Talk:Virginia/Archive 1

Vandals take a whack at YOUR MOM
at the top, it says that the state was named "after YOUR MOM, also known as the Virgin Queen." Also, Rhode Island is severely vandalised. Can someone fix that?


 * The page just needs to be protected from anonymous users.

Wondering how to edit this State Entry?

The WikiProject U.S. states standards might help.

Miscellaneous Old Topics
I don't think the airports outside of '''National and Dulles really count as "major airports". Sure they have regularly''' scheduled commercial service however that alone doesn't make them important. -- jd4508

Well I made ''your table work. It's got some flaws in it, though, including that it's too wide for most monitors. What I don't understand, though, is why you want this info in a table to begin with. --Koyaanis Qatsi'' I'd note that it also seems to lack Pittsylvania County, and I'm to lazy to edit the darn table and insert in the correct order. --Ben Brumfield


 * [[Image:King George County is missing, too. --]] isis 12 Sep 2002

This --68.255.229.66 00:05, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

[[Media:table is MUCH too large. It would be just as useful as a bulleted list.  -- [[User:Zoe|Zoe]]]]

Who says West Virginia isn't constitutional?


 * United States Constitution, Article IV, section 3: "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress."


 * Of course, the fact that one of the states involved did not consider itself to be a member of the US at the time was probably a mitigating factor. --Brion

I'm moving this here in case anyone wants to put it back on the subject page.

. A partial list of cities follows:
 * Alexandria
 * Charlottesville
 * Chesapeake
 * Danville
 * Falls Church
 * Lynchburg
 * Martinsville
 * Norfolk
 * Richmond
 * Roanoke
 * South Boston
 * Staunton
 * Suffolk
 * Virginia
 * Williamsburg

''The first permanent English settlement in the New World was at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Virginia formally rejoined the Union on January 26, 1970 after a period of post-war military rule.''


 * Err... might want to fill in a bit in the middle there. --Brion 02:54 Jan 27, 2003 (UTC)


 * All in due course. --mav

1970? -- Zoe

I have a problem with the color in the current VA flag image. It's a bit too light! I have lived in VA for almost two years now and have seen the state flag with a color of blue that looks like the blue is in the US or UK flags. --hoshie


 * I contacted the VA Lt. Gov's office and they told me that the blue was a deep blue or an indigo blue. Take it as you will. --hoshie

Wealthier than the rest of South????
Under "economy" on the page it stated:

Today, it is still significantly wealthier than the rest of the South, although much of that is from the northern influence around Washington D.C.

I understand that the Washington DC part could factually be true, but the "significantly whealthier part" truly is not. I took some time and I found out that North Carolina grosses more money anually than Virginia...(if you do not believe me search: North Carolina). Apparently, North Carolina's grossed 9.5 billion more than Virginia in the 2004 census estimate. Someone please change this misleading fact.


 * North Carolina is a bigger state; at least it has a larger population. So just because it grosses more does not make it wealthier than Virginia.  Per capita wealth in Virginia appears to be higher. Thesmothete 15:57, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Independent cities only in VA?
I take exception to the statement:


 * Unlike any other state of the Union, under the laws in effect in Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as cities are independent of any county.

I grew up in Ohio in the '70s. Unless something has changed since my Ohio History class in 1978, Ohio's incorporated cities are also independent legal entities and are not considered a part of the county that contains them. Common talk may suggest that Youngstown, say, is "in" Mahoning County, OH, but such is also said of Fairfax (city) being "in" Fairfax County, VA. -- Jeff Q 07:05, 3 May 2004 (UTC)


 * A few days ago, I removed the "unlike any other state" claim completely, in lieu of any accurate data on how common or uncommon such laws were in the US. -- Jeff Q 05:50, 30 May 2004 (UTC)

Re: Independent cities only in VA?
You are mistaken about the status of incorporated cities in the State of Ohio. Cities remain part of the county or counties in which they are incorporated. Cities in Ohio still get at minimum 2 key services from their county government: special education for handicapped students, and appeals courts.

