Talk:Arlington County, Virginia/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Neighborhoods in Arlington

Lyon Village should not have been in both categories. Lee Highway corridor is not an "urban village" but a commercial strip. East Falls Church is being re-planned, but it is an Orange Line station area, so it should be mentioned one way or another. Thesmothete 19:50, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Arlington's LGBT community

Can someone tell me why every time I add a link to agla.org, someone else deletes it? AGLA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) community group with a 25+ year history in Arlington? I'm the agla.org webmaster so can be reached thru that site for feedback.

Arlington does not have a "gay neighborhood" but there is LGBT presence in every neighborhood. We are represented by the only openly gay State Delegate, an openly gay man on our County Board (re-elected twice) and a lesbian on our School Board. I've added my link at least four times, but someone keeps removing it. What is Wikipedia's policy on removing links? There are plenty of LGBT topics, so why does my link keep disappearing? AGLA is a more relevant link than a few of the others that are left alone. I didn't delete Glen Carlyn because I live in Lyon Village.

"Secession" from Alexandria County

I removed the term "seceded" because it's not accurate, as cities are created out of counties. Sounds like hair-splitting, but that's simply not the correct term. Also corrected the incorporation date of Alexandria, which was actually 1852, and added a factoid with link about DC border markers.

philliefan_99 28 May 2006, 0317 UTC

The Virginia constitution changed at that time, making cities such as Alexandria no longer in a county, but independent cities. Vaoverland 05:20, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

United States article on featured candidate nominations list

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/United States

Cast your vote! The more responses, the more chances the article will improve and maybe pass the nomination.--Ryz05 t 22:16, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

National Geographic Reference

Several years ago for in an article in National Geographic one of the high schools in the area was pictured to illustrate the diversity of northern virginia. Although the high school might technically have been in Falls Church if someone feels up to it you might want to add that to this page --Lostcatholic66.225.69.254 17:01, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Transportation Section

Bicycle Paths Section

Should the heading "bicycle paths" really have its own heading in the article, or should it become a subheading of the "Transportation" section? My vote is for moving it to Transportation. --johnkellystyle 02:30, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Your suggestion sounds good. Go ahead and make the change, and be bold with any other changes you think are needed. The only very minor issue with your edits is how headings are formatted (all words except the first should be lowercase). With time on Wikipedia, you'll become familiar with such minor formatting issues, but on the whole help is needed to improve the articles. So, be bold. --Aude (talk contribs) 02:50, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
Thank you. I think I'll go ahead and do that now. The capitalization issue is, I guess, a Wikipedia-specific thing. I was always led to believe that all important words in titles were to be capped. I guess I do have much to learn. As you have said, wikipedia favors the bold, as does fortune. --johnkellystyle 05:24, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Roadways

I edited the I-66 section because it did not have NPOV, and wound up just copying the equivalent section from the I-66 entry. I'm not sure what the Wikipedia policy is for such duplications, and would appreciate guidance. Also, I think the lawsuit may have been against the USDT, not ADOT, but I'm not sure.

I tried to replace the ACPD picture with a street map of Arlington, but was unable to find a suitable map that didn't have copyright issues (Arlington County's own maps, while very good, are huge PDFs and copyrighted). I tried to put the picture back in somewhere, but couldn't see a place where it was warranted -- it's a nice pic -- so may be someone will do a section on public services and it can go there. I also adjusted that section for NPOV, because Arlington actually does have a very extensive street grid -- more extensive and well-planned than many areas in the Country, particulary in suburban areas and on the East Coast, and discontinuity is not at all uncommon (though South Courthouse Road must seem a little strangely named to the people who live there). Thesmothete 16:18, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Government (Sheriff)

The information deleted was incorrect. Arlington County's website shows elections for Sheriff in 2000 and 2003 only. Also, first election to a partial term was not notable; several other Arlington elected officals were first elected to partial terms. Thesmothete 00:53, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

County Seat

What does it mean to say that Arlington's county seat is the CDP known as "Arlington"? Why not just say that Arlington doesn't have a county seat? It's not as though a county is required to have one. --Largo Plazo 23:24, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

See the entry for County seat. That should answer your question. It even mentions Arlington. Thesmothete 00:45, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
A premise isn't established as fact just by being expressed in two places. I would just as soon ask in the county seat article whether the text shouldn't say instead that "some counties have no seat per se." --Largo Plazo 13:42, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
May I suggest, then, that we first agree on what a "county seat" is, before we decide what Arlington's County seat, if any, is. If you do not agree with the definition in county seat, what is your proposed definition? I note that the definition in county seat it not cited, so if you have a good definition with citation, it will probably stand. Thesmothete 16:37, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
If I knew the answer or knew where to look for a reliable treatment, I would have just made the change and have been done with it. I posed the question to find out if anyone had an informed response, rather than relying on my own speculation. You pointed out that Wikipedia itself says so in another article. I replied not to say that I don't believe it, only to point out that that's just begging the question. I'll hang on to see if something more definitive comes in. --Largo Plazo 18:55, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Reverting unexplained reversion by Almondwine on Jan 26, that eliminated a lot of useful corrective edits.

