What's it like living in Roanoke? (Lynchburg, Danville: sale, new home, movies)

[SouthernMomto3]

Originally Posted by seanpecor

I don't think you can go wrong with HV and CS High Schools. Our girls (grades K and 2) go to North Cross and we absolutely love the school. There is a high concentration of physician parents at North Cross. In our girls' grades off the top of my head I can think of two heart surgeons, an ortho surgeon, a urologist, a ENT physician, a rheumatologist, a pathologist, etc. There are also many lawyers, which make for hilarious parent socials

Here we're about a 4.8 mile drive from Route 220, which is the major north/south route that commuters use to travel from the Boones Mill area into work. We're 15 minutes from four grocery stores (two in Rocky Mount, two in Roanoke). They're breaking ground in early to mid '08 on, among other things in a 40 acre development on Route 220 in Rocky Mount, a grocery store. The grapevine suggests the grocery would be a higher end place like Ukrops or Fresh Market. That would be exactly 10 minutes from us. That said, there are lots of places in Franklin County that are 10 minutes from groceries and such things. The elementary school in Boones Mill is actually highly regarded and the teachers there are very good and overall my understanding is that the community between teachers and parents is very pleasant. They are also planning on completing a new Windy Gap Elementary sometime next year (Franklin County Public Schools (broken link)) which will serve to reduce growth pressures on Boones Mill Elementary.

Franklin County High School is huge. People think rural county and imagine a backwards high school. Not so. It's got something like 2,300 students and some pretty nice AP courses.

Still, SW RoCo offers more of a suburban/urban feel which is an entirely different setting than FC. Where FC appeals to a certain group of people, SW RoCO can appeal to an entirely different set. I'd visit FC next time you're in town.

Cheers,

Sean

I looked at North Cross and it is no doubt an outstanding school. Love the doctor/lawyer observation. I think it's interesting to see a doc and a lawyer married! We'll have three in school before long and just don't know about the tuition. What is your opinion of Salem vs. Roanoke Co. schools? Is it a 6 of one and 1/2 dozen of another kind of thing?

[StuckPA]

Originally Posted by SouthernMomto3

Small world. Where did you live in Allentown? We're west between Cetronia and Fogelsville.

Of course you live in one of the best areas A friend of mine lived near the Cedarcrest area,nice Of course I couldn't have afforded west Allentown and I didn't live in Allentown city but once in Coplay/Whitehall and then in Bethlehem city.

[dscans]

Originally Posted by StuckPA

Of course you live in one of the best areas A friend of mine lived near the Cedarcrest area,nice Of course I couldn't have afforded west Allentown and I didn't live in Allentown city but once in Coplay/Whitehall and then in Bethlehem city.

I live in Roanoke now but my wife and I are considering moving to Bethlehem to be closer to family. What did you think of it?

[SouthernMomto3]

I don't know much about Bethlehem but I know some who work there prefer living around the Coopersburg area for the county schools there. On the PA forum there are some current discussions re: Bethlehem schools. I think they have a great downtown and lots of neat stuff at Christmas. Oh, Palmer township also has some nice areas and new shopping centers.

[SouthernMomto3]

Originally Posted by StuckPA

Of course you live in one of the best areas A friend of mine lived near the Cedarcrest area,nice Of course I couldn't have afforded west Allentown and I didn't live in Allentown city but once in Coplay/Whitehall and then in Bethlehem city.

IDK when you left this area but I bet you'd be surprised. There has been tremendous new builds since 9/11 when more people started coming here from NJ and NYC and commute there for work. It is condo development central in the Lehigh Valley. Real Estate skyrocketed. We are here short term so we rented and it is ridiculous. $1300 for a 1400 sq. foot condo!

[StuckPA]

Originally Posted by dscans

I live in Roanoke now but my wife and I are considering moving to Bethlehem to be closer to family. What did you think of it?

Well obviously Bethlehem has much more happening than Roanoke,being that it's practically central to everything-NY,Phila(if you happen to like that).

Personally I don't really care for alot of action so I'd sooner go back to Roanoke,but for your career and such it may be good.

I don't know where you're from originally but obviously it's also faster paced than Roanoke,however Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley seem to be more laid back than points further south such as Philadelphia.

As far as pricing,it seems to be rising more due to people from NJ moving there. I had a great condo type apartment in center city Bethlehem for about $700/mo. but it quicky rose to $800 and that was about 4 years ago so I don't really know what it'd be now. But that was a highly desirable area,of course mostly for single folks and not families. They'd be more towards the outer fringes of the city. One of my managers at Verizon lived I believe off of 191 towards Nazareth and it was a pretty nice area. Schools nearby etc.

[StuckPA]

Originally Posted by SouthernMomto3

IDK when you left this area but I bet you'd be surprised. There has been tremendous new builds since 9/11 when more people started coming here from NJ and NYC and commute there for work. It is condo development central in the Lehigh Valley. Real Estate skyrocketed. We are here short term so we rented and it is ridiculous. $1300 for a 1400 sq. foot condo!

