Ashburn, VA to Hampton Roads? (Newport News: appointed, for sale, rentals)

[stacylee926]

Well the OP mentions that south of Williamsburg is 30 min away from possible work site. Based on that I was guessing that he could be working in SW NN - maybe downtown??

Not to say that York County is not a good choice - maybe the OP can clarify a little bit on the area of employment.

Newport News is pretty large and heavily populated (not much open land). Getting from one end of town to the other could easily be a 30 minute commute. When I travel through town, I may drive on Warwick or the highway - all depends on time of day etc. Getting through the Patrick Henry Mall area can be time consuming.

[stacylee926]

As far as York County not being as convenient - yes that is a true statement. It is right on the edge of Hampton Roads and requires quite a bit of travel to get to Norfolk, or Va Beach. I live in Portsmouth and Williamsburg is a 45 minute drive for me and I am in the middle of HR and right at the highway!

York County has plenty to offer, but it is just my opinion on the area. Knowing where the OP lives now - which is very suburban - I think he would feel quite removed in YC.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

One more question: how is the traffic on I-64 or V-60 between Williamsburg and northern Newport News? Work will be around the City Center at Oyster Point.

Is Isle of Wight more suburban than York County? Is York County that rural?

[damian]

York County is more suburban...also check out poquoson....there are some nice new developments that would fit into a "NOVA" category....i would look at YC over IOW if empolyment is in NN

[IndiaLimaDelta]

BTW, what's this I hear about a lot of snakes in the area compared to NoVA?

That would seriously freak out the lady of the house.

What kind of rodents, critters and generally yicky creatures do you have in the area that NoVA does not have?

One more thing, is there FIOS in the area?

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by IndiaLimaDelta

BTW, what's this I hear about a lot of snakes in the area compared to NoVA?

That would seriously freak out the lady of the house.

What kind of rodents, critters and generally yicky creatures do you have in the area that NoVA does not have?

One more thing, is there FIOS in the area?

Personally, I didn't really see any difference in HR and NoVA bugs.

As for FIOS, can't speak for the rest of the area but there was some in Chesapeake the last time I visited.

[tabbva]

Isle of White is very rural, except for the areas closest to Smithfield and the rest of Hampton Roads. York is mainly suburban, with a few rural patches up on the north west end of the county.

If your work is at City Center and you're looking for a safe, upscale suburban area then lower York County would be your best bet. It's an easy commute (compared to NOVA) down US 17. There are lots of "stepford-ish" developments along 17. Now, none of them are that large and you won't find the density of ethnic foods (there are several good restaurants) I think it would offer more diversity than Isle of White and an easier commute than Williamsburg.

And, yes, the mosquitos are MUCH worse in HR than in NoVA, don't let people tell you otherwise! They use large military planes to spray for them. Scared the beejuzes out of me when I first moved to the area 10 years and some huge jet buzed my house!

As far as "icky creatures", it's all the same types.

I like Poquoson, and will be moving there soon, but if you are looking for an ethinically diverse community you won't find it there. But if you are looking for a culturally diverse community you will, just not in the way most people think of cultural diversity. You'll find high ranking military officials, top nasa scientists, and 4th generation watermen. Diverse, just now what people usually think of as diverse.

[BrianLMA]

They do have FIOS in many areas of York County and Poquoson. I'm not sure about Isle of Wight, but I would guess not yet. The major cable provider is COX, which is pretty comparable to Verizon FIOS in terms of price. I just switched to FIOS and like it. Isle of Wight has Charter Cable, which I've heard from several clients isn't all that good.

If your property backs up to a marsh, expect mosquitos. Further away it is much better. Last year seemed like a lot less than usual (at least where I live) for some reason.

The commute up I-64 between the Oyster Point section of Newport News (my office is located there as well) and Williamsburg can get congested during rush hour, particularly between the 5 mile stretch between Jefferson Ave and Ft Eustis because the interstate goes from 5 to 2 lanes. Also, the merge point for the entrance/exit ramp at Ft Eustis are too short so it can get a little hairy there. Going up Rte 60 can be an alternate route, although there are a LOT of stop lights until you get up to Ft Eustis Blvd.

