Anonymous wrote:In case you don't believe me (and I got a few facts wrong): https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/07/09/in-sexting-case-manassas-city-police-want-to-photograph-teen-in-sexually-explicit-manner-lawyers-say/

Welcome to Virginia!

And why aren't all parties involved in trying to obtain the photographs in jail and on a sex offender registry?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read the above but these are my reasons. I hate the spaghetti bowl concrete maze of highways in VA. That whole area between DC and IAD seems soulless. VA has and always has had very conservative, punitive policies, rooted in the history of settlement of VA way back when. They handcuffed an autistic child having a tantrum at school and charged him with assault. I think he was 12. Some perverts in the legal system in VA (I wanna say a magistrate judge and a prosecutor?) threatened to force a teenage boy to have an erection and photograph it so they could compare with the sexted photographs he was being accused of sending to his girlfriend. Need I say more? Those people are crazy and I would avoid living there at all costs. Would not want to raise a child there. Some pretty countryside though.

I guess you'd rather see if Larry Hogan can change the decades old culture of corruption in Maryland?

I'd rather not see Hogan at all, but honestly I'd prefer a little political corruption to institutionalized pedophilia and extreme punitiveness in the judicial system and culture.

We live in MD now, but when we were house hunting, we definitely considered NOVA. DH and I are from MN so we really had no context of VA vs. MD. We found VA to have lots of very nice parts. Cheaper taxes. Way more development than MD. We actually found NOVA in generally to have a better stock of newer homes and better options for schools and house space for better prices then MD.

Can't put my finger on it, but we really just did not feel comfortable in VA and did not want our kids, who are biracial, to go to school there. While house hunting and talking with people who lived in the neighborhoods we searched (Vienna, Mclean, North Arlington, Falls Church, Loudon, Alexandria), we really got an underlying sense that we were not really wanted there. It was perplexing b/c we know plenty of minorities who live throughout NOVA and they never expressed this sentiment. At least not explicitly.

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Bless ya'll's heart for pointing that out...

Please don't turn it into a South bashing post. My point was, if the only "minus" against Virginia is you think it's "the South", it's not a very strong point. And y'all is already plural, it doesn't require an "s" and you punctuated it incorrectly.

I'll give you the incorrect punctuation but the s was meant to be possessive, not plural.

The punctuation is correct because you do sometimes use an apostrophe for possessive (e.g., the boy's horse). And, y'all is not necessarily plural. You can pluralize y'all to "all y'alls."

-DC resident, who finds MD drivers stupidly aggressive and VA's asphalt jungle hideous.

I was born and raised in Rockville. Went to college in DC and lived there for most of my 20s. Moved to Va in my 30s. Moved back to Rockville in my 40s.

I think I have a good idea of what all the areas offer.

And they're all the same. DC is different because it's the city and I was in my 20s.

But the suburbs of MD and NoVA are the same. Heck the model house I bought is the same from the same builder. There are large public schools, lots of strip malls, and nice communities.

Taxes in Fairfax are less than in Montgomery County. My friends remained the same--I didn't find anyone in Nova to be more or less conservative than my friends in Rockville.

The big difference I think is the traffic. It may only be 15 miles from my house in Rockville to my old house in Fairfax but it might as well be 60 miles. It just takes a long time to get there. On a Sunday morning--no issues. But on a random Tuesday night, it's hard.

I have to go to Oakton on Tuesday for a friends bday dinner that starts at 6. I'm planning to leave Rockville around 4:30. It's just the traffic.

Because everything in the suburbs is so uniform, there really is no need to cross the bridge. For the most part, everything I can get in Fairfax, I can get in Rockville.

I think a lot of people talk poorly about the other because they really have no idea and they've just heard others spout off.

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Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Virginia (not NoVA) and went to school in Virginia too. I now work in DC but live in NoVA. I will not raise children in Virginia.

Keep those low test scores out of va

Huh? Md is the richest , highest educated and highest scores state in the United States.

Really? wiki source doesn't say that


Rank County State Median Household Income
1 Loudoun County Virginia
$117,876
2 Fairfax County Virginia
$109,383
3 Howard County Maryland
$108,844
4 Hunterdon County New Jersey
$105,186

You don't know the difference between a state and a county? That proves the education stat.

http://blogs.voanews.com/all-about-america/2015/09/21/these-are-americas-richest-poorest-states

http://news.yahoo.com/the-most-educated-states-in-america-203333989.html

MD is the richest state and 3rd most educated behind Mass. And Colorado.

Md loves refugees, immigrants and illegals. This skews the numbers down. They have some of the absolute wealthiest people in the DMV, but they also have tons of first generation with very low income.

Really? Try hanging out in Falls Church or parts of Alexandria. There are tons of illegals there.

Also, whomever said that Northern VA isn't of VA. Thanks for the laugh!

You can always tell who has lived in the DC area for a long time and who hasn't by some of the comparison posts.