This was apparently done "using popups". I don't know why. Anyway, it restored a great deal of incorrect information, so I have reverted it. Because there have been a number of subsequent edits, I have tried to restore them, but I might not have gotten everything that needed changing. Thesmothete 17:50, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


Nate Ruffin

I don't think it's useful to classify as "famous" every person ever depicted in a movie, just because he was depicted in the movie. The only thing notable about Nate Ruffin (not Rufin as spelled in the article) is that he wasn't on a plane that crashed with the majority of the players on his college football team in 1974. I bet that even most people who saw the movie wouldn't remember his name two months later. I wouldn't include him on the list. Katie Couric is famous. Robert E. Lee is famous. Nate Ruffin isn't. As it is, I just tagged the article on him as "unencyclopedic", which I think is even less arguable than my contention that he isn't famous. --Largo Plazo 18:40, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

There is a guideline for such questions: WP:BIO. If there are two articles about him, then he's notable. Are there two articles? Thesmothete 17:39, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
That's backwards. A person needs to be notable for an article to be justified. The fact that someone wrote an article doesn't create notability. In any event, the same person who added Nate Rufin [sic] here the first time also created an article that also misspelled his name and that said nothing about him that would make it clear why an article about him would be warranted. A bunch of people agreed, and that article was deleted for, among other things, non-notability. —Largo Plazo 12:13, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
Not two Wikipedia articles, two articles in the general press. See WP:BIO Thesmothete 15:27, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
The article doesn't state a firm "two articles, ergo notable" rule, and you're evidently interpreting "multiple" very loosely as "anything more than one" as opposed to the more intuitive "a bunch of times". The mother of three who is written up in the paper for her work on a charity auction and then ten years later is written up for her prize roses is not thereby notable. —Largo Plazo 18:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
Oh. I'd been wondering how this even came up since I'd deleted the reference over two weeks ago. I just now noticed that Almondwine had restored the Ruffin reference when he undid 13 days worth of work on the article, and also that you've now undone his undo. So it's an academic question. —Largo Plazo 13:31, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Smallest County?

Arlington County is the smallest self-governing county in the United States in terms of total area. There is a County in Hawaii that is smaller by land area, but it has no government of its own -- it borrows government from the neighboring county (it's a former leper colony). There is a County in New York (same boundaries as the burough of Manhattan) that has a larger total area, but a smaller land area (Manhattan's boundaries include a lot of water, whereas much of Arlington's boundary is on the Virginia side of the Potomac). It has its own court, but it's government is part of the greater New York City government.

A point of clarification: all of Arlington is on the Virginia side of the Potomac. Perhaps you intended to note that none of the Potomac that flows alongside Arlington is included in Arlington's territory, which is correct: along Virginia's Potomac bank, all of the Potomac inside of--I think it's the mean high water line--belongs to DC or Maryland. --Largo Plazo 19:09, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Therefore, depending on how you count it, Arlington is not the smallest county in the US. Or perhaps it is. Either way, there should be a citation. Thesmothete 07:03, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree that this statement of fact must be supported by a citation either way, and should be removed from the article until a citation can be found. Bpiereck 22:25, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

It's also a little unclear because in the heading of the article it says Arlington is "the geographically 4th smallest self governing county in the United States," whereas later in the article, under Geography, it states "Arlington is the smallest self-governing county in the United States." I'm changing the text in the header now, but perhaps this should be clarified once and for all... IKenny 04:01, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

September 11 Section

"The Pentagon was one of the three major US buildings struck by airliners hijacked by Muslim terrorists."

