Harrisonburg Area - Chinese/Caucasian couple considering a move (move to, job)

[apoptosis]

Driving from Staunton to Harrisonburg is kind of a long commute, same with driving from Staunton to Charlottesville. It also gets spendy on the car maintenance and the gas once the prices go up again. However, at least it is a 30-40 minute commute spent driving and not stuck in traffic.

There is not much in between cities. There are some small towns peppered around but there the living seems quite isolated and mundane things such as grocery shopping, etc become more tricky because the stores are small. Also, in many rural areas/small towns you only get dialup internet. That is one thing I could not live without and is something worth considering.

Nonetheless, a lot of professional/dual career couples in the area have no choice but to face the long commutes going opposite directions as the odds of finding good jobs for both members in one location are smaller.

[sweetpotater58]

Harrisonburg is not going to be a problem for you and your wife, as to whether or not it has the chinese food prepared the way she would like it best, that is hard to say. You will be living in Virginia-far from a major urban area, but Virginia is not a backwoods state as some in the north seem to like to label us. Charlottesville would not be a good commute in winter, the crossing over or through the Blue Ridge would make things dicey for her travel wise in bad weather. However, Charlottesville would be great to visit, and likely would have more culture, but this is not to disrespect Harrisonburg, it is just longer established due to UVA being there, and JMU relatively new kid on the block status in Hburg. Traveling up to Northern Virginia/DC or to Richmond for the weekend would no doubt give your wife a chance to experience some more authentic asian cuisine. As for the racial aspects of things, ignorant people abound all over, I have found for the most part in Virginia, if you act with respect toward the natives, the natives act respectful toward you. I have traveled the state a lot with Asian and Hispanic friends and coworkers and have not once experienced hostile attitudes-Harrisonburg included.

[JQ118inCA]

Thank you for your timely reply!
I'm flying back to Harrisonburg this morning for a second interview this week.
We've been discussing it positively.

[JQ118inCA]

Returned from my second trip and found the asian food market mentioned by apoptosis behind the Taste of Thai restaurant - which served excellent food BTW. I also ate at the Vietnamese restaurant in town and enjoyed their food.
In short, my wife and I have no concerns should we be offered the chance to move and decide to take it.
Escaping the problems in California (economy, unemployment, taxes, freefalling housing values, pollution, CRIME in our area, our water shortage/drought, the coming earthquake) needs to be considered.
I took the drive from Harrisonburg to Staunton and on to Charlotesville this trip and confirmed that might not be the best plan for us, 30 minutes+ each leg and I noted the drive over the mountains to Charlottesville from Staunton as mentioned below by sweetpotater58 that might initially concern my wife driving in her Beetle in the winter -she has never even seen real snow yet.
In short, I enjoyed my second trip to the area even more than my first.
The weather was chilly but mild, the small amount of snow that fell was picturesque, even the snow that fell my first trip was inconvenient only because I was leaving that day and had to drive up to DC.
If we go we would probably look to settle in Harrisonburg itself initially. There are plenty of nice houses and rental apartments available there.
I've been looking at the Urban Exchange building as an option for the first year.

The only unknown is the weather during Spring-Summer.

[sweetpotater58]

Good fortune and blessings for you moving to the Old Dominion, Virginia is a good state to reside in. I have vacationed, worked or lived in Virginia for well over 20 years.

[Dr.Jim]

Urban Exhange?......When would you be moving?,....that complex isnt near finished yet is it?

Either way I might suggest renting a house in a more interesting neighborhood in Hburg,...lots of wonderful old homes with great character.
Urban Exhange,...regardless of the hype....is going to be a rather sterile, lifeless effort for quite awhile.

[JQ118inCA]

Yes, I know - UE is supposed to be renting in August. It could be a convenient place-holder for me. Alternative is I found a nice house to consider too. I didn't much care for the new rental houses shown me.

BTW, what is the weather Spring-Summer? Humid-sticky? or not really so bad? I'm used to completely dry Summer-Fall now.

+++
And I read in another thread about street gangs that have cropped up in Harrisonburg, what's the fact on that? and where do they roam? (Can't possibly be near as bad people as we have HERE, however. or could I be wrong? One reason to move would be to get away from that threat.)

[robertjohnson]

I'm in a similar marrage situation. In 16 years the only mixed issue attitude we've noted was a envy. If their is disapproval we don't see it. Then again were not looking for it.

[Dr.Jim]

Spring - Not so bad....getting hot....
Summer - hot,...hot..and humid. (But its all relevant ofcourse!)

In my couple years here definately not too much rain, nor too cloudy.
Having been in Mi for 3 years prior to VA, and in Florida for years prior to that I can say that VA has the most pleasant seasons! Nice long slow spring and falls with nice temps...sunny skies (unlike mi!)...

Gangs?......haha...Well,...Im sure there are gangs everywhere.....but I wouldnt be concerned about it....all cities have good areas and bad areas..although from what Ive seen Hburgs bad areas are not very big or bad (compared to Miami).....
So again its all relevant.

New rental houses?....hmmm......yeah,.....I think we have different tastes...I see all the historic Victorians and old homes and think how cool they would be to live in (if I wanted to do the city).
But ofcourse UE is 'nice'....no doubt about it.
Either way...renting at first till you get the lay of the land is the best decision by far!

Keep it up, keep us posted and feel free to PM or contact anytime.

[apoptosis]

My girlfriend commutes from Staunton to Charlottesville every day and while she is not fond of it, she has managed ok as it is better than sitting in traffic 40 minutes each day going 5 mph. We are considering buying a house in Waynesboro to shorten her commute but Waynesboro has very little going on except for its factories and associated truck routes and other ugly sights.

You may have to take it easy on the days it snows, things do slow down then. Her work got canceled when it snowed 6 inches earlkier this month and on the other occasions it snowed 2-3 inches her work had a delayed opening. One time there was a freak snow that was not forecast and she was stuck in traffic 2 hours trying to get over the pass -- the highway dept did not get salt trucks out in time. Otherwise, they are pretty diligent about keeping the road very well salted. So, it's not ideal and you may get stuck in traffic a few times a year (also happened in the fall due to a big accident). And, keep an eye on the forecast.

I'm glad the Taste of Thai was good. I like the Vietnamese one too. That said, I have not found much else in Harrisonburg but alas I am new to the area. There also is not much in terms of organic food stores (i.e., whole foods or something equivalent..the few health food stores are pretty exhorbitant and mostly just sell nuts/herbs/supplements). Which is kind of a shame given there are lots of organic farms in the area which are well known by Washington DC foodies.

Renting historic houses in the area can be fun but be prepared for steep heating bills, most of them have little to no insulation/double pane windows --ask the landlord or call the power/gas company about the energy consumption.