Cleveland, for example, is both an incorporated city and the seat of Cuyahoga County. The Cuyahoga County government gets no say in how the city builds or maintains its roads, runs its schools, nor its tax rates. The county runs the schools for the mentally handicapped and developmentally delayed students, as it does for all jurisdictions in the county, such as Parma, Brooklyn, South Euclid, and Lyndhurst. The county courts also act as an appellate court to the city courts.

So though cities in Ohio act largely autonomously from the counties in which they lay, they are not geopolitally separate entities from their counties. Your example of the City of Fairfax, VA being "in" Fairfax County is accurate only insofar as the City is completely surrounded by the County. The County has no say whatsoever in the affairs of the City.

Virginia Cities, by law, must build and maintain their own roads, must provide police protection, and must establish a school system separate from the county's. Cities get no funding or support whatsoever from the county or counties from which they were formed.

Some Virginia Primary Roads, specifically, US 29, US 50, VA 123, VA 236, & VA 237, pass through the City of Fairfax, and the VA Dept of Transportation (VDOT) has the responsibility to plow those roads, and is technically responsible for their upkeep. More usually the city plows the roads, and the state gives a small payment to the city to take care of maintenance. A few years back, in the City of Falls Church, VDOT improved VA 7 through the city. In a joint City/State effort, utilities along the road were buried, the road improved with better curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and crosswalks. No such improvements happened along VA 7 in Fairfax County, as the county is fully dependent on the State for such, and limited in its ability to fund road construction.

Cities in VA are ineligible to turn their secondary roads over to the state, as all the Counties, save for Arlington and Henrico, have. In the counties where VDOT maintains all the roads, every road in the county which is not a VA Primary Road (route number 599 or lower) is numbered as a VA Secondary Road. Secondary Roads are numbered in each county, starting at 600, and counting up from there as each new road is incorporated into the state road system.

The other Independent Cities in the US are Baltimore, MD; Saint Louis, MO; Anchorage, AK; Fredericksburg, VA; and Carson City, NV. None of those is part of a county, nor merged with their county as the City and County of San Francisco or the City and County of Philadelphia are.

Virginia is the last state to have split its electoral vote in a Presidential Election, in 1916.
This is just plain wrong, so I removed it. See http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/votes/1917_1921.html#1916.

Terms for Governor
I am a Virginia resident and there needs to be mention of the term limits for Governor, but even I myself don't have enough knowledge about this. I know a Governor cannot run again for a next term, but he OR she may be able to run again in the future as long as that person is not an incumbent. Someone needs to research this and mention it in the article. Also, someone definitely needs to put in the article that the Lieutenant Governor can run for 2 terms, consecutive or non-consecutive.

Virginia governors are free to run again as long as they are not the incumbent. As far as I know the only one to do so was Mills Godwin who was governor from 1966-70, then again from 1974-78. Interestingly enough, he ran as a Democrat the first time and as a Republican the second time around.

The term "commonwealth"
I edited a recent change to the intro sentence that implied the term "commonwealth" is simply a name. Indeed, in one sense that is true, as Virginia is of course a state of the United States just like the others; however, there is a historical provenance to the fact Virginia, Maine, Kentucky and... dangit, I forgot the other one, anyway, there is at least a theoretical or academic difference between a "commonwealth" and other forms of state governments. For this reason I modified the intro sentence to reflect this a bit more. --Ryanaxp 19:13, Jun 10, 2005 (UTC)

According to the link to commonwealth this page, "The U.S. states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia call themselves commonwealths. In these cases, this is merely a name and has no legal impact." So I'm changing it back--Fantrl 14:44, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

__ It would be great if someone would put the counties back. To find anything about Virginia, you have to know the county, and wikipedia is a good place to collect and distribute that kind of information. Thanks! scarykitty Aug 25, 2005.

To be a Virginian
Does anyone know to whom we may attribute these somewhat famous lines "To be a Virginian, either by Birth, Marriage, Adoption, or even on one's Mother's side is an Introduction to any State in the Union, a Passport to any Foreign Country, and a Benediction from Above"

(William Faulkner?)


