Please don’t judge the rest of Virginia by your Northern Virginia experience. But you’re right that we’re screwed up on many levels.
Sorry, to come off bitter.
The west/southwest is beautiful and great. NOVA was the source of my problems. Moved there for school, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed straight from the country.
Arlington county has this cute little car registration program—which, I assumed (that word) applied to parking on public streets.
Anyway—police sneak into my apartment buildings parking lot, ID every non-compliant vehicle, and wait for people to drive to school/work ticketing them as they leave their garage!
Being an idiot, I tried to protest on principle and you can guess the rest...
I think that ‘NOVA mindset’ was behind the ridiculous ticket law a couple of years back—
credit to the citizens for turning it back!