Northern Virginia has gone downhill in the last 20 years (Dale City: fit in, real estate)

[claremarie]

The development in Northern VA was much more environmentally enlightened back in the 1950s and 60s. They kept many of the trees and people lived in neighborhoods that showed charactor and charm. Now they clear-cut the entire site and people live packed into homes with no yards and no trees. Every house looks the same. The quality of the developments to day are poor.

Those are good points, especially about the trees. But not every developer in the past saved the trees. My old neighborhood in Arlington had obviously been clear-cut in order to plop down the identical 3BR 1/5 bath boxes down on postage stamp lots. The only trees there were ones that had been planted AFTER the houses were built. In my current neighborhood in McLean, most of the trees in most people's yards were planted after the houses were built. But after 30-40 years, they look like they've been there forever, so it's easy to assume that the developers kept the trees.
And I'm not sure that the developers were any more enlightened then than they are now. Lots were bigger then, so it was easier to build around the trees.
Now people don't want yards, and they don't care about trees. Big yards take time and money to maintain, and trees drop leaves that people don't want to rake. They pass over the 30+ year old homes in established neighborhoods and buy the tract homes in clear-cut developments on tiny lots because they can get more square footage for their money. Developers are just giving people what they want.

And I'm not sure that these new houses are uglier than the tract homes in Springfield, Arlington, McLean, Alexandria, Potomac, etc. that were built in the 1960s. Every house was EXACTLY the same on my old street in Arlington, and on the streets on either side of my old street. My parents used to routinely drive up the wrong driveway when they came to visit us. The same is true in many older neighborhoods inside the Beltway that were built up in a hurry to house the parents of the baby boomers.

[saganista]

Many of these newer developments also were onto land previously used as farms and orchards. There were no existing shade trees on those plots to begin with. And it isn't always greed that leads a builder to clear-cut. Regrading of a site may be necessary to assure adequate drainage and to prevent soil erosion once the land is converted to residential use. Very few establihsed trees will survive such a thing. It is almost always better to clear, then replant with younger trees in places where they can lead safe and healthy lives.

[gingeone]

Originally Posted by Dingler

When I came to Northern Virginia 20 years ago it was so nice. In fact it reminded me of many Cities I use to live in the Midwest. Move ahead to the year 2007 and it is not so nice anymore.

Here are my complaints:

They cut down thousands of trees all over Fairfax County for cookie cutter development. I am shocked every time I drive around how ugly everything is getting. It use to be somewhat rural and wooded here. The most successful job in Northern VA is clearing forests for subdivisions and strip malls.

The people are kind of unfriendly. I use to think of this area as a Southern place. People use to be nice and friendly. Now, it is more like being in suburban New York. It is harsh with alot of rude people and neighbors that no longer seem to give a dam about each other. (of course with exceptions) We gave up on the block parties five years ago when they could not get anyone to show up. Even a wave between neighbors is uncommon now days. I talk to many people around here with the same observation.

To much ethic diversity. (I know I am not being PC) The schools have gone down hill fast due to so many students who do not speak English. Everyone seems to break into their own little ethnic groups and ignore everyone else. There seems to be little mixing of people and the White people are now a minority in my town. I would welcome the ethnic diversity-- if people mixed regardless of their ethnic background.

Traffic is incredible and cost of living sky high. I want out!

Hi I just had to put my 2 cents in. I have lived in the Northern va area all of my life.Sixty-yrs. I was raised in South Arlington, right off of Columbia pike.
Those days were were unbelivable. Everybody knew everybody. It was small town USA! .The air was fresh, the sky was blue, and you didn't lock your doors at night!. On sundays the stores were closed and all the traffic lights flashed yellow. If you ever saw a Christmas Story that was Arlington,Va.
I saw it starting to change in 1969, really. By the mid seventies it grew to never be the same. I don't know anyone here anymore. My neighbors are great, but they just wave and shut the door and live thier own lives.
It was great knowing I saw and lived here when it was a time hometown picnics and everybody knew what you did and told your big brother what you did, and then he would tell your mom and then no-more teen club, or going to peoples, or Tops Drive In, where they actually had car-hops!
I could go on and on. Just thought you'd like to know how it use to be.

[ssdei38]

gingeone. Thank you... I appreciate hearing how an area used to be. I want to know...especially since I'm a newcomer to an old area outside of Charlotte. So far I know that our neighbor as a teen would plow our land for the previous owner...and he'd tell him the land was too wet....but the old guy would plant cotton anyway......well, I know he never got any good cotton crops here....so here we are installing a fence and tilling up the ground for a garden and all these tufts of whatever keep coming out of the ground...it was freaking leftover cotton....I rechecked with the neighbor to see if the amount of tilled "in" cotton we were pulling up was legit...and he said yes....for 30 years our former land owner planted cotton and never got good crops...so what he got just was turned over into the land...

I love it... And in Va...I think it was Lee Highway that held some good drag races in the 60's.....and Lee high garage was a good hangout....well, that's where my dad hung out...far as I know....

Good grief to the posters that begrudge history...don't tell me anything about former residents wanting to hang on to the past....there was diversity and interest all along....we just had more freedom before the masses and were just trying to share history. Is that okay or not..?

