What the conversation on suburbs is missing is that most of NoVa isn't suburban at all anymore. DC can't really build out (or up, given the local building codes), so the urban core now extends well into Virginia (and the tallest buildings are all there). Our problem isn't really suburbs shifting so much as it is urban areas taking over what used to be suburbs.
WTF are you talking about? At most you could argue that Arlington and Alexandria are an extension of DC. Are you really making a straight faced argument that Fairfax and further out counties are extensions of the "urban core?"
Remember that most of the City of Nashville is covered by houses with lawns and driveways, but the places I have been to in Northern Virginia have seemed quite urban (I've been as far as the Clarendon metro stop with regularity).
