I see it as rural v suburban v urban. NY has NYC. PA has Philadelphia. Parts of NOVA are near DC which is not in our state. Some areas in NOVA are more closely alligned to DC for daily living.

What is really weird about Virginia is the county wide school systems like Fairfax that bellow poverty yet waste money. I have never seen anything like it. I don't mind contributing my taxes to provide an education based on the VA Standards of Quality for children in other parts of the state. NJ has the Mount Laurel Decision which helps cities like Newark and Camden fund education.

If I had to buy a house here all over again, I would have bought in Arlington or the cities of Falls Church or Fairfax because of the schools. I'd even buy in DC because at least when you have a terrible principal people pblicly pillory him and complain - here it's all spin control. FX just has so much cash out of our property taxes that no one really looks at where it goes or how it is spent. It is like Enron with public money.

I object to the lack of oversight by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors as well as the School Board. I object to building an indoor field house at Laurel Hill when one exists nearby at South Run in the Fairfax Station area near Burke. In most counties around this country with basically developed suburbs there would be more parity and 2 comparable resources would not be next to each other. I object to the new Laurel Hill golf course which is near one owned by the Northrn Va Regional Park Authority. I object to building a replacement for Glasgow with a core capcity of 1500 students when it has and will have far less students even based on any possible potential boundary adjustments. I object to the church in Reston not being able to ring bells and school children in the town of Vienna not being able to attend Kilmer because FCPS construction and capcity are based on olitics not where people live.

So where do I live? Feels like nowhere - we are just cash cows for taxes. Besides the lot shape issue there is the builders lot size changes as well as height issues and water issues. This place is so weird developrs can build on naturally occurring ponds.

As for transit oriented development, the BOS have done a sloppy job. They only get a proffer for schools for Fairlee of about 1.8 million. They didn't even get an artificial turf field out of that development. The ridiculous parking garage project has a paltry net gain of spots.

There is only one answer to all the problems you mention. It is this - vote the Board of Supervisors out of office.

I plan to do my part.

I fully agree that FCPS are out of control. Let me give you some stats:

It costs MORE to send a child to FCPS that it does to send a child to a public college or university (national average).

FCPS cost account for over 60% of Fairfax County's total budget. Guess what! The percentage will get much larger.

To my knowledge, there is not a single person on the school board who is trained in financial management. It shows.