Delaware, Maryland, DC, Northern VA...What's the difference? (transplants, sales)

[knke0204]

Please excuse my ignorance. I love this website because it's a great place to get ideas, opinions and discuss topics with others from around the country.

I grew up in the midwest and haven't really been to many places around the country, especially the DMV area. So people, let me know what's up. What are some differenes?
Where is the place with more money?
Are there rivalries?

I am from a big state, and the midwest so it's not very common that you cross a state border, let alone share a region amongst four different major governing bodies..What's that like.

I am from the Twin Cities. I have friends that I hang out with that are from Duluth, Rochester, Moorhead, Mankato, Marshall, Brainerd... All areas that are in MN and are hour drives from each other, but bottom line is that we're all in MN and from MN.

So, is it odd to have friends from a bunch of different states? Or family scattered? ANd what's it like there?

[Sincerly Hope]

Rivalry: DC vs Baltimore....there was even a beef at one point, so bad that they had to segregate prisoners from the DC area and Baltimore and there have been as history of fights breaking at local colleges between DC and Baltimore students.

Maryland is split between multiple cultural regions:
-Baltimore metro (More so blue collared oriented, down to earth, more natives, homely feel, laid back)
-D.C. metro (More so white collared oriented, pretentious, many transplants, fast paced)
-Western MD (Similar culture as SW Pennsylvania)
-Southern MD (Exurban/Rural, slow paced but horrible traffic, still maintains southern roots)
-Eastern Shore (Rural, still has its noticeable southern roots and heritage)

Delaware:
-Northern DE/Philly suburbs (Same culture as SE Pennsylvania and South Jersey)
-Southern DE (Similar to the Eastern Shore of MD)

Northern Virginia:
-Similar to the Maryland suburbs of D.C., NoVa has nothing in common with the rest of the state.

Each region has their own distinct traits that separates one another

[slowlane3]

MD: higher general sales tax (but groceries are exempt), higher income tax, higher cigarette tax, slightly higher gasoline tax. Liberal Democratic politics, more attention to public health (although the rural areas can be somewhat more Republican). Many women in elected office. Liquor sold on Sundays, in well-marked stores. Historically Maryland has more Roman Catholics ever since colonial times (except in the Eastern Shore region). Maryland has some mountains, but much more shoreline and coast.

VA: lower sales tax, lower income tax, but motor vehicles and boats are taxed, as are groceries partially. More conservative politics, hardly any women in politics. More pro-gun attitude (despite having the worst school-shooting in history). Legislators from rural districts resist spending money on urban transportation projects which are desperately needed in the D.C. suburbs. Very low cigarette taxes. Wine and beer are sold in groceries, but hard-liquor only in hidden-away "ABC stores." Many streets, roads, parks, and schools are still named after Confederate generals and heroes (even as far north as the D.C. border. As soon as you cross into D.C. they are all named instead for Union generals). Virginia has larger mountainous areas than Maryland does.

DE: very low tax, due to revenue from slot machines and from the DuPont family fortune. Many retirees are moving to the Delaware shore for this reason (and also are moving to Penn. which does not tax pensions).

[soug]

Originally Posted by knke0204

Please excuse my ignorance. I love this website because it's a great place to get ideas, opinions and discuss topics with others from around the country.

I grew up in the midwest and haven't really been to many places around the country, especially the DMV area. So people, let me know what's up. What are some differenes?
Where is the place with more money?
Are there rivalries?

I am from a big state, and the midwest so it's not very common that you cross a state border, let alone share a region amongst four different major governing bodies..What's that like.

I am from the Twin Cities. I have friends that I hang out with that are from Duluth, Rochester, Moorhead, Mankato, Marshall, Brainerd... All areas that are in MN and are hour drives from each other, but bottom line is that we're all in MN and from MN.

So, is it odd to have friends from a bunch of different states? Or family scattered? ANd what's it like there?

State boundaries don't really mean anything in the Northeast. I go to Philly every day for work in the summers. Yeah, I'm crossing into Pennsylvania, but I don't even notice.

As for the four places you listed, Delaware isn't part of the DMV area. Most of the population lives in Northern Delaware in the Philly suburbs. By contrast, much of Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia are united culturally/economically. To get from my current location in College Park, MD, to my cousin's place in Arlington, VA, it's only a 45 minute Metro ride. There's no feeling (at least to me) that you're going to a different "place".

[slowlane3]

The following 3 colleges are all in Virginia (along with the first two's television networks) ---- Does that tell you something about the state's orientation ?

