Northern Virginia - The good, the bad, and the ugly! (An opinion thread) (Arlington: middle-class, apartment)

[ngadude]

Originally Posted by FairfaxGuy73

In an attempt to avoid this thread from being extremely booring, you might want to consider dropping the "generalization" thing. It's used in so many threads. I'm sure there are poor people in McLean, Jews in China, and Catholics in Saudi Arabia. NOVA _is_ overun by Yankees, and it has had a profound influence on the anthropology of the area. Maybe we can start a thread about generalizations and go there every time a controversy comes up. Yawwwwn.

Well, it's becoming a common thing on this forum - we've read how the RTC is overrun by people from Loudoun County thinking it is the "big city", now NOVA is overun by Yankees (oh, the horror of it all!), and many more examples. Funny, both where I live and work there are people from all over (midwest, south, and of course not even from this country originally. I can't think of a more diverse place, so to say it is overrun by Yankees doesn't seem true. In fact, given how many foreigners are in the area - one could definitely make the case that foreigners far outweigh the number of Yankees here. So does that make it overrun by foreigners?

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by FairfaxGuy73

When I hear them talk, they are always Yankees, but that's about all you get here any more.

[citation needed]

I mean there are plenty of folks from outside the area here. What do you, personally, define as a Yankee -- and do you truly want to equate folks from California, the Pacific Northwest, the Rust Belt, the Upper Midwest, the NYC region, and New England as "Yankees?"

Unless, of course, you're just fishing.

[Violett]

Originally Posted by FairfaxGuy73

Several years ago, I would get so frustrated in traffic. I wanted to leave here so badly. Then after a job odyssey, I realized that I couldn't do much better anywhere else. After that, I accepted that I'd be pinned down at home during certain hours, that I couldn't shop discount stores unless I wanted to spend an afternoon getting to them, and that even a casual trip can take 45 minutes. I cured myself and am very seldom frustrated in traffic. I am a very rare exception.

Lately I have been out and about the county more instead of sitting an an office environment. Offices can be very specific and enjoyable or not depending on a number of factors. In the public realm, on the other hand, in Fairfax County, antisocial behavior is pretty universal. I walked past three different people, or sets of people, this morning. The first was two women walking on the other side of a small road. I waved and said "hi" and they just kept talking. I man jogging said hi to me first. Then finally, I was walked past a teenage girl in a neighborhood, said "hi" and she did not respond. Here, you can come out of a class with someone and get on an elevator with them, and ask a conversational question and not get a response.

When I hear them talk, they are always Yankees, but that's about all you get here any more. (It wasn't always that way.) More often they are from the Northeast. They are antisocial on many levels, which I won't get into for sake of space. If you move to NOVA, expect to only find friendly people in certain environments. Even in controlled ones, such as a church, I have found people to be aggressive, dangerous drivers, and rude.

So for me, I'm finally realizing that I have to accept it. These people are jerks anyway, so it's actually kind of silly to care. I've heard them talk, and they are not the kind of people I could stand being around anyway. The only problem is that the area is populated with them, but that's just something to be accepted.

Now people can jump on with anecdotes about how great "x" is. Probably their own neighborhood that they're promoting so they can sell, etc. In the public realm it's pretty damn hostile here.

It's pretty crowded around here, and crowding leads to anonymity and anonymity leads to crazy people, so "normal" people pretty much assume everyone is crazy just as a matter of self-defense and won't talk to you(or anyone they don't know).

I knew someone who moved here from Texas who LIKED that no one said hi or tried to talk to him because he was a loner and liked to be by himself. There could be some of that going on as well.

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by South Jersey Styx

Hey I didn't forget about you Normie -- I just lumped everyone in under "west coast"

But maybe if the OP hears yours (or other's) California accent AND you choose not to wave from the other side of the street, then he'll consider you guys antisocial too!

I have an accent?

Cool! (What is it?)

[ngadude]

Moderator cut: Removed orphaned quote

If someone said these kinds of things about an ethnic group it would be considered racist. Instead, this just comes off sounding plain old silly. Your theory may be correct, this was all done for entertainment value. That being said, just in case that's what's going on - I'm going to stop contributing to his "entertainment". This thread is going nowhere, anyway.

