Northern Virginia

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Northern Virginia (also referred to as "NOVA" or "NoVA") consists of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, and the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, and Manassas Park in the U.S. state of Virginia.[citation needed] It is part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Northern Virginia is the most diverse (in terms of both the number of ethnicities and nationalities represented) and highest-income region of Virginia, having six of the twenty highest-income counties in the nation, including the two highest as of 2007.

Contents

[edit] Demographics

Income in Northern Virginia's five largest jurisdictions
Household income NOVA5[1] Virginia[2] United States[3]
$100k+ 46.1% 23.6% 17%
$75k-100k 15.1% 12.8% 11%
$50k-75k 16.3% 19.4% 18%
$25k-50k 14.2% 24% 23%
$25k or less 8.4% 20.2% 28%

As of 2006, the United States Census estimates that there are 2,432,823[4] people in Northern Virginia, around 32% of the state's population. This figure includes the exurban Clarke, Fauquier, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren counties as well as the independent city of Fredricksburg. Together, these jurisdictions account for 377,809 residents. The combined population of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties and the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, and Manassas Park is 2,055,014, which is 26.89% of Virginia's estimated population in 2006.

Race in Northern Virginia's five largest jurisdictions according to the American Community Survey demographic estimates:

  • (Total population 1,973,513)
  • 67.2% White
  • 13.9% Black or African American
  • 12.1% Asian
  • 11.6% Hispanic or Latino (of any race)
  • 2.4% Two or more races
Educational attainment (25 and older) in Northern Virginia's five largest jurisdictions
Educational attainment NOVA5[5] Virginia[6] United States[7]
Graduate/professional 25.2% 13.2% 9.9%
Bachelor's 30.3% 19.5% 17.1%
Associate's 5.7% 6.8% 7.4%
Some college 14.8% 18.7% 19.5%
High school/equivalent 15.8% 27.2% 30.2%
Less than high school 8.1% 14.6% 15.9%

Of those born in the U.S. and living in Northern Virginia's four largest counties, their place of birth by Census region is:[8][9][10][11]

Northern Virginia is home to people from diverse backgrounds, with significant numbers of Arab Americans, Afghan Americans, Korean Americans, Indian Americans, Iranian Americans, American Jews, Pakistani Americans, and Vietnamese Americans, along with other Americans of Asian descent especially a growing Chinese American and Filipino American population. Annandale, Chantilly, and Fairfax County have large Korean communities. Falls Church has a large Vietnamese community.

There is a sizable Latino population, primarily consisting of Salvadorans, Peruvians, Bolivians, and Colombians. Arlington is the center of the largest Bolivian community in North America (mostly immigrants from Cochabamba).

Northern Virginia is also home to one of the largest African immigrant populations in America, with significant numbers of Nigerians, Kenyans, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalians, and Ghanaians.[citation needed]

[edit] Economy

In recent decades, Northern Virginia has become home to many technology companies, especially in the Dulles Technology Corridor.[citation needed] These companies included Sprint Nextel and formerly AOL. Other large corporate employers include ExxonMobil near Falls Church, Micron in Manassas, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in Reston and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Herndon.

The federal government is a major employer in Northern Virginia, which is home to numerous government agencies; these include the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters and the Pentagon (headquarters of the Department of Defense), as well as Fort Myer, Fort Belvoir, Marine Corps Base Quantico, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the United States Geological Survey.

The region's large shopping malls, such as Potomac Mills and Tysons Corner Center, attract many visitors, as well as its Civil War battlefields.[citation needed] Old Town Alexandria is known for its historic townhouses, restaurants, gift shops, artist studios, and cruise boats. The waterfront and outdoor recreational amenities such as biking and running trails (the Washington and Old Dominion Rail Trail is the longest paved path in the U.S.;[citation needed] the Mount Vernon Trail, and trails along various stream beds are also popular), whitewater and sea kayaking, and rock climbing areas are focused along the Potomac River, but are also found at other locations in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. Scenic Great Falls Park and historic Mount Vernon (which opened a new visitor center in 2006) are especially noteworthy. Woodbridge is home to two minor-league sports franchises, the Northern Virginia Royals soccer team and the Potomac Nationals baseball team.

[edit] Notable companies

The following Northern Virginia companies appear in the Fortune 1000 list:[citation needed]

Other notable companies headquartered in the region include Airbus North America and Volkswagen Group of America.

[edit] Politics

Northern Virginia is becoming known for favoring candidates of the Democratic Party in its voting patterns. Fairfax County voted for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, the first time the county supported the Democratic candidate since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The area also voted for Democrats Jim Webb in 2006 for U.S. Senate, Tim Kaine in 2005 for governor, and Mark Warner in 2001 for governor. In these three races for statewide office, the margins tallied in Northern Virginia provided the Democratic candidate with a winning margin of victory.

