Or what about Lynchburg Virginia? (Roanoke, Charlottesville: hotels, houses, neighborhoods)

[Jerry_Williams]

Originally Posted by Cattknap

Jerry - I was just pokin' you in the ribs - just having fun, sorry....there is a wonderful historic rancho up the street from me that I did not bother to visit for over 15 years...then I found out what an amazing place it was, went back to college and became a curator there. It was interesting how many times we heard from visitors "Wow, I've lived near here my whole life and never visited this fabulous place."

What an inspirational (short) tale of your life!! Thanks for sharing that.
I personally love history.
They are constantly working on restoring Thomas Jefferson’s poplar forest. Sadly they mostly have to rely on donations and I do not get the feeling that they are “swimming in donations”. But I am glad they do not let this discourage them and they are doing agood job.

[badger74]

The restaurant scene has gone well beyond steak houses. There are a number of good places serving modern eclectic food from Dish to the Bull Branch to the Millstone Tearoom. The Bull Branch also doubles as a hot bar after 10pm for the arty set in the Burg.(which exits and is growing fast due to the easy COL) With four colleges in or near town there is a good selection of plays, concerts and sporting events. Otherwise Cville is only an hour away. A new multi-plex cinema is supposed to come in when they build the new mall. The city is also moving along to rebuild the old concert hall which will be able to bring in midsized shows. The older neighborhoods are very nice and still reasonable in price. Lots of new Mc Mansions out around town too. Jobs are exactly as described--hard to get. Better come in with one. We will live there in retirement and earn some money through some rental homes we bought dirt cheap. As someone who has lived just about everywhere in the US I like the Burg. It's got potential and it's not a place that everyone is moving because it's the hot new spot. The location is great.

[Jerry_Williams]

Originally Posted by badger74

The restaurant scene has gone well beyond steak houses. There are a number of good places serving modern eclectic food from Dish to the Bull Branch to the Millstone Tearoom. The Bull Branch also doubles as a hot bar after 10pm for the arty set in the Burg.(which exits and is growing fast due to the easy COL) With four colleges in or near town there is a good selection of plays, concerts and sporting events. Otherwise Cville is only an hour away. A new multi-plex cinema is supposed to come in when they build the new mall. The city is also moving along to rebuild the old concert hall which will be able to bring in midsized shows. The older neighborhoods are very nice and still reasonable in price. Lots of new Mc Mansions out around town too. Jobs are exactly as described--hard to get. Better come in with one. We will live there in retirement and earn some money through some rental homes we bought dirt cheap. As someone who has lived just about everywhere in the US I like the Burg. It's got potential and it's not a place that everyone is moving because it's the hot new spot. The location is great.

I agree that it has potential. I wish it HAD potential. OK, there are a few more restaurants apart form steak houses, do you not agree that most restaurants are either that or Applebee’s/TGI Friday type of establishments? There is a nice little Thai restaurant around the corner form my job for example.
I would say that “a good selection of plays, concerts and sporting events” is quite relative. I am glad you are enjoying the arts and entertainment that Lynchburg has to offer. And I am not sating that with a sneer. Out of the four colleges only one school has a sports program and that is Liberty…hardly a school known for sports. I compare this place to others I have lived in or visited.
I think this is probably a perfect place for people who have retired. For someone like myself who is in my mid 30’s it lacks so very much of what modern society has to offer.
I work close to Langhorne Rd. That whole section of this city looks like a disaster hit. Houses are leaning to the side, old factory buildings like the Cradock building are empty and overgrown with vines. I think this takes away a lot of what this town could be. So many run down neighborhoods make me very depressed and sad.

But we all have different experiences and opinions. I just think people need to seriously think about what kind of place this is before moving here.

