How does Morgantown, WV compare to The Burgh? (Pittsburgh: living, most dangerous)

[Fiddlehead]

Originally Posted by raubre

Morgantown may not be as hip as Athens, but Pittsburgh sure isn't as hip as Atlanta (meaning anywhwere is hipper than Pittsburgh.) So the analogy could fit better than you think.

Perhaps true. But you forget, Da Burgh kicks a$$! And Atlanta sucks ............peaches.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Speaking of parks, I recently read somewhere that Wheeling, WV has the greatest park anywhere in the US. What's the skinny on that? Anyone seen it?

That's Oglebay Park. Oglebay Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wheeling is a dump. You don't want to go there. It has gambling, race tracks for decades---and all of the illegal crime that goes along with those.

Lots of junkies and prostitutes in the streets. It's a small town with big city problems.

[TelecasterBlues]

To respond to a bunch of stuff, yeah I know of two separate trails in Morgantown that run through downtown and are situated along the riverfront. One's called the Rail Trail, I can't remember the name of the other one. I think the one covers about 4 miles or so through the actual city and then branches off into a 20-some mile trek through the mountains. Yeah the Kinetic Sculpture Race thing...I have no idea if that's incredibly dorky or kind of cool. There's nothing around here like that at all, at least not that I know of. The universities(Pitt/WVU) probably have goofy stuff like that going on, but nothing sponsored by the actual cities as far as I know. You won't see anything like that unless Redbull brings the Flugtog to Pittsburgh...which is bound to happen sooner or later, we have too many rivers for it not to be held here. It'd be a crime against all things logical.

As for Wheeling...yeah it is a dump indeed. It's your typical crumbling West Virgnia city, no industry, incredibly old population that can't keep younger residents around; very old and beat up physically, just not good at all. It's a shame, but at one point in time it was both the state's capitol and the largest city. There's a ton of very nice rowhomes throughout parts of Wheeling that even rival Baltimore, but they're nothing more than just a few shattered pieces of what used to be. There's really no hope for about 90% of West Virginia's "cities", they basically lived and eventually died on manufacturing/coal and have been repressed beyond repair for years by dated politics. The Morgantown metro area, Martinsburg because it's close enough to reap the success of the DC Metro, and some town communities like Beckley are basically it for the state in terms of growth/modernization/progress. Charleston and Huntington are decent places, but they're still shrinking fast and not really well off economically or socially in a lot of ways...basically in the same boat as Wheeling but just nicer communities.

[groar]

i found the downtown in wheeling to be really cute (in a " it just so happens that nothing's been updated since the 50s" way), but i didn't really hang out there.

the wheeling suspension bridge and oglebay park are worth seeing though.

after living in pittsburgh for 10 years, we've finally started going to west virginia outside of morgantown. there's tons of beautiful wilderness and some interesting oddities to visit, like the town of point pleasant where the totally bizarre mothman legend comes from (and they have the mothman museum to show for it) and the mound and the penitentiary tour in moundsville.

oh also, in morgantown you're also not that far from columbus oh, which is a pretty nice city as well.

[tallydude02]

Originally Posted by Hopes

That's Oglebay Park. Oglebay Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wheeling is a dump. You don't want to go there. It has gambling, race tracks for decades---and all of the illegal crime that goes along with those.

Lots of junkies and prostitutes in the streets. It's a small town with big city problems.

That whole upper Ohio Valley...Wheeling, Weirton, Steubenville, Follansbee, Bellaire, and all the little towns in between really have taken a beating over the years. It's a similar vibe to the Mon Valley river towns in the Pittsburgh region.

However, Wheeling is an okay place to visit. Oglebay Park, the park you mentioned, is a nice little park to frolic the day away. I do not care for the gambling but it's on Wheeling Island, another "tourist" spot.

Wheeling tried to enhance its downtown area but with limited success. That doesn't erase the questionable characters who hang out there though.

Now on to the Pittsburgh/Morgantown thing:

To make a living, Pittsburgh is the best place in my opinion. Morgantown is still a small, but nice city overall. Morgantown is a great place to get experience for a better job. Pittsburgh is a great place for a better job and maintaining a career, especially if you are originally in the health care industry.

I am an accountant and the Pittsburgh region offered far better opportunties than Morgantown, or any place in WV.

There are certainly some dumpy areas in Morgantown but the surrounding steep hills and countryside is prettier than the greater Pittsburgh region.

[Hopes]

Wheeling and Oglebay are nice places to visit. I just wanted Fiddlehead to know it's not a place he would like to live.

[Fiddlehead]

Thanks for the feedback on Wheeling. I remember being pretty disenchanted when reading about the town last year. But everyone was raving about the park. I was wondering what was so great about it.

Looks like some very nice woods and mountains to the east of Morgantown, with Cooper's Rock,etc. Also, saw some ski areas fairly close! Wisp (in Maryland! Sheesh, never would have thought), Timberline, Canaan Valley. The Fiddleheads love playing in the snow in winter, and like the Burgh (and Oregon), Morgantown seems to offer the option of living in a place with a fairly mild climate, but access to snow sports within a short drive. Mrs. Fiddlehead loves snowshoeing with the dogs, and it looks like that would definitely be possible for several months in midwinter.

I know, I know...this is not the year to talk about LIKING snow....I was following the super storm in December and lawn chair/parking space debate..that followed. Haha...out here in Oregon, it was wimpy year down low. No snow at all....did teach Fiddlehead Jr. to ski up in the mtns. though. Took to it like a Lapplander, not the feisty bogtrotter that he is...

[WVUPharm2007]

Originally Posted by groar

i'd still wager that you could find a lot more hipster amenities in athens than you could in morgantown.

You people act like that's a bad thing.

Oh, no, don't you worry, we're starting to get those hipster weirdos here and there in Mo'Town, too. Pabst drinking, fauxhemian living, thick-rimmed glasses wearing hipsters. They all look like characters from a Wes Anderson movie. That strange retro-grease look...or whatever the hell it is. As a member of Generation Y, they **** me the hell off. Our generation is essentially vacuous culturally. The result is the hipster...a strange little breed of human, unable to find their own style, their own creativity...they look to the style of things past...an homage to a culture they can't appreciate as when it was formulated because they didn't experience what got them to where they arrived at...rather depressing.

And thank you for saying that Morgantown has none of that. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[groar]

actually, i assumed that fiddlehead would consider hipsters and/or hipster amenities to be a bad thing.

we're just comparing the two cities, not making value judgments either way.

[creepsinc]

WTF groar, I thought I was on the wrong board for a second.