As someone else mentioned, York Co or Poquoson would be an easy commute, using either Rte 17 or Victory Blvd.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

I decided to take a drive to the area Saturday and check it out firsthand, so I could make a more informed decision.

The area definitely has a very different feel to it compared to Ashburn. Ashburn is made up of miles and miles of nice homes with manicured lawns, club houses, Target, Wegman's, Harris Teeter, Thai restaurants, various town centers, etc.

From what little I saw, York County has older, low rent looking stores in the urban areas along V-17, somewhat rural-looking homes, then older (20-30 years?) ranch-style homes and then pockets of newer homes in isolated areas (e.g. Port Cove). Those isolated, small developments looked little more like Ashburn, but only with 10-15 homes and no stores and other amenities nearby.

York County, in NoVA terms, looked to me like a combination of rural Fauquier County and bits of lesser developed Manassas with isolated bits of newer Hay Market homes. Not particularly Ashburn-like.

I was surprised there was only one Harris Teeter, Target and Trader Joe's on the whole peninsula.

Isle of Wight/Carrollton looked pretty rural outside the developments. And, yes, that bridge across is a bit long. IF the area were to become more developed (or with an accident on or near the bridge), I could easily see that bridge becoming a bad traffic choke point.

That area looked nothing like Ashburn to me. It just seemed like a fairly rural, undeveloped area with a handful of random new residential developments of moderate sizes. However, I did not check out Eagle Harbor (I gather that area is more developed). Looked at a few homes at Founders Pointe. Some of them had pretty designs, but not very detail-oriented and looked like they were put together in a hurry. Didn't seem high quality.

I only saw a sign for Bloom in Isle of Wight. No stores other than odd auto parts shop and such.

I drove V-60 north from Newport News to Williamsburg. There were dodgy-looking areas, especially near Denbigh and Fort Eustis. Saw some Asian stores and restaurants (e.g. E-Mart), but very low rent-looking.

I don't have a problem with it as I lived for a time in or near crime-ridden areas of NYC and SoCal, but I would definitely not feel comforable for my wife and littles one in some of those areas if they were without me (even though my wife CCPs).

I did not get to Virginia Beach or Chesapeake. Perhaps there are more upscale neighborhoods there.

I thought it was a bit funny and definitely anachronistic to see various "Oriental" restaurants and stores, complete with fake Asian lettering, in the areas I saw. Very 70s, early 80s. It's the kind of thing you don't see anymore in many urban or suburban areas, esp. on the West Coast or NE. You see more upscale, "artsy" ethnic and fusion restaurants.

What also caught me by surprise was the demographics. Some areas seemed exclusively white, some exclusively black and some a mix of white and black. Did not see much else in terms of ethnic mixture, which would be a HUGE change for my family. My little ones are used to socializing with everyone from children of government officials, Indian IT professionals, Korean doctors (our pediatricians are from Western Europe and Asia), Vietnamese merchants, people of mixed and sometimes indeterminate ethnic origins of middle to upper class economic backgrounds.

My family is prosperous, but we look pretty average here (as many others pointed out in the NoVa forum, people generally don't flaunt their wealth here and put most of their resources into education and real estate -- there are people who live in $2-3 million dollar homes who drive Hondas or Fords and whose children attend private schools but shop at consignment stores for clothing). I like my kids growing up while thinking of themselves as "average" or "normal" (even if they are not average by national standards). Around Newport News, they might be considered "rich kids" and stick out a bit. I would hate for them to get an attitude! It's a pretty ugly sight to see kids who think highly of themselves because of their parents' affluence.

This is going to be a difficult decision!

[BrianLMA]

Originally Posted by IndiaLimaDelta

I don't have a problem with it as I lived for a time in or near crime-ridden areas of NYC and SoCal, but I would definitely not feel comforable for my wife and littles one in some of those areas if they were without me (even though my wife CCPs).

What is CCP? I looked it up on Wikipedia but that didn't help much:
CCP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia