Hampton Roads vs. NOVA vs. Richmond (Virginia Beach, Newport News: construction, good schools, pros and cons)

[popalnet]

Originally Posted by DC's Finest

Fact is, most people in DC hate VA (the state) because of its conservativeness and backwards a$$ attitudes. NOVA is more connected to DC than the rest of VA as recent voting patterns have shown. At the end of the day, we are all Washingtonians! I can make the same case for Montgomery County & PG County on the Maryland side. They are definitley influenced by DC than Baltimore.

DC's Finest, you hit the nail right on the head - there's a lot of talk about NOVA (Northern Virginia) & ROVA (Rest Of Virginia).

When you indicate leaving urban Bethesda in MD to urban Pentagon City in NoVa, the problem with that is ROVA doesn't understand the word urban. If you want to communicate with ROVA, you need to mention Willie Nelson, Bluegrass, Rednecks, Honky Tonk, and things like that. Oh, I forgot Boe & Luke from Hazzard County.

The reason ROVA hates NoVa is because there isn’t a large influence of Honky Tonk. Instead, in NoVa, you find a lot of diversity, international shops, international supermarkets, and a bustling economy that’s unmatched anywhere in the country. This of course is totally influenced by a world class city like DC. I could go on and on about the other thousand cool things that's in the DC area and not in ROVA.

Oh, I forgot. There are a few Honky Tonk’s in NoVa who can’t wait to retire so they can move away from Nova to Hampton Roads or North Carolina so they can get away from the diversity, culture, and hustle and bustle.

[ToughLuv]

Originally Posted by popalnet

DC's Finest, you hit the nail right on the head - there's a lot of talk about NOVA (Northern Virginia) & ROVA (Rest Of Virginia). Just google NOVA and ROVA and see for yourself.

When you indicate leaving urban Bethesda in MD to urban Pentagon City in NoVa, the problem with that is ROVA doesn't understand the word urban. If you want to communicate with ROVA, you need to mention Willie Nelson, Bluegrass, Rednecks, Honky Tonk, and things like that. Oh, I forgot Boe & Luke from Hazzard County.

The reason ROVA hates NoVa is because there isn’t a large influence of Honky Tonk. Instead, in NoVa, you find a lot of diversity, international shops, international supermarkets, and a bustling economy that’s unmatched anywhere in the country.

Oh, I forgot. There are a few Honky Tonk’s in NoVa who can’t wait to retire so they can move away from Nova to Hampton Roads or North Carolina so they can get away from the diversity and hustle and bustle.

...and then you woke up

[popalnet]

Originally Posted by ToughLuv

...and then you woke up

This guy ToughLuv pretends to be from Baltimore, but I'll bet he's really from Newport News. Why - because when you talk to the true locals from Baltimore, they don't know even know where Nova is.

Baltimore's inner harbor is great. It's been pretty successful - thanks to tourists and DC area visitors.

[ToughLuv]

Originally Posted by popalnet

This guy ToughLuv pretends to be from Baltimore, but I'll bet he's really from Newport News. Why - because when you talk to the true locals from Baltimore, they don't know even know where Nova is.

Baltimore's inner harbor is great. It's been pretty successful - thanks to tourists and DC area visitors.

Right so im pretending to be from Baltimore, funny. West Baltimore resident for 18 years, Moved to Newport news in 2001, im always in DC and my mom herself was born and raised in Alexandria, VA (Ft.Belvoir), So please lets not make something this is not, I have been a resident of VA for 7 years, if I dont have knowledge of areas in my state by now...it's a problem.

And dont even began to say the Inner Harbor owes its success to the DC Metro, plz!

[popalnet]

Originally Posted by ToughLuv

Right so im pretending to be from Baltimore, funny. West Baltimore resident for 18 years, Moved to Newport news in 2001, im always in DC and my mom herself was born and raised in Alexandria, VA (Ft.Belvoir), So please lets not make something this is not, I have been a resident of VA for 7 years, if I dont have knowledge of areas in my state by now...it's a problem.

And dont even began to say the Inner Harbor owes its success to the DC Metro, plz!

ToughLuv, I took you wrong. I grew up in the East Bay in the San Fran area, and then in the last 2 years of high school, my parents moved to Alexandria and I attended TC Williams High School. The part of Alexandria you mention isn't even Alexandria City - but no problem.

Okay, but it seems that you have some love for the HR area. Tell us more about that.

HR is not for me, and DC and NOVA is not for you. So is there a problem with that?

[popalnet]

BTW, my parents moved to NoVa in 1988, so I've been here for a while now.

