Who Wants NOVA To Become 'Real VA' Again? (Richmond, Chantilly: crime, houses)

[bluecountry]

Is anybody else here disturbed at how in the last two decades...the great legacy of civil war battlefields....agriculture...Appalachian mountains...and distict culture of Virginia has been bastardized from an invasion of fast food chained, cookie cutting homes in naked non treed subdivision?

I'm all for progression and diversity...but anything too much too soon is a bad thing.
It used to be once you entered Loudon County you did so on Rt 50 or Braddock Road (which wasn't paved)...and you saw a forest or farm.

It used to be the Bull Run Mountains had NO light pollution.

It used to Stafford was the beginning of the greater Richmond area.

Now...if I drive out to Purceville I see home depot glaring at night.
Lucketts and Lovettsville....they've become the next Chantilly.

It truly is depressing how our local leaders, relators, and businesses have lacked such foresight they sold out West Fairfax/Loudon/Prince William/Stafford and now Spotsylvania and Frederick County.

The Appalachian Mountains used to be the frontier...now they're an obstacle for the daily commute.

So sad that in 15 years Loudon County is going to look like central Fairfax.

The sad thing is...nothing we can do.
What can I do to have that country feel on Braddock Road at Route 659?
What can all the rezoning do...they'll just get more payoffs....and even if not another house is built...the Appalachians have already been scarred.
Sad.

If you want to see the blight of suburban sprawl...the ugliness of what 800,000 dollar houses the Toll Brothers and co have been allowed to belch on an endless buffet of rural land...then NOVA is the place to be.

[VRE332]

So sad? Go to any place in the Rust Belt and find factories that have relocated their manufacturing to China and Mexico. Go anywhere in NY, Ohio, Michigan, All you see now is bombed out former manufacturing sites My home town had 30,000 jobs lost, and 7% unemployment rates. I relocated down here because the jobs and communities were gone back home. Crime was so bad, the best job in town was at a grocery store. This was the only place I could find a decent job. If you dont like it, move.

Read this article before you reply

U.S. Census: More people heading west, south - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/27/census.cities.ap/index.html - broken link)

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by bluecountry

Is anybody else here disturbed at how in the last two decades...the great legacy of civil war battlefields....agriculture...Appalachian mountains...and distict culture of Virginia has been bastardized from an invasion of fast food chained, cookie cutting homes in naked non treed subdivision?

I'm all for progression and diversity...but anything too much too soon is a bad thing.
It used to be once you entered Loudon County you did so on Rt 50 or Braddock Road (which wasn't paved)...and you saw a forest or farm.

It used to be the Bull Run Mountains had NO light pollution.

It used to Stafford was the beginning of the greater Richmond area.

Now...if I drive out to Purceville I see home depot glaring at night.
Lucketts and Lovettsville....they've become the next Chantilly.

It truly is depressing how our local leaders, relators, and businesses have lacked such foresight they sold out West Fairfax/Loudon/Prince William/Stafford and now Spotsylvania and Frederick County.

The Appalachian Mountains used to be the frontier...now they're an obstacle for the daily commute.

So sad that in 15 years Loudon County is going to look like central Fairfax.

The sad thing is...nothing we can do.
What can I do to have that country feel on Braddock Road at Route 659?
What can all the rezoning do...they'll just get more payoffs....and even if not another house is built...the Appalachians have already been scarred.
Sad.

If you want to see the blight of suburban sprawl...the ugliness of what 800,000 dollar houses the Toll Brothers and co have been allowed to belch on an endless buffet of rural land...then NOVA is the place to be.

Personally, i'm leaving NoVA next year and as long as whatever virus NOVA has stays north of Richmond, i could care less.

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by bluecountry

Is anybody else here disturbed at how in the last two decades...the great legacy of civil war battlefields....agriculture...Appalachian mountains...and distict culture of Virginia has been bastardized from an invasion of fast food chained, cookie cutting homes in naked non treed subdivision?

