Tired of Portsmouth getting a bad rap

[stacylee926]

Originally Posted by one crowded hour

Hi there. I'm new to the area and this site. I haven't spent a great deal of time in P town, but I am looking to buy a townhouse in Olde Towne. I love Olde Towne. It has a quaint feel (as it should considering the name) and is very pedestrian-friendly. I'm looking for more than just a house. I want there to be a real community-feel to the place, and I think Olde Towne has that. I've spent hours strolling around the neighborhood, eating at the restaurants, sipping coffee on High Street, and talking to residents. I also like the fact that the ferry can quickly whisk you away to the mall, clubs, and nice areas of N'folk. I'm so tired of being tethered to my car. It's so rewarding to simply walk to everything you need. That said, I'm not very impressed with what I've seen outside of Olde Towne, which admittedly isn't a lot. But the areas I've driven through seem blighted and suffer from urban sprawl.

I agree about urban sprawl. However, most of HR is like that - it seems like it is all houses or strip malls! Because HR is an older area, many areas still look like you are living in 1950. To me, that is not really a bad thing because I know where the new areas are and I can find anything I need in HR. I think I am just getting more nostalgic and I was so tired of the hustle and bustle of NoVa that I enjoy stepping back and slowing down.

Portsmouth definitely has no big malls (or small malls for that matter) but overall it is a safe place to live - maybe because of that reason....
On Dec 31st at 4:00 pm downtown (near the church that is getting the new steeple) they have a wonderful Scottish walk thru the old town area. It ends on the waterfront, takes an hour, and is a nice way to spend some time. Bagpippers play as we walk the streets - very cool. Check the newspaper for the exact location if you don't have anything to do.

[p_town405]

p town all day baby pistol city i miss p town... but hell your right portsmouth is a good place to live as long as you know how to talk to people and know how to put yourself off to people.. no matter where you go you will always have them people looking for trouble. i am in pittsburgh and to think of pittsburgh and p town theres a big difference.. just always remmeber dont ever live somewhere that your afraid to walk the streets at night.. still wish i was livin on Alywin rd.. i have seen some crazy **** happening around that block so dont ever think a place is safe inless you been there. good luck and dont ever think of p town as a bad place.. people to busy tryna get there paper up

[KNOWLEDGE162]

People do not realize that alot of what happen to portsmouth is what the government and city had something to do with. Even now that thing are looking better for portsmouth but there are still different areas that still remind me of how people were living in 1980-1999. If we as people do not come together to help fix whats is a problem and a i sore to all people then all is lost. So to all that think or see the beauty that around here do something about it . we all have a voice and an physical presents that can change anything and everything. So make that change and watch to see the changes. KNOWLEDGEBOND

[RosemaryT]

I live in Norfolk because of my husband's job, but I was born and raised in Portsmouth and attended Norcom when it was a vocational school (late 1970s).

If it wasn't for my husband's work, I would **LOVE** to live in Portsmouth. The real estate is incredibly affordable, and there are neighborhoods that are DELIGHTFUL.

Best of all, it's a very easy city to navigate, and the traffic is 10x easier to deal with than Nor-foke.

That being said, I had a dear friend (mid-80s) who suffered a home invasion in Hunter's Point (off West Norfolk Road) in June 2009. It was a horrific thing, and she never was able to return to her home. It surprised us (her friends), because we always thought that Hunter's Point was a solid, safe, middle-class neighborhood, but apparently, it has really gone down hill.

The key to living safe in Portsmouth is to know the area.

I still dream of living in Sterling Point or Glensheallah.

Rose

[RosemaryT]

Originally Posted by the4pits

What are they doing with the old Jeffery Wilson projects and Clarke Elem? I agree that they are changing that area of ptown for the better, just where are all of the people going from the numerous projects they are tearing down? Suffolk?

I think that's one problem the city really needs to address. As they've torn down the projects, some of those "less than desirable" tenants have ended up clustered together again in other parts of town, and I think that's putting a hurting on previously safe areas.

