[user8]

nova native here. the blame for nova being disassociated with the rest of the state falls on southern virginia just as much as northern virginia. the rest of the state seems to foster a general dislike for their northern bretheren. economy, political differences create a great divide that both sides cater to.

that said, "nova" is primarily filled with northern transients and is expanding. to include stafford in a discussion of northern virginia was unthinkable 15-20 years ago. same with loudoun county. back then, reston/herndon were about as "far out" and rural as nova got.

[guyincognito]

Originally Posted by dmm219

The split isn't between NOVA and southern, VA...its between NOVA and pretty much the rest of the country.

Nobody, EVER, from outside NOVA moves here and likes it. The only people who like living in NOVA are people who grew up here and have no idea what a decent Quality of life is all about.

YouTube - ‪Billy Madison - Ultimate Insult (Academic Decathlon)‬‏

[RamblingMan]

I grew up in the Hampton Roads area (but was not born there). I have never heard the term RoVa used anywhere but on this forum. At least when I was young, people were always pretty specific about recognizing the various areas of Virginia (particularly the Tidewater, the Piedmont, and the Blue Ridge) including the differing accents. Now that I think about it, that might be one of the things I would call characteristic of a "real" Virginian. Interestingly, although the Northern Virginia region falls into the the Tidewater or Piedmont categories, I've never heard anyone use the phrases in reference to the area.

I think there is a "split" between NoVa and other parts of the State, but it probably seems more important in NoVa than anywhere else. In my experience, most Virginians don't spend any more time thinking about NoVa than they do anywhere else in the State. To the degree that they do think of NoVa, I think many would say that these days it is geographically and politically Virginia, but less so culturally. Culturally, I think many Virginians would view Northern Virginians as mostly people who came from elsewhere and NoVa as linked more to DC than to the rest of the state. I have heard Northern Virginia jokingly referred to as "Occupied Virginia."

[user8]

Originally Posted by RamblingMan

I have heard Northern Virginia jokingly referred to as "Occupied Virginia."

undoubtedly an ages-old passed down reference to arlington/alexandria being part of washington at one point.

virginia rednecks just can't let that go .

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by RamblingMan

I think there is a "split" between NoVa and other parts of the State, but it probably seems more important in NoVa than anywhere else.

I agree, and to take this point even farther, it's also more important to a handful of people on this forum than it is to the vast majority of people who live here. If you were to collect a random hundred residents of Fairfax and ask them if Nova should split from the rest of the state, 98 of them would look at you like you were crazy. It's not something most people want or even waste time considering, it's just a topic to entertain us here on the forum.

[Alicia Bradley]

Of course there are different cultural regions within non-NoVA VA (including linguistic ones). (Oh, and topographic ones, too, but we on C-D tend to be more culturally-/socially- than topographically-oriented in our, um, 'comparative geographic' perspectives. ) But in any case, the most significant cultural split (i.e., Southern vs. decidedly non, these days.. which is mostly unfortunate, but anyway) in the state is the NoVA vs. non-NoVA VA one. Oh, and NoVA is expanding. Not as rapidly as during the height of the real estate bubble, maybe, but still.. expanding.

But in case it hasn't been clear enough, I would have a full-blown panic attack were NoVA to seriously attempt to segregate from the rest of the state.

[guyincognito]

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

In what way do Northern Virginians create wealth? People in Northern Virginia don't produce anything. Do you think government services are creating wealth? You create wealth by creating value in excess of the value of the factors of production used to create something. NOVA might be a wealthy area, but they certainly aren't producing any wealth, government services are not wealth.

Really? You don't think the DARPA researchers who created the beginnings of the internet created wealth? The people that run the space program and all the technology that has come out of that? The GPS system? The medical scientists finding cures for disease? The creators of our transportation infrastructure?

All government employees, my friend.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

But in any case, the most significant cultural split (i.e., Southern vs. decidedly non, these days.. which is mostly unfortunate, but anyway) in the state is the NoVA vs. non-NoVA VA one.

That view certainly seems more prevalent in NoVA.

But I wonder whether that's really true. The beach sub-culture of coastal Hampton Roads, at least to me, seems very different from that of SW Virginia, as is from that of NoVA. I suppose one could argue that NoVA has a lot of transient non-Southern population that makes its culture distinctly different, but Hampton Roads also has many transient military personnel from all over the country, quite unlike SW VA.

I still think think that "NoVA vs. RoVA" is a very NoVA-centric term that would be viewed as asinine by some "RoVA" residents with a modicum of justification. And I write all this as someone who really like NoVA, owns property there and will live there again in short order (though I have yet to sign a contract on a house -- hopefully this week it will be decided).

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by guyincognito

Really? You don't think the DARPA researchers who created the beginnings of the internet created wealth? The people that run the space program and all the technology that has come out of that? The GPS system? The medical scientists finding cures for disease? The creators of our transportation infrastructure?

All government employees, my friend.

I understand your point, but all the technological advances that were created by Soviet research cities (Naukograd) hardly led to any commercial exploitation and wealth generation. From this comparison, it would become clear that merely developing new technology does not lead to wealth generation. In fact, the resources that went into such development could bankrupt the society in question unless someone else exploits the technology and makes it applicable for widespread civilian use.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by IndiaLimaDelta

I still think think that "NoVA vs. RoVA" is a very NoVA-centric term that would be viewed as asinine by some "RoVA" residents

LOL, and plenty of Nova residents think it's asinine, too. Some people just can't resist endlessly trying to split everyone into "us vs. them". As if we were living in a video game and everyone has to choose teams.