Introduction- Learning about Herndon Through Geography

 I chose Herndon for my Neighborhood Portfolio because it is where I grew up. I have lived here for years, walked these streets, gone to school here, and made friends here. I never looked at Herndon from a geographic perspective, and never questioned things like why people would move to Herndon, and the community that lives here, how the roads are affected by politics and why some services came and left. 

This Portfolio project gave me a reason to look closer at this town and neighborhood. The town of Herndon is located in Virginia, around 25 miles west from washington D.C and it is a part of fairfax county. this towns zip code is 20170 and it has a population of around 25 thousand people. I grew up here and my family lives here as well, my parents also migrated here from El Salvador. 

What are these blog posts about?

I will explore herndon from 6 geographic topics and these are the topics that I will look at and cover during these blogs. 

Blog 1. will be about Population and Migration: who lives here and why.

Blog 2. will take a look at Language and Ethnicity

Blog 3. Religion in Herndon

Blog 4. the Political Geography landscape in herndon and how all the government affects herndon

Blog 5. Urban Enviroments, The urban places that makes Herndon, Fields and parks, Recreational places.

Blog 6. Services in Herndon Like Education, Health, Activities, community events. 

Each Blog will have pictures and observations on walks. walking to many of these location took 5 minutes to 20 minutes but not much farther and Herndon is a very walk-able place. some of these places I know from my childhood and some I have never been to before despite being so close to my home. 

A small background on Herndon,

before eroupe came to this place, Native americans used this land for hunting and fishing, and near the 17th and 18th century, eropeans arrived and changed the landscape through farms, trade, the town got its name in 1858 where it was named after Captain William Lewis Herndon, He was a naval officer and explorer. during the 20th Century, herndon had another big change when washington D.C began a metropolitan expansion that brought the population up and brought more diversity within herndon. 

Finally Today, Herndon is a multitude combination of townhouses, parks, schools, churches, small shops, and offices. 

 Before walking around, I expected to see townhouses, for sale signs, parks, bike trails, churches, a golf course, tennis courts, a gas station, and a 7/11. I expected to hear Spanish and see signs in other languages. I expected to see crosses and maybe a mosque.

I was right about some of those things. But I also found things I did not expect — like a small anime shop near the library, a window decoration spelling out El Salvador, and an old basketball hoop nailed to a tree that people still use.

I also expected to find a clear political identity, but I learned that Herndon's town government is officially non-partisan, so votes do not show which side you voted for.

 I also used several sources for my data, including Data USA, the US Census Bureau, BestPlaces.net, City-Data, the Town of Herndon website, FFXnow, Patch, and Inova. All sources are cited at the end of each post in APA format. these will be cited as you go through the blogs in case you would like to visit and learn more about herndon yourself. 

This blog is not just a collection of facts of Herndon, it is also my view and my experiences in living here for my whole life, some good things like diversity and urban enviorments, and some minor things like lack of school busses and certain events being stopped.

Overall, Herndon is a nice place with a very good community and I hope you will be able to see that after the blogs. 

Thank you.