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I live in Virginia Beach, VA & am considering a move to your fair city. I haven't been there yet, & want to learn more about Columbia before I pursue a visit.
Let me tell you some things about myself. First, I am a white woman married to an Asian man. I wonder if my bi-racial marriage may be perceived as a problem.
I am not very liberal or conservative politically. I am religious, & Christian, but not a conservative one. I enjoy history, architecture, decorating, cleaning, cooking and making home improvements, gardening, reading, shopping and the occasional movie & nice dinner. In other words, I'm pretty boring!
I don't go to bars, play pool or video games. I'm not high-tech or very hip. I'm definitely not "beachy."
I know it sounds superficial, but a "pretty" environment is important to me. So is clean and well-cared for. Obviously my ideal locale does not need to be terribly exciting, (great garden centers are exciting to me!) but I do want to live in a pleasant, friendly, attractive place if possible!
Does Columbia sound like that sort of place? If not, do you know of a place that does, LOL?
Why are you thinking about moving here? Columbia is a neat, attractive, pretty capital city. It has its eyesores as well as its treasures. It has tree-lined in-town neighborhoods, nice people and a clean, green and flowery downtown. It's hot and humid in the summer, earlier this summer than most, thus the logo "Famously Hot." Great meals out, movies, the theater, the performing and visual arts, community farmer's markets, different types of festivals, mild winters and an unpretentious aura are all part of what makes Columbia go 'round. Crime is worse than we'd like, but a new police chief, a community-based city police force, and county law enforcement are all working on that problem together. I hope you enjoy your visit.
I live in Virginia Beach, VA & am considering a move to your fair city. I haven't been there yet, & want to learn more about Columbia before I pursue a visit.
Let me tell you some things about myself. First, I am a white woman married to an Asian man. I wonder if my bi-racial marriage may be perceived as a problem.
I am not very liberal or conservative politically. I am religious, & Christian, but not a conservative one. I enjoy history, architecture, decorating, cleaning, cooking and making home improvements, gardening, reading, shopping and the occasional movie & nice dinner. In other words, I'm pretty boring!
I don't go to bars, play pool or video games. I'm not high-tech or very hip. I'm definitely not "beachy."
I know it sounds superficial, but a "pretty" environment is important to me. So is clean and well-cared for. Obviously my ideal locale does not need to be terribly exciting, (great garden centers are exciting to me!) but I do want to live in a pleasant, friendly, attractive place if possible!
Does Columbia sound like that sort of place? If not, do you know of a place that does, LOL?
Thanks for any feedback!
If you have a choice where to live in SC, I would choose Charleston first and Greenville next over Columbia. This is especially true when you say pretty, clean, and well cared for. Send a few days riding around each area. See for yourself.
CD,my husband may accept a position there. He works in health care. I am 48 years old, but not yet ready to settle here in VA as my final destination! I feel interested in trying out a new place to live. I am a native Virginian, but we have lived in upstate NY and NE PA. We don't want to return to the snowbelt!
Thanks so much for your response! You sound very enthusiastic about Columbia. It sounds like a place that could work out for us.
If you have a choice where to live in SC, I would choose Charleston first and Greenville next over Columbia. This is especially true when you say pretty, clean, and well cared for. Send a few days riding around each area. See for yourself.
Boy will I get flamed for this......LOL
She never said she had a choice where to live in SC, so I don't know why you even brought it up. If it's a case of just choosing any city anywhere, why not just skip SC altogether? Plus she specifically said she's not "beachy," so I guess you missed that part.
To tealover, you can find what you're looking for in Columbia. The reasons I love Columbia are because the area is home, it has a little something for everyone, the cost of living is good, it's a college town, there are lots of things here to keep you occupied, there are nice neighborhoods, and on and on. On the downside, I wish it didn't get quite as hot in the summer but there's nothing we can do about that. And like Columbiadata said, the crime rate is a little higher than we'd like it but like anywhere, it's concentrated to particular areas. We have our traffic-challenged areas but traffic is good compared to other areas.
