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I'm a native New Englander, and love the Northeast. In particular, I adore Portland, Maine. Generally speaking, I love everything about Portland (and New England in general) ... except the weather. I am looking for a city in a warmer & sunnier part of the country, but which has a culture similar to that of Portland.
A few people I know have recommended Charlottesville, Virginia -- but from what I can tell, Charlottesville is a lot more conservative/Bible Belt than Portland & New England more broadly speaking. Now, I'm not a knee-jerk liberal. But I am looking for someplace where, on average, people are tolerant and open-minded, and where the populace is generally well-educated. If we start a family, I don't want my children exposed on a daily basis to overt racism, sexism, and religious bigotry as part of the culture. I have lived in the South before, and, unfortunately, have found far, far more of those ugly characteristics than in New England.
Any ideas on other warmer/sunnier cities that a Portland-lover would love?
Charlottesville is a very liberal place. In the city and county you can't find a southern conservative (maybe at court square) if your life depended on it. How could Mr. Jeffersons town be any different. The democrats always win the town of and often win the county as they did with President Obama. We have two gay bars for gods sake, more than Burlington. The republicans are a problem here, but where aren't they. The town has the finest public university in the world and two world heritage sites. You'll get used to it. Has Maine had an african-American governor? or currently two democratic senators? You'll find little or no racism in Charlottesville I assure you and damn little in Virginia.
Charlottesville is a very liberal place. In the city and county you can't find a southern conservative (maybe at court square) if your life depended on it. How could Mr. Jeffersons town be any different. The democrats always win the town of and often win the county as they did with President Obama. We have two gay bars for gods sake, more than Burlington. The republicans are a problem here, but where aren't they. The town has the finest public university in the world and two world heritage sites. You'll get used to it. Has Maine had an african-American governor? or currently two democratic senators? You'll find little or no racism in Charlottesville I assure you and damn little in Virginia.
I couldn't agree more! I have always said that Cville isn't southern. There may be a few southern people there, but the overall vibe is not southern. On another note, most of VA above the James river I feel the same about. Cville is kind of a microchosm of VA in general. If you notice, all development is on and above i64, while below it is wide open land and farmland. All the major cities in VA are on or above i64 as well(1 million metros and up). The area along i64 and above is mid atlantic, Not only geographically, but even culturally to an extent. I don't feel like I've hit the true south until I get past Lynchburg or below the james river. And I've never seen any outright racism either. Not saying it isn't there. Unfortunately it's everywhere. But the most racist remark I ever heard here actually came out of a man visiting from North Carolina.
I'm a native New Englander, and love the Northeast. In particular, I adore Portland, Maine. Generally speaking, I love everything about Portland (and New England in general) ... except the weather. I am looking for a city in a warmer & sunnier part of the country, but which has a culture similar to that of Portland.
A few people I know have recommended Charlottesville, Virginia -- but from what I can tell, Charlottesville is a lot more conservative/Bible Belt than Portland & New England more broadly speaking. Now, I'm not a knee-jerk liberal. But I am looking for someplace where, on average, people are tolerant and open-minded, and where the populace is generally well-educated. If we start a family, I don't want my children exposed on a daily basis to overt racism, sexism, and religious bigotry as part of the culture. I have lived in the South before, and, unfortunately, have found far, far more of those ugly characteristics than in New England.
Any ideas on other warmer/sunnier cities that a Portland-lover would love?
I, too, am a native New Englander. I moved to Charlottesville in 1997, and since I had only lived in the northeast my entire life, it was a bit of a culture shock for me. But it was wonderful in very many ways, and I ended up staying in the area for 13 years. Comparatively, C-ville is a mecca of open-mindedness, mostly due to UVa, which continues to bring in non-natives in the form of students and teachers, many of whom fall in love with the place (for good reason) and put down roots.
If you enjoy pastoral beauty, vineyards, orchards and farms, and peaceful living with relatively easy metropolitan access, it's a wonderful place to live. However, it is the south, and the Bible belt runs through the areas surrounding C-ville. You can't turn a corner in the Shenandoah Valley without running into a church, a cross, or a Jesus fish on the back of someone's car. It's not malicious zealotry; it's more a provincial thing: people just assume everyone's a Christian the same way they assume those hills are part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And, yes, you'll find an affinity for trucks, beer, and guns. But it's generally not in your face any more than Italian mafia culture is in New England. The people aren't any friendlier or meaner -- two stereotypes worth putting to bed are the idea of southern hospitality and the crazy racist redneck. Neither are prevalent.
The bottom line: I loved Charlottesville, as well as my home on "the other side of the mountain," where I met incredible friends and had some of the best times of my life. I'm now living on the Eastern Shore, and it's nice to be back on the ocean and with a more heterogeneous group of people, but I'll always have a place in my heart for C-ville and the valley.
