Talk:Fairfax County, Virginia

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[edit] Education

This section is a bit POV at the moment. By whom is the school system rated best in the country, and on what basis? "Perennially" and "routinely" suggest that the situation will never change, which is not necessarily the case. Ortonmc 15:55, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)

What about private schools in Fairfax County?


I reside in Fairfax County. I know for a fact that the county's high schools rank among the top in the nation in terms of SAT scores. The private schools here are considered by many to be lackluster,and indeed many are below some public schools in the SAT statistic, but a few schools like Trinity Christian School and Flint Hill are known to be quite good in most areas (if not in the SAT aspect). Newsweek's "Best Public Schools" awards was a lousy way of rating schools in my opinion, because they measured in terms of AP tests taken over the amount of graduating seniors, as opposed to the actual scores on the tests. An intelligent/educated (never mix up the two) student body is not a bad thing. Nevertheless, all Fairfax schools were on the list. They would rank higher if scores on AP tests were the basis of the rating. wingoman64 20:45, 27 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Given the activity on Roman Catholic Church, Michael Jackson and Monica Lewinsky, among others, coming from an IP registered to Fairfax County Schools system, I would doubt the basic intelligence of the children....15:36, 12 January 2006 (UTC) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 57.66.51.165 (talk • contribs) .
Yes, because in general, high test scores are a result of low basic intelligence. This has been proven statistically. The basic intelligence of children from any age group is high compared to teenagers and adults, this is a fact in any part of the world. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Old Guard (talk • contribs) 12:03, 4 November 2006 (UTC).

Over 52% of the budget is spent on education? Laughable. --Haizum μολὼν λαβέ 04:16, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Please "bear in mind that talk pages exist for the purpose of discussing how to improve articles; they are not mere general discussion pages about the subject of the article." Source: WP:NOT#FORUM. --Russ (talk) 12:37, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Police Department

I've removed the following text as it is entirely POV:

Fairfax County is also renowned for their inept, but well-funded law enforcement department. This are due, in part, to the poorly-defined and grossly judgemental vehicular laws set forth by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. While the policies by which most DMV's are conducted are rarely, if ever efficient, the traffic rules in Virginia exist solely for the purposes of financial gain for Fairfax County, and is helped in no small part by the blind profiling conducted by local police officiers towards young adults, males, and minorities.

(Also, even if it were NPOV, I don't think "Demographics" would be the right section for it.) Ortonmc 18:28, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC) ok

[edit] Geography confusing/misleading

Fairfax County is bounded on the north and southeast by the Potomac River; across the river to the northeast is Washington, DC, across the river to the northwest is Montgomery County, Maryland, across the river to the southeast is Prince George's County, Maryland and Charles County, Maryland;

This is confusing to me; it makes it sound like Fairfax County shares a border with D.C., whereas as far as I can see both from the map in the article and the WMATA system map they share no border, with Arlington County and Alexandria being in between... Roy Badami 22:40, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Agreed. And Montgomery County is not to the northwest, and PG is pretty much due east. I'll change it unless someone objects. --Browncat 04:42, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
I suggest part of it is the county is oddly shaped and lays on a slanted axis. Fairfax only "corner touches" DC at one point -- near Chain Bridge. (By corner touch, I mean like how two black squares touch on a chessboard... they only meet at the corners.) Also, depending where you are in the county, if you travel north, the next jurisdiction you enter could either be Loudon County, Montgomery County, MD, Arlington County, Falls Church, or Alexandria. Nothing is easily "directly north". though I'd argue Montgomery County is closest to being so. I think what one does is to try to figure the centermost point of the county and figure directions from that. Eyeballing it, then Montgomery would be north. Loudon County would be Northwest. Prince William County would be southwest, while Alexandria, Arlington and Prince Georges County would be to the east. Charles County, MD would be to the southeast. SterlingNorth 05:22, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Republican stronghold

I don't know where you got your facts, but I don't think Fairfax was ever a Republican stronghold. (left by anonymous poster) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.241.237.54 (talk) 23:24, 4 December 2005

I have no trouble believing the shift. Take a look at the 1996 presidential election[1] where Dole beat Clinton in Fairfax county. To see the change, last year Kerry beat Bush in the county[2]. If you look at major elections in the 90's, Republicans were much more often the winners in Fairfax County. Until the last 20 years, Fairfax County was mostly rural. As the county has filled up, the blue zone has been steadily moving outward from DC. Last month's governor election is a good example. --StuffOfInterest 21:03, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ethnic Minorities

I wrote an article about Korean American community last year in the western part of the county, and although it's almost impossible to get any count on this until the next census, I think it deserves mention that contrary to popular belief, Korean populations are actually concentrated more in the Fairfax/Merrifield and Centreville areas. Annandale (see the Annandale, Va article for info about the term Koreatown applied to this area) is really much more of a commecial Koreatown than a residential Koreatown. The best way I could find to gauge Korean population is to look to Korean church records, which indicate that Annandale is maybe third after Fairfax and Centreville. Koreans are definitely moving westward.

Does anyone have more accurate information? For example, as far as numbers, how does the DC Metro's Korean community compare with that of other areas of the country. Koreans have told me it's third after LA and New York, most of which is in Fairfax County (but obviously I can't actually back that up with a source).

