What you LOVE about Hampton Roads (Virginia Beach, Newport News: to buy, living in, military)

[Randomdude]

Originally Posted by Erma

Land wise. Remember that VB has alot of land not yet developed compared to cities that can no longer build and are highly populated.

No, population wise. Virginia Beach is the 41st largest city population wise.

[towncentergal]

Originally Posted by michiganmom48

I like this post. My husband works in the Hampton Road area. We moved to this area last summer. My husband had to find us a place to live and he got advice and we live in the Elisabeth City , North Carolina area. I feel like I'm living in the land of watching paint dry. I want to go to the Mall that has what 6 stores and yell to people are you living here at gun point. In July I really want to move to Virgina and I hope we can. I need to see a Target that doesn't take 45 mins to drive to.

I'd want to kill someone that gave me that advice. I pity you

[towncentergal]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

After residing in Virginia Beach fior 16 years, I am grateful to be living 2000 miles away from the area!

Where did you end up moving to?

[towncentergal]

What i like about Virginia Beach, hmmm....

I guess I would have to say I feel "safe" here. Crime is a lot worse in most places you could live. I know there is more crime activity lately with the recession, but in general I still feel fairly safe.

I like the atmosphere and how it looks. I like that it never snows here really and doesn't get cold here for longer than 2 months.

I like the fact that my husband still has his job, and that the recession has not affected the business of where he works.

I like the condo where I live, for now.

That's all I can think of right now

[gypsy27]

The BAD of Hampton Roads: How's about the horrid winter cloud cover that lasts for about 6 months? How about the total ABSENCE of city beautification? How about the sidewalks that just END and don't connect to any grocery stores or shopping? Check Hampton's walk score online. How about living in VERY close proximity to 60+ registered sex offenders? How about relatively nice neighborhoods being crammed shoulder to shoulder to the GHETTO? How about being zoned for the bottom 1% of Virginia's schools and having to be on a waiting list for the top 1% of VA schools 5 BLOCKS AWAY? How about Robinson park in Old Wythe not having ANY play equipment (it's the only park close enough to walk to in Old Wythe... children abound, but NO play equipment.) How about the GHETTO in Newport News with Projects built on the waterfront that house the drug dealers and their baby-mamas so that they can continue to breed, AND have a water view? The restaurants as a whole are FILTHY and I have NEVER experienced such horrible customer service in my life. I have lived in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Hawaii, California, Florida, Alaska, Tennessee.... etc. etc. WORST reverse racism EVER. Very limited green spaces (like to camp, etc.) Norfolk is polluting the James River and should be condemned. You RARELY see any sort of sea life, or if you do, in my experience, it's DEAD from the toxicity of this GODFORSAKEN PLACE. The Jet noise, compliments of Langely Airforce base is deafening, and will rattle your nerves loose in a very short time. Beware of leaving ANY of your personal property, to include bikes, tools, vehicles unlocked for even a short time. The drug dealers 5 blocks away WILL STEAL IT and Hampton Cops do NOT care. Some people on here have suggested that living in relatively close proximity to nice places justifies living here. Well, It DOESN'T. If you want to live in a more forward thinking place with nice restaurants, safe streets, educated people, DON'T move here. PERIOD. The only people with truly positive things to say about Hampton are people that have NEVER been anywhere else. I am a very proactive person, I have searched to find beauty in this place. But a combination of Poverty, mismanagement of City Tax dollars, apathy, and a large transient military population makes this place a waste. Oh, did I mention the RIDICULOUS amount that Hampton charges for personal property tax? If you own a vehicle that is valued at say 20k expect to pay upwards of $500 a year just to OWN it in Hampton. CRIMINAL considering the state of schools and public places. Where is that money going? GOOD QUESTION. Oh, and one last thing, the City has nothing better to do than try to micro-manage the way you keep your property. You have to get a PERMIT to do just about anything to your house to include replacing windows, putting up a fence, doing an INDOOR remodeling project. If you happen to have hedges surrounding your property, you had better be prepared to hire a gardener to keep them at 6' or lower... yes, the CITY dictates how tall your FOLIAGE can be, on your OWN property. The traffic is horrible if you ever need to get across a body of water. We just gave up a long time ago on traveling through the HRBT, unless we are desperate to go to a decent restaurant. So these are some of the many negatives about Hampton Roads. Please do a lot of research before moving here. I hear Yorktown, Poquoson, and Williamsburg areas are much better. We plan on leaving as soon as humanly possible, or as soon as we can recoup some of the losses of investing in an ancient, run down house in Old Wythe. Hope this post informs people who are considering a move here.

