DINGO Joe
dingojoe
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« on: January 29, 2020, 10:13:23 PM » |
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It's a bit of a geographic fallacy to expect the DC Metro to overrun the Eastern Panhandle. Jefferson Co is somewhat restricted in space to build on and is the oldest and slowest growing part of the metro. Berkeley Co really isn't part of the Metro but benefits from having cheap land (for the region) and being on I-81. It's location makes it popular for distribution centers, like Macy's, Proctor and Gamble, and the newly announced cat litter factory. But these aren't high education jobs, so Berkeley continues to have low education levels. The recently announced cat litter factory wanted to locate in adjacent Frederick Co, VA but the Board of Supervisors rejected it 5-2 because of concerns of traffic and quality of life (meaning they were worried it would hurt property values), so Berkeley is the "low rent" part of the region.
Yes, outside of Monogalia Co (WVU), it is the only growing part of the state. When WV hit it's population peak in 1950 at 2 million, Berkeley and Jefferson only had 50,000 people, now that WV has fallen below 1.8 million, B&J have a combined 170,000 people and twenty years from now when WV is down to 1.5 million, B&J will have 250,000, but that's still less than 20% of the state.
Manchin didn't win as a populist, he eked out a win by winning all 10 of the "most" educated counties in the state and that's the path anyone else should follow. Many of the most educated counties are losing population, but all of the lowest educated are losing population and quite rapidly.
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