If you do move there (or just visit), here are some things to check out: "Fridays After Five" on the downtown mall; Bodo's Bagels; UVa's annual film festival; The Boar's Head Inn; The Green Valley Book Fair; Carter Mountain Apple Orchard; The Globe Theater/Blackfriar's Playhouse in Staunton; and Wintergreen Resort.
I, too, am a native New Englander. I moved to Charlottesville in 1997, and since I had only lived in the northeast my entire life, it was a bit of a culture shock for me. But it was wonderful in very many ways, and I ended up staying in the area for 13 years. Comparatively, C-ville is a mecca of open-mindedness, mostly due to UVa, which continues to bring in non-natives in the form of students and teachers, many of whom fall in love with the place (for good reason) and put down roots.
If you enjoy pastoral beauty, vineyards, orchards and farms, and peaceful living with relatively easy metropolitan access, it's a wonderful place to live. However, it is the south, and the Bible belt runs through the areas surrounding C-ville. You can't turn a corner in the Shenandoah Valley without running into a church, a cross, or a Jesus fish on the back of someone's car. It's not malicious zealotry; it's more a provincial thing: people just assume everyone's a Christian the same way they assume those hills are part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And, yes, you'll find an affinity for trucks, beer, and guns. But it's generally not in your face any more than Italian mafia culture is in New England. The people aren't any friendlier or meaner -- two stereotypes worth putting to bed are the idea of southern hospitality and the crazy racist redneck. Neither are prevalent.
The bottom line: I loved Charlottesville, as well as my home on "the other side of the mountain," where I met incredible friends and had some of the best times of my life. I'm now living on the Eastern Shore, and it's nice to be back on the ocean and with a more heterogeneous group of people, but I'll always have a place in my heart for C-ville and the valley.
If you do move there (or just visit), here are some things to check out: "Fridays After Five" on the downtown mall; Bodo's Bagels; UVa's annual film festival; The Boar's Head Inn; The Green Valley Book Fair; Carter Mountain Apple Orchard; The Globe Theater/Blackfriar's Playhouse in Staunton; and Wintergreen Resort.
From someone from the burbs of Boston or any other northeast city, yes I'm sure Cville would be culture shock. But when I was in the Hartford suburbs on a trip to visit some friends, I saw my fair share of redneck/white trash there too. And don't even get me started about upstate NY, Maine, and mid PA. Plenty of hillbillies/white trash, and bible thumpers in those areas too.
This is the problem with a person moving from a highly urbanized area to a less urbanized area. It's rural vs urban. Not a north vs south. There are some southern things here no doubt, but compared with other southern states, VA is quite mid atlantic. Southside is the exception and southwest VA is more Appalachian mountain culture.
This is the problem with a person moving from a highly urbanized area to a less urbanized area. It's rural vs urban. Not a north vs south. There are some southern things here no doubt, but compared with other southern states, VA is quite mid atlantic. Southside is the exception and southwest VA is more Appalachian mountain culture.
I live "only" 1,5 h away from Cville. Cville is in manyways more connected with Northern Virginia...most of the state is VERY Southern. As someone who is neither a northerner or a southerner, I see VA as a southern state. I peronally really like Charlottesville and if I could get my wife to move there, I would, BUT Charlottesville is in many ways in a "bubble" isolated from the Bible belt mentality surrounding the town.
I think alot of people in Charlottesville would be very surprised if they visited Appomattox, Lynchburg, Danville, Abingdon, Roanoke etc, etc and i wonder, would they recognize the VA they "know". I see very little I consider Mid Atlantic. Confederate flags on a daily basis and T-shirts with prints like "Got Bless those who chose to defend our freedom" with prints of Confederate Generals....................
Charlottesville is a very liberal place. In the city and county you can't find a southern conservative (maybe at court square) if your life depended on it. How could Mr. Jeffersons town be any different. The democrats always win the town of and often win the county as they did with President Obama. We have two gay bars for gods sake, more than Burlington. The republicans are a problem here, but where aren't they. The town has the finest public university in the world and two world heritage sites. You'll get used to it. Has Maine had an african-American governor? or currently two democratic senators? You'll find little or no racism in Charlottesville I assure you and damn little in Virginia.
Tell that to the white kids from UVA who were being singled out and beaten by black thugs in Charlottesville. For all I know that could still be going on. I don't live in the area anymore so I wouldn't know. I do remember when I lived there about five years ago the city had a problem with racially motivated crime commited by black townspeople against UVA students.
