by James A. Bacon
In Northern Virginia, a common battle cry around the turn of the century was, “Don’t Fairfax Loudoun.” After much of Loudoun became Fairfaxed, the admonition moved on to, “Don’t Fairfax Fauquier.”
Soon it will be “Don’t Fairfax Richmond.”
Fairfax County’s dysfunctional pattern of land use — low density subdivisions of detached single-family dwellings, separated land uses, hopscotch development — was cemented in place by zoning codes and the high cost of redeveloping property into higher-density development. Traffic congestion and supply-demand imbalance for housing are baked into the cake. The resulting quality of life may be acceptable to the immigrants who replenish the population outflow, but the middle class wants out.
According to the leading expert in Virginia demographics, thousands of Northern Virginians are moving to Richmond. (Listen to our cool AI-generated song, “Riding to Richmond,” by clicking on the audio link above.)
The main reason more people are leaving Virginia than are moving in — and moving from Northern Virginia to Richmond — is the high cost of housing, said Hamilton Lombard, manager of the Demographics Research Group at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center on Tuesday at an online seminar organized by Virginia FREE.