Is that NPOV? I personally don't believe it (the Muslim terrorists bit at least). Graue 01:17, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

article has been changed. It now reads "...hijacked by terrorists affiliated to the al-Qaeda network, a militant Islamist organization." Vaoverland 03:44, Apr 16, 2005 (UTC)

Section Heading Edit

I edited the title of this section because I felt that "9/11 Attacks hit Arlington" sounded too much like a sallacious local paper headline. It has been changed simply to "September 11 Attacks" instead. I think, considering someone is already reading an article about Arlington, it's understood that the events to be described took place in Arlington. --johnkellystyle 02:31, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Removal of Section

This section was really short and wasn't of much relevance to Arlington County. The section had more to do with The Pentagon, and the September 11th attacks are covered much more conclusively in that article. If it can be shown that the September 11th attacks had an appreciable impact on the economics, demographics, etc. of the county, and therefore be relevant to the article about the county, then it might be worth restoring with that information. As it was, it was not adding much to the main article. (Darthveda (talk) 15:46, 16 February 2008 (UTC))

Demographics & Geography

i am currently searching for any 1st hand source material that will shed some light on the hispanic population, it is much greater than the number posted, the census dosn't mention south arlington's dense immigrant community many of whom are illegal. this leads in to the division of south and northside arlington which hold distinct and noticable cultural and economical differences. if you know of any links post em here, i guess, still new to the editing thing. -wikiaddict202 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.244.94.174 (talk) 04:07, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Smallest county?

Bristol County, Rhode Island is smaller if you only count land area (no water). Backspace (talk) 17:21, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

The Most Educated City

(10/10/07). From the first para. Arlington is NOT a city. Arlington, Virginia is a county. How could a county be the most educated, if it is a city, and what is the definition of education here...please qualify. Trade schools? Schools of Hard Knocks? The contributor of that statement was certainly not educated on the history of Arlington, County, Va. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.143.137.79 (talk) 07:47, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

  • Even if it were a city (not likely under current Va. law), it would still be the equivalent of a county, and may not appear in "city" rankings of educational attainment. I will add it back to the first paragraph unless there is a good reason to keep it off.--Old Guard 05:10, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Bethesda, MD is way more educated than Arlington, according to the CB, with 49% of the residents holding grad. degrees. 007bond (talk) 13:08, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Separate Rosslyn-Ballston corridor article

Does anyone else think that there should be new article made for the R-B corridor, going more in depth on the history of smart growth development and the neighbourhoods that it encompasses? Geoking66talk 17:27, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

There are already articles on Ballston, Virginia and Rosslyn, Virginia, so I would only want to see a corridor article if there was sufficient information for one that was not appropriate to place in the neighborhood articles. --Tim Sabin (talk) 19:11, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

What is WP:Recent?

A recent editor reverted an earlier edit based on wp:recent. This is redlinked, and I can find no reference for it. Anyone know what this is? --Tim Sabin (talk) 18:28, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry I meant WP:RECENT. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 18:38, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

2010 blizzard

Why does this merit a paragraph? There was nothing all that unique about the storm, and except for the ordinance, I don't see anything different about the snowstorm then ones that hit the area about every ten years or so.. it snows, people stay in for a week, it melts, people go out. Nine months later everyone forgets about the storm until the news shows that hospitals have a spike of newborns .. does each storm in the whole history of the county deserve a paragraph? Bottom line, if this same exact storm occurred fifteen, ten or five years ago, would it be covered in this article? Let's at least try to avoid WP:RECENT.

Articles about events that occurred before Wikipedia's creation in January 2001, or in its early years, may be poorly documented simply because there was never a "news spike" for the few contemporary volunteers that led to the creation and elaboration of any article.

--Omarcheeseboro (talk) 18:55, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

If "Climate" reflects these paralyzing blizzards for which the road department has no plan, then yes, decennial "emergencies" are clearly not quite in that category. If the blizzard was unusual, even given Arlington's blizzard history, it could be shortened, but probably should stay. Student7 (talk) 19:37, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Arlington House

There has been some changes because Gen Lee is recognized as "residing in" Arlington House but not owning it. This was in a time when widows owned property, but married women did not control property. Their husbands did. Mrs. Lee would not have been arrested if she came to pay taxes on "her" house. They didn't normally arrest woment, unless they thought they were spying. They passed the law full knowing that it was the men, not the women, that would show up and the men, particularly Gen Lee, would have been subjected to arrest. It is moot whether he "owned" it. He controlled it. Mrs. Lee did not, despite having inherited it. She would not have been recognized as the "owner." Student7 (talk) 20:18, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

Geographic "observation"

Someone has inserted the geographic observation that "Other landforms also form county borders, particularly Minor's Hill and Upton's Hill on the west, which form its borders with Fairfax County and the City of Falls Church." This seems to imply that these landforms were used in constructing county boundaries. And they may have been. But basically the county was formed from the "diamond" shape from which the original District of Columbia was formed. The boundaries don't appear to be contingent on physical configuration of surrounding hills. Student7 (talk) 19:23, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Demographics

Hi, I was just reading through this and the demographics section brakes down Arlington by Race%, but the total adds up to 126.47% —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.201.242.194 (talk) 12:56, 23 July 2010 (UTC)


"Smart growth" = Geography?