Herndon/Sterling is ripe with them, complete with a gangland slaying of a 13 year old for not wanting to join.

FFX county has its share of illegals, and VA also has its share of "Americans" with very low income. People do know that VA consists of more than NoVa, right? Is this thread about MD vs. VA or MoCo/PGC vs NoVa which is like comparing apples to oranges -- two counties in MD vs several counties in NoVa?

Anonymous wrote:All this back and forth from transplants...

I'm a born and raised Marylander. I don't know what it is. I live in Alexandria now but it was years and years before I crossed the river, largely because of this feeling. I think if we're talking JUST the DC suburbs (because the rest of VA is like...southern) than its fairly comparable but NOVA is way more build up than MD. MD is quieter and more like rolling hills kind of vibe. VA is more like, strip malls and then kind of spots of greatness. Like I like living in Alexandria more than anywhere else I've lived and I've lived in a lot of Maryland and DC.

I think it depends on what you're looking for. I would WAY rather live in Gaithersburg or Annapolis than Fairfax, but I'd rather live in Old Town or Arlington or Del Ray than Bethesda or Silver Spring

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Anonymous wrote:My only issue with VA is the way it's not planned out physically. I feel like my MD 'hood is an extention of DC, with walkability to town, and no strip malls. Haven't found that in VA.

Agree with this. And everything seems older and run down compared to MD. I find it depressing somehow.

This is so funny to me b/c I live in VA and I feel like things seem older and more run down in MD! Like, it's attached to DC, so it cannot help the creep of city-ness, old-ness, rundown-ness. Whereas we have the bridges to separate us, and things turn pretty and calm once you cross the bridge. I feel like, "Ahh, home."

Have you been to DC lately? It's clean, new , all brick and masonry , everybody is dressed well. You go back to the suburbs and everything is vinyl siding with an outback steakhouse sign with lights out . It's like so dissapointing .

I don't know where you are seeing vinyl siding with an Outback Steakhouse with lights out. This sounds like either Springfield or it could equally be Silver Spring. Let's face it: both MD and VA have their rundown parts.

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read the above but these are my reasons. I hate the spaghetti bowl concrete maze of highways in VA. That whole area between DC and IAD seems soulless. VA has and always has had very conservative, punitive policies, rooted in the history of settlement of VA way back when. They handcuffed an autistic child having a tantrum at school and charged him with assault. I think he was 12. Some perverts in the legal system in VA (I wanna say a magistrate judge and a prosecutor?) threatened to force a teenage boy to have an erection and photograph it so they could compare with the sexted photographs he was being accused of sending to his girlfriend. Need I say more? Those people are crazy and I would avoid living there at all costs. Would not want to raise a child there. Some pretty countryside though.

I guess you'd rather see if Larry Hogan can change the decades old culture of corruption in Maryland?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My only issue with VA is the way it's not planned out physically. I feel like my MD 'hood is an extention of DC, with walkability to town, and no strip malls. Haven't found that in VA.

Agree with this. And everything seems older and run down compared to MD. I find it depressing somehow.

This is so funny to me b/c I live in VA and I feel like things seem older and more run down in MD! Like, it's attached to DC, so it cannot help the creep of city-ness, old-ness, rundown-ness. Whereas we have the bridges to separate us, and things turn pretty and calm once you cross the bridge. I feel like, "Ahh, home."

Have you been to DC lately? It's clean, new , all brick and masonry , everybody is dressed well. You go back to the suburbs and everything is vinyl siding with an outback steakhouse sign with lights out . It's like so dissapointing .

In case you don't believe me (and I got a few facts wrong): https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/07/09/in-sexting-case-manassas-city-police-want-to-photograph-teen-in-sexually-explicit-manner-lawyers-say/

Welcome to Virginia!

Because all my exes live in Virginia.

I haven't read the above but these are my reasons. I hate the spaghetti bowl concrete maze of highways in VA. That whole area between DC and IAD seems soulless. VA has and always has had very conservative, punitive policies, rooted in the history of settlement of VA way back when. They handcuffed an autistic child having a tantrum at school and charged him with assault. I think he was 12. Some perverts in the legal system in VA (I wanna say a magistrate judge and a prosecutor?) threatened to force a teenage boy to have an erection and photograph it so they could compare with the sexted photographs he was being accused of sending to his girlfriend. Need I say more? Those people are crazy and I would avoid living there at all costs. Would not want to raise a child there. Some pretty countryside though.

All this back and forth from transplants...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My only issue with VA is the way it's not planned out physically. I feel like my MD 'hood is an extention of DC, with walkability to town, and no strip malls. Haven't found that in VA.

Agree with this. And everything seems older and run down compared to MD. I find it depressing somehow.

This is so funny to me b/c I live in VA and I feel like things seem older and more run down in MD! Like, it's attached to DC, so it cannot help the creep of city-ness, old-ness, rundown-ness. Whereas we have the bridges to separate us, and things turn pretty and calm once you cross the bridge. I feel like, "Ahh, home."