Why did North Carolina surpass Virginia in regards to growth and development? (living, cost)
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Just to throw this out first and foremost, I will admit that the population and growth differences between North Carolina and Virginia are not drastic. North Carolina has over 10 million residents and sits at 9th overall, while Virginia has over 8 million and sits at 12th.
However, if you examine the histories of both states, I feel like most would expect Virginia to be more populated today. Virginia had a deep water port, one of the largest cities in the South (Richmond), access to many rivers, and is located closer to the Northeast. On the other hand, North Carolina viewed itself as a “vale of humility,” lacking a deep water port and navigable rivers, therefore remaining rural and backwards with very few urban centers.
Why did North Carolina surpass Virginia, then? Both states are practically equal in size, unlike South Carolina which is noticeably smaller. Was it the textiles and tobacco jobs in North Carolina that attracted more transplants? Or could it be argued that the historic reputations of both states were over exaggerated and aren’t accurate?
In terms of tech, North Carolina benefits from having its two most prestigious Universities (Duke and UNC Chapel Hill) located near some of its major cities. The more prestigious Universities in Virginia(Virginia Tech, UVA, and William and Mary) are more spread out from major cities. The growth of banking in Charlotte compared to cities in Virginia may be somewhat by chance. The banks that were founded in North Carolina just happened to be the most financially viable after a series of mergers. Many of the largest Banks in Virginia ended merging in with what is now known as Bank of America. North Carolina also offers a more affordable cost of living compared to Virginia because cities in Virginia are more densely populated and have more steady industries such as government and defense. Richmond has state government, Alexandria/Arlington have federal jobs, and Norfolk has defense jobs. Those jobs keep the cost of living higher than many cities in states further south. Not to mention DC itself has a huge impact on Virginia. Even though DC is not technically a Virginia City it still is the core city of Virginia's largest metro. Cities in North Carolina do not have to directly compete against a major city like DC. The land area between North Carolina and Virginia is still relatively considerable. Virginia's land area is 39490 square miles with a population density of 219/sq mile and North Carolina is 48618 with pop density of 215/sq mile. Also more of Virginia's land area is covered by mountains so there is even less land available for building houses. So overall Virginia is doing pretty well, but North Carolina is growing faster because it has more room to grow.
In terms of tech, North Carolina benefits from having its two most prestigious Universities (Duke and UNC Chapel Hill) located near some of its major cities. The more prestigious Universities in Virginia(Virginia Tech, UVA, and William and Mary) are more spread out from major cities. The growth of banking in Charlotte compared to cities in Virginia may be somewhat by chance. The banks that were founded in North Carolina just happened to be the most financially viable after a series of mergers. Many of the largest Banks in Virginia ended merging in with what is now known as Bank of America. North Carolina also offers a more affordable cost of living compared to Virginia because cities in Virginia are more densely populated and have more steady industries such as government and defense. Richmond has state government, Alexandria/Arlington have federal jobs, and Norfolk has defense jobs. Those jobs keep the cost of living higher than many cities in states further south. Not to mention DC itself has a huge impact on Virginia. Even though DC is not technically a Virginia City it still is the core city of Virginia's largest metro. Cities in North Carolina do not have to directly compete against a major city like DC. The land area between North Carolina and Virginia is still relatively considerable. Virginia's land area is 39490 square miles with a population density of 219/sq mile and North Carolina is 48618 with pop density of 215/sq mile. Also more of Virginia's land area is covered by mountains so there is even less land available for building houses. So overall Virginia is doing pretty well, but North Carolina is growing faster because it has more room to grow.
I was going to write basically this exact same reply.
1)The Triangle has three major research universities clustered together which gave rise to the RTP.
2) Charlotte was probably more happenstance.
Hugh McColl happened to move there and began building the empire that is now Bank of America. First Union/Wachovia had a similar trajectory.
3) NoVa which has the most economically dynamic area of VA spills over into MD/DC.
To that, I would be curious about taxes, regs, incentives? Was NC more business/growth friendly? Perhaps NC being further south also captured a little more of the "New South" warm weather/low cost mix than VA which is something of a Mid Atlantic border state? Also perhaps VAs more established cities with their heavy reliance on government employment made them a little less innovative/scrappy?
Virginia's inner cores were in much worse shape than NC's. Richmond, Norfolk, Portsmouth are ghetto and ghastly in parts even to this day. Similar areas in NC like the Piedmont Triad and Northeast NC have also struggled.
Charlotte and Raleigh are by all intents new cities. Richmond city proper had more people than Charlotte through the 1960s. Raleigh had 93,000(!) people in 1960. Both Charlotte and Raleigh largely boomed post-1970, and missed out on a lot of the urban blight that hammered Virginia's cities. So while Charlotte and Raleigh could become sprawl magnets, Virginia's legacy cities were undergoing deindustrialization, high crime, and the post-WWII navy/military cuts.
And then when they were ready to boom, Charlotte/Raleigh could just annex their way to fiscal solvency, whereas Richmond - by way of Virginia's incorporation system - was stuck at 59.92 square miles.
NC's coastal realm is also much, much bigger, which allowed a large retirement strip to form. There is no equivalent in Virginia. Even "family friendly" Virginia Beach is mostly a military/industrial city with some tourism on the boardwalk. Could this change? Yes, but Virginia is often 5-10 degrees colder than North Carolina and that definitely matters if you're trying to get snowbirds.