[badger74]

Well, the football team was very good this year and won the conference. Their top men's CC runner just won the National Individual Championship against runners from Oregon, Wisconsin and other top D-1 schools. The have a good new bball coach and an up and coming hockey team in a new ice arena. Yes, the rest are D-3 schools but you can watch a game for a few bucks and park 20 feet from the gym. It's not Duke UNC but they play hard it does not cost $50 to get a ticket.

As to potential vs rundown, I think the downtown has made great strides in just five years with the new loft apts, new hotels, several new restaurants and plans for many more redevelopment projects. If I had the cash I'd buy up some of those old manufacturing buildings and hold on--they will be zooming in value. My part of town (24503) has seen nothing but high demand for homes and nothing is run down about it.

I lived in Seattle, Chicago. Atlanta, LA, Austin and other large cities and the truth is the times I went to major plays and concerts were few.

I'd just rather be part of building something up than just be another one moving to Asheville or some other retirement mecca. I think Lynchburg is a diamond in the rough just waiting to be "discovered". It could become the next Asheville now that Falwell has died and the ultra-conservative thing has seemed to die with him. Democrats are now winning many elections.

[Mr.Jonas]

This is my first post in this forum. I have been surfing around this forum just out of curiosity and since this thread deals with the town I live just outside and work in I feel that I should add my views and comments.

I am Swedish and went to college here in Virginia. I met my wife (a Virginia native who grew up outside Lynchburg) and on her suggestion we moved to Sweden. After 6 years in Scandinavia she wanted to live closer to her parents and go back to college in her own native language.

As people say Lynchburg has come quite a bit since I first visited this place in 1993. They really have fixed up the old downtown (close by the lower basin) and those old buildings are finally done some justice. When I first visited Lynchburg Wards Road pretty much had Wal-mart, K-mart, a religious bookstore, a tattoo pallor, a run down car wash and some scrap metal/VERY used car places. Then they put in the shopping center with Barnes & Noble, Pet’smart, target etc and this area of Lynchburg has grown even more just in the last 18 months.

The job market here is pathetic. There is no other way I could describe it. I knew moving here things would be rough. Just looking at it is quite obvious it is a depressed area. Just drive around the neighborhoods along Candlers Mountain Rd. We are all different and have different views of things but these buildings are looking quite bad. Many of them lean 10 – 15º and looks like they should have been repainted 20 years ago. Maybe I just need to spend more times in the rich areas of Lynchburg.
Anyhow, I never expected anyone to hand me anything. All I ever asked for was a fair chance. Lynchburg are obviously not interested in that. I have never doubted my self this mush. In Sweden I worked at advertising agencies and an on-line company (sort of a Swedish equivalent to AOL.).After four months I managed to convince a group home for senior citizens with mental retardation/mental disabilities to hire me…….they gave me a part time position making $500 a month. To put it mildly, not really what I had in mind. But work is work, and you need money to survive. I would have guessed that with a college degree from this state and some studies in Europe, pretty decent work experience, very good computer skills, speaking several languages I would have been able to do an itsy-bitys better. OK, English is my second language, but I really do not have much of an accent. The few times people try and guess my accent must people say “Australian, but must have been in America for quite some time”. After blood, sweat and tears things are significantly better. I am sure many people here would say it is due to my own incompetence, and I believed that for a very long time. Today, I do think I am quite competent, just that Lynchburg is not the kind of place were “different” is considered a good thing. It is kind of comical that a white, straight, married, English speaking guy is considered different…or am I missing the point.

I am sure there are posh parts of town like Wyndhurst and other parts of town I sadly hardly ever spend any time, but from were I am sitting, things are very run down and dirty.