An editor has moved the paragraph on "smart growth" to geography. The paragraph starts off, " For over 30 years, the government ". This seems to me to imply one of two subsections. One would be history. The other is clearly government. Developers did not say, "Let's develop smartly" (a pov term BTW). Rather, government dictated land use, as they always do, directed by pressure groups. Geography is the physical result (neighborhoods), but not the means of doing it. Student7 (talk) 14:03, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Additionally the paragraphs discuss what the neighborhoods are doing. Georgraphy is not a soscially active science. It is rather, the result of outside forces. Student7 (talk) 14:06, 16 July 2010 (UTC)
  • Don't guess and stop extrapolating from a few words, please read about urban planning or urban development (same thing). This subject is not government nor geography, it is a stand alone discipline just as transportation. Indeed I move it elsewhere, but due to a edit conflict I undid myself and respected the other editor work. If you do not know, the proper thing is to ask here (and by the way, taxis are part of public transportation, but the new section you created is just fine).-Mariordo (talk)
Urban planning and urban development are government functions. All members of these committees are either paid government bureaucrats or appointed by local elected officials. How can this not be government?
How can geography be an manmade "active" discipline? It is one of the most passive of sciences. Why do you think that geography is "man-made"? Student7 (talk) 13:51, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
Public transportation and the transportation system in general is run by public officials too, so health and education, so according to your logic, all of them must go also to the government section? A better guide to follow is to look at the structure of other articles, particularly rated B, Good or Feature articles, from other cities and counties. -Mariordo (talk) 18:36, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
Government might ordinarily be a good place for public transportation and roads. However they have been assigned their own subsection in the WP:CITIES outline, which govern this article. I have been watching about 1,500 town, city, village, and county articles for 3-4 years. They are all structured like this.Student7 (talk) 22:40, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Foundation date

Shouldn't the foundation date be 1801? The current one in the article is 9 July 1846, but this was just the date it was retroceded to Virginia. It seems a little silly to list this as the date since all that changed was the governing state (or district, in the case of D.C.). DrRockzo (talk) 03:56, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Proper use of 2010 census data

I have adjusted the 2010 Census data by using the chart that seperates out hispanic and non-hispanic by race. A study of how these numbers compare to totals revelas that only about half the Hispanics reproted as being white, nearly as many reported things that fell under "some other race", about half those who reported two or more races were Hispanic, and there was a very small number of Hispanics who reported being black, approximatly 570 in the entire county (although these are Hispanics who only reported b eing black, there may be others who reported being black and some other race). 159 Hispanics reported being Asian as their only race. Of the 971 people in Arlington County who reported being American Indian or Alaskan Native as their only race, 577, or over half, reported being Hispanic. Thus, it appears Hispanic American Indians in the county outnumber non-Hispanic American Indians. There were also 38 Hispanics who reported their race as only Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Still with 31,382 Hispanics in the county, these various groups do not make up a large percentage of the Hispanic population.John Pack Lambert (talk) 21:47, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Article name

Hi all. I don't see this being discussed before, but I believe this article can be properly located under Arlington, Virginia. While it is formally a county, it is commonly referred to as just Arlington colloquially and in nearly all media outlets. If no objection, I will request a page move. Best, epicAdam(talk) 18:35, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

Naming the high-density corridor?

I'm looking for any comments or suggestions on the best way to refer to the high-density corridor along Wilson Blvd, Clarendon Blvd, and Fairfax Dr, including Rosslyn, Courthouse, Clarendon, and Virginia Square. Is it appropriate to call this "Arlington County downtown", and if not, is there a better term? See Commons:Commons:Valued image candidates/Arlington County - Virginia.jpg for background discussion. cmadler (talk) 21:02, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Ovechkin moved to McLean, VA

He recently purchased a house in McLean and I'm pretty sure he lives there now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.127.236.179 (talk) 13:13, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