[Alicia Bradley]

I'd insist I speak 'General American,' but my boyfriend (born in Seattle, raised in San Antonio, white military father from California, Filipino mother - if any of that matters) insists I sound downright 'Fargo.' (*cringe* - you wouldn't ever, ever, ever catch me doing something so Gen-Y as using 'Fargo' as an adjective.. *gag*) My accent probably has something to do with DC people (including blacks, on a couple occasions!!) not knowing how to pigeonhole me, racially, since they're not expecting a (to their ears) nasally, borderline-Upper Midwest voice to come out of my mouth.

But anyway, back to the topic of this thread. I often find myself feeling a vague antipathy towards Northeasterners, but then I'll meet a nice one (or a very, very, very nice one, even), or see a cute downtown area in a more affluent Northeastern suburb and think, "Yes, yes, yes.. I can relate to those aesthetics." But there are certain aspects of NE culture (overcrowding, atrocities like the DelMarVA beaches, etc. [which are certainly NE-ern culturally at this point, regardless of their physical geography]) towards which I'm genuinely phobic. And when I'm in a bad mood, even stuff like hearing someone order a "slice o' pepperoni [pie ]" or refer to the opaque (buttercream, etc.) stuff on cakes as "icing" or hint at unfamiliarity with the culinary middle ground between delis/diners and 'wining and dining' extravaganzas can really set me off. Yes, I've considered seeking therapy for this.

[jimpatova]

As one of those "Yankee" transplants I think I can provide a persepctive to the problem. Actually, I grew up in small town in SE PA and probably identify more with rural VA folk than classic yankees, but that's another discussion.

We moved here 12 years ago to mostly a semi-rural PW County and have seen the transition from a feeling of mostly "local friendly rural VA" to mostly "yankee loud and rude". But I think it actually has more to do with the increased presence of affluence (with all it's negative and positive aspects) than with anything else.

By NoVA standards, we were in a relative backwater when we moved here. The people and lifestyle relfected that. People were friendly and the pace was relatively slower. Then as people moved in, houses got built, roads/schools/stores got bigger, and median incomes went up. Most folks are busy, fast-paced, and the level of affluence becomes a factor in people's priorities and how they interact with each other. I'm not necessarily downing affluence, just suggesting that it changes the environment.

It's not necessarily a north/south thing either. My wife is from the south and see's it in the affluent areas there too. And I see it in affluent areas around Philly as well, versus the rural areas of central PA.

[robbobobbo]

Moderator cut: Removed orphaned quote

I can tell you practical reasons why it's prudent that some people, like teenaged girls, be guarded around strangers. And it has nothing to do with Yankees.

For the record, my parents are both Southerners who lived all around the country, and their favorite state was Ohio as far as friendly people and the ability to form good neighborhood friendships. Meanwhile, they recounted that people in Nebraska ("the Swedes") were hard to get two words out of (but nice people all the same). For many years, they felt NOVA was a hard place to make good friends, but they attributed it to the transient nature of the place (a lot of military where they lived), not to Yankee transplants.

Regional variations in social norms are not dysfunctions.

[movingtodcfromseattle]

Well, not too many threads get 40 posts within 3 hours. Looks like someone had a rant, spread some trash talk and wanted a reaction. Success! Now after reading the thread I can't remember what the rant was, but do remember some funny shiznat being thrown!!! To each their own.

PS - I'm from the NW where everyone is zipped up on coffee and chatting on their cell phones. Wait, that sounds like NoVA!

[FairfaxGuy73]

Originally Posted by movingtodcfromseattle

Well, not too many threads get 40 posts within 3 hours. Looks like someone had a rant, spread some trash talk and wanted a reaction. Success! Now after reading the thread I can't remember what the rant was, but do remember some funny shiznat being thrown!!! To each their own.

PS - I'm from the NW where everyone is zipped up on coffee and chatting on their cell phones. Wait, that sounds like NoVA!

The point was that sometimes you have to just accept things even if you greatly dislike them. Also if you count on getting your happiness from people in this region, you are always going to be unhappy.