Need some info .... (university, living in, safer)

[nancysi]

I need some info/advice and posted notes on the VA page but received either no replies and/or well, not the kind of response I was looking for. I am relocating for work and I can either live in Charlottesville or Richmond - I have the basics of what is different but I have a very direct question: I am a Professor - I am originally from Canada - I am a visible minority - I am Hindu and am used to living in very liberal diverse places - which would be best? Which is safer? Is there any racial tension? I am going to ask people from a more liberal area now - since I am hoping to get some response and perhaps even and honest one from an area (D.C) that I know is very liberal (in fact, I wish my job were there - none of this would be an issue for me since I know the area well and like it a lot) but I know nothing about Charlottesville or Richmond. What is interesting is that I lived in Princeton, NJ at one point - it was two hours from NYC and very liberal - not very different at all from NYC (in terms of people/thinking) - but it seems something happens once you get too far south of D.C - is that a fair observation? I could be wrong.

PS: If anyone knows anything about the downtown areas as a comparison that would help.

[saganista]

I think your south-of-DC observations do still hold true to some degree, though certainly less so than what they used to. I also think that there are some parallels between Princeton (grew up 40 miles from there) and Charlottesville (live 100 miles from there), in that both are midsized (C=45K, P=30K) cultural islands set within a more conservative landscape, the more-conservative part maybe being a little more pronounced in VA than it is in NJ. Charlottesville voted 72% for Kerry in 2004 and 77% for Webb in 2006.

None of this, though, would be to run down Richmond, which is no reactionary hotbed itself. Their electoral numbers there would have been similar enough to C-ville's, but the percent of minority voters in Richmond is about three times as high (roughly 60 percent to 20 percent). I haven't spent enough time in Richmond (particularly lately) to say too much about it, but I do get down to Charlottesville often enough to advise that in the main, it's a broadly liberal town where people in general are well accepted. It's not DC, but it's not so far off that mark either.

[Zippy7fo]

I would live in Charlottesville. Its a up and coming part of VA, potentially could become an Austin/Raleigh for VA if they can get the Tech and Biotech companies to relocate. Now the area does have a heavy concentration of conservatives but being a major university I would suspect that its very liberal within city limits. But I recommend that you live in Charlottesville because its a great environment and beautiful city. Richmond is on the rebound and has much more diversity, just depends on your preference..