Merger proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
The result of this discussion was Stale. Last post was almost two years ago. Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 17:10, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Alexandria County is the same county as Arlington; the latter name was adopted in 1920. I don't see the need for two separate pages as much of the information is duplicated. DrRockzo (talk) 04:17, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Support I agree with the proposal, but we need a way for readers to recognize this. If they search for Alexandria County, we need to explain why they're reading about Arlington. --Tim Sabin (talk) 18:37, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
  • It could be better explained in the opening paragraphs. Actually, the opening as it is now is already misleading. It makes it sound like Alexandria County came to be when the west side of the Potomac was retroceded to Virginia in 1847, but it was already defined in 1801 as part of D.C. DrRockzo (talk) 00:56, 7 August 2010 (UTC)
  • OK, I added a paragraph in the introduction that attempts to explain in brief how it originated and eventually became Arlington County. Perhaps it could be in a better spot. DrRockzo (talk) 22:07, 15 August 2010 (UTC)
  • Merge. No point in forcing reader to toggle/link to another article because of a simple name change. Thanks for proposing this. Student7 (talk) 15:19, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
Does it matter that two other extinct Virginia counties (Nansemond County, now the city of Suffolk, and Princess Anne County, now the city of Virginia Beach) have separate entries under both the extinct county name and the current independent city name? There are also separate entries for Dunmore County and Shenandoah County; Dunmore County was renamed Shenandoah County to obliterate from the landscape the name of the last royal governor. GeoWPC (talk) 19:30, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
  • I think the Dunmore County article should be merged into the Shenandoah County one unless there's a compelling reason to keep them separate. I'm not sure about Nansemond and Princess Anne counties. They're probably justifiably separate because unlike Dunmore and Alexandria counties, those two are truly extinct as entities and not simply subjected to a change of name. DrRockzo (talk) 20:56, 20 August 2010 (UTC)
  • Oppose. The contents are not quite the same, and the detailed content in the two articles covers info for two different geographic areas (and by the way, the Alexandria article should be tag for the proposed merge to allow regualr editors of that article to participate in this discussion). There has to be a better way to fix the problem.-Mariordo (talk) 04:44, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
  • What about the geography is different? As far as I know, the only changes in the county's boundaries have been due to the City of Alexandria becoming independent of the county in 1870 as well as the subsequent annexations by the city over the years. I would be interested if someone had a better solution than a merge, but I can't see how we'd have separate articles without lots of duplicated information (and besides the fact that Alexandria and Arlington counties are the same entity; they've just evolved over time). How do you tag articles that aren't one of the pages being merged? I could just start a new discussion on the Alexandria page. DrRockzo (talk) 19:46, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

I think that arlington and alexandria are two different things. It's like saying that you can merge the Bronx and Queens. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.79.164.217 (talk) 16:43, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

They are separate. In Virginia (unlike most states), Counties and Cities are the same governmental level - a City is carved out of a County. The County of Arlington and the City of Alexandria are two totally distinct geographic and political units.108.56.154.217 (talk) 12:47, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

The proposal is about merging the article about Alexandria County, not Alexandria City. Alexandria County is the former name of what is now Arlington County. Alexandria City was carved out of Alexandria County. Support --Tim Sabin (talk) 13:44, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
  • Oppose. Articles on historic geographic locations need not be merged into those on their modern equivalents. Alexandria County was an important location on the map, and as part of U.S. history.-- Patrick, oѺ∞ 06:37, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
  • Support. Alexandria County is Arlington County, it was merely a name change for the same geographic location. oknazevad (talk) 23:17, 4 May 2011 (UTC)
  • Oppose. Alexandria is NOT a county. It is a CITY. Arlington is a county. I live in Arlington, and I think that of we were to merge Alexandria and Arlington in to one Wikipedia page, then you might as well say that they have the same police force, the same governing system, and the same school system. None of which they have. Arlington1234 (talk) 20:36, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Neighborhoods of Arlington County

Are the Neighborhoods of Arlington County unincorporated communities? {{Arlington County, Virginia}} lists them as unincorporated communities, but the articles themselves (expect Arlington Ridge, Virginia) don't call them "unincorporated communities", they call them neighborhoods (tough neighborhood and unincorporated community might not be multiply excessive). Most of the titles are in a "X, Arlington, Virginia" format, but if these are unincorporated communities then the template is fine and the pages should probably be modified to "X, Virginia" just like every other unincorporated community, city, etc.

If these are not unincorporated communities, but mere neighborhoods, then the template will probably need to be changed to more of a "neighborhoods in a city" format. I don't know what the titles should be in that case, but if we're going to have "Arlington" in the title it should probably be changed to "Arlington County" to match the parent page.

Please respond at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Virginia#Neighborhoods_of_Arlington_County. Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 16:41, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Merge from Alexandria County, D.C.

