Hating poe-dunk Iowa; looking to move to Richmond..difference between Richmond & Roanoke, VA? (Hampton: job market, living)
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Well, now i'm quite confused!
When i lived in Colorado, i met a kid who was from Richmond; he claimed there were a lot of chill kids living there who are into good music. My idea of good music is EOTO, String Cheese Incident, Shpongle, Disco Biscuits, Phish, Moe, Bassnectar ;; all of which have played in both Richmond and Hampton. Hulaween is taking place in Hampton, VA this Halloween!
My main question is this; is Richmond a good place for young music-loving kids who like to have fun? Or should i look more toward Roanoke or Hampton? What is the difference between Richmond, Roanoke, and Hampton? Anything real major??
Could Richmond/Hampton/Roanoke compare to another City; such as Denver, Boulder, is it suburbia, city-life, middle-of-no-where, farm land, cutting-edge or poe-dunk?
Any answers/extra details would be SO helpful.. Thank you!
In my opinion, every major city in VA is completely different from the other. Richmond and the Hampton Roads area are the largest metros that belong wholly to VA. 1.2 and 1.7 million metros respectively. Roanoke is hovering around 300,000. So obviously, they are going to have more things to do. Richmond is the state capital with a central historic walkable core with really neat historic neighborhoods scattered all around the city. Carytown, Church Hill, the Fan etc. It also has some corporate presence with many regional bank HQs and some fortune 500 hqs here as well.
Hampton Roads(Norfolk/Va Beach) is mainly a military area with a very industrial feel. Shipbuilding and one of the busiest commercial ports on the east coast as well. Not much corporate presence, though PETA is HQed in Norfolk and a major railroad company. C&O I think. Norfolk is the main real urban core of the whole area and has some of the nicest historic districts such as Ghent. Similar music venues to Richmond in my opinion. More going on though just because it's bigger than Richmond. Also very touristy due to being on the ocean. At least with Va Beach.
Roanoke is the smallest as mentioned earlier of the three main VA metros. Very blue collar and industrial in feel in a beautiful setting surounded by mountains. However, Roanoke feels very isolated to me, being hours away from Richmond or DC. It has a nice downtown, but not quite as dense as Richmond or Norfolk with less to offer in my opinion. Roanoke is nice and cheap though. Just not very exciting.
Then you have northern VA. The largest of all the VA metros at 2.5-3 million. It of course is part of the DC metro which pours into MD and a small part of WV. This area will provide the most excitement and will probably serve the kind of music you like at the clubs in Arlington or in the District itself. However, this area is very expensive and is completely clogged with traffic at all times. And being a suburban area it is naturally painfully suburban. Though Alexandria is a very nice historic city in itself, directly across from DC, and Arlington has pretty good nightlife from what I've heard.
My reccomendation would be to live in the Ricmond area and take advantage of what it has to offer. It is centrally located at 1.5 hours to DC depending on traffic, 1.5 hours to the beach, depending on traffic, and 1.5 hours to the mountains. Roanoke is more like 2-2.5 hours away because no interstate connects them.
To me Northern VA & Hampton Roads are very similar. Hampton Roads seems to be the poorer cousin of Northern VA. Both are clogged with traffic trying to find a City Center. We still can't figure out if Northern VA is a "suburb" of Washington DC or if it wants to be a part of the "Rest of VA". The big advantage of NoVa is its proximity to Washington with all of its cultural offerings. Anyone can find a job there but try to find affordable housing. Ouch! Of course the ocean is beautiful at Va Beach IF you can ever find it!
But it was once a very nice weekend destination! Norfolk has really improved its downtown recently(although I am still scared to go there alone!).
Richmond has improved its downtown also. I love the Va Museum(the finest art museum in the state). The Monument Avenue area is charming as well as all of the historic buildings but really does anyone really "enjoy" walking around downtown Richmond? Charlottesville has a charming downtown Mall with trendy restaurants or should I call if "Jeffersonville"? It has an ideal location close to Richmond, DC and guess what it actually has a passenger train! And finally we come to Roanoke, the "isolated", former "blue collar, industrial city". Very little traffic, we do like our downtown and it is safe and people friendly. We don't want the traffic in other metros but we could use a passenger train to DC, Richmond. We also have too many mountains btw!
