Portland family with relocating questions (Richmond, Chester: best towns, 2013, rent)

[nagrommm]

Hi, I've been reading a bunch of these threads but thought I'd finally ask stuff specific to my situation. My husband and I lived in Portland, OR for the last 14 years and have a 10 year old daughter who has been in a public school Spanish Immersion program since kindergarten. We just this past summer moved to Texas for my husband's job and we absolutely hate it. We were ready to leave Portland (lack of work and low pay being the main reasons) but Texas is not where we want to be. My husband spent a short period of time in Richmond last spring and really liked it and all the online research I've been able to do leads me to believe we would really dig it.
So my questions are, knowing that we are coming from a super liberal, outdoorsy, walkable place what parts of town might be good places to live? What's the employment situation like (my husband does GIS/data analysis, I've got a wine/food background)? I'm aware of school issues and am not sure how to feel about them. Elementary school doesn't really matter as our kid would only be there one year at most, and all I've heard about middle school is don't. However, the school she went to in Portland was a title 1 school and if you looked it up on greatschools it would probably rate a 4, but she loved it and is almost fluent in spanish as well as still getting good grades even attending one of the test-heavy texas schools. (She's still in a spanish immersion program here although it seems like Virginia doesn't really have this type of thing?) Basically, we would love to put her through public school, but still want to continue her spanish education. our price range for homes is somewhere in the $300,000-425,000 range if that helps.
I know this is a bit scattered but any input helps! We will be visiting for a week next month and hope to have a couple of neighborhoods to drive through and check out while we are there in addition to tourist sight seeing stuff.

Thanks!

[novanwbie]

Hi! I would look at neighborhoods that feed into Robious Middle School, Tomahawk Creek or Midlothian Middle School, all in Midlothian and part of Chesterfield County Schools. We don't have immersion programs here, unfortunately, but Chesterfield County does start language instruction in kindergarten in many of their schools, and continues it through middle and high school. Northern VA has immersion, but it hasn't made it down here yet. I'm just pleased Chesterfield offers some language instruction in elementary school. Don't go into Richmond City unless you're willing to pay for private school, and with the strong public schools available in the counties, you shouldn't have to do that unless it's just your preference. I think your daughter's biggest challenge will be having a substantial language advantage over the other kids -- she's likely to be bored. If you post some of her other interests I can suggest other connections.

You should be able to buy in that area in your price range for sure, and there are a real range of neighborhoods, from more recent subdivisions to 50s and 60s ranchers and split levels. I'm glad you're aware of the weaknesses of GreatSchools. Neighborhood feel can't be accounted for, and you can get an outstanding education at a school that posts low test scores because of a diverse student population. I would definitely rent for a while, and you should be able to find something in those areas. You will probably not find Richmond to be as liberal or as outdoorsy as Portland, Portland pretty much has a lock on those two categories. Richmond's more liberal population can be found within the city, but all of us benefit from the slow and gentle liberalization (is that even a word?) that has occurred as Richmond's population has grown more diverse in the last 20 years or so. I think it's fair to say we're not Texas conservative, for the most part!

Richmond is much more outdoorsy than it was 20 years ago, too. Plus you can take advantage of being an hour from the mountains and an hour and a half from the Bay/beaches. Of course, you had that in Portland, too. I would say we have a strong running community, but it also probably doesn't compare to the Nike culture! :-)

[nagrommm]

Thanks for the response novanwbe! As for my daughter, I assumed we might look into a tutor to keep her spanish skills up to par and then maybe when she's old enough we can get her into some community college level classes, if she's still interested. We don't want to push her, but we also know what an advantage it can be to know more than one language! Is there much of a spanish speaking community there? Obviously there are many opportunities for her to speak spanish in Texas and the part of Portland we lived in had more spanish speakers than many other areas, but I get the vibe that Richmond doesn't have as large of a population. Am I right about that or does it just depend on where you are? She is also into swimming, Irish dance, biking and art of all kinds but she's really getting into sculpture and mixed media stuff.
The location of richmond between mountains and beach is a big draw for us. We're not skiers or anything but we like hiking and camping and love going to the beach. The drive times are actually the same as they were in Portland for mountains and beach. It also seems like the James river park system provides a lot of outdoor space in the city. My husband does a lot of rock climbing (or did before we moved here) and I've heard there is some climbing near the city?
As you can imagine we are terribly liberal compared to most people we encounter in Texas (although people seem to be more open minded here than when I used to visit family years ago) but in Portland we were pretty middle of the road. I mean, we got our kid vaccinated and everything so we aren't THAT much left of center! I assume like anywhere it gets more conservative the farther away from the city you get?
One last question. I worked in the wine business in PDX and I know there is a burgeoning wine scene in Virginia but does that translate to richmond? I guess I'm asking if there's much of a wine culture in the city as far as there being serious wine bars and/or restaurants with interesting wine lists, tastings around town? I know this past weekend had a big virginia wine event. It's hard in Texas to get anything beyond grocery store wine, even at the better restaurants, but from what I've been reading about the breweries popping up and the growing restaurant scene it seems like there would be some synergy between the local wineries and some of that.

Thanks again for the input. We look forward to visiting soon!

[VA Yankee]

OP consider the west end of Henrico, there are plenty of neighborhoods within your price range. The schools have a Spanish Emersion Program at Tucker High School which any student can apply to regardless of their assigned home school, transportation is proved. ImmHome

[sls76]

Originally Posted by VA Yankee

OP consider the west end of Henrico, there are plenty of neighborhoods within your price range. The schools have a Spanish Emersion Program at Tucker High School which any student can apply to regardless of their assigned home school, transportation is proved. ImmHome

The Tucker immersion program won't help for at least 3 years. In the meantime, in Henrico you can't even take a language until 7th grade unless you go IB. Then you start in 6th. Chesterfield does more with languages for younger kids from what I understand.

[Charlesaf3]

Most of the stuff you are looking for is in the city. Except schools... There's a large mexican population, large Guatemalan, and large salvadoran. I speak Spanish everyday. There's a thriving Spanish immigrant area on the south side, which is also the best place to get tacos etc.

Wine is serious in the city, probably not up to portlands level, but is getting hotter and hotter

[novanwbie]

You're most welcome! Yes, compared to TX, our Spanish-speaking population is paltry. But as Charles says, there is a moderate Guatemalan population. I'm not as familiar with the others. Chesterfield County has definitely picked up the language focus; imo this is Henrico's biggest weakness. Still, you'd need a tutor, probably, at her level. Swimming -- look at NOVA in the West End. There's also an Irish Dance school close to it. VCU has an amazing, renowned art school -- she might be very interested in that. My husband went there. The work they do is amazing. Biking is big here and growing in popularity all the time. Richmond has a pretty small-town feel for the size of city it is. Hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains is amazing, and really beautiful. Of course, you've lived in some pretty spectacular areas! The wine scene in VA is rapidly growing and gaining recognition. Most of the wineries are north and west of us, I believe just due to climate and topography. But we do have some pretty sophisticated wine bars and restaurants with nice wine lists. I'm willing to go out on a limb and say it's got to be better than TX! Many of the local restaurants are very supportive of VA wineries.

Check these out:

VCU News

Best River Towns in America: The Best River Towns in America: Richmond, Virginia | Best Towns | OutsideOnline.com

VCU's About Richmond page links to many of the local galleries: Richmond – Virginia Commonwealth University
There's also a neat neighborhood overview at the bottom.

One of our favorite galleries: artspacegallery.org

Wine: https://www.richmondbizsense.com/201...-dining-scene/

Wine Bars in Richmond, Virginia - A Wine-Lover