My parents live in Northern Virginia and I've gone to some tech events there. Compared to SF/Boston/NYC I felt like there was more of a focus on milking govern

My parents live in Northern Virginia and I've gone to some tech events there. Compared to SF/Boston/NYC I felt like there was more of a focus on milking government contracts than on creating startups. The average age of people in the technical community seems older than in other areas. Also, because of all the government jobs, the housing market didn't decline as much as the rest of the country, i.e. there's still a housing bubble there. Traffic there is pretty insane too and is related to the high housing costs. It's not all bad though, there are some good things about the area that stand out. The public schools in Maryland and Northern Virginia, especially Thomas Jefferson, are really good.