[xGrendelx]

Originally Posted by gypsy27

The BAD of Hampton Roads: How's about the horrid winter cloud cover that lasts for about 6 months? How about the total ABSENCE of city beautification? How about the sidewalks that just END and don't connect to any grocery stores or shopping? Check Hampton's walk score online. How about living in VERY close proximity to 60+ registered sex offenders? How about relatively nice neighborhoods being crammed shoulder to shoulder to the GHETTO? How about being zoned for the bottom 1% of Virginia's schools and having to be on a waiting list for the top 1% of VA schools 5 BLOCKS AWAY? How about Robinson park in Old Wythe not having ANY play equipment (it's the only park close enough to walk to in Old Wythe... children abound, but NO play equipment.) How about the GHETTO in Newport News with Projects built on the waterfront that house the drug dealers and their baby-mamas so that they can continue to breed, AND have a water view? The restaurants as a whole are FILTHY and I have NEVER experienced such horrible customer service in my life. I have lived in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Hawaii, California, Florida, Alaska, Tennessee.... etc. etc. WORST reverse racism EVER. Very limited green spaces (like to camp, etc.) Norfolk is polluting the James River and should be condemned. You RARELY see any sort of sea life, or if you do, in my experience, it's DEAD from the toxicity of this GODFORSAKEN PLACE. The Jet noise, compliments of Langely Airforce base is deafening, and will rattle your nerves loose in a very short time. Beware of leaving ANY of your personal property, to include bikes, tools, vehicles unlocked for even a short time. The drug dealers 5 blocks away WILL STEAL IT and Hampton Cops do NOT care. Some people on here have suggested that living in relatively close proximity to nice places justifies living here. Well, It DOESN'T. If you want to live in a more forward thinking place with nice restaurants, safe streets, educated people, DON'T move here. PERIOD. The only people with truly positive things to say about Hampton are people that have NEVER been anywhere else. I am a very proactive person, I have searched to find beauty in this place. But a combination of Poverty, mismanagement of City Tax dollars, apathy, and a large transient military population makes this place a waste. Oh, did I mention the RIDICULOUS amount that Hampton charges for personal property tax? If you own a vehicle that is valued at say 20k expect to pay upwards of $500 a year just to OWN it in Hampton. CRIMINAL considering the state of schools and public places. Where is that money going? GOOD QUESTION. Oh, and one last thing, the City has nothing better to do than try to micro-manage the way you keep your property. You have to get a PERMIT to do just about anything to your house to include replacing windows, putting up a fence, doing an INDOOR remodeling project. If you happen to have hedges surrounding your property, you had better be prepared to hire a gardener to keep them at 6' or lower... yes, the CITY dictates how tall your FOLIAGE can be, on your OWN property. The traffic is horrible if you ever need to get across a body of water. We just gave up a long time ago on traveling through the HRBT, unless we are desperate to go to a decent restaurant. So these are some of the many negatives about Hampton Roads. Please do a lot of research before moving here. I hear Yorktown, Poquoson, and Williamsburg areas are much better. We plan on leaving as soon as humanly possible, or as soon as we can recoup some of the losses of investing in an ancient, run down house in Old Wythe. Hope this post informs people who are considering a move here.

Wrong thread.

[EMERALDGIRL]

What I like about the area....hmmmm? Well, although I have since moved but lived there most of my life, there were a few things that I liked about living there. I loved going camping in the mountains one weekend and then the beach the next, going to shows at the Norva, being within a few hours of The Outer Banks, a few favorite restaurants, The Chrysler Museum, the annual Fall Wine Fest at Town Point Park, the art festival at Stockley Gardens and the Oceanfront, Williamsburg during the Holidays, Seashore State Park.....