Another ethnic community that I think might deserve a mention, especially in Northern Virginia is the Vietnamese. I'm currently living some Vietnamese and it's fascinating to hear about what they call first wave and second wave generation (the first wave being in Arlington and the second moving westward, as it seems immigrant communities in this areas are wont to do, to Fairfax County especially around Falls Church. Again, this would certainly be worth adding to the article if the Vietnamese community in this area is one of the country's biggest.

Politically, there was also a flag issue raised by a Northern Virginian politician a couple years ago. Something to do with the South Vietnamese flag being used in schools. If I recall, the State Department pressued the Virginina General Assembly to drop the issue as it was causing Vietnam to threaten embargos on the state of Virginia. But the Northern Virginian politician was acting on behalf of a very vocal Vietnamese constituency.

I wish I knew more about these communities/issues to contribute myself.

You might want to make a similer request in the Northern Virginia article. I was wondering if you knew wether or not the 1st and 2nd waves of Vietnamese you mentioned are related the the 1st and 2nd waves of Vietnamese coming to the US.--Old Guard 03:23, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Demographics

In the section it says "Judged by median income, Fairfax County was the richest county in the country through the late 1990's but was recently overtaken by Douglas County, Colorado and is currently the second wealthiest county in the country by median household income." There is no source cited for this, if it is the 2000 census I don't see why the change in tone, it should say based on the 2000 census, or in 2000 was, given the layout of the section saying recently makes it sound like it was after 2000. If no disscussion is made of this I'll just reword it to mention that is based on the 2000 census; since it is consistent with the 2000 census. --JVittes 07:48, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm quite confused about the Douglas County/Fairfax County income issue. In 2000, Fairfax had the highest median household income. Now I've seen people saying that Douglas county has the higher income, according to some census reports. There was a discussion on the Talk:Westfield High School (Fairfax County, Virginia) page. KeepOnTruckin 16:03, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
I am going by the 2000 census since that contains all counties. In that, Douglas County was at 85,xxx while Fairfax was at 95,175. See below. KeepOnTruckin 14:53, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Should the demographics section be sorted? Perhaps in a table format. Particularly the race/nationalities listing. I was thinking a visual list would be easier to take in than a paragraph. Thatmarkguy 11:32, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Income

The median income article linked is completely wrong. Fairfax has the highest median income in the country according to a 2004 Census report. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GRTTable?_bm=y&-_box_head_nbr=R2002&-ds_name=ACS_2004_EST_G00_&-format=US-31&-CONTEXT=grt Hokiefan 03:39, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Fairfax County has the highest median income of all the counties in the ACS survey, since it doesn't include all the counties in the US I think it be false to claim that the source supports the claim. Since there is no source to support the claim that it is the richest county in the US, I'll have to revert the change unless an adequate source is found to support the claim. The most recent source I found listing all the counties in the US is the 2000 census. --JVittes 01:59, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
I think the 2000 census ranked Fairfax County as richest in terms of median household income. I live in Fairfax County and hear it often referred to as the richest. KeepOnTruckin 14:50, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
No source says that going to the Census site one can get the statistics given, and it is 2nd by median household income in 2000. But the new information says the area in general is getting to be at the top of the country in that measure, with Loundon, Fairfax, and Howard counties in the top 3 positions respectively [3]. BTW, sign your comments, it is helpful.--JVittes 04:37, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
I usually sign. Anyway, I can't find a table on the 2000 census that compares counties, but on the 2000 census Fairfax county was at 95,175 (median household income). see here --KeepOnTruckin 14:50, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
Fairfax has been listed as the second highest income in the nation behind Loudoun County according to the latest Census research as reported by the Washington Post. As such I am changing the article to represent this data. The link to the article is given here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901543.html Hokiefan 03:19, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] County image incorrect

I think the state map highlights the city of Fairfax and not the county of Fairfax.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.130.211.4 (talk • contribs) 01:58, 20 March 2007 (UTC).

You're absolutely correct. Nice catch! This has to do with an incorrect rendering of the original file (which is in SVG format) into PNG format (done automatically when the file is uploaded). I fixed the SVG file so that it will render correctly in PNG format and I contacted the creator of the original file so that he can replace his old file with the new one. —Gintar77 09:23, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
OK, it's finally fixed. —Gintar77 06:44, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, I resubmitted the image you uploaded with the filename needed to appear here. That error was annoying me, too. That said, there's a bunch more of the same type of error in other county-location maps that I guess I'm going to try to fix as well. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by SterlingNorth (talk • contribs) 23:33, 29 March 2007 (UTC).
Much appreciated! I would have done it myself, but I wasn't allowed to since I had too new of an account on the Commons. If you have any troubles with the other maps, let me know on my talk page and I'll try to help as much as I can. —Gintar77 00:56, 30 March 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Trivia

The Trivia section on this page has only two "facts," neither of which has a citation.

"In one neighborhood, there are streets named after people and places in 'The Chronicles of Narnia'." If this is true, we should specify the neighborhood.

"Has some of the worst traffic in the country ." Source?

--Chris Combs 17:13, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Both of these were added by anonymous IPs. I am deleting the section. --Chris Combs 17:19, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] USPS clarification

Some areas as denoted by the USPS do not coincide with the common naming of areas. Example: I live in "Fairfax, VA 22033" according to the USPS. However, this is outside of the City of Fairfax. Rather, it's near the Fair Lakes area. Perhaps we could map the USPS names with the commonly accepted names to avoid any confusion? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaleb.G (talk • contribs) 03:05, 28 May 2008 (UTC)