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Agreed. Outside of Alexandria, most of NoVa feels pretty new. The Maryland suburbs definitely feel older and with a lot more character, especially the old streetcar suburbs and the Inner-Beltway communities. Downtown Silver Spring looks well-weathered and even Wheaton looks fairly gritty, similar to Colmar Manor and Mount Rainier. There's also a larger concentration of old money blue bloods here on the Maryland side of the DMV as well.
Agreed, I've always looked at DC as a quasi-extension of Maryland in a way-although I guess that may be because I'm always coming into DC from MD. I have family in Rockville which is a such a model set-up for a suburb IMO. A lot of NOVA does feel too new/fake for me, especially with the MIC concentrated there, but Alexandria is great-very beautiful city.
No it doesn't. Nova is so much more developed and urbanized than the suburbs of MD. It even has a skyline when looking at it across the Potomac from DC. Not to mention its highway system is far more developed than MD's. DC to me does not feel like its apart of MD. Only EOTR does. Your comparison doesn't make sense.
FYI, Silver Spring and Bethesda also have skylines. And even though DC has its own vibe, it still feels like it has more in common with MD than it does with VA. Btw, Georgetown used to be part of Maryland prior to DC's creation as is the rest of DC.
Agreed, I've always looked at DC as a quasi-extension of Maryland in a way-although I guess that may be because I'm always coming into DC from MD. I have family in Rockville which is a such a model set-up for a suburb IMO. A lot of NOVA does feel too new/fake for me, especially with the MIC concentrated there, but Alexandria is great-very beautiful city.
Definitely. I told myself that if I decide to live on the other side of the Potomac, I want to live in Alexandria!
Yeah, Alexandria (where my house is) was originally apart of the District of Columbia, as was Arlington County in Northern Virginia too. From an outsiders perspective, I see little to no difference between Alexandria and Arlington with Washington culturally speaking, they are practically the same thing.
As for Northern Virginia. I mean honestly, it's just the Washington metropolitan area's version of Orange County, California / Northern New Jersey / Fort Bend County, Texas / DuPage County, Illinois / Collin County, Texas / Broward County, Florida / San Mateo and Contra Costa Counties, California and such and such. It's a highly transient bedroom community with impeccable diversity, multitude of office space and edge cities, and vast suburban shopping and dining options, similar in the demographical and physical function to the places I listed above.
The other distinctive factor is the high cost of living and the broad level of affluence among a large population.
I think that only the New York City metro area and the Boston area on the east coast and the Bay area and Los Angeles area on the west coast have this characteristic.
Not denying that. Washington is a true power-keg when it comes to affluence and wealth creation, particularly for the upper middle income bracket.
Notes: My own screenshot of the Brookings article.
However, think about it like this. Which of the two cities dominates Maryland more? The one actually in Maryland and surrounded by Maryland on all of it's sides or the one not in Maryland and only surrounded by it on one of it's two major sides? Washington has a huge hand in Maryland, of course, nearly equal to that of Baltimore, due to it's big suburbs there but I have to say Baltimore would hold the edge here, no?
Ok. I still feel that there are equal if not more Marylanders that don't even go to DC or even mess with Washington like that.
A lot of us have family and even friends in DC and we go there to chill with them. You'll see Marylanders hanging out in Gallery Place and Georgetown a lot and of course, most of us Marylanders go into the City to hit the nightlife scene up and many concerts and events. When there's nothing to do in the 'burbs, we drive or hop on Metro to have some fun in DC.
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