I grew up in the Washington DC Metropolitan area most of my life (my immediate family is still there).  DC, NY, LA, Chicago and cities like that (along with its suburban areas) are what I consider a metropolitan area.

I was surprised to discover that Ocklawaha is part of the “Ocala Metropolitan area”.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the group that oversees the activities of federal agencies in the United States, produced a formal definition of metropolitan areas. These are defined as "Metropolitan Statistical Areas" (MSAs) and "Combined Statistical Areas" (CSAs).

Apparently, Marion County is a “metropolitan area”. Marion County is coterminous (has the same boundaries) with the Ocala Metropolitan Statistical Area, Ocala being the principle city in Marion County. Thus, Ocala Metro area was first defined in 1981.

Some of you may find the 2006-2008 Census Data of the two areas interesting.

U.S. Census Bureau, 2006-2008 American Community Survey
Items of Interest	Marion County, FL		Fairfax County, VA
	Estimate	%	Estimate	%
Total population	322,494		1,005,980
Population 25 years and over	232,857		673,883
65 yrs and over	78,146	24.2	96,099	9.6
White	266,983	82.8	674,417	67.0
Black	37,357	11.6	94,102	9.4
Asian	4,522	1.4	159,247	15.8
Hispanic	29,583	9.2	136,192	13.5
Foreign born	22,974	7.1	278,319	27.7
Speak a language other than English at home	32,130	10.5	319,832	34.2
Mean travel time to work in minutes	24.3		30.8
Median household income	41,128		106,785
Median home value	159,600		556,100
Land/Water	Total =1,663 Square Mile	1,579 Land/84 Water	Total = 407 Square Mile	395 Land/ 12 Water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are some vast differences between the two areas (population, income, home value, land, etc…)!

What I like/miss about Washington DC Metro area:

• Family & friends (of course!)
• Cuisines/restaurants (the variety is awesome!)
• Shopping (Tysons Corner, Pentagon City, Tysons Galleria, etc…)
• Culture (cultural diversity, museums, shows, etc…)
• Asian grocery stores! (I have yet to find an Asian grocery store here. I admit, I haven’t look very hard. I hope I find one soon. I have a hankering for kimchi and other Southeast Asian goodies that are wrapped in banana leaves.)

What I do NOT miss about Washington DC Metro area:

• Traffic/Congestion (it’s bad! the construction of the HOT lanes are making it worse, ironic!)

What I like about the Ocala Metro:

• New friends!
• Ocala National Forest (it’s huge! and it is a stone’s throw away from the house!)
• Natural Florida springs
• Slower pace of life
• Palm trees
• Citrus groves
• Live oaks
• Bougainvilleas
• Critters in the backyard (bears! turkeys, deer, owls, hawk and sandhill cranes)

What I am still getting used to in the Ocala Metro:

• Dirt roads! (There are quite a bit of sandy roads here. No clay, so no sticky muddy roads.)

• Only two traffic lights in Ocklawaha
• Constant changing of speed limit on the major roads (speed limit change depending on presence of houses/communities along the road)
• Name of the streets! (It’s too long to explain here…)