Area around Charlottesville (Richmond, Blacksburg, Washington: houses, safe area, movies)

[michaelarbor]

I am a Californian high school student looking at UVA-Charlottesville. I absolutely loved Charlottesville and the campus, and it seemed the people there were very friendly, intelligent and diverse. On my way out, however, I took a drive through some towns in the area and noticed a lot of stereotypical "redneck" things, including confederate flags, baptist churches completely full at odd hours (with shouting preachers that you can hear from 100 yards away), pickup trucks, run-down houses and farm sheds with cracked windows and weeds growing out of them, tractors in yards, trailer homes, and gravel roads into the woods. Being from an area where I never see that sort of thing, I was a little bit uncomfortable.

For any of you who live in the small towns around Charlottesville, what is life like there? What is the general attitude (if there is one) towards outsiders? Is there any reason to be concerned, or is the whole "Deliverance" vibe that I got completely unfounded? Is it safe to drive alone on country roads (e.g. to and from Washington DC) there at night, or does anything creepy go on there? Are the people friendly? Are they as conservative as they seemed? Are any towns there worth visiting, and are there any other towns to avoid? And lastly, is the UVA off-campus housing in a good, safe area?

[nuhusky11]

Granted the area directly off the road leading from dc does not give the greatest vibe the area is safe to drive thru. I would not live in these areas but otherwise no concern to you who to be quiet honest would never leave Charlottesville let alone the UVA campus

[YellowKing]

Originally Posted by michaelarbor

I am a Californian high school student looking at UVA-Charlottesville. I absolutely loved Charlottesville and the campus, and it seemed the people there were very friendly, intelligent and diverse. On my way out, however, I took a drive through some towns in the area and noticed a lot of stereotypical "redneck" things, including confederate flags, baptist churches completely full at odd hours (with shouting preachers that you can hear from 100 yards away), pickup trucks, run-down houses and farm sheds with cracked windows and weeds growing out of them, tractors in yards, trailer homes, and gravel roads into the woods. Being from an area where I never see that sort of thing, I was a little bit uncomfortable.

For any of you who live in the small towns around Charlottesville, what is life like there? What is the general attitude (if there is one) towards outsiders? Is there any reason to be concerned, or is the whole "Deliverance" vibe that I got completely unfounded? Is it safe to drive alone on country roads (e.g. to and from Washington DC) there at night, or does anything creepy go on there? Are the people friendly? Are they as conservative as they seemed? Are any towns there worth visiting, and are there any other towns to avoid? And lastly, is the UVA off-campus housing in a good, safe area?

The worst part of Charlottesville is that there is no interstate from DC (and I'm guessing you flew into Dulles). That stretch of 29 between Northern Virginia and Charlottesville is the "real" virginia that conservatives love to trumpet. Charlottesville, Blacksburg, Northern Virginia, Richmond and the tidewater areas of VA are the only ones that matter. T

Think of that stretch of 29 as what you would consider "the inland empire" in California. Except, in California, they're all tweakers and low lifes like that. Here in Virginia, they're just country and older/conservative. I've been all over Southern California, and unless you're within 20-30 miles of the coast, that area is a lot more scary than anything you'll find in Virginia.

To provide specific responses to each your examples of scary pieces of landscape:

confederate flags - there is no shortage of these in California
baptist churches - Baptist churches are big in the south, and that area of 29 is very culturally southern (this was Eric Cantor's District)
completely full at odd hours - baptists never stop
Pickup trucks- have you been to California?
run-down houses - where should I start? LA, Oakland, El Cajon? Do I even need to go over the mountains to find these? What you won't find on ours are bars on the windows.
farm sheds with cracked windows and weeds growing out of them - many areas are formerly agricultural, and the barns that are decaying into the ground are often times just left to do so,
tractors in yards - you might notice that we don't have to drain entire rivers to have abundant grass here. I grew up with 2 acres of lawn that had to get "bush hogged" twice a year (what they use to gather hay).
trailer homes - I was in LA last week, near cerritos, and there were plenty of these. In San Diego, there's entire neighborhoods of permanent RV's right next to nice houses. Zoning doesn't appear to exist out there.
gravel roads into the woods - as opposed to dirt driveways into the canyon?

