Readers: I’ll be in Woodbridge, Virginia this Thursday, June 22 at 2pm at the Potomac Library (2201 Opitz Blvd, Woodbridge, VA 22191) to talk about land use, development, and traffic in outer suburbs. Stop by!

I wrote a couple of Saturdays ago about the frustration of not being able to capture scenes that strike me as perfect photographs when I’m out on the road. Most recently, I was thinking about this on a drive through the lovely countryside of northwestern Virginia.

Part of it, anyway—Virginia is a really big state. Wine country, farm country, coal country, shore towns, presidents’ homes, some of the most diverse counties in the country. You know, there are people who say Northern Virginia isn’t really Virginia. Too diverse, too rich, too developed, too full of transplants. Saying Northern Virginia isn’t Virginia is like saying icing isn’t cake; sure, but their differences go together and make something incredible. Even when I was a kid growing up in New Jersey, out of every state we ever visited or passed through, I always liked Virginia. And here I am.

Anyway. Much as I do love the semi-urban D.C. penumbra, I also love driving out into the country. To see this or that town, yes—this time, Berryville, an honest-to-God small town with a tiny urban Main Street and almost no modern ring of sprawl; next time Warrenton or Marshall—but also to just see and enjoy the scenery. The horses and cows, the gas stations with old-school country stores, the fields and mountains, the tiny towns which might have grown big in an alternate universe. It’s relaxing and refreshing, but in the sense of contrast, not escape.

These are some of the pictures I did get to take.

One of the reasons I advocate so much for building up the suburbs is because this landscape is already long gone there. I think we should build where we already have, so we can not build where we haven’t. I want the country be the country, and for that to happen, you simply have to do more with low-density suburbs. I say if we let people build and live in places, instead of scattering them out to the edges, everyone comes out ahead.

Related Reading:

Stop and Smell the Tulips

Talk Notes: Traffic and Crowding

Have You Ever Seen a Nursery Like This?

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