Charleston vs Morgantown (Huntington, Teays Valley, Hurricane: crime rate, credit, unemployment)

[cry_havoc]

Originally Posted by mensaguy

You don't get to make up your own definitions for words. In order to communicate with other human beings, you have to use the accepted meanings for words.

Here's the dictionary definition for suburb:

sub·urb (noun)


1. a district lying immediately outside a city or town, especially a smaller residential community.

Therefore, Kanawha City is NOT a suburb of Charleston, but Dunbar IS.

Somebody said downtown Charleston was dead. I would question when you were last in downtown Charleston. Pies & Pints, Adelphia and other restaurants/clubs are packed with people all evening. They now have tables outside on the sidewalk. On Friday evenings, Haddad Riverfront Park is packed full with people coming to hear live music.

Downtown Charleston is definitely NOT dead. Whoever said that, have you ever been to Charleston?

I go about 2-3 times a year.

People from Charleston agree nothing is going on.

Some find it boring while others like that it is quiet.

I agree 100% that people on this forum should not make up definitions.

[Chriscross309]

This thread is dead if all we can talk about is definitions of words that really have no meaning in WV.

[cry_havoc]

Originally Posted by Chriscross309

This thread is dead if all we can talk about is definitions of words that really have no meaning in WV.

This thread was dead a long time ago and this forum was better for it.

Also, you can't redefine words to suite your argument.

[Chriscross309]

Originally Posted by cry_havoc

This thread was dead a long time ago and this forum was better for it.

Also, you can't redefine words to suite your argument.

I didn't redefine anything. All I said was that a suburb is a community that is seperate from the "host city", and supports it. And can't survive without it. Is that not accurate, because if its not then what America sees as suburbs wouldn't actually be suburbs.

You'll have to forgive my lack of posts, I still do not have internet, TV, or phone at mi casa, and have been going to McD's for free internet. Stupid storm!

[cry_havoc]

Originally Posted by Chriscross309

I didn't redefine anything. All I said was that a suburb is a community that is seperate from the "host city", and supports it. And can't survive without it. Is that not accurate, because if its not then what America sees as suburbs wouldn't actually be suburbs.

You'll have to forgive my lack of posts, I still do not have internet, TV, or phone at mi casa, and have been going to McD's for free internet. Stupid storm!

Sorry about your situation.

However, you have been presented with 2 actual definitions. When the crisscross dictionary becomes used by more than you and is considered valid we can talk. Until then everyone is sticking to the accepted definition.

Or we can do things your way and just make up definitions. Charleston wv is now defined as the smallest town in the world, morgantown is now the biggest city I'm the world, and the official definition of suburb is a area outside of morgantown with more than 2 people that is considered part of morgantown. I just changed the definition of Charleston again to a place that doesn't exist. Guess this debate is finished chris.

I
making things up to make a point is fun.

[atlantagreg30127]

NOTE: This isn't a private chat room to bicker in. Get a room (that's NOT here) if you'd like to do it, please. Otherwise, stick to the topic.

Thank you.

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by Chriscross309

If you'd actually read my definition of a suburb you'd see that is describes a suburb very well. Just because it didn'r come from a text book doesn't mean its wrong.

I said cities like Dallas and Houston build houses every 5 seconds, not Morgantown. So again Mtown isn't booming. It is building pretty fast, but save the boom talk for real cities that build whole communities in a month.

And no Morgatown and Charleston aren't the same size. Mtown has 30,000 people in which a good chunck is college students that have moved into non traditional college living spaces. They are counted into that population and you count them twice. So in reality there is probably only half of the student population that you could count as temp residents. And alot of them live outside city limits. So again there is no 60,000 people that live in Mtown not by a long shot. throw in the surrounding area and you have an urban cluster of probably 80,000. And a metro area of maybe 120,000. Charleston on the other hand has 50,000. SC has 15,000, St Albans 12,000, and Dubar and Nitro each have 8,000. all of these communities are connected just like Star City and Westover are to Mtown. add in a few other areas like Cross Lanes (12,000) and that gives Charleston an urban cluster of 200,000. A metro area of 300,000. Morgantown isn't half that. And Morgatown is 40 miles from Pittsburgh's most southern suburb, so no it isn't part of that metro area.

Removed - do not be condescending and personal. Charleston's downtown is alive and well, and last night was no exception. My beautiful girlfriend and I had a very nice evening in downtown, and there was people crawing off the walls on capital St, and in the Town Center. Live Music every Friday evening on the levi, andall the restaurnats packed. I never run out of stuff to do here. You spend a day in Mtown and get tired, other than on gameday. I don't drink or party so there is nothing for me there.

