How "Southern" is Charlottesville? (Norfolk, Richmond: theater, property taxes, vs.)

[Tom Lennox 70]

Originally Posted by scorlock

C-ville is very southern (rebel) and Jeffersonian. Remember that Thomas Jefferson was the guy who said America should have a civil (revolutionary) war every so often to keep the despotic government officials from gaining too much power. The people of C-ville wholly claim and embrace T. Jefferson and all of his ideas of a "free" society (in fact I think many of them still believe he walks the hills of Monticello...), where "free" means - without government intervention into individual rights.

Everything about C-ville is permeated by the shadow of Mr. Jefferson; architecture, politics, religion, business, education, etc. Being "free" also entitles one to be ignorant or naive. Yankees (Northerners) that I have met here in Central Va, ALWAYS do NOT fit in at first. People will expect you to visit politely in the grocery line, hold doors for other people, allow people to merge in traffic, and say excuse me when you bump someone in public, ALL of these things you will not be accustomed to when coming from the North (Yankee) part of the country.

YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY in Central Va unless you are prepared to become a more "cultured" human being, polite and respectful. PLEASE STAY in the North if you are not willing to change who you are and be more refined and tolerant. Northerners are the most selfish, self-centered, intolerant people in America, with exception of maybe Californians. Here, you are just another free-citizen expected to carry your weight in society; PLEASE DON'T COME!!!! STAY AWAY, FAR AWAY!

And don't be so naive about prejudices...such things exist EVERYWHERE and are based on anything people can use to separate themselves to feel better about who they are, whether it be ethnicity, gender, sexual morality, political, religious, education, family status, appearance, wealth, social status, you name it, etc. With your narrow-scope of human understanding typical of Yankee Northerners, I will HIGHLY recommend staying where you are at and continuing to live within your own self-generated fantasy world.

I'd say holding a door open for someone and saying excuse me when you bump into someone is basic manners. If people up north don't do that then maybe they should have been taught better growing up.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Originally Posted by blueva

Excuse me, but watching Nascar is bluecollar, not Southern. Southern is being laid back and friendly. You are trying to sum up "Southern" as some kind of working class thing. That is actually the opposite of it.

Yeah I'm also trying to understand the subtities here and some people seemed offended in the Roanoke/Lynchburg folder when I mentioned hunting, church, and 4 wheeling. For people who have not spent an extensive amount of time in the South it CAN be confusing. Like I watch CMT and listen to country radio a lot and they seem to group Southern, heartland, small town, and blue collar together. I personally think country music generally represents most of America outside of the major Northeast and California cities.

[Grenoble_slopes]

Originally Posted by cassidygal

I'm a native New Englander, and love the Northeast. In particular, I adore Portland, Maine. Generally speaking, I love everything about Portland (and New England in general) ... except the weather. I am looking for a city in a warmer & sunnier part of the country, but which has a culture similar to that of Portland.

In winter, Portland is actually just as sunny as Charlottesville.

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/climmaps/hrssun1.gif
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/climmaps/persun7.gif
General Climate Information

There seems to be a misunderstanding that closer to the equator automatically means more sun, but that's not necessarily true.

[Nebat]

I have grown up within 45 mins of C-ville pretty much my whole life and I currently work there. To me Charlottesville has never seemed southern. There is such a high concentration of people from New Jersey, New York, etc. here that what if any real southerness that was here has been drowned out. The university brings in so many people from all over the world into one small location that it has more of a north east feel to me. Not a bad thing as I love diversity. I think people are generally friendly and I have also encountered some individuals that I can not use words here to describe. But thats the case wherever you go in the country. Just my thought on the area. There are some creepy people that go in that Wal-Mart after dark though! (shudder)

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by Nebat

There are some creepy people that go in that Wal-Mart after dark though! (shudder)

Yeah, but you had to be there to see them, right?

[Nebat]

Ha Ha! You got me! No, I try not to support the evil empire as much as I have to, but everything shuts down so early in C-ville that sometimes theres no other place to go late. But they sure are cheap, so I definitely don't fault anyone for shopping there, creepy or not!

[nhp5c]

YOU WILL LOVE Charlottesville. It is heaven.

[Mysticmayr]

"A few people I know have recommended Charlottesville, Virginia -- but from what I can tell, Charlottesville is a lot more conservative/Bible Belt than Portland & New England more broadly speaking. Now, I'm not a knee-jerk liberal. But I am looking for someplace where, on average, people are tolerant and open-minded, and where the populace is generally well-educated. If we start a family, I don't want my children exposed on a daily basis to overt racism, sexism, and religious bigotry as part of the culture. I have lived in the South before, and, unfortunately, have found far, far more of those ugly characteristics than in New England"

Wow! I do not think I have read anything more narrow minded and bigoted in a long time. Where do you get the right to lump all "Southerners" into one negative category? Is that the kind of tolerance and open-mindedness you have learned as a northern liberal? You are very much lacking in the very attributes you are looking for in neighbors.
Let me "educate" you a little about Virginia. Virginians are very proud of our 400 years of history here. We are proud that not only did settlers establish a colony here in 1607, we are also proud that today, our Commonwealth is still home to new immigrants from all over the world. Virginia is the top in immigrations from a large and varied group of people. Virginia has always stood firm on religious freedoms, fought for by our founding fathers and included by them in our governments proclamations and laws. We have a history of tolerating each other's beliefs and individualism.

Lastly, I would like to educate you on a few short facts about Virginia that should cover your concern that Virginians are uneducated, racist and bigots. According to the Federal Government, Virginians with a Bachelor's Degree or higher make up 29.5% of the population as apposed to Maine, where the percentage is 22.9%. As the percentage of those with at least HS education is about the same, I would say you are more likely to have "well-educated" neighbors here than in Maine. Also, the percentage of White non-Hispanic residents in Virginia is 67% as apposed to that figure being 95.5% in Maine. Thus, you would certainly be among a much more diverse and tolerant populace. As for the sexism statement, I have no idea why Virginia would be thought of as sexist, but going back to the stats, women own 29.7% of the businesses in the Commonwealth as apposed to 24% in Maine. Finally, I want to clear up the racism and bigotry statement, once and for all. Twenty years ago, the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia elected as their Governor, Douglas Wilder, the First African-American elected to that office anywhere in the USA. By the way, Governor Wilder was a liberal Democrat. Virginia has been fairly evenly split over the politics of its governors in the last 25 years, so I would say were are either are either Liberal Conservatives or Conservative Liberals.

[doublemom]

You can easily separate Charlottesville from the rest of Albemarle County. The county is fairly conservative and can easily be viewed as "Southern". The city of Charlottesville is more cosmopolitian and feels like many other college towns with more progressive points of view. It is comfortable. And with any place you live, it can be what you chose to make it. I've lived in Charlottesville and Orlando, and in my opinion, Charlottesville does not feel nearly as Southern as Orlando

[WVMountainMan]

When people say southern on here it confuses me quite a bit.....That could fall into many categories..

Is Charlottesville coastal southern like Savannah, Charleston or even Richmond? No..

Does Charlottesville have a Deep South influence like Alabama? Aside from like the civil war stuff, No.

Does Charlottesville have more of a Southern Appalachian culture like Kentucky, West Virginia, or Tennessee? No. Not really.

However, Charlottesville does have a somewhat country feel to it. Don’t get me wrong, people do have Robert E Lee shrines there…..but so do people in Maryland. So I don’t know where I would put Charlottesville if I was to categorize the city. I think it would have more in common with Fredrick MD than let’s say Birmingham.

If you really want to live in an ultimate "Deep south southern fried southern" area then I would suggest looking more towards South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.