I'm all for progression and diversity...but anything too much too soon is a bad thing.
It used to be once you entered Loudon County you did so on Rt 50 or Braddock Road (which wasn't paved)...and you saw a forest or farm.

It used to be the Bull Run Mountains had NO light pollution.

It used to Stafford was the beginning of the greater Richmond area.

Now...if I drive out to Purceville I see home depot glaring at night.
Lucketts and Lovettsville....they've become the next Chantilly.

It truly is depressing how our local leaders, relators, and businesses have lacked such foresight they sold out West Fairfax/Loudon/Prince William/Stafford and now Spotsylvania and Frederick County.

The Appalachian Mountains used to be the frontier...now they're an obstacle for the daily commute.

So sad that in 15 years Loudon County is going to look like central Fairfax.

The sad thing is...nothing we can do.
What can I do to have that country feel on Braddock Road at Route 659?
What can all the rezoning do...they'll just get more payoffs....and even if not another house is built...the Appalachians have already been scarred.
Sad.

If you want to see the blight of suburban sprawl...the ugliness of what 800,000 dollar houses the Toll Brothers and co have been allowed to belch on an endless buffet of rural land...then NOVA is the place to be.

Well, what we want isn't what we're going to get unfortunately... The other side of the Appalachians is growing too I'm afraid. Winchester has every store imaginable and Front Royal has bowed a bit to economic reality and allowed Target and Walmart to arrive.... Meanwhile the areas in between like Strasburg and Stephens City are having a LOT of cookie cutter housing put up (has actually halted for the time being somewhat due to the real-estate "issues" but I'm sure it's only temporary)....

The sad truth is that some of this is needed to provide the tax money for local governments so they don't have to tax the ***** out of residents... The key is to maintain a strategy that doesn't hack up the landscape at the same time....

My biggest concern at the moment is development encroaching on places like the Cedar Creek Battlefield and such.... It's just a shame really....

[bluecountry]

I can not believe Stephens City/Winchester/Strasburg and I-81 are being developed.
Tell me...it's still the rural country???

Where are these people commuting to?

[Nancy in Nokomis]

I am a newcomer and wish I had lived here years ago when it was nicer - but - lets face it - everywhere is becoming more and more crowded - population is booming - you cant stop it.
It is sad when I go back home to NJ and see all the farmland turned into Home Depots and ugly McMansions

[tamitrail]

Originally Posted by bluecountry

I can not believe Stephens City/Winchester/Strasburg and I-81 are being developed.
Tell me...it's still the rural country???

Where are these people commuting to?

I live in rural area in Winchester that is still "country" but yes, a lot of development both commercial and residential has and is still going on. You wouldn't believe the changes in both Winchester and Stephens City.

[FindingZen]

I'm a relatively recent arrival (~ 3 years) but I can respect the lament that longtime residents may have for the quieter past they used to know. Unfortunately, that seems to be the flipside of having a resilient, often red-hot employment market. I imagine there a lot of people who have been priced out of closer-in areas where they would prefer to work and play.

Perhaps one solution would be to push the federal government to "spread the wealth" of employment opportunities more evenly across the states. However, it may take a lot to convince them, let alone government contractors, to do so.

But again, I respect the feelings of those who feel an unexpected future is encroaching on their preferred past.

[NOVAmtneer82]

I am also a relatively new arrival, just under four years and there have been HUGE changes in this area even in that short period of time. Let's face it this is a very desirable region to live in (aside from awful traffic and housing costs) so with continued job growth in both the government and private sectors, we can only expect more and more people to move here. Believe me, it is great to be nostalgic for the past, however I would much rather take the growth in this region compared to the stagnation/decline I bolted from in WV.

[Gil3]

Originally Posted by bluecountry

I can not believe Stephens City/Winchester/Strasburg and I-81 are being developed.
Tell me...it's still the rural country???

Where are these people commuting to?

Quite a few to DC. What i've been told is that a number of federal agencies are relocating out that way from DC as well.