What up playas, I am biased on this NoVa situation, because I was born and raised in A-town (Arlington), till I got the fuck out of there when I was 18, and haven't looked back since. First off, Arlington is not that bad, in fact if I had to live anywhere in VA it would be Arlington, but for me that is just a reflection of VA, it's not really a state that I am very interested in living in. Arlington, is definitely one of the most liberal, if not the most liberal towns in all of VA, people are well educated, and all things considered it is relatively diverse. As for the other good things about Arlington, I would say that the food is great (cheap, quality, diverse options), there are hot women for sure, and it's well laid out, and depending on where you live there are various metro stops.
Now on to what I don't like, I guess Virginia, just never really fit my style, I've always been a very open minded, socially, politically, and culturally liberal person, I feel like the whole east coast is just waaay too uptight, people are stressed out, super career/material/superficially motivated, and the conformist culture is very strong. I don't want to offend anyone here, because it seems like half the people on these forums are from/live in the D.C. area, but that's just my perspective of who I am. That said, if you're going to live in the D.C. area, I would back up Arlington with a vote, but would much rather recommend living in D.C., around the hoods that Roosh recommended. Now back to Arlington, when I was growing up in S. Arlington, it was way more diverse place, as far as people from different countries, ethnicities, cultures, incomes, etc. In the past 10 years Arlington has gotten completely gentrified, the schools I went to were like 20% white, but entire neighborhoods (the Colonies, Arna Valley, etc.) full of blacks, Hispanics, Asians, have been bulldozed to create condos for the rich white yuppies that have taken over. Now this sucks for those people, and definitely has changed the character of the city, yes it has made it safer, with less crime, and raised property values for hard working lower-middle class people that own their own homes (like my parents), but I liked the diversity, I liked growing up with El Salvadorans, Peruvians, Ethiopians, Pakistanis, etc. All that is left are rich white late 20's to early 30 somethings, who are very much carbon copies of each other, all wear banana republic, drive Volkswagens, hang out at Starbucks, etc. So I guess it all depends on what you're into, if you fit into the wealthy white yuppie tribe, then I hope you don't take offense, Arlington will be perfect for you, and there will be plenty of hot white women for you to swoop. If you like more diversity, counter culture, excitement, etc., then I say D.C. all the way.
P.S. Busboys and Poets is a pretty cool spot, checked the new one in Arlington when I went to visit the Fam a year ago, but I'm sure the orig. one in D.C. is better. I'm sure most of you have seen the Arlington Rap video, but just in case, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T1RMuoQnKo