City/Town Services vs County Services (Arlington, Alexandria: crimes, public school, place to live)

[macalan]

Being from New England, I was unfamiliar with county-based services (EMS, etc.) vs town/city based services when we moved to SC.

I've found it can present a problem with response time, etc. when resources are stretched thin and the geographic territory is vast.

Are there any town/cities in NOVA that have their own services vs county-based services?

[Bigfoot424]

Plenty do and some share their services. Most all in NOVA have their own EMS/Fire, police and so on. Any particular town or city you are looking at? Even out here in the valley where I live now pretty much all of the towns/cities have their own services.

[macalan]

Thank you!

For now we are focusing on Alexandria. Potentially Reston and Fairfax, maybe Ashburn, Leesburg, and Arlington.

[Bigfoot424]

With those locations you'll see no shortage of services in any of them.

[macalan]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

With those locations you'll see no shortage of services in any of them.

Thank you. Those would be town services vs county services?

Where we live now EMS is stretched so thin to begin with - not enough staff. They add on that it's country EMS in a geographically huge county, and you've got ambulances coming from over an hour away. Not the best set-up in a life-threatening situation.

I've had experiences that while not life-threatening were scary, and waited over 1/2 hour for an ambulance to arrive. I've also been, unfortunately, in a car accident with personal injury and when we called 911 for help we were put on hold due to the "call volume". Help arrived 20 minutes later.

This is completely foreign to me. In MA, 2 fire trucks and an ambulance would be on the scene within 5 minutes because everything was based in town. The EMS personnel did not cover other towns unless there was a huge fire or other event and back-up was needed.

It's something we never considered when relocating, and now something we're painfully aware of as we age and consider it a need.

[robbobobbo]

The city of Alexandria has its own government (city council), police, fire department, public school system, libraries, etc. Inova Alexandria Hospital is within city limits and is where EMS transports patients. There are parts of neighboring Fairfax County that have Alexandria mailing addresses (or did in the past) which are not served by those entities but instead have Fairfax County services.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by macalan

Thank you. Those would be town services vs county services?

Where we live now EMS is stretched so thin to begin with - not enough staff. They add on that it's country EMS in a geographically huge county, and you've got ambulances coming from over an hour away. Not the best set-up in a life-threatening situation.

I've had experiences that while not life-threatening were scary, and waited over 1/2 hour for an ambulance to arrive. I've also been, unfortunately, in a car accident with personal injury and when we called 911 for help we were put on hold due to the "call volume". Help arrived 20 minutes later.

This is completely foreign to me. In MA, 2 fire trucks and an ambulance would be on the scene within 5 minutes because everything was based in town. The EMS personnel did not cover other towns unless there was a huge fire or other event and back-up was needed.

It's something we never considered when relocating, and now something we're painfully aware of as we age and consider it a need.

I assure you the areas you've listed have all the services you'll need. Ashburn is in Loudoun Co so you would fall under them. Reston is in Fairfax. Ashburn is the one that may, and I emphasize may, have a little slower LE response as it is a large county Sheriff's office. Although they have grown by leaps and bounds over the years so this may not be an issue. There are firehalls seemingly every 100 yards through these areas. But keep in mind. PD's can get busy and there are times when every single officer working the area could be tied up if you call in a non-emergency or even a minor emergency and you may wait. For dire emergencies they will have officers clear what they are doing and respond.

[paytonc]

Urban county governments in Virginia, such as Fairfax and Arlington, are essentially urban municipal governments, providing an urban level of services.

Fairfax, in particular, is a really big place! Charleston County, SC spends ~$625 per capita per year. Fairfax County spends about $7,300. It has a budget larger than that of Dade County, FL (almost 3X as populous) or Cook County, IL (5X as populous). It provides a lot of additional services relative to counties elsewhere, including 38 fire stations and ~2000 sworn police officers and sheriff's deputies.

[paytonc]

This article reminded me of this thread, and has a useful map (since updated) showing how little of suburban DC/Baltimore is within an incorporated city/town. Considering that even DC has no city government (only a District government), maybe 80% of residents in this highly urbanized region have zero city/town government -- yet still enjoy a level of local government service that surpasses anywhere else I've lived.

https://ggwash.org/view/63487/where-...easy-to-define

Newcomers to the Washington region are often surprised by fact that most of the District’s Maryland and Virginia neighbors are unincorporated places, with local governance handled solely by the county.

While essentially all land in New England is incorporated as a city or town, and populated places in the Northeast and Midwest tend to always be incorporated, Maryland and Virginia—like other states in the Southeast—have strong county governments and communities rarely bother to incorporate...

The rarity of incorporated places in the Washington region means that many communities do not have direct authority over their governance, but instead have regulations and services that the county government administers.

Another notable link: Fairfax County police response reports show a countywide average <5 minute response times for life-threatening events. That's an urban level of service.

[Ffxdata]

City of Fairfax runs their own stuff. It’s a great place to live!