With this edit, I made a judgment call as to what merged text from Alexandria County, D.C. should be scraped as redundant to the text already in this article, and how to integrate the rest, but if you, the regular editors of this article disagree, feel free to revert and integrate/scrap the the text however you feel is best. Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 16:30, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Didn't notice the above Merger proposal, but the last post there was 1 year, 9 months ago, so technically ongoing, but it's been stale for almost two years. Still, when you have an ongoing Merger proposal, you need to tag the article with the merge tags so people know that there is an ongoing Merger proposal. Sense a new merge proposal is likely to take just as long, and go stale, I'll leave my merge in place per WP:BRD. I think that if you compare the present history section of this article, to the old Alexandria County article, it becomes apparent that the old article was redundant to the history section, and of much lower quality. Alexandria County isn't even a separate county or entity from Arlington County, it is nothing more then the former name of Arlington County. It'd make more sense to have two Alexandria city articles, as Alexandria city had grown to the point where half it's land it outside the original borders of DC. Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 17:08, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

I oppose the merge. Arlington and Alexandria County are two different historical entities. Just as Washington County, D.C. is a historical entity, even though it exists entirely within the current boundaries of the District. The standard for merging an article is not if they are substantially similar but if more could be added to the article on Alexandria County, which I think is certainly possible. -epicAdam(talk) 01:37, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
We can restore the Alexandria County, D.C. article, but everything I added to this article is well within this articles scope. Before we restore the article tough, maybe we could discuss and come to some sort of agreement. Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 01:49, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
More problematic is that Alexandria County, D.C. also included the current City of Alexandria, which was not yet an independent city under Virginia law. To have Alexandria County go only to Arlington incrrrectly ignores a large portion (and the most populous area) of the historical county. There was no consensus to make the merge in the first place and the original article should be restored immediately. -epicAdam(talk) 11:01, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
I'm too tired to responded to your points right now, but I'll restore the article. I'll get back to you when I'm feeling more awake. Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 23:50, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

North and South Arlington articles.

I created South Arlington, Virginia, and North Arlington, Virginia, but their very short stubs. Somebody want to develop the articles? Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 03:05, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

I can't imagine any useful information in these articles (South Arlington, Virginia and North Arlington, Virginia) beyond what is written in the stubs and the existing article on Arlington County, Virginia. The terms are used simply to refer to the northern part and the southern part when there is some reason to do so, primarily as a way to distinguish the identically numbered east-west streets (e.g. 28th Street South v. 28th Street North). They are not cohesive neighborhoods in any way. I recommend deleting the two articles and ensuring the information in the stubs is included in Arlington County, Virginia. --hulmem (talk) 01:07, 12 May 2014 (UTC)
North and South Arlington are significant socioeconomically insofar as most of the affluent sections of Arlington (i.e., other than Arlington Ridge) are north of Route 50 and the emphasis on commerce and infrastructure has been concentrated there. The discussion these days tends to be of the form, "Why shouldn't Columbia Pike have all the development that Wilson Boulevard has had for so many years?" Also, "Why did Wakefield High School get short shrift till after they were done redoing both Yorktown and Washington-Lee?" The situation could be worth noting on Wikipedia but, indeed, it would have to be in the Arlington article. It wouldn't make sense to treat it in an article on just the one half of the county or the other. —Largo Plazo (talk) 03:55, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Xoloz (talk) 01:32, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


Arlington County, Virginia → Arlington, Virginia – Almost all readers are interested in the city (the second largest in the entire DC metro area after DC itself!), not the decreasingly independently notable legal entity of the coterminous county. This is precisely the same coextensive city/county situation as San Francisco (San Francisco, California), which we'd be crazy to move to San Francisco County, California.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  23:13, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

  • Support, primarily for the reasons stated above. Wikipedia is the only place I have ever heard Arlington referred to as "Arlington County".--Mojo Hand (talk) 01:06, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
    "Arlington, Virginia" is the common name, but the arguments below have swayed me.
  • Oppose with correction of misconception This is not the same situation as San Francisco. There is no city in Virginia called "Arlington". Arlington is a county—one that happens to have no incorporated areas within it. Moreover, it is a peculiarity of Virginia law that, since 1871, no city is part of any county. (See List of cities in Virginia.) Therefore, there couldn't be a city called Arlington either in or coterminous with Arlington County. The treatment of Arlington County, Virginia on Wikipedia is properly consistent with the treatment of all the other counties in Virginia. —Largo Plazo (talk) 03:09, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Extra detail: Until 1920 Arlington County was Alexandria County—from which the City of Alexandria was separated by the 1871 law. The county changed its name to avoid getting conflated with the city. —Largo Plazo (talk) 03:15, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Split the article, per Largoplazo, Arlington the city should be separate from Arlington the county, as the county's history is not the same as the city's history. Alexandra County, DC, would be more expansive than the current county. -- 65.94.171.206 (talk) 04:26, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Please reread what I wrote. There is no Arlington city. Also, the matter of Alexandria County, DC, before Alexandria County was returned to Virginia in 1846, is separate from this. —Largo Plazo (talk) 09:35, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
Since this fact seems to keep getting lost above, please note:
There is no city named "Arlington" in Virginia. Only a county. —Largo Plazo (talk) 20:03, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Oppose the proposed move and oppose a split. There is no city in Virginia named "Arlington", nor has there ever been one. There is no reason to move the article and there is nothing to split. There is only one entity (a county) and always has been since the name Arlington was officially adopted in 1920. —  AjaxSmack  02:19, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Oppose. Cities and counties in Virginia are mutually exclusive. This is a county, and the title should reflect that. Per WP:USPLACE, "Articles on counties and parishes are typically titled [[X County (or X Parish), State]]". Kennethaw88 • talk 02:27, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Oppose. As others have stated, the laws regarding cities and counties in Virginia are different from the laws in California. Zzyzx11 (talk) 04:34, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Opppose Arlington is a county, not a city. Moving this page to "Arlington, Virginia" would only confuse the issue. Canuck89 (have words with me) 04:08, May 10, 2014 (UTC)
  • Oppose Per above. Arlington is a county with no incorporated cities. The redirect is working just fine. -epicAdam(talk) 12:23, 11 May 2014 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Principal city (move request follow-up)

