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Location: Danville, VA - 3rd Capital of the Confederacy!
203 posts, read 413,503 times
Reputation: 334
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We are a middle-aged semi-retired couple presently living in Northern VA, but have gotten tired of the DC area's traffic jams, high crime, urban sprawl, exorbitant cost-of-living, air pollution, excessive humidity in Summer, and excessive snow in Winter. Since our work is now 100% Internet-based, we can now live and work anywhere, and don't have to be tied to the Northern Virginia / DC area anymore.
We have been planning a move Southward for several years, and have been researching different communities to find someplace more suitable, and more affordable. Weather is a consideration: Danville generally has better air and water quality than is found anywhere in the DC area (or many other areas of VA); winters in Danville are shorter and milder, and summers generally less polluted (hence more comfortable) than in NoVA.
We need a community with a well-established infrastructure that includes good, readily available health care; convenient shopping; and reliable high-speed Internet services. Consequently, small towns and very rural areas would not be practical for us. Ideally, we would like to be in a small-to-medium city that is not too crowded. Additionally, we would prefer to live in an ethnically diverse community, since many of our friends and business associates are ethnically and sometimes culturally diverse.
We have made brief "field trips" and have checked out several cities all over Southern VA in person and by phone with the various municipal and law enforcement agencies over the past few years. And so far, Danville seems that it would be the most suitable for our needs.
We have also seen that Danville has a number of inexpensive, older, one-story houses for sale, which is what we would like. Every month or so, my wife spends several hours searching the listings on Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, etc., looking for affordable one-story "antique" Victorian-style cottages in Danville, and duly bookmarking each of them that looked remotely suitable, for me to check out later.
Only problem is, we don't have much practical insight as to the nature of the neighborhoods where each of those homes for sale are located. And it's almost impossible to get "accurate" information from the real estate agents we've talked with, because they are either "ethically constrained" from telling us what we need to know, or they are so anxious to make that sale they are reluctant to tell us about anything they may know that might be less than "perfect" ...
,,, and we don't want to inadvertently end up living in the middle of an open-air drug market or getting caught in the crossfire between warring gangs. Since a fall about 15 years ago put me permanently on crutches, I'm not that good at dodging bullets anymore.
Having already lived through the threats of [a] riots in DC (on several occasions); [b] Anthrax spores poisoning DC-area mail; [c] the hijacked plane on "9/11" that hit the Pentagon right next to my sister's office (fortunately my sister was on special assignment at a different office that day ... but several of our friends and neighbors did get killed there ); and [d] the havoc caused by the two-week killing spree of the "Beltway Snipers" ... we already know that life in and around our Nation's Capital does get pretty "exciting" sometimes.
And we don't need any more of that kind of excitement -- ever again in this lifetime.
At this stage of life we're definitely not interested in being commandos or survivalists, and don't want to have to spend the rest of our lives carrying MAC-11s and wearing Kevlar while going to the grocery store, mowing the lawn, working in the garden, taking out the garbage, or sitting on the front porch.
So now we would really appreciate a little honest expert guidance from current (or recent) Danville residents in choosing a suitable neighborhood in which to find our ideal home in the City of Danville.
Your comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Interesting post, Dan. Carbon copy on the Coastal NC thread, but I find it funny that your two choices are Danville and Rocky Mt, NC, both of which have relatively higher crime rates than most cities their size (or larger). Have you considered Roanoke or Lynchburg? Both are great for retirees with more to offer than Rocky Mt. or Danville and both have affordable housing; Lynchburg was just ranked 17th best place to retire in the US, courtesy of Money Magazine. Most would say that they are also more aesthetically pleasing, as well.
Location: Danville, VA - 3rd Capital of the Confederacy!
203 posts, read 413,503 times
Reputation: 334
Quote:
Originally Posted by sregorat3
Interesting post, Dan. Carbon copy on the Coastal NC thread, but I find it funny that your two choices are Danville and Rocky Mt, NC, both of which have relatively higher crime rates than most cities their size (or larger). Have you considered Roanoke or Lynchburg? Both are great for retirees with more to offer than Rocky Mt. or Danville and both have affordable housing; Lynchburg was just ranked 17th best place to retire in the US, courtesy of Money Magazine. Most would say that they are also more aesthetically pleasing, as well.
I sustained a serious injury about 20 years ago that left me permanently on crutches. I don't do well on hilly terrain, or on snow and ice. Need to live somewhere with reasonably flat terrain, and as little snow as possible. That precludes staying in the DC area. (And lets out Lynchburg too.) Also need an affordable, 1 story house with minimal steps in and out. The accident was a real game changer, and my medical costs ran about $400K, every penny of which I had to pay myself. So at this point our finances are extremely limited!
Both small cities we're searching now offer well-established infrastructures already in place, excellent medical services close at hand, natural gas service, high-speed Internet, minimal snow and ice, and plenty of inexpensive 1-story Victorian style cottages (which would go well with our furniture).