 * Mark in Historic Triangle Vaoverland 08:48, 8 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I have heard this quote with "Southerner" replacing "Virginian". It sounds like Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) to me.  - Stillnotelf 04:21, 19 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I asked the reference desk and special collections people at Swem Library at the College of William and Mary -- they're pretty good with random Virginia factoids - they say that they've always seen it attributed "anonymous" and that they've looked for a source before to no avail. - Stillnotelf 19:00, 20 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I still haven't found an attribution, either. Oh well, what me worry? (Alfred E. Neuman). Vaoverland 22:11, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

Fairfax County -- Highest Income

 * User:Zidel333 wrote, in the Virginia article,


 * According to the US Census, Fairfax County has the highest median income of any county in the United States with a population of more then 1,000,000 of $88,133.


 * First, I might suggest a way to rephrase it to make it flow better:


 * According to the U.S. Census, among all U.S. counties of more than a million people, Fairfax County has the highest median family income, $88,133.


 * That is, assuming you did mean family income. If you meant individual income, then say that instead.  What is your source?  Can you cite a web page?  That helps.  Then you can link it to U.S. Census in case anyone doubts you, and also so that future editors can re-check the website to see if the data have changed.


 * By the way, I haven't checked to see if your words have subsequently been "wordsmithed" or deleted for lack of citation -- but if they have, don't fret. I see you're new around here.  If you get reverted, it stings, I know.  But you can fix the complaint (if it was just a lack of citation or wordsmithing) and re-edit the article.


 * And, oh, by the way... WELCOME!  It's great to have one more editor who wants to make this thing better!


 * --GraemeMcRae 22:00, 18 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I did a little more digging around, and I think you should quote this figure: $84,009 is the median household income for the county of Fairfax, according to Census Bureau estimates for the year 2000, and among all U.S. counties with a population over a million (if, in fact Fairfax is over a million), this is the highest. I found this information...


 * Census bureau data for income and poverty
 * Title of this website is as follows:
 * U.S. Census Bureau
 * Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates (SAIPE)
 * Model-based Estimates for States, Counties & School Districts


 * Data from the "all" file (filename est00ALL.dat) on directory http://www.census.gov/housing/saipe/estmod00 can be saved by opening http://www.census.gov/housing/saipe/estmod00/est00ALL.dat, and saving the contents as a .txt file.


 * Oddly enough, this file doesn't have the population of each county, so I included one calculated field, which is the population -- it's the number of people (all ages) in poverty divided by the percentage (all ages) in poverty. Unfortuately, this measure is highly inacurate for counties like Fairfax that have very little poverty!


 * Still, even by that measure, the population was 998,707, so I can believe it was just over a million, this error the result of rounding.


 * The only counties with higher median household income are Loudoun County, VA, and Douglas County, CO, and these counties have far fewer than a million people in them.


 * So your edit passes muster. But still, I'm wondering... Did you have an easier way to get at this data?


 * --GraemeMcRae 23:01, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Virgina governor race
update:trying to get to Virgina state web sites to find out how to vote in up coming major election (state and country).....

http://www.sbe.state.va.us/VotRegServ/reg2vote.htm

they are down during the night hours...no explanation

david kelly


 * David, the web page you mention is non-existent. That's why you get the "404" error.  Here is the page you should use to register to vote in Virginia:


 * http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/Voter_Information/Registering_to_Vote/Index.html &mdash;GraemeMcRaetalk 07:03, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

I don't think it is appropriate to list Tim Kaine as the current governor when he has not yet been sworn in and Mark Warner is still in office. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 205.132.40.28 (talk • contribs).

Arlington is not a city
I removed Arlington from the list of cities. It is not a city, but a county (the smallest county in Virginia).