Liberty University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Regent University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Patrick Henry College - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As far as speech accents go: generally residents of D.C. and all of MD (except for some African-Americans) have a standard Northern accent. An exception is with some very old-timers in D.C. and southern MD who do have a non-rhotic (drop the "R"s) accent. Furthermore, people around Baltimore and also the Eastern Shore, distinctly nasalize their vowels, such as the long "O" sound, becomes more like "AO" or "EUW". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_accent

Virginians, from Fredericksburg southward, traditionally have southern accents. Although the eastern (non-rhotic "drop the R's", Tidewater accent) differs greatly from the rhotic inland or Appalachian accent, they are both forms of southern accents.

Racially, and ethnically, MD, DE, and VA are all three of them, diverse in multiple ways. Although the degrees of racial diversity vary within different regions of each State. For instance, in mountain areas, there are fewer racial minorities.

Virginia due to its "Bible Belt" culture, was slower than MD to adopt horse-racing and lotteries.

[uptown_urbanist]

Between my husband and I, we've lived or worked in Delaware, Northern VA, Maryland, and DC. We were in northern Delaware, and we felt far more affiliated with the Philly metro area. We often crossed a state line just to go to the movies. DC or Baltimore made for a great day trip, though, but all of our local news, etc., was definitely Philadelphia-focused. Never lived in lower Delaware, but my impression is that it's more DC/Baltimore connected, but not for everyday life. Think more along the lines of beach resort destination.

When working and living in DC, however, coworkers and friends lived in DC, VA, and MD, with several living in Baltimore. My husband crossed a state line to get to work. Things felt pretty culturally connected as part of the broader DC metro area, although there are definitely differences between NOVA and the Maryland suburbs. Probably not any different than looking at the western suburbs in the Twin Cities versus the northern ones, though.

In Virginia you start to feel a much bigger cultural shift once you get out of the DC metro area. Northern Virginia did not, to me, feel very "Southern;" once you hit the Shenandoah Valley, however, (or other points in other directions) that changes rapidly.

As far as money and stereotypes, if you're looking just at the metro DC region then sure, there are a lot of them out there. It's a pretty segregated place, both economically and racially. Historically, too, the Maryland/DC/Virginia area was in many ways where north and south collided.

When we moved from Delaware to Virginia (outside of the DC metro area) we used to reference moving south of the "Sweet Tea Line." Our move wasn't huge -- just a couple of hours driving time -- but the cultural difference were immense, and not just the way they liked their tea. While I think there are some pretty big cultural differences within the state of Minnesota, it's nothing as extreme as between northern Delaware and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. That said, I don't think moving around within the metro DC area itself sparks any major surprises for most people. I think it's more along the lines of the people in Fargo/Moorhead in MN/ND. The cultural lines or defining features don't fall neatly along state lines, and for most daily life you move back and forth between borders without thinking about it.

[slowlane3]

Some other differences between MD and VA are that,

MD state highways, and its US highways, have hard-paved shoulders (good for bicyclists). Because MD overall has a denser population than VA, with fewer miles of state highway to support per capita than VA, I suppose they can afford to do this. MD also has much better road and street signs (long, overhead signs stretching across main intersections) just like the style of CA and FL.

VA state highways, and US highways in VA (so far as I've noticed) have only dirt shoulders (on the plus side, I suppose this is environmentally better). Also, VA provides only tiny road and street signs that are hard to see at night or in bad weather.

VA claims its tax structure makes it friendly for businesses.

VA is the only remaining US state that still limits its governors to only one consecutive term.

[slowlane3]

West Virginia laws are also interesting. The far eastern panhandle of WV is a haven that gamblers from surrounding states come to for horse racing, slot machines, and nude bars with "lap dancing" (With slot machines being forbidden in all neighboring states - although this is changing; nude bars being forbidden in Virginia and parts of Maryland, and horse racing only allowed at one track in another part of Virginia).

[dghornock]

Delaware, eastern Maryland, and eastern Virginia are very much alike. All three states are Southern states, but in all the out-migration of northerners from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York have changed the culture and almost everything else in many areas. Northern New Castle County Delaware (Wilmington, Newark, and northward- [north of I-95,]) and the shore areas of Sussex County because of this out-migration, have become almost like their Mid Atlantic neighbors to the north. Delaware is just an example, because much of Maryland and northeast Virginia are exactly the same. Areas of Delaware, Maryland, and northeast Virginia people will use phrases like "you all' and "git" as normal conversation that do not have the large out-migration from the North. Also, large non-urban black populations, and violent crime rates far exceeding those further north outside of urban population centers are found as well. As far as Protestant being the primary religion in the South, other than south Florida and southern Louisiana, those days are long gone. The largest percentage of US Catholics are now found in the South (which includes Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.)

[Charlotte485]

I will say everyone has pretty much nailed it.


I will say, and it might be in my head, I see a difference between DC/MD/NoVa. They all seem different and distinct to me in their ways. From road signs, to the things look MD people and their attachment to a crab with the MD flag in it, the schools people talk about, the politics, etc.