If it weren't for my injuries, I might be seriously considering Lynchburg or Roanoke (we have a close friend who lives in Roanoke), but I can't deal with the terrain or the weather. Crime rate in Danville and Lynchburg are roughly comparable. Roanoke is significantly higher than the others, and roughly equal to the overall crime rate for Rocky Mount. (The area of RM where we're looking is closer to Danville rate.) Crime rates in Danville and Rocky Mount are both roughly equivalent to the crime rate in Arlington VA, where I lived for the first 40 years of my life. If it hadn't gotten so crowded, we might still be there.
We're looking for a smaller city with a little more breathing room, but do NOT want to move "out in the country" or into a little tiny town. Danville has the lower population density of the two, but RM is flatter and warmer during winter. Either one would be acceptable if we find the right neighborhood, and the right deal. Population density of Roanoke is double that of Danville. It's about as dense as where we're living now (one of the big reasons we want to move from here). Cost of living in either Danville or RM is slightly less than the two cities you mention.
We're not really "retirees" yet, and hope never to even think about retiring, if possible. My posting said we are "semi-retired" ... but generally we work about 7 days a week. Too busy to worry about retirement-oriented recreational stuff. Having lived in the DC area for a long time, we are both comfortable with firearms, so a little street crime is not something we would think of as a "problem."
My father "retired" from a long military career, and continued doing electronic research for DOD until just shortly before his death. My father-in-law was still practicing law at age 88, going to the office 5 days a week, and then he had a stroke and was gone in about 2 weeks. Died with his boots on, and I think that's the best way to go, if you do have to go. Besides, my wife and I have both always thought that "retirement" would be really boring.
But thanks for your suggestions though. And if you can think of a neighborhood that might be more in line with our needs, as we had specified in the initial posting, let me know.
Sounds like good reasoning. Lynchburg is very hilly but it does have a much lower crime rate than Danville, unless something has changed in the last year.
Location: Danville, VA - 3rd Capital of the Confederacy!
203 posts, read 413,503 times
Reputation: 334
Lynchburg does score a little lower on property crime, but is about equal to Danville on violent crime score, as of June 2012 statistics. I haven't down a breakdown comparison myself yet with respect to specific crimes. Danville PD has a new guy handling crime stats, a Lt. Pace (with whom I haven't talked yet). He was gone for several days last week, but I plan on talking with him Monday or Tuesday, and will have a better idea on what's happening in Danville in a few days.
Dan
Both cities have a small enough population that a few bad weekends can really skew numbers. The bigger issue with cities like RM or Danville are probably rooted in the poor state of their economies, though this does afford less expensive housing.
Out of curiosity, where did you find positive stats on medical care in Danville? It seems to have some real issues and is being pressured by Centra Health out of Lynchburg as they seek to expand into the Danville market. The only people who seem to speak out against Centra's move is the employees at DRMC. Local folks seem to want the better care that they know they'll get with Centra, and I've also read here that many turn to a hospital in Rockingham County (NC) instead of using their local hospital. I'd wager that Rocky Mount is better in this regard.
Location: Danville, VA - 3rd Capital of the Confederacy!
203 posts, read 413,503 times
Reputation: 334
Quote:
Originally Posted by sregorat3
Out of curiosity, where did you find positive stats on medical care in Danville? It seems to have some real issues and is being pressured by Centra Health out of Lynchburg as they seek to expand into the Danville market. The only people who seem to speak out against Centra's move is the employees at DRMC. Local folks seem to want the better care that they know they'll get with Centra, and I've also read here that many turn to a hospital in Rockingham County (NC) instead of using their local hospital. I'd wager that Rocky Mount is better in this regard.
Before you asked this question, I had NOT found "positive stats" on Danville medical care. Actually, hadn't looked for them yet. Just had anecdotal data from Danville postings. Some said DRMC is a great facility ... others said it's horrible. Checked their website, and it's obvious they're spending big bucks on web design. But a flashy website doesn't necessarily make a good hospital.
One thing I did find out is that DRMC is setting up a cooperative partnership of some sort with Duke U. Medical, which they both claim will help DRMC provide even more stupendous and magnificent health care services in the future. I worked in advertising and marketing too many years to wade through that much hype without putting on hip boots.
So I went looking for stats. US News book is pretty useless. Medicare website may provide pretty good relative comparisons of hospitals, but their database search system was malfunctioning today. So I had to pull up data on one hospital at a time (actually did 6 of them simultaneously, but in different windows, and copied the data into my own spreadsheet).
Not surprisingly, Medicaid's data was sketchy at best. But from what numbers I was able to crunch, it looked like there's not much difference statistically among all those I checked.
So I started checking through the corporate tie-ins for the various hospitals under consideration. DRMC is part of LifePoint, so I checked them out. Checked out Centra too, and a sampling of their various member and/or affiliate facilities. Nash Healthcare (Rocky Mount) is nonprofit chain of 5 hospitals in that area. Others are for-profit.
They are all similar in that every one of their websites are glorious monuments of self-hype in every way imaginable. Only things their websites lacked were dancing bears and singing butterflies. Not that any of it makes a lot of difference, although some of it might in the future as the various phases of Obamacare kick in.
I think the best approach is to find a good private local doctor that accepts my plan, and try to avoid hospitals as much as possible.
Dan
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); and [d] the havoc caused by the two-week killing spree of the "Beltway Snipers" ... we already know that life in and around our Nation's Capital does get pretty "exciting" sometimes.