Again Morgantown is nice, has a good college, and is growing, but not better than Charleston. Charleston is family friendly, has great parks, restaurants, shopping, museums, and culture. We have nice architecture, historic areas, and one of the best capitol complexes in America. The neighborhoods are the best in WV, our hospitals are nationally ranked aswell as our schools. We have everything you'd ever need, and we are in the growing again. Factories opening up, office buildings being built, and more restaurnats and shopping opening here. Plus our chemical industry is growing again and poised to be back on top in the international market sooner rather than later.

Chris... Morgantown is larger than Charleston most of the year. It has more than 32,000 "permanent" residents and 25,000 resident students for a total population of 57,000 as opposed to 51,000 for Charleston. You can argue the merits of both towns as you wish, and they are very different places, but get the facts right. There is a whole lot more to do in Morgantown, especially during the week. It is generally safer here, especially after dark, and the overall education level here is much higher for obvious reasons.

Charleston does have more outlying communities in the immediate area, but that is due in large part to people wanting to avoid having their kids around Charleston per se. If I were to live there, I would be in Putnam County... definitely not Charleston.

The difference in education level creates a very different ambience in general. Morgantown is far more cosmopolitan in character while Charleston is more typically Appalachian, and while Charleston has a larger minority population, they are not nearly as well integrated into the general population as they are in Morgantown. You could argue that Charleston has more lawyers hanging around in downtown bars at 5pm, and I wouldn't disagree with that, but as to overall nightlife there is just no comparison. Morgantown wins hands down.

Other factors to consider in a comparison would be proximity to great outdoor venues... again a Morgantown advantage, proximity to real cities vs. relative isolation... Morgantown head and shoulders above Charleston in that regard, and prospects for future development... again no comparison as everyone agrees Morgantown will continue growing at a fast rate for at least decades to come. Charleston is static at best, especially when compared with Morgantown.

[mensaguy]

Originally Posted by CTMountaineer

Chris... Morgantown is larger than Charleston most of the year. It has more than 32,000 "permanent" residents and 25,000 resident students for a total population of 57,000 as opposed to 51,000 for Charleston. .....

That statement only looks at WVU students as adding to the population. That's not really a balanced way to look at it. If that is an unbiased way to look at Morgantown, then one must add 20,000 to the Charleston population for all the workers that commute to the Capitol Complex to work, even though they are not actually residents of Charleston. That's just about as fair. Neither group votes in city elections or has any voice in the government of the city in which they spend time.

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by mensaguy

That statement only looks at WVU students as adding to the population. That's not really a balanced way to look at it. If that is an unbiased way to look at Morgantown, then one must add 20,000 to the Charleston population for all the workers that commute to the Capitol Complex to work, even though they are not actually residents of Charleston. That's just about as fair. Neither group votes in city elections or has any voice in the government of the city in which they spend time.

Not at all. I'm not referencing people who work in the cities, including the thousands who work at Mylan Pharma, WVU, or the hospitals. I'm talking about people who domicile there... sleep there nightly. WVU has 30,000 students, of whom 5,000 are locals and thus already counted in the 32,000 permanent resident population. The other 25,000 students live there nearly 10 months of the year. 10,000 of those also stay in town during summer months, meaning during the summer Charleston has the larger population... 51,000 as opposed to 42,000 for Morgantown. The rest of the year Morgantown has more residents.

Voting someplace is not a requisite to living there. And, actually in a legal sense those students could sign up and vote there if they chose to do so. By the way... the State of West Virginia has 20,000 state workers, but not all of them work at the Capitol Complex. Neither do all of WVU's workers work in Morgantown. Extension offices are in every county of the state, for example. Corrections and DHS, as well as Motor Vehicles and the State Police and National Guard have employees scattered elsewhere too... thousands of them.

[Silkdashocker]

I haven't chimed in this thread in a few years, even though I am the OP. Since I have some more recent experiences of both cities, I thought it was appropriate for me to share my dos pesos.

As some of you have seen in the Morgantown forum, I made a recent posting about a visit to Touchdown City and my views of the city were posted in a positive light. Clearly Morgantown is seeing growth, and is a vibrant small city. It appears to be much more livable than what I expected. I don't want to repost all of my thoughts so I will just leave it at that.

Gustavo, I like your choice of screen name. Season 5 starts tomorrow night, but I can't watch it, as AMC is no longer shown on Dish Network.

Btw, I have recently moved out of Kanawha County, but only moved about 15 miles into Putnam County. Small move in distance, but it definately gives me a different perspective.

If you want to know more, feel free to ask.