NPOV

 * See Tennessee article for issues. --Bookofsecrets 15:07, 30 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I have read the Tennessee article and talk. There were many issues on there.  To which issue are you specifically referring?  NPOV flag removed from article pending further explanation. Mmoyer 16:12, 30 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I placed the NPOV back. The issue is that "Southern" is a cultural term in the 21st Century.  Those states that are in the Southeastern United States should be called "Southeastern" states to meet NPOV policies.  --Bookofsecrets 19:20, 30 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I have updated the lead paragraph to read "Southeastern" and I have removed the NPOV tag. --Bookofsecrets 19:45, 30 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I have carefully considered your issue, and I believe that it is fact, not opinion, that identifies Virginia as a "southern" state. The designation may be a bit more cultural than geographic (mid-Atlantic is more geographically correct), but given that Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy, you would have a difficult time finding any long time resident of Virginia that would disagree with the moniker "southern state".  Just because "southern state" is more a cultural designation does not make it any less factual. Question:  Would the following phrase be more acceptable?  "It is located in the Mid-Atlantic States, but is often referred to as a Southern state due to its alignment with the Confederacy during the Civil War."  Mmoyer 01:54, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Revamping by Civil Engineer III

 * Wow! Those are a lot of changes.  Question:  I see that you have dropped the postal and AP abbreviations.  Was this intentional?  Umm, the changes were so massive it's difficult to ascertain if other info was also lost.  I almost reverted the entire series of changes, simply based on the magnititude, hoping to review in detail.  Can anyone else chime in? Mmoyer 20:41, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Is it just me or does the table look kind of silly?

virginia
virginia is an place where people love to camp and have some fun

Trimmed opening paragraph by JW1805
I can see no pressing reason to cut down the opening paragraph without discussing it first, so I reverted it. I invite you to discuss your ideas for changing the opening paragraphs here, JW1805. Hope to hear from you. Mmoyer 03:25, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
 * It's too long and is nearly a word-for-word duplicate of text later on in the article. There is no good reason to mention parallels and joint stock companies in the opening.  --JW1805 (Talk) 03:11, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
 * The more I read and re-read the opening paragraph, I believe I agree with JW1805. At the very worse, the section that was edited out and which spurred this conversation should be reduced and re-written, rather than exist as a virtual copy of information further down below.  ~ (The Rebel At) ~  15:29, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Vandals
Is there a way that we can block vandals from editing stupid crap on this site, like the George Washington site. Seeing people putting stupid stuff on this site everyday gets old.

Thanks, Rutke421 02:57, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

VA/MD
MY Opinion:

I clearly belive that Maryland/Virginia are southern states! Many People object to the idea of Virginia and Maryland being southern. Im from Maryland so I know. I hate it when people that don't know me come in my face with all that "yankee" crap...i aint no yankee...im myself! And I absolutly HATE when people say that VA an MD are rude, inconciterate, uneducated, boring, bad drivers. Im fun, nice, and filled with GREAT hospitality.

Next Subject: Civil war/M&D line.

If everyone knows that MD and VA are BELOW the Mason Dixon Line... why do some people feel the need to say that MD and VA are Northern???? It's quite -how can i say- IDIOTIC! Yes, folks, I know that the MDL was not made to divide the north and the south, but It's pretty usefull to divide the two. Doncha think???...About the civil war...VA was apart of the confeds...i can't lie, BUT MD was FORSED to become apart of the union and most of the people wanted to be with the feds.(yuddah im sayin)...So anyways, like i was sayin, VA & MD are natrually South.

Subject 3: MD.

Everyone knows that MD is not like the rest of the southern states-no accent(mostly), not many confed. flags, has northern-like cities, bad traffic etc.- but it is still SOUTHERN. I mean dang, like many other southern states, we take pride in are lil southerness, we sometimes act a lil country, and we still TALK diffrent from the north...esspecially Dc/B-more area. CUT US SOME SLACK!

Final Subject: Overall.