[saganista]

Change often hurts, but it is both necessary and unavoidable. The US population has more than doubled since 1950. All of those people have to live, work, and shop someplace. Many of them have come to NoVa. If you had visited Tysons Corner fifty years ago, you would have found two gas stations and a small general store. Today, it's over 26 million square feet of office space, more than 4 million square feet of retail space, and it's called home by more than 20 thousand people. But something like that had to happen. No way around it. Population of Centreville VA: 1880 = 96, 1980 = 7,000, today = 50,000. Something like that had to happen too. Things were lost in this process, and things were gained as well. Downhill? Uphill? Whichever, it's the best we could do under the circumstances. And it is well to remember also that somewhere this morning, a kid is shooting cans off the back fence with his BB gun, and another is being surprised by what he finds by picking up rocks along the edge of a babbling brook. Such things do not get lost...they simply tend to move around some...

[salomea]

Originally Posted by beth ann

I have lived in Northern Virginia for the last 20 years (my entire adult life) and I really love it here....yes, there's been perpetual road construction and new developments...but, living first in Alexandria for 6 years, then moving to Fairfax County for the rest...we have really loved raising a family here.

We are close to DC, the museums and culture, a few hours to the beach and mountains and great day-trips like Baltimore, Annapolis, Willimasburg, Harpers Ferry, etc.

The schools are top-notch and the people are diverse. I live in Burke (total suburbia) and have 2 Asain families, one Pakistanis family, a family from Uganda, the new neighbors are Scottish and the family across the street where the husband is from France and the mom Cuban.

We came from Pittsburgh and would never go back to the "provencial, narrow-minded, predjudice, stagnant" viewpoints there.

Well said Beth Ann!

[matt345]

I was reading this old thread and decided to post a thought that came to mind. I'm reading a lot of people complaining about suburban sprawl and how it gobbles up so much former forest and farm land. However, they also complain about how the new homes being built don't have big enough lots and how the houses are grouped too close together. Well, if these new homes had bigger lots, wouldn't that just make the sprawl even worse since even more land would be used up? They complain about sprawl taking away open space, yet at the same time, they complain about the houses being built too close together, which actually saves some land from being developed.

[seldomseen]

I personally think that NoVa has many more pros than cons, many of which other members have indicated. 30 + years ago NoVa wasn't even "known", and was pretty much just a mix of suburbs, farmland, and retail/office buildings predominately occupied by white people. Fast forward to today, the areas demographic make-up is very diverse, rich in culture, racial integration, excellent jobs, public education, health care and much more...

I think a lot of this change has become to much for the white people that lived in Nova for years on end to appreciate...they most likely feel as though thier "town"/"community" was taken away from them! lol But it really wasn't it has been improved, and offers a very rich mix of diversity that is very unique to many cities in the U.S.

NoVa has also been in its infancy stage in terms of population, development, density etc. Unlike metro areas like Boston, Philly, NYC, that reached thier maturity, population, density decades ago. These areas really don't have much or any land to develop on, the way NoVa does hence the sprawl. NoVa isn't anywhere near full development capacity. NoVa probably experienced it's most significant/rapid growth over the past 20 years, which I also think have been smarth growth too--of course there have been some negative impact from the growth but it really hasn't been that bad if you look at it objectively. As long as continued smarth growth continues the NoVa will fine.

[LLD]

Interesting comments here.... and have to say I've seen almost the same pro/con arguments in many city-data forums regardless of area of the country -- CA, TX, GA and the list goes on and on.

[The_Fairfaxian]

Originally Posted by seldomseen

I personally think that NoVa has many more pros than cons, many of which other members have indicated. 30 + years ago NoVa wasn't even "known", and was pretty much just a mix of suburbs, farmland, and retail/office buildings predominately occupied by white people. Fast forward to today, the areas demographic make-up is very diverse, rich in culture, racial integration, excellent jobs, public education, health care and much more...

I think a lot of this change has become to much for the white people that lived in Nova for years on end to appreciate...they most likely feel as though thier "town"/"community" was taken away from them! lol But it really wasn't it has been improved, and offers a very rich mix of diversity that is very unique to many cities in the U.S.

NoVa has also been in its infancy stage in terms of population, development, density etc. Unlike metro areas like Boston, Philly, NYC, that reached thier maturity, population, density decades ago. These areas really don't have much or any land to develop on, the way NoVa does hence the sprawl. NoVa isn't anywhere near full development capacity. NoVa probably experienced it's most significant/rapid growth over the past 20 years, which I also think have been smarth growth too--of course there have been some negative impact from the growth but it really hasn't been that bad if you look at it objectively. As long as continued smarth growth continues the NoVa will fine.

QFT. IMO, if I lived in NoVA back in the "good ol' days" of the fifties, being the person (personality and ethnicity)that I am, I probably wouldn't experience much of the charm many others bragged about. Ever since the late eighties (and particularly the early nineties when I lived in Fairfax), there was so much social progressiveness and economic prosperity. These factors have only increased throughout the years. Personally, say all you want about suburban sprawl, but I'd would rather deal with traffic in going home to a prosperous community than to face no traffic while going to a place where I face constant hatred.