Of the cities mentioned, Richmond by far has the most going on with regards to culture and a music scene. There is live music going on at all times. The local music scene is very strong and national acts have been flooding the area since the National opened a few years ago. Richmond has the most interesting and least douchy people in the commonwealth. It's an easy place to have a good time and you will have access to everything that you need without the hassle of having to fight traffic and long lines to get it.
Hampton shouldn't be on anyone's list of places to move. Norfolk is really nice but doesn't have the wealth of educated and creative people that Richmond enjoys.
NoVa has better educated people and really nice amenities but it doesn't really have any sense of place. It is like Cherry Creek if it was the size of the entire Denver metro (DC is great, despite all the blowhard store-bought hipster people).
Roanoke is lovely but can be depressing. There are lots of cool near-by towns, cool if you like blue grass.
You'll love Charlottesville if you are uber preppy or a head-up-ass dork trying to pass as hipster. It is full of thick people who believe that they are clever. It's really pretty though.
As far as Richmond goes, VCU does bring in a very interesting student body. I always enjoy walking around Carytown and feel right at home with all the cool weird punk type outfits and crazy hair I see everywhere. I forget I'm in VA. In a good way. And Richmond has great parks such as Maymont, and cool historic cemeteries such as Hollywood, which overlooks downtown over the James. And even Edgar Allan Poe called it home for a while. That's enough for me! I just wish Richmond had not removed all of it's trolley tracks. That would be such a cool tourist attraction since Richmond pioneered it. Too bad. I also wish it had at least one 700-1,000' tall skyscraper to finish off it's skyline. With Richmond's location, I feel it is really going to catch a lot of attention soon and really take off in the near future. More so than now.
I doubt if that concept would ever be realized for downtown. I bet Richmond has a strong Historic Preservation Society type organization which prohibits the size of tall buildings and how they would fit in with older structures.
I am glad Richmond didn't follow Charlottes' lead during the "high rise" building days of the past. Charlotte has one of most impressive downtown skylines around but the buildings block out the sunlight and they make the downtown feel more unsafe if you are a visitor. Just an observation.
I doubt if that concept would ever be realized for downtown. I bet Richmond has a strong Historic Preservation Society type organization which prohibits the size of tall buildings and how they would fit in with older structures.
I am glad Richmond didn't follow Charlottes' lead during the "high rise" building days of the past. Charlotte has one of most impressive downtown skylines around but the buildings block out the sunlight and they make the downtown feel more unsafe if you are a visitor. Just an observation.
Yeah I know. I just ike tall buildings. 1000' would be too much for Richmond though. Maybe 600' or 700'. On Main St in the middle of a sunny day is still very shaded though because of the density of the buildings. A tall building would sort of finish off Richmond's skyline in my opinion. It's tallest is 450' as is, so just one or two taller buildings would compliment it.
I doubt if that concept would ever be realized for downtown. I bet Richmond has a strong Historic Preservation Society type organization which prohibits the size of tall buildings and how they would fit in with older structures.
I am glad Richmond didn't follow Charlottes' lead during the "high rise" building days of the past. Charlotte has one of most impressive downtown skylines around but the buildings block out the sunlight and they make the downtown feel more unsafe if you are a visitor. Just an observation.
I don't think such a restriction exists in the CBD/financial district, but there are covenants in place in historic neighborhoods such as Shockoe Slip, Shockoe Bottom, Monroe Ward. etc intended to respect the scale and massing of the neighborhoods. The trophy tower site is the lot between 8th, 9th, Cary, and Canal. Eventually, once market demand dictates, I think we will have a new tallest at this location.
Downtown is dense, but there is still ample opportunities for new infill development. Having a 700' tower and a few between 500-600 would be great at some point IMO.
HA! that was not only hilarious - it gave me a good look at Richmond and was very helpful! We decided we're def moving there, after doing some further research!
I'm curious, however; are there many jobs available in Richmond? I've read that the cost of living isn't too high.. I'm just hoping I'll be able to get a job going once I move there. Thank you so much for all of the info, all of you.
(snicker) richmond culture? boy did they steer you wrong best to try roanoke richmond really doesn't have anything to be honest
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