Is Charlottesville good for liberals and good for young families? (Harrisonburg: new home, elementary schools)

[Juggernaut1547]

Originally Posted by deserthorse

What's wrong with Food Lion?

Well, the one on route 29 sells rotting meat.

[cryschap]

Originally Posted by deserthorse

I'm liberal, but maybe not *very* liberal. As far as Super-Walmart- thank God there isn't one here. What's wrong with Food Lion? I'd much rather have our Whole Foods, and forget Super anything. As far as shopping and errands, if you can't find it here, the internet is a click away, no traffic at all.

Did you find the parks? Also, we think a great place to take kids for the day is the Museum Of Frontier Culture. It's in Staunton, but not a long drive. Farm animals, and the kids can walk (or run if it isn't busy) along the trail. There's a neat museum. This actually kept our grandchildren happy as clams in mud a lot of times. I'm more of a homebody, and my son is, too, so out and about isn't my strongest point. When my son was young, he and his friends played at our house a lot. We had a tire swing and a pond and magnolia tree for cones with Legos and Hot Wheels and Army men. They amused themselves.

We were in Albemarle county schools, and I can't say enough good about the elementary school, and even the middle school. I volunteered in elementary, so I was there a lot. Wonderful, caring, flexible, open minded and diverse teachers Just great! BTW, my son graduated last year from college, *** Laude

I guess we are 2 different kinds of people.... I have 5 kids, I can't afford to get groceries at Food Lion! I need one stop shopping, get it all at one place and be done and I have never lived anywhere that there wasn't a super-walmart. Whole Foods is NOT my thing! I could care less about flax seed and organic whatever, like I said 5 kids and a tight budget

I'm from Florida, right next door to Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, Kennedy Space Center, several zoos, several beaches and much more. We could go to Disney for a day and be back home that night, the beach was 5 miles from our house and we could watch space shuttle launches from the porch.... Charlottesville doesn't hold a candle to any of that. And you can do any of that stuff year round unlike here. My kids laugh at the parks here. The only decent one is Pen Park and when we tried to take them there the last warm day we had there were literally hundreds of people there! I can't see driving all the way to Staunton for a Frontier Museum, while that may interest some my kids would be bored out of their minds. And the OP lives in Harrisburg and was asking about C-ville in general, Staunton is closer to them if they stayed where they are.

Perhaps I'm just bitter about being here but I can't see much here. I'm not a homebody, but here people aren't as welcoming as they are back home in FL. When we are out the only real interaction I get from people is their utter shock that we have 5 kids. I get snide remarks that I'm sure are meant to be joking like we keep the school systems populated and when we go out to dinner we are told we have to wait extra long because we're considered a party not a family. Its just not been my idea of a welcome to our city. I've been here for 9 months and thus far not impressed.

As far as Liberalness goes, yeah its here, but there are also personal substandards that go beyond liberal and conservative beliefs that seem to vary from person to person. An example: When I was at UVA having my baby my hub who was on medical leave then was with me, he works for a company that does medical stuff and he is their licensed clinical person, they needed something setup at UVA, he had his phone off because his wife was in labor and he was on leave, his boss told the case manager my name and stuff so they could find him and come ask if he'd do this while I was in labor. SO here I am in labor (yes I want to emphasize I was IN LABOR) and this lady comes in asking my hubs to come setup some equipment and do a class for them right then. She begged and pleaded because he was the only one that could do it and she wouldnt give up, so he did it... while I was in labor, him in Pj pants and hadnt shaved in 2 days. And his boss tells him oh thanks for doing that I so appreciate it. Did he get paid for it? No because if he would have it would have messed with his medical leave. I just felt that was completely out of line and it seems people around here don't seem to have alot of tact and care for other people or their feelings or situations, it only matters what benefits them. So in a nutshell C-ville has completely rubbed me wrong.

[cryschap]

Originally Posted by Juggernaut1547

Well, the one on route 29 sells rotting meat.

Oh and about Food Lions since we are getting into them... if you go to the 5th st one you get a police escort in and out... how snazzy is that???

[i4tas]

I would hope no more liberals move here....

For all i care they could tear down every store on highway 29, put in a quality highway with ramps, and then put up a huge super walmart!

Of all the grocery stores here, they all are worse compared to a walmart supercenter. They are not even better than Fred Meyer, Jewl-Osco, or Safeway. Kroger is probably the best, food lion feels like an aldi's but has regular prices.

Gives Us A Super WalMart!

I did like the Target by the airport! Felt like I was shopping in the suburbs, It is amazing how much better places can be when you don't have buses going there! Should have done a SuperTarget

[Juggernaut1547]

Originally Posted by cryschap

Oh and about Food Lions since we are getting into them... if you go to the 5th st one you get a police escort in and out... how snazzy is that???

[mrdrewmartin]

This discussion would benefit from a better understanding of Classical Liberalism (and its recent rebirth- see here: [url]http://offthedrip.com/[/url] and the 'newer' definition of Liberal dating from the progressive era of the 1900s.

