Relocating to Richmond from CT - HELP! (neighborhoods, living in)

[Osuguy23]

Kind of hi-jacking the thread.. but I am also relocating to Richmond this summer!! I will be living in the bottom and hopefully people in the city are receptive to meeting "outsiders". I'm 26 male- will be working at VCU hospital. Where do the "transplants" chill in the city?

Coming from Columbus- everyone is nice and receptive to all cultures and social economic backgrounds. (typical midwest atmosphere)

For the sake of all of us here in our mid/late twenties from reading all the threads about racial insensitivity, politics of the city, social stereotypes, etc... I am a little worried but hope richmond proves me wrong!!

Hope all goes well with you

Cheers!

[brocco]

i agree that there is unfortunately quite a lot of racial tension in richmond.

[panasyncp17]

Those seem to be a lot less of an issue with the younger generation. I work with a lot of old school local blue collar guys throughout VA and NC (power plants/paper mills/fab shops etc.) and that is where I get my experiences with the racism.

[brocco]

but neighborhoods downtown are divided almost exclusively by race. there are a few minorities within the "white" areas but i don't think i've ever seen a white person while driving through a "black" area. the suburbs are a totally different world of course. i grew up in one of them (about 20 minutes from downtown) and never experienced the racial tension that i do downtown. like you mentioned about CT, there were a few minorities here and there but they didn't have any significant lifestyle differences compared to the white families and no one ever said anything about race. the other day on broad street this lady got some serious road rage toward me. i couldnt figure out wtf was going on until she rolled down her window and yelled at me for "not letting the black people cross the street" and being a "white expletive expletive". i honestly did not see anyone trying to cross the street nor was i in an area where pedestrians would have had the right away to do so, but regardless the race thing shouldn't matter. if i was in a hurry and being a jerk, surely i wouldnt have let a white person cross either? what if i was black myself? and on the other side of the equation, the road-raging woman surely must've experienced quite a bit of racism in her life to react like that toward me. ugh i've had a few incidents like that downtown and its just nothing like what i experienced growing up. perhaps its just the concentration of people that makes it seem like that.

[panasyncp17]

Lets not scare away the OP though, I don't regret moving here at all, the economy seems to have not taken a huge hit unlike CT. People are always out shopping and spending money. Everyone is very polite, again unlike CT where please and thank you are not in anyone's vocabulary. When my friends from home visit we do a night out downtown and always have a blast. You won't have any problems just be aware of your surroundings.

[KatrinkaButtlin]

I've been up in that area a lot, Groton is a favorite haunt of mine because of my boyfriend

Oh and its dirt cheap here compared to CT. Gas, cigarettes, taxes, rent, home prices, damn near everything.

That's fantastic. I've noticed that already when I visit; I walk into CVS and medicine is half as much as it would be up here. I'm definitely looking forward to that part.


Your response was SO helpful! I've really been stressing about this move, so you've managed to make me feel better about it. If you can do it, I can do it...I hope

[KatrinkaButtlin]

Originally Posted by panasyncp17

Lets not scare away the OP though, I don't regret moving here at all, the economy seems to have not taken a huge hit unlike CT. People are always out shopping and spending money. Everyone is very polite, again unlike CT where please and thank you are not in anyone's vocabulary. When my friends from home visit we do a night out downtown and always have a blast. You won't have any problems just be aware of your surroundings.

I'm not scared away, I've already committed to moving so it's not like I can back out, haha. But I really do want to learn more about the area, etc, so this is really helping. Unfortunately you're right about much of CT - there are a lot of generalizations that everyone is unfriendly and stuff. You can always find nice and helpful people (like me!), but for the most part, CT isn't where I want to be.

And that's really good news about the economy. Moving down there without a job is a huge, huge risk for me. But I'm hoping that I can find something soon, I'm optimistic.

[KatrinkaButtlin]

Originally Posted by Osuguy23

Kind of hi-jacking the thread.. but I am also relocating to Richmond this summer!! I will be living in the bottom and hopefully people in the city are receptive to meeting "outsiders". I'm 26 male- will be working at VCU hospital. Where do the "transplants" chill in the city?

Where in the bottom will you be??

[Osuguy23]

Originally Posted by KatrinkaButtlin

Where in the bottom will you be??

I Will be at the Upper Lofts at Canal Walk. I heard they have serious management issues, but I got a pretty good deal and awesome loft. Where are you thinking?

[KatrinkaButtlin]

Originally Posted by Osuguy23

I Will be at the Upper Lofts at Canal Walk. I heard they have serious management issues, but I got a pretty good deal and awesome loft. Where are you thinking?

Oh okay, that was one of our options, but I think it turned out to be too small for the both of us and a little too expensive (considering I won't have a job at the time of relocation), but I hope it works out for you! I've been hearing bad things about most of the management companies down there - I'm hoping that a lot of it is just unhappy people taking it out on their management companies. Hopefully.

We've gotten an apartment in American Cigar Lofts with the mgmt company River Lofts at Tobacco Row. We've already had some misunderstandings with them, but I'm thinking it's miscommunication. I can't be down there because I'm in CT, so it's up to my cousin, who lives in Midlothian, to communicate everything to me.

Does anyone else in this thread know anything about management companies in the area?