I always found Northern Virginia to have more "placeness" than people give it credit for, though I think this is partly because I grew up in Plano, TX which, like all of suburban Dallas, is an even more generic stripmalls-and-mcmansions landscape. So often people assume that the soulless, generic development pattern means soulless, generic culture and it's not true!
Like in Northern Virginia, there are large immigrant communities who've made the place home. In high school, half my classmates were South or East Asian. You can get a great meal walking into any random Indian or Chinese stripmall restaurant. For some reason I torment myself by replying to people on reddit threads who warn against moving to Dallas because "it's generic and there's no good food" - people online don't like hearing it, but it isn't what it looks like.
I generally love Northern Virginia however just drove through one place that I loathed - Great Falls! The mansions are grotesque. My future son-in-law said it best- “I’d rather be homeless and in love than be alone in a huge mansion”
I loved living in Northern Virginia, particularly along Arlington's stretch of Columbia Pike, where over a hundred languages are spoken in the schools and on the buses. Different ethnicities there celebrate one another's cultures. It's a precious and fragile thing, as you say.
Moving to south-central Tennessee, I missed the variety. But it's been turning into an adventure in, as you so often put it, "what do you think you're looking at?" I visited a Coptic Orthodox Church in Nashville last week. (There's a huge Coptic population in Nashville.) I go into African-American church services in smaller towns here. I wasn't familiar with either tradition. What am I looking at? This morning, I met and chatted with the librarian of a town of fewer than 2,000 people. The people in these places are happy I've come and happy to help me understand what I'm seeing and hearing.
Your references to scripture here remind me that for the first few centuries, Christianity was essentially an urban religion. Well into the fourth century, it hadn't made many inroads into the empire's "pagan" countryside. So much of what the New Testament shares about living together in difference has a direct application to civic life together, I think. Great post, and thanks.
Thank you! And yes, the idea of some kind of overlap between urbanism and Christianity is fascinating to me and is something I have thought about but not in much more depth than I put here
I find this present in one specific New York City neighborhood: Long Island City. Every major NYC neighborhood has a specific drag where retail, transportation, and social life mix. LIC doesn't have that. It's been a place where development has been rampant for the last twenty years, and therefore, it doesn't have the sense of place that it's neighbors Astoria and Greenpoint have.
This seems as good a place as any to thank you for the Virginialicious writeup recently. My husband and I went on one of their Korean food tours in Annandale and it was spectacular. Thanks again!!
I grew up just as Northern Virginia was losing its distinctness. I have nostalgia for it but I recognize it as a false nostalgia. My family moved from Loudoun county to Fairfax in the early 70’s because my parents were chased out by the Klan for working with head start and “trying to educate the negroes”. Fairfax County wasn’t much better although admittedly that changed quickly. That ugly undercurrent was woven in warp and weft to the small town fabric of the communities. Sure my mom was part of the volunteer fire department and I remember fondly going to community fundraisers for people who had suffered catastrophes like losing a house, but I would never trade those tight bonds for the diversity we have now. If homogeneity is the price we have to pay for tolerance I’ll happily pay it. And if you think pairing diversity and homogeneity is an oxymoron, I would ask that you consider what homogenized milk is, which is two different things that through mixing appear as one.
I always found Northern Virginia to have more "placeness" than people give it credit for, though I think this is partly because I grew up in Plano, TX which, like all of suburban Dallas, is an even more generic stripmalls-and-mcmansions landscape. So often people assume that the soulless, generic development pattern means soulless, generic culture and it's not true!
Like in Northern Virginia, there are large immigrant communities who've made the place home. In high school, half my classmates were South or East Asian. You can get a great meal walking into any random Indian or Chinese stripmall restaurant. For some reason I torment myself by replying to people on reddit threads who warn against moving to Dallas because "it's generic and there's no good food" - people online don't like hearing it, but it isn't what it looks like.
I generally love Northern Virginia however just drove through one place that I loathed - Great Falls! The mansions are grotesque. My future son-in-law said it best- “I’d rather be homeless and in love than be alone in a huge mansion”
I loved living in Northern Virginia, particularly along Arlington's stretch of Columbia Pike, where over a hundred languages are spoken in the schools and on the buses. Different ethnicities there celebrate one another's cultures. It's a precious and fragile thing, as you say.
Moving to south-central Tennessee, I missed the variety. But it's been turning into an adventure in, as you so often put it, "what do you think you're looking at?" I visited a Coptic Orthodox Church in Nashville last week. (There's a huge Coptic population in Nashville.) I go into African-American church services in smaller towns here. I wasn't familiar with either tradition. What am I looking at? This morning, I met and chatted with the librarian of a town of fewer than 2,000 people. The people in these places are happy I've come and happy to help me understand what I'm seeing and hearing.
Your references to scripture here remind me that for the first few centuries, Christianity was essentially an urban religion. Well into the fourth century, it hadn't made many inroads into the empire's "pagan" countryside. So much of what the New Testament shares about living together in difference has a direct application to civic life together, I think. Great post, and thanks.
Thank you! And yes, the idea of some kind of overlap between urbanism and Christianity is fascinating to me and is something I have thought about but not in much more depth than I put here
I find this present in one specific New York City neighborhood: Long Island City. Every major NYC neighborhood has a specific drag where retail, transportation, and social life mix. LIC doesn't have that. It's been a place where development has been rampant for the last twenty years, and therefore, it doesn't have the sense of place that it's neighbors Astoria and Greenpoint have.
This seems as good a place as any to thank you for the Virginialicious writeup recently. My husband and I went on one of their Korean food tours in Annandale and it was spectacular. Thanks again!!
Cool!
This is absolutely beautiful
Thank you!
I grew up just as Northern Virginia was losing its distinctness. I have nostalgia for it but I recognize it as a false nostalgia. My family moved from Loudoun county to Fairfax in the early 70’s because my parents were chased out by the Klan for working with head start and “trying to educate the negroes”. Fairfax County wasn’t much better although admittedly that changed quickly. That ugly undercurrent was woven in warp and weft to the small town fabric of the communities. Sure my mom was part of the volunteer fire department and I remember fondly going to community fundraisers for people who had suffered catastrophes like losing a house, but I would never trade those tight bonds for the diversity we have now. If homogeneity is the price we have to pay for tolerance I’ll happily pay it. And if you think pairing diversity and homogeneity is an oxymoron, I would ask that you consider what homogenized milk is, which is two different things that through mixing appear as one.