Classical liberals of which Thomas Jefferson is among the most esteemed, believed the the point of government was to preserve individual liberties and property - 'That state is best which governs least'.

Progressives or modern liberals reject limits on state power and seek to use state power to remedy what they see as social ills - inequality, access to health care, affordable housing. These liberals have almost nothing in common with classical liberalism which grew out of opposition to the crown and the noble class monopolizing all economic and political activity.

The constitution is a classical liberal document, so progressives have continually needed to subvert it's language to get their programs installed - to increase state power.

One way of interpreting this dialogue is to say that both Classical Liberals and Prorgressives are ethically driven, but Classical Liberals feel that classical liberal societies result in the best outcomes even for the poor, if free markets and freedom of contract and exchange are preserved and money is kept 'hard' (as opposed to fiat paper currency) to prevent inflation and encourage savings and investment.

Modern liberals see 'market failure' everywhere and want to jump in and use the power / violence of the state to fix things and get to a better society, faster. To 'immanentize the eschaton' in William Bradleys' famous phrase.

The rise of progressive liberalism has replaced the old, domineering monarchies and their noble cronies which has been reined in by the classical liberals, with a new system of government bureaucrats and machine politicians that essentially does the same thing as the old regime - regulate, ban, and tax everything.

Hence, the sudden appeal of classical liberal concepts (a la Ron Paul).

Charlottesville has a lot of both kinds of liberals, in case you are wondering. It's trending to the progressive side as tax-eaters from DC and NYC move in. Neverthesless is has one of the most active Ron Paul chapters in the state.

Hope this helps - best of luck,

Drew.

[TinaTurnstone]

As a liberal would you be happy living in Charlottesville? It would depend on your criteria – which might include: percentage of the votes earned by Barack Obama (76%) and Mitt Romney (22%), the percentage of adult population with Bachelors Degree or higher (49%); percentage of population with management/professional jobs ( 50%), percentage of women-owned business (25%), percentage of unmarried mothers (40% give or take 15%), popular Netflix rentals (Gosford Park and Brideshead Revisited) and Whole Foods Markets (1).

Charlottesville, Virginia is a college town and has less than 44,000 inhabitants. An independent City geographically surrounded by, but separate from Albemarle County. A 1980’s Revenue Sharing Agreement, between the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, prohibits annexation efforts by the city in exchange for a share (18M FY2010) of the county’s revenue.

The City of Charlottesville, despite its idolization of diversity, is still about 70% white, a dwindling 19% black and about the same number of Asian and Hispanic/Latino. (The City should expect greater ethnic diversity within the next few years as evident by the public school system’s gearing up for a large influx of resettling refugees as sponsored by the International Rescue Committee organization. The City of Charlottesville, being the smallest of the IRC’s 22 regional offices in the U.S., will be duplicating needed services as now provided by Baltimore, Atlanta, Seattle, New York etc.) Almost 60% of the population is nonfamily households to – which definitely helps with its liberal makeup. Charlottesville promotes liberal-style businesses (technology tax incentives), independent coffee shops, natural food shops (Yogaville runs the largest), vegetarian eateries, festivals (many funded by the City of Charlottesville), theater groups, art galleries and boasts about its farmer’s market. Charlottesville ranked 14th on the list of most restaurants per capita (City Council members seek to tap into this cash-cow by increasing the meals tax). A consistently elected Democratic City Council (This is a one-party City: the last Republican mayor was in 1968) assures typical liberal values – floating the ideas of decriminalization of marijuana, removal of Civil War statues from public parks and funding the many many Boards and Commissions like town-twinning (quadruplet sister cities in Charlottesville’s case) and Dialogue on Race (soon to have the power to levy fines on businesses). City Council meetings often time run past midnight while the members wade into national issues like passing toothless resolutions against the Iraq War and anti-drone legislation. The motto printed on all City letterhead and vehicles - “A World Class City”.

[MiddleClassAmericaDOTORG]

HI,

Charlottesville is considered to be quite liberal so I think you would like that...On the flip side Charlottesville is pretty expensive to live in.

Best compromise is to live close in BUT not within city limits (Western Albemarle schools are supposed to be highly desirable).

Andrew

[TinaTurnstone]

Based on the tone of the responses - the thoroughly berated OP probably has enough information to make an informed choice between living with ‘bible-belt’ conservatives in Harrisonburg (a boring quiet community where religion influences politics, science, and education) or the liberal Charlottesville Democrats (a community of in-your-face over “educated” college graduates and professors who never leave the Grounds but know what is best for those living, or considering living, in the City).

[Green Irish Eyes]

Originally Posted by TinaTurnstone

Based on the tone of the responses - the thoroughly berated OP probably has enough information to make an informed choice between living with ‘bible-belt’ conservatives in Harrisonburg (a boring quiet community where religion influences politics, science, and education) or the liberal Charlottesville Democrats (a community of in-your-face over “educated” college graduates and professors who never leave the Grounds but know what is best for those living, or considering living, in the City).

Given that OP started this thread more than five years ago, I think it's safe to assume that she has decided on a location by now .....