What type of neighborhood are you looking for? I personally think the prettiest neighborhoods in the city are Shandon, Elmwood Park, and Rosewood but there are others as well.
Thanks Palmetto Guy! You give a glowing recommendation of Columbia! Sounds great. In addition to hearing details about Columbia, I am also open to suggestions about other SC cities.
If my husband doesn't take the job in Columbia & an opening comes up in another SC town, I'd like to know whether it's something to consider or not. I've learned from this thread (& others here on the board) that Greenville and Charleston are well thought of by many. Charleston looks amazing and gorgeous in pics, but I wonder if it may feel too much like a resort area than a place to really live! Greenville and Columbia seem more "home-y."
It sounds like Columbia does have a lot going for it! It's difficult for me to imagine any of these cities, really, since I've never been to SC. Without making a visit, the images on Google and the descriptions here help, but in a very limited way, of course. Of course, I will have to make a visit if my husband seriously wants to move forward with this job! He doesn't want to sell our house and move to a location that I won't like, no matter how good a job is, so my impressions factor in here significantly.
Thanks so much for sharing your opinions and information!
Accufitgolf, Thanks for your reply! Could you say more about that?
Tealover, I think what accufitgolf is saying is accurate. Ride around for a good day in the city. It is not the most well cared for city. I spent two weeks in each of the SC big three (Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville) trying to decide where to locate a regional office. Columbia came in a distant third.
The "well cared for" part is important to me as well. In Columbia, I noticed more homes with overgrown yards, more cars missing hubcaps, more run down commercial buildings. A general, "less than cared for" vibe. Now I must say, small parts of the city ARE very cared for (Shandon, the Devine Street area and Forest Acres are beautiful). Overall though, the city is not exactly cared for.
As for geographical beauty, it does have the river and some small hills, but it just doesn't have the overall "lush and enveloping" feel I like. Many of the trees used for landscaping on Main Street and throughout downtown are Palmetto's, which will never offer any real shade.
Thanks Palmetto Guy! You give a glowing recommendation of Columbia! Sounds great. In addition to hearing details about Columbia, I am also open to suggestions about other SC cities.
If my husband doesn't take the job in Columbia & an opening comes up in another SC town, I'd like to know whether it's something to consider or not. I've learned from this thread (& others here on the board) that Greenville and Charleston are well thought of by many. Charleston looks amazing and gorgeous in pics, but I wonder if it may feel too much like a resort area than a place to really live! Greenville and Columbia seem more "home-y."
It sounds like Columbia does have a lot going for it! It's difficult for me to imagine any of these cities, really, since I've never been to SC. Without making a visit, the images on Google and the descriptions here help, but in a very limited way, of course. Of course, I will have to make a visit if my husband seriously wants to move forward with this job! He doesn't want to sell our house and move to a location that I won't like, no matter how good a job is, so my impressions factor in here significantly.
Thanks so much for sharing your opinions and information!
You can only get a real grasp for the area in an in-person visit, so I hope you can make it down soon and see if it's for you.
An important question is, are you looking for more of an urban area or suburban area? Like most cities, most of the growth happening in this area is in the suburbs. The neighborhoods in the city are getting growth, but not nearly as much as the suburbs.
I strongly disagree with others about Columbia being less well-cared for than other cities. For instance, the historic part of downtown Charleston is very nice, but you have to drive through some of the most ghetto-type areas in the state to get to it. Greenville is a small city, so the city itself is nice but there are areas surrounding it not in the city that look pretty run down, like off the White Horse Road exit or Piedmont Highway.
Again, you won't get a true feel for it until you make a visit. For some reason, you have a lot of people who post frequently in the Columbia forum who don't like the city at all (which is baffling), so you have to take what a lot of people say here with a grain of salt, especially if they don't live here.
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