I live "only" 1,5 h away from Cville. Cville is in manyways more connected with Northern Virginia...most of the state is VERY Southern. As someone who is neither a northerner or a southerner, I see VA as a southern state. I peronally really like Charlottesville and if I could get my wife to move there, I would, BUT Charlottesville is in many ways in a "bubble" isolated from the Bible belt mentality surrounding the town.
I think alot of people in Charlottesville would be very surprised if they visited Appomattox, Lynchburg, Danville, Abingdon, Roanoke etc, etc and i wonder, would they recognize the VA they "know". I see very little I consider Mid Atlantic. Confederate flags on a daily basis and T-shirts with prints like "Got Bless those who chose to defend our freedom" with prints of Confederate Generals....................
Good grief! Give in to stereotypes much? I don't know where you live, but I grew up between Culpeper and Staunton(equal parts in both towns) and in neither did I see what you described on that level. Not that I haven't seen it, just not as in your face as you seem to think it is. South of the James River there is definitely more traditional "southern" things going on, but along i64 and north, not on such a grand scale. Not that there isn't some of it, just not an everyday occurrence.
If all you are looking for are stereotypes, then that is all you're going to see. It's like going to NYC and expecting everyone to talk like they're from Brooklyn. Yes there are rednecks and proud southern people in Cville, go to wal mart on any given day, but they are far from being the dominant mind set here. Of course, if that's the only place you do your shopping then I don't blame you for thinking the area is overrun by "backwards" people.
I, too, am a native New Englander. I moved to Charlottesville in 1997, and since I had only lived in the northeast my entire life, it was a bit of a culture shock for me. But it was wonderful in very many ways, and I ended up staying in the area for 13 years. Comparatively, C-ville is a mecca of open-mindedness, mostly due to UVa, which continues to bring in non-natives in the form of students and teachers, many of whom fall in love with the place (for good reason) and put down roots.
If you enjoy pastoral beauty, vineyards, orchards and farms, and peaceful living with relatively easy metropolitan access, it's a wonderful place to live. However, it is the south, and the Bible belt runs through the areas surrounding C-ville. You can't turn a corner in the Shenandoah Valley without running into a church, a cross, or a Jesus fish on the back of someone's car. It's not malicious zealotry; it's more a provincial thing: people just assume everyone's a Christian the same way they assume those hills are part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And, yes, you'll find an affinity for trucks, beer, and guns. But it's generally not in your face any more than Italian mafia culture is in New England. The people aren't any friendlier or meaner -- two stereotypes worth putting to bed are the idea of southern hospitality and the crazy racist redneck. Neither are prevalent.
The bottom line: I loved Charlottesville, as well as my home on "the other side of the mountain," where I met incredible friends and had some of the best times of my life. I'm now living on the Eastern Shore, and it's nice to be back on the ocean and with a more heterogeneous group of people, but I'll always have a place in my heart for C-ville and the valley.
If you do move there (or just visit), here are some things to check out: "Fridays After Five" on the downtown mall; Bodo's Bagels; UVa's annual film festival; The Boar's Head Inn; The Green Valley Book Fair; Carter Mountain Apple Orchard; The Globe Theater/Blackfriar's Playhouse in Staunton; and Wintergreen Resort.
Speaking as someone who lives in Greene County (just north of Cville) and would probably be considered by many to be the stereotypical Bible-belter (I love the LORD, hunting, old school country music, the NRA, Rush, and am in a stable marriage to a woman with home-schooled kids....but I love Rachmaninoff, am a college graduate, love a nice glass of wine, the works of Dostoevsky, nature's beauty, and probably a bunch of other "high society" type things that many think only "college" or "urban" people are in to), I must say this person's comment pretty much nails it about this area.
But the "open-mindedness" that I see (yeah, yeah...I know what emeraldmoe more than likely means by that) is a mix of red & blue living together in a good mannered (Southern hospitable?) sort of fashion (i.e., there are no Berkley-esque protests rampaging The Corner on Friday afternoons followed by John Birch Society & KKK meetings at Lee Park on Saturday afternoon).
But yeah, like most places you have your pockets but the overarching experience is as emeraldmoe pretty much describes.
Point is, most people are much more complex than Hollywood would have us believe....all except for Marxist lefty Liberals. There is no complexity; they are the close-minded intolerant busybody control everything type boneheads their stereotype accurately reveals (sorry, couldn't resist ).
I visited Leesburg and surrounding area last year and really liked it. I would seriously consider retiring there, if I could somehow afford it. I live in SoCal but love NE, so I get what you're looking for. I fit in Leesburg pretty well, and people were stopping me on street asking me where certain stores were, etc. so I must have looked like a native! I thought it was a good mix between north and a little bit southern. But just down the freeway are Reston and other communities where you can find all kinds of stores, parks so you don't feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere. I think I'd feel a little too far out of the way in C'ville.
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