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by YellowKing

Charlottesville, Blacksburg, Northern Virginia, Richmond and the tidewater areas of VA are the only ones that matter.

Wow... I didn't know that.

[matthew20052010]

Originally Posted by michaelarbor

I am a Californian high school student looking at UVA-Charlottesville. I absolutely loved Charlottesville and the campus, and it seemed the people there were very friendly, intelligent and diverse. On my way out, however, I took a drive through some towns in the area and noticed a lot of stereotypical "redneck" things, including confederate flags, baptist churches completely full at odd hours (with shouting preachers that you can hear from 100 yards away), pickup trucks, run-down houses and farm sheds with cracked windows and weeds growing out of them, tractors in yards, trailer homes, and gravel roads into the woods. Being from an area where I never see that sort of thing, I was a little bit uncomfortable.

For any of you who live in the small towns around Charlottesville, what is life like there? What is the general attitude (if there is one) towards outsiders? Is there any reason to be concerned, or is the whole "Deliverance" vibe that I got completely unfounded? Is it safe to drive alone on country roads (e.g. to and from Washington DC) there at night, or does anything creepy go on there? Are the people friendly? Are they as conservative as they seemed? Are any towns there worth visiting, and are there any other towns to avoid? And lastly, is the UVA off-campus housing in a good, safe area?

Honestly, does it really matter? You're not going to be spending time must outside Charlottesville and inner Albemarle County. I doubt you'll go north of Walmart except perhaps to the airport or a handful of trips to Target. I don't really care for redneck culture either, but here's a tip: don't go to school in rural Virginia if that bothers you. Despite increasingly popular opinion, Virginia is NOT in the northeast and you WILL see stupid people with Confederate flags.

[michaelarbor]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. And YellowKing, I don't spend much time in rural California either. UVA is the only campus I'm interested in that's in a really rural area. Any college in California that's too far away from the coast is nothing special. I'm sure if I bothered more to go into inland California, I'd find much of the same things

[eyeye]

The area on the east side the mountians in Washington state is scary too. I ended up rolling into a small militia town on accident. I wasn't sure they were going to let me go. I loved to explore on road trips but then after more then one run in with scary folks, just to drive through :-)

[NeedsToGrowUp]

Sadly and ironically, I see more confederate flags in WV than in VA. VA - and most of the south - is losing its heritage quite fast. As far as exploring areas, Id worry more about gangs and drug-users, than things movies have hyped.

Cville proper is quite liberal/PC/yuppie. Its not too multi-culti though. And if you want to go exploring national forests, dont worry. Just hikers. The state forests have hunters, so if you find them scary look up the hunting seasons and stay away.

The area around Cville is rural and like most rural areas, families have been there for hundreds of years. So yes they are suspicious of outsiders, and it often takes years for new-comers to find themselves welcome.

That said, the friendliness of this area in particular is declining in my opinion. The new people settling Cville are bring NoVa and NY attitudes. Even in rural parts, I am not sure why but customs like Sunday visiting are long gone. I dont find this to be true in either the valley or south Cville.

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by NeedsToGrowUp

That said, the friendliness of this area in particular is declining in my opinion. The new people settling Cville are bring NoVa and NY attitudes. Even in rural parts, I am not sure why but customs like Sunday visiting are long gone. I dont find this to be true in either the valley or south Cville.

Sunday visiting?

[NeedsToGrowUp]

sunday visiting = impromptu visits for lunch, cookies and coffee - this was back in the day where sunday was mostly about church and socializing and catching up on stuff.

another lost custom is food between sunday school and church. we used to have the best food, egg casseroles, ham biscuits etc at my parents old church. if you are lucky now you will get doughnuts.