[rtandc]

Originally Posted by gypsy27

The BAD of Hampton Roads: How's about the horrid winter cloud cover that lasts for about 6 months? How about the total ABSENCE of city beautification? How about the sidewalks that just END and don't connect to any grocery stores or shopping? Check Hampton's walk score online. How about living in VERY close proximity to 60+ registered sex offenders? How about relatively nice neighborhoods being crammed shoulder to shoulder to the GHETTO? How about being zoned for the bottom 1% of Virginia's schools and having to be on a waiting list for the top 1% of VA schools 5 BLOCKS AWAY? How about Robinson park in Old Wythe not having ANY play equipment (it's the only park close enough to walk to in Old Wythe... children abound, but NO play equipment.) How about the GHETTO in Newport News with Projects built on the waterfront that house the drug dealers and their baby-mamas so that they can continue to breed, AND have a water view? The restaurants as a whole are FILTHY and I have NEVER experienced such horrible customer service in my life. I have lived in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Hawaii, California, Florida, Alaska, Tennessee.... etc. etc. WORST reverse racism EVER. Very limited green spaces (like to camp, etc.) Norfolk is polluting the James River and should be condemned. You RARELY see any sort of sea life, or if you do, in my experience, it's DEAD from the toxicity of this GODFORSAKEN PLACE. The Jet noise, compliments of Langely Airforce base is deafening, and will rattle your nerves loose in a very short time. Beware of leaving ANY of your personal property, to include bikes, tools, vehicles unlocked for even a short time. The drug dealers 5 blocks away WILL STEAL IT and Hampton Cops do NOT care. Some people on here have suggested that living in relatively close proximity to nice places justifies living here. Well, It DOESN'T. If you want to live in a more forward thinking place with nice restaurants, safe streets, educated people, DON'T move here. PERIOD. The only people with truly positive things to say about Hampton are people that have NEVER been anywhere else. I am a very proactive person, I have searched to find beauty in this place. But a combination of Poverty, mismanagement of City Tax dollars, apathy, and a large transient military population makes this place a waste. Oh, did I mention the RIDICULOUS amount that Hampton charges for personal property tax? If you own a vehicle that is valued at say 20k expect to pay upwards of $500 a year just to OWN it in Hampton. CRIMINAL considering the state of schools and public places. Where is that money going? GOOD QUESTION. Oh, and one last thing, the City has nothing better to do than try to micro-manage the way you keep your property. You have to get a PERMIT to do just about anything to your house to include replacing windows, putting up a fence, doing an INDOOR remodeling project. If you happen to have hedges surrounding your property, you had better be prepared to hire a gardener to keep them at 6' or lower... yes, the CITY dictates how tall your FOLIAGE can be, on your OWN property. The traffic is horrible if you ever need to get across a body of water. We just gave up a long time ago on traveling through the HRBT, unless we are desperate to go to a decent restaurant. So these are some of the many negatives about Hampton Roads. Please do a lot of research before moving here. I hear Yorktown, Poquoson, and Williamsburg areas are much better. We plan on leaving as soon as humanly possible, or as soon as we can recoup some of the losses of investing in an ancient, run down house in Old Wythe. Hope this post informs people who are considering a move here.

Have you ever heard of using paragraphs, it would make reading your post so much easier. I gave up after the word ghetto as my eyes were hurting.

[CosmicWizard]

I know what you mean rtandc, I copied it into MS-Word and broke it into readable sections. Apparently they no longer teach the paragraph concept in writing class these days. Just glomb it all together and hope that your one humongous paragraph doesn't put your readers into a zombied out trance state.

[michelef1l]

Originally Posted by EMERALDGIRL

What I like about the area....hmmmm? Well, although I have since moved but lived there most of my life, there were a few things that I liked about living there. I loved going camping in the mountains one weekend and then the beach the next, going to shows at the Norva, being within a few hours of The Outer Banks, a few favorite restaurants, The Chrysler Museum, the annual Fall Wine Fest at Town Point Park, the art festival at Stockley Gardens and the Oceanfront, Williamsburg during the Holidays, Seashore State Park.....

The Chrysler Museum is such a hidden gem here! It made my day when I found out they made admission free!

Some may say we are a little behind, but we are growing! This area is mostly military...so ofcourse that is where most of the growth began. Now we are just playing catch up, but look at how fast it's coming along!

The old Coliseum Mall is now that super nice 'Peninsula Town Center,' Newport News has City Center and Port Warwick, as well as a revamped Patrick Henry Mall. The Williamsburg outlets just added on a TON of higher end stores. Also, Williamsburg is home to one of the nation's best (AND CLEANEST) theme parks which is now open almost year-round. And all of these new shopping centers popping up all over the place...need I go on!?

Look around you, this is a very exciting time for Hampton Roads! While most places are still trying to pull themselves out of the recession, we are one of the areas that is still thriving! Ofcourse the recession did affect us, but we could be in a MUCH worse position right now. I for one and looking forward to what this area has in store for us in the future