Junior Senator from Virginia Jim Webb.
Junior Senator from Virginia Jim Webb.

The most recent election in Virginia was an extremely close one statewide. Democrat Jim Webb defeated incumbent Senator George Allen by the slim margin of 49.6% to 49.2%.[12] However, that margin increased to 58.1% to 40.7% in favor of the Democratic challenger in the counties and cities of Northern Virginia, whereas Webb ran behind Allen somewhat, 46.1% to 52.7%, in the remainder of the Commonwealth. Webb carried Fairfax County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County, as well as the more urban areas of Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church. Allen's sole wins in Northern Virginia were the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, winning the latter two only by the narrow margins of 3.54% and 2.38%, respectively.

In the 2004 presidential election, 53% of Northern Virginia voters voted for John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, and 46% voted for George W. Bush, the Republican candidate. This contrasted with the rest of Virginia, where 43% of voted for John Kerry and 56% for George Bush. Kerry also carried Fairfax County, the most populous county in Virginia, and Fairfax City, the first time those jurisdictions had voted Democratic since Johnson's national landslide in 1964 (although now the county is almost consistently voting Democratic). The strongest support in the area for the Democrats lies inside the Beltway, in Arlington, Alexandria, and parts of Fairfax County. The more distant areas (i.e., Loudoun County and Prince William County) are generally more conservative though as they have increased in population they have also become more liberal. Both Mark Warner in 2001, and John Kerry in 2004, lost Loudoun and Prince William. Tim Kaine won both counties in 2005. And in 2006, despite not polling as strongly as Mark Warner statewide, Democratic senate candidate Jim Webb won both Loudoun and Prince William. In 2005 65% of the voters of Northern Virginia voted for Democrat Tim Kaine for governor over Jerry Kilgore, who received only 32% of the vote, easily 14 points lower than George W. Bush's showing only a year earlier.

The 8th, the 10th, and the 11th congressional districts lie within Northern Virginia. The 8th district votes overwhelmingly Democratic while the other two districts generally elect Republican congressmen but by smaller margins.[citation needed] The current congressman from the 8th district is Jim Moran (D), the current congressman from the 10th district is Frank Wolf (R), and the current congressman from the 11th district is Tom Davis (R). The 10th is slightly more Republican than the 11th,[citation needed] although both districts have awarded re-election to the incumbents by comfortable margins, and both were won by George W. Bush in 2004. However, all three districts voted for Jim Webb in the 2006 Senate election, reflecting their increasingly Democratic nature.[citation needed]

In the 2005 gubernatorial election, the entire region continued to move away from the Republicans. Fairfax County, Arlington County, the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax City, and Falls Church, and for the first time[citation needed], Loudoun County and Prince William County, went to Tim Kaine, the Democratic candidate. The area continued to be more Democratic the closer it was to Washington, D.C., but Richmond resident Kaine was able to accomplish what Northern Virginian Mark Warner had been unable to do just four years earlier in 2001: carry Loudoun County and Prince William County (as well as win over 60% of the vote in Fairfax County).

In 2006, Democrat Mark Herring swept every precinct in the 33rd state Senate District Tuesday, Jan. 31, en route to beating Republican Loudoun County Supervisor Mick Staton by a wide margin of 62 to 38 percent, providing evidence for the claim that Loudoun is transforming into a liberal county. The district sits primarily in Loudoun County but also includes nine precincts in western Fairfax County: Floris, Fox Mill, Frying Pan, McNair, Franklin, Kinross, Navy, Lees Corner East, and Lees Corner West.

[edit] History

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (September 2007)

[edit] Civil War

During the American Civil War, the Army of Northern Virginia was the primary army for the Confederate States of America. Important battlefields and other Civil War-themed attractions dot the region, most notably Manassas National Battlefield Park. Many area schools, roads, and parks are named for Confederate generals and statesmen, including, among others:

In addition there are several schools named for Civil War Battles, including Bull Run Middle School and Antietam Elementary School (both in Prince William County).

[edit] 20th century and beyond

The Pentagon.
The Pentagon.

The Department of Defense's increasing reliance on information technology companies during the Cold War started the Northern Virginia economy and spurred urban development throughout the region. [13] After the Cold War, prosperity continued to come as the region positioned itself as the "Silicon Valley" of the Eastern United States. Symbolic history was made in early 2001 when local Internet company America Online bought Time Warner, the world's largest traditional media company, near the end of the dot-com bubble days. After the bubble burst, Northern Virginia office vacancy rates went from 2% in 2000 to 20% in 2002.[14]

After 2002, vacancy rates fell below 10% due to increased defense spending as the War on Terrorism began and the government's continued and increasing reliance on private defense contractors.[15]

[edit] Culture

Owing to its status as a suburb of Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia is considered to be more cosmopolitan in its culture than the rest of Virginia. This can be attributed to the movement of people from the rest of the country to the area and its location near Washington D.C, as well as the fact that more urban areas in Virginia tend to have more frequent migration and mixing of cultures.

