Best places to live if working at Ft. Lee? (Petersburg: low crime, neighborhoods)

[GeorgeSpelvin]

I was contacted about a job opportunity at Ft. Lee. We have some reasons we would like to move to Virginia; however, I've heard a lot of bad things about the area around Petersburg. To sum it up, it sounds like there are lots of impoverished ghetto areas, along with plenty of lower class redneck areas, terrible schools either way, and lots of crime. Not very appealing.

My question is: Where would a physician or a senior military officer with a family (who didn't want to live on base) choose to live if he/she worked at Ft. Lee? I'm talking about a primarily upper middle class, low crime, pleasant area that's expensive enough to keep out the riff raff.

A few people mentioned Colonial Heights. Is that true? Are there other areas within commuting range of Ft. Lee? Or is this an area of Virginia most folks wouldn't choose to live?

[Mandy612]

Hi George,

i live in Midlothian, and i can be at fort lee in about 20-30mins. with 35 being extreme traffic. i would have to get on the 288 and take it to 95 south then get off temple ave /144 and then go thru the sisisky gate.

colonial heights isnt bad , your closest shopping mall would be southpark, and being that colonial heights and fort lee are within close proximity to Petersburg, theres a chance that u might need to go to petersburg for something like a doctor/specialist or elements from a bad neighborhood can spill into a good neighborhood that happens to be nearby. what im trying to say is, the riff raff that u want to keep out might be at your local mall, restaurant, or even around the corner based on such close proximity.

there are some areas of petersburg that arent terrible, but there are some areas that arent great either. its like that in almost every city. I live in Midlothian (which is in Chesterfield County) and its really nice here/ theres award winning schools, great people, great shopping and dining. everything is close by and when i say everything i mean u have a very, VERY wide variety for shopping dining and entertaining.. petersburg does have a reputation for being ghetto, and midlothian has a reputation for being a great place to live. its more like a bedroom community geared towards families.. in my opinion anyway.

your family might really like chesterfield county. youre in the right topic as far as the forum goes, and alot of the posters here can help you further than i can , but if you have any questions , post them on here and i will try to see if i can answer them. but im sure someone else will be able to answer them as well.. like i said they are really knowledgable.

some websites to check out are chesterfield. gov // from there u can get alot of information and even links to other websites, u can check out the the chesterfieldobserver.com newspaper, and also the midlothianexchange,another newspaper, just to get an idea of the happenings around here. look at google earth too as that can givce you an idea of distance from fort lee.

my dad knows a csm whos retiring later this year and he lives in chester, which happens to be more south of midlothian.. but still inside chesterfield county (its a pretty huge county) . that guy seemed very excited with his home.

being that you are a senior officer, would living on the base be a requirement for you? or would u need to live with a specific mile range? just wondering.

good luck!

[onevthoki]

Come play with us in Chester! DH is retired Army and is a current GS employee at Fort Lee. We can be there in ten to fifteen minutes depending on possible traffic. Do a search for a lot of my previous posts to see about some of the other questions I've been able to answer on the Fort Lee area. I volunteer with the Fort Lee Area Spouses' Club (check the FB page they have for information from more military spouses), use the Kenner Army Health Clinic for the kids, and shop the commissary frequently, so this location has been great for us!

If you have any questions on specific neighborhoods once you start your research, don't hesitate to let the forum know. We're a pretty helpful bunch!