Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
NOVA is annoying. the entire NOVA region should be on BRAVO
I'm waiting for more of the NoVA "homers" to show up to tell everyone that I "don't know what I'm talking about." It's an endless sprawl, and nothing anyone from NoVA will say can change that. Some people like living in an endless sprawl, and those individuals SHOULD vote for NoVA. As for me with 90% of the area being cul-de-sacs, strip malls, parking lots, freeways, big-box stores, etc. with 10% being "in-town" or "transit-oriented" I just can't give it a glowing review. People here will whine about traffic as they drive alone in their SUV between their cul-de-sac and their office park. It's sad, really. In Pittsburgh I can live within walking distance to Downtown for a fraction of the price.
P.S. To those saying NoVA is "cheaper" than NoNJ, are you for real? I just did a search on CraigsList for 1-BR apartments, and most decent places in sprawling NoVA are in the $1,100/month-$1,300/month range. That's about the SAME as I've been finding in WALKABLE neighborhoods of NoNJ. What gives? NYC > DC, yet the NYC 'burbs in NoNJ are now = NoVA 'burbs of DC in terms of cost-of-living?
I live in NoVA, and I voted for NoNJ. For me there's just very few redeeming qualities about NoVA to justify the cost-of-living. There are very few historic "traditional" communities with walkable Main Streets, tree-lined residential neighborhoods, etc., and the ones that do exist (i.e. Vienna, Falls Church, Leesburg) are all choked in gridlock, surrounded by a sea of sprawl, and pale in comparison to what NoNJ offers. The built environment in NoVA is horrendous (unless you actually want to admit you love living in a McMansion on a cul-de-sac while shouting "Viva la Autocentricity!") Mass transit here is horrible, too. I live in the largest suburb outside the Beltway, and we STILL don't have a subway line (and even then the one they ARE starting to build is going to be above-ground).
NoVA is in a "red" state, so it's generally governed by those who refuse to spend money to improve infrastructure (Gov. Christie's recent decision to cancel the commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River notwithstanding). This is why my 7-mile suburb-to-suburb commute can often take nearly an hour.
The problem also is that people in NoVA are generally so self-absorbed that they refuse to admit that the built environment here is ecologically- and economically-irresponsible. I started a thread on the NoVA sub-forum last month in regards to how VDOT is investing a half-billion tax dollars into subsidizing more exurban sprawl in Prince William County, VA (more specifically around cul-de-sac-obssessed Gainesville), and the "pack mentality" on there was so fierce I had to bow out before I was given infractions from biased moderation for trying to defend my unpopular (yet correct) positions on long-range urban planning. I consider it to be reprehensible that a half-billion dollars that COULD have gone towards better transit in the inner suburbs and/or infill development to offer more living options nearer to population centers was instead spent to widen freeways in poorly-planned exurbs like Gainesville.
NoNJ has actual communities. NoVA doesn't. After a year-and-a-half here I'm bailing to go back to PA because I can't stand living in an incessant sprawl for miles on end with no charm, character, or soul to it.
What's up with your obsession with Gainesville? You were wrong about Gainesville, why can't you just move on?
Wrong how? How is Gainesville not a sprawling exurb?
So, you didn't answer Denton's question - what is up with your obsession with Gainesville? A search on Gainesville here (which is how I found this post of yours) shows you've been posting about it all over the place in recent days - totally misrepresenting what people in Gainesville responded back to you here in the forum, and what you think people in Gainesville are thinking. For example: You continue to deny that project was planned years ago, and you wote that people moving to Gainesville recently were whining about the roads there and that's why this project got done which is absolutely false. I could go on, but there's plenty of things you've been wrong about in your writings about Gainesville. You can't judge a book by its cover, and you came to judgements about Gainesville from driving through there rapidly and from what you gleaned from satellite photos. You somehow were psychic while you drive through and somehow instantly knew how people who have moved to Gainesville felt about the roads there and that they were unhappy with them. Most folks in Gainesville are very happy with the roads there and the quality of life, and as we've said over and over, know how to totally avoid that intersection. They moved to Gainesville knowing those improvements have been planned for years and were just now finally getting implemented with shovel to ground, after typical delays like any construction project. You misstated the cost of that intersection, by lumping the cost of all improvements as that is part of a huge multi-phase project including widening of I-66 from Gainesville to Manassas. Would you deny people a widened I-66? That affects many more people than just the residents of Gainesville.
There, that's my answer to what you got wrong about Gainesville. You don't like paying for improvements made to the Gainesville area. What if everyone in Gainesville jumped up and down and said they didn't want to pay for improvements to roads in Fairfax County? I doubt you'd be very happy with that either.
Wrong how? How is Gainesville not a sprawling exurb?
Good God man, this has been explained to you over and over. Stop whining all over about Gainesville. NO one is asking you to live there, or even visit there. We got it, you hated it when you drove through. LET IT GO.
Agreed. On top of that, NoNJ has some gorgeous cities with some stunning architecture while NoVa has only oldtown alexandria, which is very small but also very pretty. Maybe a few dashes here and there of nice older architecture, but as a whole, it is, simply put, ugly.
is very true.
Also concur with this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by bballniket
I prefer the Urban layout of NoNJ (many walk-able downtowns served by an NJ transit station) to that of NoVa (mostly strip malls and tract housing).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's an endless sprawl, and nothing anyone from NoVA will say can change that. Some people like living in an endless sprawl, and those individuals SHOULD vote for NoVA. As for me with 90% of the area being cul-de-sacs, strip malls, parking lots, freeways, big-box stores, etc. with 10% being "in-town" or "transit-oriented" I just can't give it a glowing review. People here will whine about traffic as they drive alone in their SUV between their cul-de-sac and their office park. It's sad, really. In Pittsburgh I can live within walking distance to Downtown for a fraction of the price. 