Northern Virginia's population is ethnically diverse with significant numbers of immigrants. There are large numbers of restaurants, and international food of nearly any type is easy to find. Immigrants have established many shops and many in ethnic centers, such as the Eden Center. Some are highly-educated doctors, engineers, diplomats, and other professionals, while others work in construction, landscaping, airport services, restaurants and convenience stores, vendors, taxi drivers, custodial services, and parking garages.

Due to the proximity to the capital, many Northern Virginians go to Washington D.C. for cultural outings and nightlife. The Kennedy Center is a popular place for performances as is Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts near Vienna. Nissan Pavilion (near Manassas), the Patriot Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, and the Verizon Center in Washington serve as popular concert venues, and the Verizon Center also serves as the home of sporting events. Smithsonian museums also serve as local cultural institutions with easy proximity to Northern Virginia, and the new Udvar-Hazy center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly is popular as well.

Tysons Corner Center ("Tysons I") is one of the largest malls in the country and is a hub for shopping in area. Tysons Galleria ("Tysons II"), its counterpart across Route 123, carries more high-end stores. Tysons Corner itself is the 12th largest business district in the United States.[citation needed] Other malls include Springfield Mall, Fair Oaks Mall, the Mall at Manassas, and The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. Dulles Town Center is the region's newest mall, serving the eastern Loudoun County area. Reston Town Center is a high-density mixed-use retail, commercial, and residential development located just off the 267 Toll Road in Reston. Potomac Mills, located in Prince William County, is the largest outlet mall in the region. The town of Leesburg, in Loudoun County contains the Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets outlet mall.

Since the mid-1990s, Loudoun County has become known as America's fastest-growing county, having grown by almost 50% from 2000 though 2005. Since the 2000 census, both Loudoun and Fairfax counties are the top large U.S. counties by median household income. Loudoun County has branches of at least five higher education institutions.

[edit] Secession

Due to the political and economic differences between Northern Virginia and the rest of the commonwealth, some secessionist sentiments have emerged with those persons wishing that the area could become the separate state of "North Virginia." Delegate Jeannemarie Devolites (R-35) expressed a common sentiment when she said "The formula for funding school construction in Northern Virginia requires that we pay 500 percent more than the actual cost of a project. We have to pay 500 percent because we give 400 percent away to the rest of the state." The state government's funding level for transportation projects in Northern Virginia is also a perennial issue that often causes consternation in the region's politicians and citizens.[citation needed]

Secession would require consent from the Virginia General Assembly and the admission of a new state by the U.S. Congress, neither of which is a practical possibility. Consequently, the idea is a rhetorical one used to express frustration with the treatment of Northern Virginia by the state government as well as the occasional opposing political sentiments between it and the rest of Virginia. Critics of this movement often point out the fact that many supporters of secession fail to realize that all U.S. states include regions of varying income, political, and cultural discrepancies within their borders. [16]

Conversely, some citizens in the rest of the state would like to separate from Northern Virginia.[17]

[edit] Transportation

Washington Dulles International Airport.
Washington Dulles International Airport.

The area has two major airports, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport. While flights from the older National Airport are restricted for distance, frequency, and flight paths due to the proximity to federal facilities, Dulles is the number five airport[citation needed] in terms of aircraft movement, and also a hub for United Airlines. In recent years it has become a major center for low-cost flights, as it is a major hub for jetBlue, Ted, and others.

Commuters are served by the Washington Metro subway and the Virginia Railway Express, a commuter railroad. Metro is the second-busiest subway system in the nation; only New York City's subway system carries more passengers.[citation needed] A planned expansion project will, if built, extend the system past Dulles Airport. Bus service is provided by WMATA's Metrobus, and many local jurisdictions also provide bus service. Parking lots at metrorail stations fill up very early in the morning, but are gradually being expanded. Virginia Railway Express commuter trains have also seen increased ridership but are plagued by frequent delays for various reasons.

Major highways include interstates 495 (Capital Beltway), 95, 395, and 66; US routes 1, 29, and 50; and local routes Fairfax County Parkway, Prince William Parkway, Virginia Routes 7, 28, 120, 123, 193, 234, 236, 244, 544, 545, and 620, the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and Franconia-Springfield Parkway. High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are used for commuters and buses in I-66 and I-95/395. (Also see slugging.)