[greeneyedme247]

I used to like living in Portsmouth. For different reasons: some legit and some silly. Everyone thought you were "hardcore" and all that dumb stuff if you lived in P-Town (back when I actually cared about that and all.) I lived in a decent neighborhood and very close to Chesapeake Square Mall so I didn't care that they closed down Tower Mall. It has a very nice (smallish, but still love it) City Park, it's close to a lot of different things. It now has its own music venue. It's small, so it's easy to get around. I grew up in Portsmouth- it's my hometown to this day. I know a lot about the city because I had friends from all over it. It will always have a place in my heart for P-Town. I even rock a P-Town sticker on my car STILL, after they came into style about 6-7 years ago.

However, this is a cautionary tale...
I would seriously consider my other options if I had a choice as to where to raise my children. I really am not trying to knock Portsmouth. But I am trying to bring some of the truths of it to light. Because believe it or not, some of the stereotypes about Portsmouth have some truth in them.
Once I had my own child I learned to quickly dislike living there. I had to get my kid out so he wasn't just "pushed through" Portsmouth Public Schools. And these were things I was worried about when he was still a baby! Things that really perturb me about Portsmouth:

The school system has always been a sad joke, but I didn't really use to care. I graduated, and that's all that mattered to me. Of course, learning about four years later that I graduated from the high school with the state's highest drop-out record is a bit of an eye-opener. (Reppin' WWHS.) It never occurred to me that I was never remotely challenged in school. The middle school was possibly even more of a joke than the high school. There was many a day at William E. Waters Middle School that I found myself not having any real school work to focus on. And that was in 6th grade!! My first year of living there, the art teacher got in trouble for basically man-handling a fellow classmate of mine (which I'm pretty sure was never in the news.) My 2nd year, I seriously struggled in math and because my teacher didn't have the "time" to take extra time and help me understand it more, I failed 7th grade math. I had to go to summer school to re-learn in less time. My summer school math teacher basically taught for the first 20 minutes of the class (I believe it was 1 1/2 hour class) and then just kinda chilled out for the rest of it and passed everyone that was present. I never did recover completely with math because of the serious lack of good teaching in the math department in that particular school. In high school, of course there were your average crappy parts. Having to deal with "race wars" and teachers that taught that race was everything, teachers that drank spiked coffee every morning, assistant principals who didn't give a care that you just got violently threatened byanother student.....well that's not something I want my son to have to deal with. Sorry. The school system is a big part of why I got out of there the first chance I could. I worked in and out of daycares, law firms, government offices, a couple of the schools, a local grocery store, etc. in Portsmouth, so I have a pretty healthy dose of the what's what and a who's who in Portsmouth. A lot of the stuff I've learned about Portsmouth and it in comparison to other surrounding cities is not positive information.

OP, Portsmouth doesn't have a high crime rate? Seriously? It's over twice that of Virginia Beach and it's less than half the size. I'd say that's a pretty high crime rate, if you ask me.

The city isn't managed that well either, although I will admit that it's seeming to get a grip with what it needs to focus on since that ridiculous fool is out of the mayor's office. (They need to get Sen. Lucas to move on out too.) The politicians that run the city need to get better in touch with its residents.

Two words for you that will destroy a lot of what Portsmouth is trying to build up as appeal for other city dwellers to come check out: TUNNEL TOLLS. And no, not just the Mid-Town as someone else put it, but the Downtown as well. And I believe I heard they are opening up the Jordan bridge with a toll? If not it's another local bridge, then. This type of silly thing is going to put a huge dent in Portsmouth's already bottom-scraping economy. I was living in Portsmouth, but working in VB. I can't even imagine having to fork over that additional money a month considering how long you have to sit in traffic both ways, anyway. Insanity, I swear.


These are my main problems with the city that I grew up. Just putting out some of the facts, from someone who has actually lived it from a kid to an adult. But then again, most cities are not all sunshine and rainbows!