Now, I am a family man. I have two kids I love more then life and spend most of my time of work with them. I take them to school everyday, help them with their homework, wash their clothes, iron whatever stuff needs to be ironed etc, etc. Every once in a while I would like to do something else. Lynchburg offers VERY little. I am sure if I fancied hunting, fishing and driving four wheelers I would have a blast. Sadly I don’t. I also would like to just know that if I wanted to do something fun, I would have the liberty and opportunity to do so without spending most of the day in the car. Not that long ago one of my brothers colleagues at work offered him some Depeche Mode he had left over. It would be quite nice if one lived in a place like that. At the museum were my parents live you can check out works by Duchamp, Picasso, Dalí, Matisse and Rauschenberg. And it hardly costs anything. That would be nice. My friend Martin saw Arcade Fire and Keiser Chiefs in the same week. I doubt I would have time for that, but I imagine it is nice to live in a society were you know you COULD have attended those concerts. Another friend of mine was sent to Paris to work for a month. I doubt I could land a job in Lynchburg were you could have the opportunity to do that.
Lynchburg might be a decent place in 10 – 15 years if the development continues. Maybe even in a shorter life span. It might also start heading in the opposite direction. I really, really hope not.

Maybe I am looking at the glass half empty instead of half full? To me Lynchburg is run down, lacks interesting work opportunities, and is way too conservative. I am not exactly a rock throwing leftie but this place is just too much. I stopped reading the Lynchburg News & advance because the letter page makes me so depressed. While I am not accusing the poster here calling himself Stone Cold Calvin Austin to be a racist but there is too much confederate flag waiving around here. I do not expect you to change because of me, however confederate flags makes me feel very low.

I am glad Lynchburg has a Panera Bred, some Starbucks and an Olive Garden these days. Not that I really can afford to go to either place that often. Yes, it might be just another chain of franchises, but they do offered more interesting dinner options then the standard Applebee's or Logan’s Steak House. (Applebee's has some very good Chicken Quesadilla though.)

Gosh, this was a very long first post.
I guess in the end we all expect different things out of life and society and who am I to say that other people cannot think Lynchburg is the perfect place on earth? If people love Lynchburg I have to say that I am actually happy for them. Inner peace in happiness is something we all strive for…I guess…happy and satisfied people sure makes this world a better place.

[spark240]

Oh my.

I hope that certain garbled comments in this thread will not be taken as truly representative.

From my perspective, true Virginians remember and revere Thomas Jefferson as among the greatest of Virginia statesmen. Both the historic sites associated with him and the university he founded are proudly held as treasures of the state. While it is true that UVa. attracts some students from beyond the Mason-Dixon, it is our hope that some Jeffersonian-Virginian class will rub off on them, rather than the reverse effect. A gentleman I am acquainted with holds both a membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans and season tickets for UVa. football, so I don't believe the Yankee influence has gotten out of hand.

While there is no disputing matters of taste, as a point of fact I should also point out that Indians are not "arab" and neither is their food. I shall look for the Indian restaurant next time I am in Lynchburg.

[badger74]

It's called Milan and it is very good Indian. They also have one in C'Ville. With all the nuclear engineering work in Lynchburg there are a fair number of Indians living in the area.

Milan Indian Cuisine / Lynchburg Restaurants

As to the local economy, here is what Economy.com says about L.
"L's labor force continues to see some of the strongest growth in the region. Only Cville has seen consistently stronger growth during the past year....Strong migration inflows propelled the population growth to its best since the early 90's.....L boasts the second highest industrial diversity in the state of Va."

That said you need certain skills to take advantage of many of the jobs. General business types will be disappointed. People who can engineer or weld nuclear equipment will be in demand.

[Mr_Jonas]

Ooops, I have managed to mess up my profile on this forum…so I re-registered. This will explain the slight change in my screen name.

I am familiar with the Indian restaurant Milan as well. (Next to Burlington’s, right?) It is an OK establishment. I try to eat lunch there when I can afford to support local ethnic restaurants.

We do have a fair number of Indians in Lynchburg. I seriously doubt they work for either nuclear engineering facility. Even though Areva is 100% French owned you have to be a US citizen and preferably born in the US. Now, there are plenty of US born Indians, but I am acquainted (very briefly) with two Indian families and both the husbands (& one of the women) all work for the banks and financial institutions in the old downtown like GE Financial. According to them, they have many fellow Indians in that sector in town. I have tried to apply for paper pushing jobs at both places but my Swedish citizenship stands in the way.

