NVA Construction a Long-Distance Lure

[MountainLaurel]

I thought this article rather interesting and relevant -- Specifically, it discusses the number of people from distant areas, including WV, who work in the DC area because there are no decent jobs back home. Generally, they stay here for the week in either a cheap motel or doubling up in studio apartments, and then go back on weekends. I've known a lot of people who've done this, and many, many years ago the children's book "Bridge to Terabithia" included a protagonist whose father did this.

Home and work are 290 miles apart for Clint Weidhaas, and they feel even farther.

He spends every weekend in his home town of Stuart in southwestern Virginia, fishing, camping and tooling around the Blue Ridge Mountains in a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Around 1 or 2 a.m. Monday, he departs on a five-hour drive north. By daybreak, he has arrived at his job laying electrical cable for new housing developments in Northern Virginia. He sleeps in a bunk at the Manassas Volunteer Fire Company and works 10- to 12-hour days so he can head home Thursday afternoon.

snip

Indicative of the unquenchable demand for labor to build the region's houses, bridges and roads, the Washington area is attracting thousands of workers from distant places, where there are fewer jobs and lower pay scales. Accents from southern Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Pennsylvania echo across construction sites.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/24/AR2005042401358.html

[demnan]

1. It has always been so

Back during the depression, many people made their way from the mountains to the D.C. area to work. One of my mother's best friends grew up in West Virginia and came to NoVA looking for a job.

I believe the city of Manassas Park is mostly settled by former mountain residents. There are plenty throughout the D.C. area. That's why Bluegrass music became so popular here.

However soon West Virginians won't even have to leave the state. They are building new houses by the dozens around Charlestown and Martinsburg.

[MountainLaurel]

2. You're right

I know several teachers and librarians in Loudoun County who live in Charles Town because they can't afford housing in NoVA, and like the knowledge that they're still "home". However, I also know WV teachers who now can't buy a house in the Eastern Panhandle because the new housing has driven up the costs of existing homes at a rate similar to that of DC (home prices have DOUBLED in just two years' time), although total cost is still lower.

[MrSandman]

3. My neighbor is an electrician...

Who runs a FT crew(from WV) at RR Airport in DC for aver a year now.