Hampton Roads Vs. Richmond (Virginia Beach, Norfolk: high crime, established neighborhood, college)

[JMT]

Originally Posted by garmin239

Richmond. The Hampton roads area is too much like a giant suburb and does not have much urbanity to it or anything unique about it.

Nothing unique to the Hampton Roads area? Huh??

Besides the beautiful beaches, there's HUNDREDS of miles of coastline, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown, as well as the oldest public university in the country (William and Mary).

[TNKY]

Following in the footsteps of JMT, how cool. Anyhow, Hampton Roads, my old stomping grounds, gets my vote.

[cityboi757]

I don't know how anybody could say the richmond metro was more urban than the norfolk metro. a suburb of norfolk, called chesapeake has 220,000 residents which is 20,000 more than the city of richmond. the transit system is better in hampton roads, more stuff to do, more people, more urban areas. If you go outside of the richmond city limits your in some of the most rural areas of virginia! Richmond doesn't even have minor league sports.

[garmin239]

Originally Posted by cityboi757

Umm, i'm pretty sure there is much more urbanity in hampton roads than you all think.. downtown norfolk is just as urban as richmond, plus downtown portsmouth, virginia beach town center, downtown newport news, city center @ oyster point, etc.

There really isn't. Hampton Roads has Norfolk, which resembles your traditional urban area, but outside of that, in the city limits of these areas you have large amounts of suburban areas. A perfect example is the VA beach town center. It resembles a suburban office park more than anything. The town center is surrounded by LARGE surface parking lots with wide roads. There is a suburban style mall across the street from it for crying out loud.
Richmond offers more of an urban feel.

[cityboi757]

Your right, Va Beach is more of a suburban city, but the thread is hampton roads metro vs. richmond metro. and I think that hr is better and more urban. in case you didn't know virginia beach town center has the tallest building in the state and the town center looks nothing like an office park? you haven't even seen all the urban areas of HR so... if your curious research city center at oyster point, downtownnorfolk.org, towncenterofvirginiabeach.com, peninsula town center, virginia beach oceanfront, downtown portsmouth.. Here's my theory. downtown norfolk and downtown richmond are pretty much equal. BUT the surrounding suburbs of richmond pretty much suck. The surrounding suburbs of norfolk are pretty cool and they all have urban centers. Oh and the suburban mall by VBTC is being demolished and turned into an urban street grid once light rail is constructed. does richmond have mass transit other than busses? NO!

[garmin239]

I like Richmonds DT far better than Norfolk IMO. . If you are including suburbs, then neither is urban. Thats great that VA Beach has a tall building, but it doesn't change the fact that the entire complex and area resembles a suburban office park atmosphere. You can't have an urban area with lots of empty space (parking lots). Many of these "town centres" are like this. I spent a great deal of time working in the Hampton Roads area. Too much of a transient military atmosphere for me.
As far as cities go, I'm taking Richmond because of this. Its hard to establish a unique identity when the area revolves around a transient military atmosphere. I like the city neighborhoods in the Richmond area better. I feel the city has much more of a historic atmosphere overall. Hampton Roads has too much of a strip mall chain store feel to it. Not that Richmond doesn't have it, but Hampton Roads has more of that type of vibe.

[cityboi757]

Yeah everybody is entitled to their opinion. But the vote is 8-2 in favor of HR. I like Norfolk's downtown more because of the nightlife, sports venues, concert venues, opera houses, light rail, the waterfront, macarthur center, waterside, granby street, the foot traffic, etc. Richmond is dead every time I'm there.

[KeyserSoze]

Originally Posted by cityboi757

I don't know how anybody could say the richmond metro was more urban than the norfolk metro. a suburb of norfolk, called chesapeake has 220,000 residents which is 20,000 more than the city of richmond. the transit system is better in hampton roads, more stuff to do, more people, more urban areas. If you go outside of the richmond city limits your in some of the most rural areas of virginia! Richmond doesn't even have minor league sports.

Norfolk is part of a metro. Chesapeake is not a suburb of Norfolk -- it's a city of the Hampton Roads metro. Outside of the Richmond city limits it's suburban, then it becomes rural -- mostly in exurban counties. But it's hardly one of the more rural areas of Virginia -- especially since it's right on 95. Hampton Roads has more rural areas than Richmond. Outside of the city limits, it becomes rural fairly quickly. I like Tidewater, and I could see myself living in Norfolk. But given the choice between the two metros, I prefer going with Richmond.

[cityboi757]

I can't agree with more rural areas in hr than richmond metro. Suffolk is the only rural part of the metro and even that city has 80,000 residents. Other than Suffolk and Smithfield the rest of hampton roads is urbanized. Richmond MSA has:Charles City
Chesterfield
Dinwiddie
Goochland
Hanover
Henrico
New Kent
Powhatan
Prince George
Gloucester County, Virginia

All of those are country!

[The Dissenter]

Hampton Roads gets my vote. Ya'll shouldn't be surprised.