Northern Virginia suffers from severe road congestion. The congestion consistently ranks with Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City as one of the worst four areas in the nation.[citation needed] To alleviate gridlock, local governments encourage using Metrorail, HOV, carpooling, slugging, and other forms of mass transportation. The conditions are only getting worse, however, as the population skyrockets. The roads are one of the biggest local issues. The current reconstruction of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge near Alexandria on the portion of the Capital Beltway which also carries Interstate 95 into Maryland (250,00–300,000 vehicles daily) will double the traffic lanes at that bottleneck when completed in the fall of 2008. Reconstruction of the large Springfield Interchange completed in 2007. Several public-private partnership proposals to increase capacities of the Beltway and Interstate 95 south of Springfield to be funded through collection of tolls are under consideration by VDOT.

On November 5, 2002, voters rejected a referendum to raise the sales tax to pay for transportation improvements.[18] The measure was criticized as a subsidy for developers, who would merely build more houses along the new roads and add to the congestion.[19] In such a highly competitive and expensive region (much like urban California), many workers with families feel they cannot afford suitable homes near their jobs and so commute from more affordable, far outlying counties, which creates severe traffic congestion, as does the limited number and capacity of bridges over the Potomac River (no new bridges have been built since 1965). Unfortunately, all proposals to add more Potomac bridge crossings (such as near Leesburg or Quantico as part of a long-proposed "outer beltway") are opposed by communities near the suggested bridge sites who want continued peace and quiet, and by Marylanders who fear that new bridges would bring new housing development to "open spaces". Furthermore, large-acreage, low-density residential zoning restrictions in parts of Fairfax County such as Great Falls, Dranesville, Clifton and Fairfax Station, also prevent people from living near the highest-density job centers, forcing commuters to leapfrog out to find housing instead in Prince William, Loudoun, and to a lesser extent Stafford, Fauquier, Warren, Clarke, Shenandoah, and Frederick counties in Virginia and Jefferson County, West Virginia and causing worse traffic. Workers from these outlying counties face daily commutes that exceed well over an hour each way.

A jurisdictional restriction that prohibits Virginia-based versus Washington and Maryland-based taxicab companies from picking up passengers on their empty return trips to and from Dulles and Reagan National airports also needlessly adds millions of additional trips to congested roads.[citation needed] A U.S. Army proposal made in 2006 to relocate 18,000 additional employees to Fort Belvoir, which is already choked with traffic and has few public transportation options, is the newest major area of concern to planners.[citation needed]

[edit] Education

George Mason University's Center for the Arts.
George Mason University's Center for the Arts.

Fairfax County's public school system includes the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, an award-winning magnet school. James W. Robinson, Jr. Secondary School, the second largest public school in the Commonwealth, is also located in Fairfax County.

Although Northern Virginia contains a large portion of the Commonwealth's population, there are only a handful of colleges and universities in the region. The largest and most well-known is George Mason University in Fairfax, the second largest university in Virginia. Other higher education institutions include Northern Virginia Community College (affectionately known as NOVA) in Annandale (with several branch campuses throughout Northern Virginia), and Marymount University in north Arlington. A relatively new addition to the roster of colleges and universities in the region is the University of Northern Virginia in Manassas, established in 1988. In addition, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech maintain a Center in Falls Church, and George Washington University has a campus in Loudoun County. Richmond's Medical College of Virginia has a satellite campus in Fairfax at the INOVA healthcare system.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
  2. ^ http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US51&-qr_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_S1901&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-redoLog=false
  3. ^ http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032007/hhinc/new06_000.htm
  4. ^ http://www.co.loudoun.va.us/business/growth_summary_2006/a_11.pdf
  5. ^ http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
  6. ^ http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-context=st&-qr_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_S1501&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-tree_id=306&-redoLog=true&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=04000US51&-format=&-_lang=en
  7. ^ http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-context=st&-qr_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_S1501&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-tree_id=306&-redoLog=false&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en
  8. ^ Fairfax County, Virginia detailed profile - houses, real estate, agriculture, wages, work, ancestries, and more
  9. ^ Prince William County, Virginia detailed profile - houses, real estate, agriculture, wages, work, ancestries, and more
  10. ^ Loudoun County, Virginia detailed profile - houses, real estate, agriculture, wages, work, ancestries, and more
  11. ^ Arlington County, Virginia detailed profile - houses, real estate, agriculture, wages, work, ancestries, and more
  12. ^ General Election- November 7, 2006
  13. ^ War on Terror a Boon For Virginia
  14. ^ War on Terror a Boon For Virginia
  15. ^ War on Terror a Boon For Virginia
  16. ^ Secession - In Their Own Words - News - Fairfax Station-Clifton - Connection Newspapers
  17. ^ Fredericksburg.com - A solution to Northern Virginia's many problems: Forced secession
  18. ^ Voters Reject Roads Tax (washingtonpost.com)
  19. ^ Northern Virginia Sales Tax Referendum - NoSprawlTax - Vote NO November 5th

[edit] External links

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