Lastly, Northern Virginia has become the rather "exclusive" part of the DC metro. The median homes in Fairfax/Loudoun now cost ~$120,000 more than in Montgomery County, Maryland, the wealthy county of Maryland. While this has been a boom to Nova (3 million people with the highest GDP per capita in the country and crime levels lower than Western Europe), it's caused a huge hit to population growth. Fairfax County is now essentially full and NIMBYism is rampant. "Growth-friendly" Loudoun is also on pace to fill up soon (everything west/north of Leesburg is zoned rural due to its historic character) and Prince William has another 10 years of space left, but only by eating into its rural crescent. And that will fill up faster if the NFL or data centers come into the picture.
Then you hit the wall...Fauquier is a rural conservative stronghold that has purposefully limited growth. Stafford is growth friendly but I-95 traffic has gotten so bad south of Prince William that it too faces headwinds.
Nova is starting to transition to a high-density system (Arlington has already done so, and Alexandria/Tysons are works in progress), but the transition will inevitably cause population growth to slow down even further. And due to land/scarcity home prices are spiking.
The same thing is happening in Charlotte/Raleigh, but from a much lower base (homes aren't $600k in suburban Charlotte) so COL isn't as big a detraction.
At this point, Nova is quickly becoming a slow-growth hub of hi-tech jobs, elite suburbanites and quickly diminishing empty land. Affordable housing is such an issue that perceived dumps like Prince George's County grew by ~105,000 this past decade, as much as Loudoun.
Lastly, Hampton Roads spends all its energy infighting. Chesapeake vs. VA Beach. VA Beach vs. Norfolk. Norfolk vs. Hampton. Hampton vs. Newport News. It's a huge problem and has significantly limited growth. Even things like light rail quickly become municipal boundary fault lines. Virginia has been far less militant about policing its cities than North Carolina, so there's less centripetal motion bringing everything together (ironic, since VA is a Dillon Rule state).
Last edited by manitopiaaa; 04-13-2022 at 06:42 AM..
Lastly, Hampton Roads spends all its energy infighting. Chesapeake vs. VA Beach. VA Beach vs. Norfolk. Norfolk vs. Hampton. Hampton vs. Newport News. It's a huge problem and has significantly limited growth. Even things like light rail quickly become municipal boundary fault lines. Virginia has been far less militant about policing its cities than North Carolina, so there's less centripetal motion bringing everything together (ironic, since VA is a Dillon Rule state).
This is the sad truth. I always wonder how things would've turned out if Hampton-Newport News stayed within Warwick County and Elizabeth City County, Phoebus remained its own town, VB staying in Princess Anne County, Suffolk staying in Nansemond County, etc etc. There's a long history of tension due to independent cities annexing land from their counties and chipping into adjacent land from other cities.
Norfolk was being quite aggressive with annexing land (they also annexed what is now Willoughby Spit, Berkley, Sewell's Point, and Ocean View), and Portsmouth annexing areas like Churchland (once known as West Norfolk), Cradock, etc etc. They were by far annexing the most land in the region, with Norfolk gaiing land from both Norfolk County and Princess Anne County. South Norfolk was going to be surrounded by Norfolk through an annexation suit to gain all land adjoining it, which would ultimately lead to it being an unwilling territory to Norfolk. The decision was made to create the city of Chesapeake and landlock both Norfolk and Portsmouth instead.
In the time that Portsmouth and Norfolk were annexing land for 30 years and grew their land tenfold, Hampton was the exact same from 1908 when it was created from Elizabeth City County, until 1952 when it consolidated with Phoebus and Elizabeth City County. Ironically, this was the move that caused the ripple effect throughout the 50's-60's that every other independent city followed. Suffolk was the last to act, doing so in 1974 after being the city of Nansemond for only 2 years. VB didn't exist at all until 1952 and ten years later consolidated with Princess Anne County.
A lot of it has to do with each city not wanting to accept any "subordinate" position from other cities in order to cooperate. No other city will concede that Norfolk is the de facto leader of the area, not even Portsmouth. Chesapeake feels its just as capable as Norfolk, and VB does as well. They're all independent cities that have their own powers and tax base, so it's a "why should I listen to you?" kinda thing. Also while Norfolk was having their Fortune 500 companies poached by larger markets, Chesapeake nabbed the Dollar Tree HQ and building a new mixed-use development along with it. 38 out of 41 independent cities in the country are in VA, so it says a lot how things operate.
The history of North Carolina and Virginia are very different.
Virginia state government was controlled for centuries by tobacco farmers. There are tobacco leaves engraved in stone on the state capital. Virginia was one of the last states to do away with indoor smoking in restaurants. Southside, a rough triangle from Martinsville-Danville-Richmond, was old school and politically powerful. Virginia did have textile mills along its Southern border with North Carolina.
North Carolina was heavily agricultural. Then, Northern companies moved their textile mills to the Carolinas. There was also the furniture industry. The farmers barely scraping by moved to company towns and worked in these mills. By the 1950's, the mills were starting to go overseas. To overcome the change and transform the economy, the leaders of Duke and NC State came up with the idea of Research Triangle Park (RTP). There was nothing like it anywhere in the country. IBM moved there in 1959.
Basically North Carolina leaders wanted change, while Virginia leaders were clinging to the old.
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