I just noticed that the article itself identifies Arlington as the second largest "principal city" in the DC area. But this calls for clarification: This is a term of convenience used by the Census Bureau that applies to non-cities as well, as explained in the very article Principal city. I'm looking right now at a list of the principal cities in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. They include Reston, which not only isn't a city, it's an unincorporated area within Fairfax County. —Largo Plazo (talk) 20:36, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

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Named for incorrect?

The article states that the county name was changed from Alexandria to Arlington specifically because of Arlington House. Regardless of who Arlington House is named for, shouldn't the "named for" part of the info box reflect that the county was named for the house rather than something so much further removed? Esp. in light of the fact that this article itself gives the namesake credit to the House? 73.128.137.158 (talk) 03:44, 22 January 2017 (UTC)

Makes sense to me. I just changed it. Largoplazo (talk) 04:03, 22 January 2017 (UTC)

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Name

Should Arlington be called City and County of Arlington? The city is coterminous with the county, like Philly. SUPERASTIG

Nope. There is no such thing as the City of Arlington, VA. In Virginia, unlike Pennsylvania, you are either in a city or a county, but never both. meamemg (talk) 14:26, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
Meamemg is correct. A Virginia constitutional amendment in 1870 divorced cities from the counties they'd been part of. In fact, Arlington County was called Alexandria County, distinct from the City of Alexandria, until 1920, when it was renamed. The land that is Arlington today was never itself incorporated, as a City of Arlington or under any other name. Largoplazo (talk) 14:52, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

Potentially Confusing Opening Lines

The first two sentences have possibly the most confusing, ambiguous statement anyone who isn't intimately familiar with Virginia city/principal city/census-designated place/county/whatever nomenclature has ever read. I think I've worked out that Virginia calls the plot of land a county, but the US Census calls it a city, but that's still pretty weird. Can someone with more knowledge of the subject make this clearer? Being the first paragraph, it should probably get cleaned up. Octaazacubane (talk) 17:49, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

Arlington is legally a county under Virginia law. The census considers it a census-designated place. OPM, which puts together the metropolitan areas considers it a principal city. I'm not sure how to re-write, but may give it a try tomorrow. meamemg (talk) 21:00, 9 March 2018 (UTC)
You're correct. It is one thing: a county of Virginia. The ways in which it's treated under various classification schemes are secondary, not identifying, characteristics. I've reorganized the lead accordingly. Largoplazo (talk) 21:17, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

The ashes of Rockwell and Savitri Devi

The Savitri Devi article references Goodrick-Clarke and claims that her and Rockwell's ashes are enshrined in a red-brick building in Arlington, Virginia. Could it be added?--Adûnâi (talk) 00:28, 10 January 2020 (UTC)

Per Talk:George Lincoln Rockwell#Rockwell's ashes, this is not what the source actually says, and there is no reason to think this "shrine" is still in Arlington. Grayfell (talk) 01:34, 10 January 2020 (UTC)

No incorporated towns

"and by reason of state law regarding population density, it has no incorporated towns within its borders."

