Fairfax County to become a city? (Burke, Reston: subdivisions, income, taxes)

[Fairfax Mom]

They are not talking about making Fairfax County into Fairfax City - they want to make plain old Fairfax into Fairfax City - right now I live in Fairfax, Fairfax County - not Burke, not Reston, etc.
Right? I have always been cofused as to why my town address is Fairfax and my county is also Fairfax.
Is that waht they mean?

[540_804]

I'm certainly not familiar with all of the nuances of the proposal, but it is interesting to note that if the entire Fairfax County were incorporated into some new city, this 'New Fairfax' would, by my calculations, be the 10th largest city in the country. (Correct me if I'm wrong and excuse me if this point has already been made).

[Alicia Bradley]

Originally Posted by Fairfax Mom

They are not talking about making Fairfax County into Fairfax City - they want to make plain old Fairfax into Fairfax City - right now I live in Fairfax, Fairfax County - not Burke, not Reston, etc.
Right? I have always been cofused as to why my town address is Fairfax and my county is also Fairfax.
Is that waht they mean?

Well, according to the articles (including the one cdmurphy linked to), Fairfax Co. Executive Anthony H. Griffin and Chairman Sharon Bulova want to make the entire county (minus, of course, the areas comprising Fairfax City and Falls Church City, which are already independent from the county, anyway) one big city. Screwy, indeed!

[Alicia Bradley]

Originally Posted by 540_804

I'm certainly not familiar with all of the nuances of the proposal, but it is interesting to note that if the entire Fairfax County were incorporated into some new city, this 'New Fairfax' would, by my calculations, be the 10th largest city in the country. (Correct me if I'm wrong and excuse me if this point has already been made).

Hmmm.. largest in what sense? It'd be far from being the largest by population.. much nearer the largest by surfact area, though: against one ranked list of "world cities by surface area" I found online, "New Fairfax" would be 50-something-th (close to Portland, Oregon's position). But I'm getting multiple surface area stats for a lot of cities, depending on which resource I consult. So.. *shrug*

[car54]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

Hmmm.. largest in what sense? It'd be far from being the largest by population...

Like the other guy said...with over one million residents, New Fairfax would be about the 10th largest US city by population, just behind San Diego.

[michgc]

This makes absolutely no sense to me.

[540_804]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

Hmmm.. largest in what sense? It'd be far from being the largest by population.. much nearer the largest by surfact area, though: against one ranked list of "world cities by surface area" I found online, "New Fairfax" would be 50-something-th (close to Portland, Oregon's position). But I'm getting multiple surface area stats for a lot of cities, depending on which resource I consult. So.. *shrug*

Fairfax County's population was estimated at 1,015,032 as of July 2008 (though I've seen estimates as high as 1,077,000). That would place it squarely at number 10 in the country for population ahead of San Jose and behind San Diego, California. This is, of course, if it were to be incorporated into an independent city maintaining its current boundaries and populations. As I said before I'm not really familiar with the proposal.

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by car54

Like the other guy said...with over one million residents, New Fairfax would be about the 10th largest US city by population, just behind San Diego.

Hmm, wondering about the lyrics to "New Fairfax, New Fairfax" (w/apologies to Frank Sinatra)....

"I want to wake up in a suburb that only creeps"?

"If I could be anywhere, I could make it there"?

[Alicia Bradley]

Originally Posted by 540_804

Fairfax County's population was estimated at 1,015,032 as of July 2008 (though I've seen estimates as high as 1,077,000). That would place it squarely at number 10 in the country for population ahead of San Jose and behind San Diego, California. This is, of course, if it were to be incorporated into an independent city maintaining its current boundaries and populations. As I said before I'm not really familiar with the proposal.

Ah, never mind.. I read "world" for "country." So, yeah, 10th largest city in the U.S. by population. Très, très bizarre.

[540_804]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

Ah, never mind.. I read "world" for "country." So, yeah, 10th largest city in the U.S. by population. Très, très bizarre.

Your original post did get me thinking, though. Fairfax county is pretty large in terms of land area. According to Wikipedia (I know, not the most accurate, but its convenient), 'New Fairfax' would be #20 in the US in terms of total area @ 407 sq miles. It would be #17 in the US if you only included land area (and not water area). If you included the city of Fairfax in the New Fairfax that would bump its total area ranking to #19 and land area to #16.