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I wasn't aware that Charlotte and DC's Virginia 'burbs where the only "assets" among the four states this thread is about. Interesting.
They're the most important economically. Charleston is cool and all but out of the Carolinas, Charlotte holds most of the weight, same with NoVa and VA/WVA.
I don't need to travel the entire city of Charlotte for daily needs.
This highlights why this whole comparison is not possible. Alexandria is a suburb of Washington D.C. Charlotte is the city of its region. In North Carolina, that's all you’re going to get. This is why this comparison is impossible. Charlotte would be an exurb of Washington D.C. based on its built form. It's virtually impossible to compare anything in the D.C. area to Charlotte or the Carolina's. The mere fact that the state of Virginia and West Virginia have suburbs of Washington D.C. while having commuter rail into the city puts this out of reach for an accurate comparison.
Northern Virginia is not a metro area, it's a part of the Washington D.C. metro area. It only exists as it does because of the principal city of the region being Washington D.C. The same goes for Northern NJ existing because of NYC. For that reason alone, this comparison is not an apples to apples comparison because obviously the Carolina's can't compete with the Washington D.C. metro area. It's not really realistic. The D.C. metro area would win every category by a wide margin obviously so I don't really think it's a fair comparison to the Carolina's.
I definitely agree that NOVA wouldn't exist in the way it currently does without DC. I also agree that DC counts in this discussion.
I'm speculating, but I have a hard time believing that there wouldn't be a moderate to large city in that area had DC not been founded. For starters, Alexandria was settled and founded long before Washington D.C. The Georgetown Section of D.C. was originally Georgetown, MD before DC was settled. Both were important as trading ports (especially fur trade). While I doubt the development would be at nearly the same level as it is now, it's hard to imagine that a relatively significant port wouldn't have ended up at that site if DC hadn't been planned and built there. It's not unrealistic to think that, at the very least, you'd have a port city in that area at LEAST on par with Charleston, SC.
Also, it could easily be said that DC's growth and prominence stunted nearby Richmond's growth. If DC hadn't been built, Richmond would have continued to grow as the major economic hub for the state of Virginia. Instead, you have a lot of the population and power split between NOVA in the North and Hampton Roads in the South. Richmond is sort of there. I don't doubt that without Washington D.C., Richmond would easily rival Charlotte in many ways. However, that's not the way it played out.
I can't exclude Washington D.C. from the "Virginias vs. Carolinas" discussion either. 2+ Million Virginians live within easy access of the Nation's Capital and all it has to offer. Many of those people live within close proximity of the metro. They work and play in D.C. That can't be ignored. The OP asks about "visiting" either place. I've stayed in Rosslyn, Crystal City and Old Town plenty of times. I've gone in and out of DC each time. DC is very much a part of a visit to NOVA. And there's no way to ignore it.
In regards to Charlotte and its size/urbanity, it would make for a better comparison had North Carolina imposed an annexation moratorium on its cities the way Virginia did about thirty years ago. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County seem to be one entity, and many cities in NC have seen annexation as one of the ways they grow in population. When cities in Virginia see growth, it is only due to people moving into the boundaries as opposed to the city gobbling up land from the surrounding county. Nothing wrong with that, but Virginia's system creates real divisions between cities and counties, making some comparisons worthless.
Hate to do it, but I'd probably go with the Carolina's on this one. If it were VA versus NC, there would be some good topics to debate- both have strengths and weaknesses. I love the land in WV, but in this case SC easily trumps WV. SC and NC together have way too much going to give the vote to the Virginias, though I certainly wouldn't leave VA for either NC or SC.
Hell you could almost make the argument for combining NC/VA and SC/WV culturally. I think NC and VA are basically spitting images of one another. Appalachia in the West, Beaches on the coast, similar history, similar demographics, both have booming tech and financial sectors, and both are (sadly) becomming increasingly inundated with people that are watering down the culture.
SC and WV probably have more similarities in terms of their economies, slightly less transient population, and slower growth.
For me it isn't necessarily that WV and SC are exorbitantly similar...it's that NC and VA are.
With this I agree. The Carolinas are more tied to each other with the largest metro between them straddling the state line, but NC and VA exhibit more characteristic similarities. It's interesting that historically that was more true of SC and VA with their colonial aristocracies and ports of entry for slaves. At that time, NC was referred to as a "valley of humility between two mountains of conceit."
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But yeah....they're both rocking a Charleston. I like the SC one better though, lol
As do I.
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