Can someone please cite a source for this sentence so that we can see what population density has to do with the fact that the county has no incorporated towns within it? --Criticalthinker (talk) 20:08, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

The rationale is given in Virginia Code chapter 15.2-33: "The purposes of this chapter are: (i) to provide complete immunity from annexation and incorporation of new cities for those counties or tier-cities which by reason of their population density and numbers are providing urban services and ...". The details are in section 15.2-3302. Largoplazo (talk) 21:59, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
This was a very good question. I did some looking and found a couple seemingly reliable secondary sources addressing this, and added a new sub-section to the article to discuss. I'd welcome others to look, as well -- I was surprised there wasn't a more clearly on-point source to explain why and how a pretty large urban county lacks a single city or town, which would be extremely unusual in any other state. --EightYearBreak (talk) 16:18, 13 July 2020 (UTC)
Would you be so kind as to tell us what this subsection was that you added? I saw some stuff down in "Incorporation," but it'd need to be clarified if that's it. For instance, I can't figure out under what constitutional point the supremes ruled in the 1920s that a town couldn't incorporated within the county (i.e. what exactly would make it different than any other county). And as for the state law, it needs to be said when it was enacted. I figure it was enacted precisely to clear up attempts like what happened in Arlington, but that's not made clear, either. --Criticalthinker (talk) 08:22, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
It looks like the court's decision wasn't based on a specific principle that "parts of Arlington may not be incorporated" but based on the general requirements regarding community input and other factors established at the time for any incorporation petition anywhere in the state to be approved. See under "Opinion", https://cite.case.law/va/132/397/. Largoplazo (talk) 12:34, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks! Yes, it looks like syllabus 11 & 12 explain it: "the petition for incorporation will be denied, where the evidence shows that the general good of the whole community affected demands such denial." and "From the provisions of chapter 116 of the Code of 1919, in regard to the incorporation of towns, it is manifest that the lawmakers intended to vest the widest discretion in the trial courts, and also that the latter were not expected to regard merely the wishes and interests of the inhabitants of the area proposed to be incorporated, but, as the statute expressly provides, the court must be satisfied “that the general good of the community will be promoted.”" It appears, then, that there is no blanket ban on incorporating a town in Arlington, rather that the courts said that that particular case was not valid by the criteria they can use to decide a town incorporations. It also looks like the original trial cour decision Board of Supervisors v. Duke, 113 Va. 94 (1912) colored the justices' views on this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Criticalthinker (talk • contribs) 05:24, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
I'm pulling this out of my head from when I researched this in 2001 while participating in the county's bicentennial history contest so, as well as I recollect the situation: There wasn't already a law banning incorporation outright in certain cases. The Clarendon case came up and the court dealt with it. Arlington wanted to avoid future incorporation campaigns, so it made a case to the legislature to add provisions to the code that would effectively exempt Arlington from having to go through that again. Largoplazo (talk) 12:07, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
Both of these links provided have been dead since you posted them.--Criticalthinker (talk) 08:22, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
I just clicked both of them and they worked fine. Largoplazo (talk) 12:12, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
It would seem that they work, now. When I sent that messaged, neither link had worked for days. Anyway, read through Chapter 33 that deals with county and tier-city annexation and incorporation, and it doesn't much seem to apply to the scenario in which a town would seek incorporation within a county. As it relates to incorporations within a county or tier-city, Chapter 33 only appears to deal with a portion within the county incorporating as a city and not town. On that point, the title of the chapter mentions "City Incorporation." In fact, the only specific chapter I see dealing with town incorporations ic Chapter 36: Incorporation of Towns by Judicial Proceeding. So, it looks like the state statutes wouldn't prevent an incorporation within Arlington, unless I'm reading something wrong. And if that's the case, it would seem that it was the 1920's state supreme court ruling that prevents it. How do your read all of this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Criticalthinker (talk • contribs) 05:24, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
Ha, you're right, the code provisions I pointed to are about city incorporation only, while the Clarendon petition was to incorporate as a town within the county. OK, in chapter 36, check out § 15.2-3602(A)(6), which tells us that one of the requirements for a community that wants to incorporate as a town is that "The population density of the county in which such community is located does not exceed 200 persons per square mile according to the last preceding United States census, or other census directed by the court." Even in 1920, the population of Arlington was, according to the table at Arlington County, Virginia#Demographics, 16,040 ± 56.8%. That's a hell of a margin of error, but, even if the population was 8,000, with an area of 26 square miles the county's density was 308 people per square mile, which must have made it a megalopolis as Virginia counties went at the time. Largoplazo (talk) 12:16, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
Aha! And there we have it. So it is, indeed, a state statute now that would prevent town incorporations within Arlington County after the last town incorporation attempt was shot down by the court. That seems a pretty low population density threshold to me, so it's basically prevented new town incorporations in general. Thanks for figuring this all out. --Criticalthinker (talk) 04:02, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

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Semi-protected edit request on 30 January 2021

I would like to fix some grammatical issues on the page. J124q567 (talk) 18:51, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. If you want you can reply in this section of the talk page with the changes you'd like to see, and re-open the edit request. Volteer1 (talk) 19:11, 30 January 2021 (UTC)
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