Infrastructures
Most of us live in cities which are dependent upon certain Infrastructures without which life would be a greater daily challenge—those facilitators of basic living such as local, meaningful and well-paying employment opportunities; responsive local government; ethical, informative, and accountable news media; competent & fast-acting first responder services; well-functioning systems for residential water & sewage, recycling & trash removal, broadband cable/internet, cell phone service and energy; public transportation and mail & package delivery; hospitals & pharmacies, libraries, schools, grocery stores, banking & insurance providers; and retail, service, & entertainment venues with sundry products & services. It is when these infrastructures fray that we find ourselves most challenged when our communities suffer the most. It is when these infrastructures work well that we have our best quality of life.
Lee District’s Infrastructures
Lee District
Our district, one of nine in Fairfax County, has a population of 123,692 people. Half of us, (50.7%) are female and 49.3% are male. A quarter of us are children under the age of 20 years and 11.7% of us are seniors, aged 65 years or older. Half of us (50.7%) are white, while the other half (49.3%) comprises all other races and ethnicities including 21.5% black, 30.3% Hispanic, and 17.4% Asian. Forty-five percent of us speak a language other than English at home but of those, half also speak English very well.
About 47% of us have a college or graduate degree, 74.6% of women 20-64 years old are employed and 87.5% of men of the same age range are employed. Our owned-housing median market value is $452,445 for a median sized 1,387 square foot dwelling, and 62% of us live in a townhouse or single-family detached home. For additional Lee District stats see the Quality of Life section of this site.
Our Infrastructures
Serving our community are a number of retail venues such as Springfield Mall, and shopping centers such as at the Kingstowne Towne Center. Several movie theaters at the mall and town center provide entertainment and both locations also have restaurants and sundry shops. Major banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BB&T) service our area as do most insurance carriers. We have multiple grocery store options such as Safeway, Giant, Wegmans, Whole Foods, and Aldi. We have many elementary schools such as at Rose Hill and Hayfield; middle schools such as at Mark Twain and Key; and high schools such as Edison and Lee. Private schools such as Browne Academy and Burgundy Farm. We have multiple public library options, such as John Marshall and Kingstowne. We have several pharmacy chains like CVS, Walgreens, Giant, and Safeway. Some of our basic infrastructures are solid.
We have ample public transportation from a Metro stop at Franconia-Springfield, to bus service across the county and into DC, to interstates like I-95, connections to 395 and 495 (the beltway) to U.S. Route One, and the Franconia-Springfield Parkway. Several taxicab companies and Uber also serve our area. UPS, FedEx, and the USPS provide ample mail and package delivery. Verizon, Cox, and AT&T offer phone, cable television, and broadband internet. Garbage and recycling services such as American and Republic, residential water via Fairfax Water, electricity via Dominion Energy, gas via Washington Gas. Some of our key infrastructures are very good.
We have firemen, EMT, and police services via the Franconia and Penn Daw Fire Stations, and county police. Urgent care providers and pediatric, internal medicine, general practitioner, and specialist doctors including eye and dental practices abound. Hospital services at the Springfield HealthPlex with referral to the two major local hospitals, each within a 20-minute drive—Inova Health System’s Alexandria and Mount Vernon Hospitals.
There is ample national media coverage available of both global-national-regional news from the major television and cable stations to radio and newspapers such as the Washington Post and New York Times, and also good local media such as Patch.com, WTOP, Inside NoVa, and Covering the Corridor. Our major local employers are the federal and county governments, and companies such as Booz Allen, Lockheed, SAIC, General Dynamics, Inova, Calibre, Leidos, and VSE. Our local district supervisor is Rodney Lusk and his office is located at the Franconia Governmental Center at 6121 Franconia Rd, Alexandria, VA 22310, phone (703) 971-6262.
This infrastructure is generally well-functioning and sufficient to provide a good quality of life for our residents, but improvements are needed, and fortunately, in some cases, they are on the way. We will keep an eye on these essential ingredients of our lives in Lee District.