Buena Vista? (Roanoke, Lexington: homes, movie theater, high school)

[Johno]

We are looking at Buena Vista as a possible place to retire to - like the idea of proximity to Lexington and colleges - still have 15 year old son so school is important . . . any thoughts from those who know the area???

[jmarkd]

I don't know anything about the town but my college professor, who went to U. Va., had a funny story about Buena Vista, where apparently the locals pronounce the name differently than outsiders:

He was just passing through the town, and stopped at a fast-food restaurant for a quick dinner. After ordering, he asked the lady at the register, "how do you pronounce the name of this place?"

She looked at him and replied: "HAR-DEE'S."

[silverwing]

Originally Posted by jmarkd

I don't know anything about the town but my college professor, who went to U. Va., had a funny story about Buena Vista, where apparently the locals pronounce the name differently than outsiders:

He was just passing through the town, and stopped at a fast-food restaurant for a quick dinner. After ordering, he asked the lady at the register, "how do you pronounce the name of this place?"

She looked at him and replied: "HAR-DEE'S."

I was there in 2002 for a sidecar rally (the town has a very nice park/community center/pool). I swear, I think Hardee's was the only fast food place there. It's kind of a small town http://www.buenavistavirginia.org/

I was told the town name wasn't pronounced as is commonly thought: Bwayna, but Byoona.

[Cattknap]

I've been there many times....it is less than 10 minutes from Lexington....Buena Vista has some very nice areas and some very crummy areas - not the nicest town you will visit - quite small. Southern Virginia University is very nice and growing and just on the outskirts....there used to be some neat shops in the old area of town - a wonderful General Store that was truly fabulous and some small antique stores - those are gone now (or were last time we were there). I'm from So. California and live near the beach - it is beautiful, neat and clean and homes are well kept - so places like Buena Vista and even much of Lexington is depressing to me - lots of economically depressed areas but nice areas too, some lovely homes but a lot of plain/ill kept homes as well....not a lot of services in Buena Vista and I understand that in times of flood/heavy rains, the road between Lexington and Buena Vista can be impassable. They seem to have quite a few accidents on the freeway - truck accidents and fatalities. The surrounding country side is beautiful and there are some lovely historic homes and downtown Lexington is quite charming - we like to drive down the Robert E. Lee Highway - drive through Raphine, go to the mill and herb farm - drive the Virginia Scenic Highway - very lovely.

[mrt6812]

however, coming from someone who has lived in the area all their life as has my parents, grandparents, great grandparents and probably further back than that, if your son isn't into the rural stuff then odds are he'll just ride up and down the road with his friends wasting gas like we used to. I don't mean to discourage you from checking it out, but you might want to take into consideration the fact that, for young people, there's nothing to do here. Lexington is the same way. There's one movie theater in each city and in downtown Lexington there are speciality shops but us locals don't use them as they're geared more toward tourists and the college community but if you're not from here, then you may enjoy them too. I'll just say that Lexington is a good place to visit, but now it's not so good of a place to live. It's changed so drastically within my lifetime that I'm having a hard time taking it in...and I'm only 22.

[htlong]

funny the people from Bu-chanan pronounce it buck-hanan, staunton is stanton.

[mrt6812]

that's how we pronounce them in Lexington, too. It's not just the locals that say buck-hanan and stanton and bewnah vista, it's people from Roanoke and elsewhere in the state.

[finefinefine]

Even though BV has been growing some lately, Lexington has the colleges and their libraries, lectures, classes your son could take (and you too!), etc. Also the mix of friends and teachers your son would find at the high school in BV is more heterogenous than Rockbridge County High School.

[spunky1]

I would want to live in Lexington as opposed to Buena Vista. And I don't know about recently but the high school use to be ranked very low. I don't thick academics is stressed if you get what I mean.

[mrt6812]

How is PMHS more heterogenous than RCHS? There's really no difference in the two schools except that RCHS has the better academic record. Actually I don't think that's quite as true as it used to be. People from both RCHS and PMHS go to UVa, Princeton, etc.