Have been on business travel to many parts of the country. My worst times were in the HR area.

I turned 36 on the 25th of July. I must have no life since I'm on city-data on my birthday.

[ToughLuv]

Originally Posted by popalnet

ToughLuv, I took you wrong. I grew up in the East Bay in the San Fran area, and then in the last 2 years of high school, my parents moved to Alexandria and I attended TC Williams High School. The part of Alexandria you mention isn't even Alexandria City - but no problem.

Okay, but it seems that you have some love for the HR area. Tell us more about that.

HR is not for me, and DC and NOVA is not for you. So is there a problem with that?

Actually Im not a big fan of HR (in comparison to areas around the country), especially Newport News as I have stated before, but out the three areas in VA, I like HR the most. And I LOVE DC, I will be there next weekend matter of fact, but we are talking about NoVa. It's like a virus with NoVa people, they just have to throw DC in their conversation no matter what. I would defintely live in NW DC (Dupoint Circle yes!). Washington D.C. is the nation's great capital, Nova is just the VA suburb of it, in which I would prefer the MD side anyway, (currently considering PG County as a move) but I have never lived in a suburb of a nearby big city so I dont know what it feels like. The people living in Atlanta Suburbs and Chicagoland are MUCH worse than you guys though, they will claim the city, living 30 minutes to a hour away from it and not even AT LEAST work there.

I will definetly give pick NoVa over HR when it comes to schools , economy and crime. HR has some work to do when it comes these (Newport News for sure), I like that Nova doesnt really have to really be concerned about "bad areas" or crime and you all have also done a good job to keep DC crime from leaking into the area unlike the MD side.

[popalnet]

I get your drift.

I guess you'd have to live and experience the life of those people who live an hour from the city to get a feel of why those people claim to be from the city. I guess a lot of it is based on interpretation.

Me personally, I wouldn't be in NoVa if it wasn't for DC. I also like the close proximity to Baltimore, just to see something different once in a while.

To be honest, I would love to live in HR if DC was only an hour away from it. Because then I'd have an urban area that I could go to and a beach area.

I'm sorry if I've been offensive to you or anyone on this board. Please accept my appologies.

This board is for fun and education. Hopefully, I can learn some stuff about the HR area so that way the next time I'm there I'll give it a better look. I always just viewed VA Beach as just the beach area. So far it's looking like it's much bigger than that.

[The Dissenter]

Popalnet and Toughluv. I can relate to both of you. I spent most of my life in Hampton/York Co and like you popalnet i spent my two years of HS at TC Williams and still live in Alexandria.

I'll be honest, i cant stand NoVA but i do apperciate the diversity and the challenging schools. I went to TC in Alexandria and Tabb in York Co and i got better grades and more of a challenge in Alexandria schools than i got in York Co. The racial diversity here in NoVA has made life interesting. ToughLuv, contrary to popular belief there are areas of NoVA that are better avoided as far as crime goes (i work in one, believe it or not). One neighborhood off the top of my head is Arlandria in Alexandria, a nice share of Alexandria's violent crime happens in this area. Sadly, Virginia can't live with NoVA and it cant live without NoVA.


For Hampton Roads, i'll always like being close to the beach (not just VA Beach, Yorktown and Buckaroe Beaches also.) Hampton always had a laid back feeling to me. The fact just is that HR is a cheaper place to live than NoVA. HR may not do everything right but it has its advantages over NoVA.

[popalnet]

Alanboy395, I think I can relate to you as well.

I just got back from a mini-vacation to Myrtle Beach. I'm not looking forward to going back to work. Luckily, I'm going to Kings Dominion tomorrow, and then to work after that.

On my way home from Myrtle Beach - when I got to the NoVa area I started to feel work knocking on my doors as soon as I started to hit traffic in NoVa. That's one feeling I hate about this area - which is work work work, and TRAFFIC. It doesn't have that laid back feel that other places have.

The weird thing is after getting into the grind after a couple of days of work you forget about the need for the laid back feeling and you get back into the all the things that's against being laid back.

I guess NoVa is a place to work, and then you relax a bit before going back to work to repeat the entire work process all over again.

When it comes to diversity, NoVa hits you like a rock when you come back to it after a place like Myrtle Beach. I was noticing FOB's left and right in NoVa after Myrtle Beach. FOB meaning Fresh Off the Boat. Luckily, I'm not originally from America, so it wasn't that bad. But I could see how annoying it could be if you are used to an all-American type of culture.

Alanboy395, what year did you graduate from TC? I graduated in 1991. I hated TC. The only thing I like about it was the off campus lunch hour and a girlfriend that taught me a lot.