I'm not surprised as I started seeing people from NJ coming there more and more. I actually lived there until 2003 so it wasn't that long ago. I watch the news from there since it's on my channel lineup and visit there on occasion also. I've been going up to the Quakertown Farmers Market more lately too

[StuckPA]

Originally Posted by ineztoney

I live in Martinsville, close enough to a big city of Roanoke, also a Realtor and very expensive in housing and taxes in Roanoke.

Yea Martinsville's cheaper,just a racetrack and moonshine there

[dsobotta]

Originally Posted by SouthernMomto3

I looked at North Cross and it is no doubt an outstanding school. Love the doctor/lawyer observation. I think it's interesting to see a doc and a lawyer married! We'll have three in school before long and just don't know about the tuition. What is your opinion of Salem vs. Roanoke Co. schools? Is it a 6 of one and 1/2 dozen of another kind of thing?

We have lived in Roanoke since 1989. Our kids went to Oak Grove Elementary, Hidden Valley Junior High, and Cave Spring High School. Two also spent time at the Governor's School at Patrick Henry.

Having gotten three kids through the systems, and almost three through college. (The last one should graduate from college this winter), I can say that I was very impressed with Oak Grove, less so with Hidden Valley, and found some challenges with Cave Spring.

Since our kids graduated, Cave Spring has been split into two high schools.

A lot as always depends on the group your kid ends up being friends with and your own children who can be very different from each other.

I think your kids can get a good education here in the valley, but you will find plenty of the problems you see in more urban high schools. One of the differences here being that most families keep in touch and teachers are part of the community so there is a fair amount of dialog.

My wife claimed there was a pretty effective mommy network that could usually figure out what was happening with a few phone calls.

When we had parties for the kids, we had to be very diligent and make some rules like no coming in through the back door or you would find someone sneaking in alcohol.

I don't think you get away from these problems by going to the private schools. Some claim it is much worse in some of the private schools, but I have no proof one way or the other.

As to Salem verses Roanoke County, that's almost a religious issue. We had friends move to Salem because they thought their kids would get more individualized attention.

In the end as it always does, it just depends on the teachers. If you are lucky enough that your kids are motivated at the time they have some of the few good teachers that will cross their paths, they'll do fine.

We also lived in Howard County, Maryland which is a top ranked school district.

We think the Roanoke area provides as good or better schools as Howard County with the plus that the teachers can afford to live in the community and are often at your church or you local Kroger (the grocery store that dominates Roanoke).

I have a blog, View from the Mountain, that has much about Roanoke including a few debates between Sean Pecor and myself since I am not enamored of the local government here and not nearly the optimist on the area.

You will find much duplication of service here because of the lack of coordinated government. The joke when we moved here was that you need a passport to go visit Salem.

You have two poor examples of a civic center because Roanoke and Salem can't work together. The airport has short runaways because Roanoke didn't want it in Roanoke County.

You have a mall that will grid lock this holiday season because no one has seen fit to provide an exit heading north on 581 from the back of the mall.

Roanoke likes it that way because it forces people towards the city.

Having said all that I love the area, especially the Farmers' Market, Carven's Cove, and the friendliness of the people.

You can expect to pay high taxes in Roanoke County and not get a lot of snow plowing for it unless you live along Route 419 where no snowflake dares rest.

Anyone looking at Roanoke should also look at Blacksburg & Christiansburg, north, east, and south of the city.

In the end there is no perfect area, and this is a beautiful area with great people.

One of the biggest challenges for the area is the completely inadequate road system. Interstate 81 is a nightmare and is regularly blocked. Route 220 south is antiquated and should have been fixed years ago. Most of Virginia's road money has gone to Northern Virginia or Tidewater

You should also consider that Roanoke's topology is not conducive to clean air when thousands of trucks pass through the valley on a daily basis.

Unless the winds are blowing and the rains are regular, the air is not nearly as clean as it was several years ago.

When the winter winds scrape away all those truck fumes, the scenery can be spectacular. There are pictures on my website.

We split our time between Roanoke and North Carolina's Crystal Coast near Emerald Isle.

[cellar]

Originally Posted by dsobotta

When the winter winds scrape away all those truck fumes, the scenery can be spectacular. There are pictures on my website.

We split our time between Roanoke and North Carolina's Crystal Coast near Emerald Isle.

Wow, a lot of what dsobotta says is true or near true, but a lot of it sounds like bashing! The primary problem with the roads is the skill of the drivers! Learn which roads to travel in which lane to avoid all the immergible drivers. Air quality? Hardly a problem in Roanoke....I don't know, I transplanted from the north and have come to love it here.

I do strongly agree with dsobotta's comments on local gov't though, much duplication, wasted spending and lack of coordination between the local gov'ts.

I'd like to add that locals sometimes appear to put more emphasis on school sports than academics...and they should pay their teachers more, but I have always been impressed with the quality of teachers in North County elementary and Middle schools (2 children there now).

And in closin- Why would we worry about snowplowing? For all 2 days per year that we may get snow? Snow and wintery weather in general have become a thing of the past here.

I encourage people who want a small city lifestyle without the crap that comes w/ NoVA to check out Roanoke in person.