I too have seen these reports about Lynchburg’s growing economy. At first I was quite puzzled, but then I realized it does make perfect sense. It is the same with the former Eastern block countries in the European Union. Since many of them lack basic infrastructure investments and other financial procedures are put in place to bring countries like Rumania to a standard that more resembles Holland, Finland or Spain.

Before we moved to Lynchburg I said it would be hard to find a decent job for me. My wife’s family more or less laughed me in the face. I was the one who paid the price, not them. The only way to land a good job in Lynchburg is to be born in the area so your families name means something or work for a big corporation who hires you and send you to their local office in Lynchburg.

The guy here with the screen name “Stone Cold Calvin Austin” represents the average Lynchburg male. Add the Thomas Road attending and ultraconservative family…well; they are the average Lynchburg citizen.

[badger74]

I think he (stone cold etc) represents and aspect of the area and all of central Virginia for that matter. and any other town in the US with a blue collar population segment. Just as many people work at the aforementioned Genworth (GE Financial), the hospitals and clinics that employ hundreds of doctors and nurses, teach at the four local colleges, are execs and researchers at Fleet, RR Donnelley, local banks etc.

Are those jobs hard to secure? Yes if you lack the qualifications. Maybe you should have gone into selling homes. The market has been very strong and barriers to entry are low. How did your Indian friends get hired at Genworth? If you are maried to a US citizen it should not be too hard to get US citizenship.

More new development coming downtown

NewsAdvance.com | Investment group plans downtown condominiums

[Mr_Jonas]

The thing with guys like our buddy Stone Cold here is that he is a good representation of huge majority of people the type of people I meet. My wife is a nurse practitioner at the hospital so we do know a few people who do work in the medical field. However, in my experience these guys dwarfs once compared to the amounts of “the stone cold type of guys”. When I went to college here in Va (not Lynchburg though) it was these kind of characters I encountered in droves as well. My parents are both from working rural blue collar families. I guess I am more acquainted to Swedish blue collar guys then the rebel flag waiving kind.

Piyushhe, the Indian guy I mentioned is an IT guy. He used to work for some company up north that was owned by GE back when Genworh was GE Financial. Some how he was sent to work in Lynchburg to help out with IT problems and they hired him. He agreed to take the position IF they could guarantee that his wife (who has a degree in finance or some bank related field) would get a job too. The other Indian guy I know, I do not know how he ended up in Lynchburg. He is some kind of financial analyst.


One can not help to wonder what things would have been like if Eriksson, the Swedish phone company still had their plant here in Lynchburg.


My wife is American and I have a green card, so a US citizen ship would be easy. However one needs to denounce the citizenship of your country of origin in order to work for the nuclear engineering companies here in Lynchburg. (This does not concern the Frenchmen and Germans at Areva, as they are hired in Europe and then transferred. Sounds like a technicality but I guess in this day and age they feel that they have their reasons). I could not denounce my Swedish citizenship. Not that I am some kind of super-patriot…it is just that this is who I am….plus if I wanted to move back, something I hope to do one day I would have to apply for a work permit the same way you would have to do if you were to immigrate to another country.

My wife’s family are all real-estates agents in a smaller town just out side Lynchburg. I think I have a fairly good understanding of what makes a good real estate agent. I am not a good sales person. Believe me.

Thanks for the link. Very interesting. While I am have negative feelings about Lynchburg I think they have done a good job with it since the 90’s. The buildings are beautiful and I think it is the only place in Lynchburg were I can sense any kind of “soul”. I know that sounded a bit new-age or just weird, but it is the best way I can describe it.

I hope I do not sound TOO angry, cynical and bitter. It is very nice to speak with you.