Over all, Maryland and Virginia are southern! They have many southern charms too. Infact, we have great hospitaliy too! Don't worry, be happy. Even if your mad, you HAVE TO admit that maryland and virginia are atleast a TAD BIT southern. YEs, YEs, YEs, we do have many qualities like the north(aka bad traffic...lol), But you must admit(if youve been too maryland and virginia...NOT B-MORE or DC)that it is southern in some areas!

ps. dont post nasty negitive comments about Virginia or Maryland..okedoke allipokey...lolz

ps no 2. IF you ask a man at a gas station in Southern, MD.... you'll know that chu in the south. - Footballchik

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Maryland"

It is mainly because of the Civil War. Maryland was part of the Union cause, even though there were plenty of supporters for the South. Plus the location of the Northern capital plays a role in this argument. Rutke421 16:35, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

New Sports section added to updated WikiProject U.S. states format
The WikiProject U.S. states format has been updated to include a new Sports section, that covers collegiate sports, amateur sports, and non-team sports (such as hunting and fishing). Please feel free to add this new heading, and supply information about sports in Virginia. Please see South_carolina as an example. NorCalHistory 16:25, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Rest of Virginia merge in proposed
It looks like someone has written an article called Rest of Virginia. Would it be a good idea to merge it into this article? It seems like a neologism that might be better mentioned here rather than in its own article. --Takeel 00:36, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Personally, after looking over it, I would feel that any inclusion into the Virginia article should be in the area of one or two lines of text, tops. That, or simply link to it from the geography section.  As is, while the differences between NoVA and the rest of Virginia are well known and debated, this was the first time I've ever seen RoVA identified as something individual.  Rather, its like some one created an article called "Rest of New York" and referred to how the rest of New York State differed from the New York City metropolitan area.  Ergo, I'm not sure if the article needs to exist.   ~ (The Rebel At) ~  13:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
 * It's at Upstate New York. --Kineticman 12:55, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Well I sure picked a bad example. Regardless, I still oppose a merge, but the option I suggested above.  As for the original RoVA article, it could use some citations due to its claim that was used in many media sources. ~ (The Rebel At) ~  13:58, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I personally think that the "article" could be shortened to two sentences explaining the whole thing. I honestly don't think it's relevant enough to have an entire article on.--Jude 06:45, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Please merge any relevant content from [ Rest of Virginia] per Articles for deletion/Rest of Virginia. Thanks. —Quarl (talk) 2006-12-28 14:55Z 

Virginia's governor elections
Under the Trivia heading it says that Virginia and New Jersey hold gubernatorial elections in the year after the presidential elections. This is not true for VA at least. Our governors are elected for a 6 year term. One election the president and the governor's are elected together, + 4 years = presidential election, + 2 years = gubernatorial election, + 2 years = presidential, + 4 years = both. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.53.194.141 (talk) 02:00, 29 December 2006 (UTC).

Reasoning for Deleting Certain External Links
Website: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/raleigh.htm

Reasoning: This website is about Sir Walter Raleigh. This link should go on a page about Sir Walter Raleigh NOT Virginia.

Website: http://www.outinvirginia.org/

Reasoning: This page is someone's personal blog. Personal blogs should not be linked to in Wikipedia. A majority of this site does not even deal with anything in Virginia.

Website: http://www.vabook.org/

Reasoning: This website is an advertisment for an event that will be happening in Virginia. Wikipedia is not a place for advertising. Eric 22:38, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism
I'm new to this, and I noticed a "Hallo Olli" in the geography section of VA. I'm not good enough to even find the entry that creates that, so I ask that someone who knows what he's doing fixes that article.

Thanks 70.108.13.185 15:59, 11 February 2007 (UTC)Sebastian


 * checked, and another user has already fixed it. Thanks, Sebastian. P.S. Why not register as a user and continue helping us in whatever way(s) you can? Vaoverland 17:00, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Sebastian, a second thanks for thinking of posting. I fixed this issue yesterday, as well another "hi" sort of messaging.  Its amazing, but the hi messaging that preceded the "Hallo Ollie" got through the radar of editors for a number of days.  So anytime anyone points something out, always helps. :)    ~ (The Rebel At) ~  18:09, 11 February 2007 (UTC)