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Hi everyone, My wife and I are in our late twenties with three young kids (4 yr old, and twin 2 yr old's.) We currently live in Rochester NY where I go to school but am originally from Atlanta GA. Once I graduate we plan on living somewhere between Upstate NY (her family) and Atlanta (my family). Right now we are down to Virgina Beach/Norfolk area, Richmond, and Raleigh, and possibly Charlotte or Baltimore. We would not move unless at least one of us has a job lined up.
I know all of these areas are pretty different but we are trying to figure out which would fit us. We would most likely live in a suburb of the city. Safety is obviously important as well as good public schools. A walkable/fun downtown area would be nice, but not a must. Weather is not really a big deal, but having four seasons is nice. It would be nice to live close to parks and outdoor activities, along with some sort of body of water, i.e lake, ocean, river, etc. Traffic isn't that big of a deal because I have lived in Philly and Atlanta and I wouldn't expect any of these cities to have traffic as bad as those. That being said, cities like DC, NYC, and Boston are out of the question. In my opinion the cost of live along with the traffic and congestion are just not worth it.
Being able to find a job is one of the most important things. I will be getting my bachelors degree in Marketing/New media marketing and my wife has her bachelors in human resource management so cities with job opportunities in those fields would be ideal. I'm not really sure what our price range would be as far as housing goes when we move but right now we rent an older 3 bedroom apt. for about $1125 and we would most likely rent for at least a year before we would buy.
How do the cities rank as far as cost of living and property taxes go? I'm sure none of the taxes in these cities are as much as NY, which is one of the reasons we are moving.
We are not super into politics but I would say we tend to lean more toward conservative than liberal. 0 being liberal/democrat and 100 being conservative/republican, we are about a 60-65 depending on the subject matter, so it would be nice to be close to people who share our views and people who are college educated.
We also like to take day trips (2 hour drive max) so which city has a lot of fun, family orientated places to visit within a few hours?
I understand that every place has it's ups and downs and that no place is going to be perfect. We are just trying to find a fun and safe midsized city with a metro between 1.2 and 2.5 million people to call home that is within a days drive (12 hour max) to NY and GA. Thanks everyone, opinions and advice is welcomed. Also, any other cities that you think would match what I have listed would be great. Cheers!
Richmond. Look in Hanover County (my sister lives there). Great schools (I student taught there), suburbs to rural area, 10-15 from all the awesomeness of City of Richmond. Richmond has lots of thing to do for people if all ages. A beautiful children's museum. Lots of festivals. Lots of shopping. Lots of great restaurants. Just an all around great place to be.
I use to live in Richmond and i loved it! and I now live in Yorktown, Va because of my husbands job.
Norfolk/Va beach looks like a war zone from watching the news. Va beach is suppose to have good schools. There seems to be a lot of violence on the water front area though. They've talked about banning alcohol sales at the beach restaurants. I use to teach in Norfolk 2 yrs ago. I would not move there!!!. I think whatever is going on there is spilling in to the beach area.
Yorktown is very nice with a small beach and good schools and nice neighborhoods. And your 45-1hr from Va beach. 1:15 min to Richmond, 20 min to Historic Williamsburg. Also check Williamsburg.
If you get a job in Norfolk/VA Beach don't move north of the tunnel (HRBT)or vise versa. Traveling the HRBT EVERYDAY IS A DISASTER! Make sure you don't have to do that.
ok hope that helps! good luck!
I agree with the poster above. I'm not sure what exactly is going on with the Hampton Roads area but the crime down there has gotten way out of control, I would steer clear of there.
I agree with the poster above. I'm not sure what exactly is going on with the Hampton Roads area but the crime down there has gotten way out of control, I would steer clear of there.
I think the Richmond area would be your best bet.
What is going on in the area? I'm also interested because I have a family member that is in law enforcement in the area.
What is going on in the area? I'm also interested because I have a family member that is in law enforcement in the area.
Lots of killings, shootings, violence.
Crime has always been on the high side in places like Norfolk, Newport News and Hampton but like the other poster said, it seems like now it's starting to go up in places like Virginia Beach too.
There are BAD areas everywhere in every metro area in the US and that is where the crime is concentrated. Stay out of those areas and no problem.
The local network TV stations in the HR area go out of their way to showcase crime on the 6pm newscasts which baffles me, especially since this is a tourist destination trying to shed it's DOD economy. It's SO counterproductive to concentrate on crime in these broadcasts and to exploit it all for the ratings game.
If these so called media outlets would show the beauty, culture and vibrancy of this area it would keep the rumors down about this being a region under siege, it really is not a thing here, trust me.
There are BAD areas everywhere in every metro area in the US and that is where the crime is concentrated. Stay out of those areas and no problem.
The local network TV stations in the HR area go out of their way to showcase crime on the 6pm newscasts which baffles me, especially since this is a tourist destination trying to shed it's DOD economy. It's SO counterproductive to concentrate on crime in these broadcasts and to exploit it all for the ratings game.
If these so called media outlets would show the beauty, culture and vibrancy of this area it would keep the rumors down about this being a region under siege, it really is not a thing here, trust me.
Well that's true just about everywhere. The old saying in the news is, "if it bleeds, it leads." Does the news focus too much on the bad? Yes I think so. But they're not the propaganda arm of the convention and tourism board. Trying to paint a rosy picture would be too akin to Russian media, presenting only the message of the State.
In tidewater, if anything they tend to focus on weather more than anywhere I've been. I was down there a few weeks ago and WAVY devoted half the 6:00 news cast to a gust of wind in Va Beach. Reporters on the scene showing downed tree limbs. Interviews with neighbors who said "yeah it was windy." Then 10 minutes of replays of the radar loop zoomed in and out. Was it a gust or a weak tornado? Let's look at that radar loop again. Now with the satellite loop added. Now with weather station wind speeds shown on the map. Now back to the reporter on the scene. What do the residents think about this possible tornado?
Then the following day, the lead story was "tourists still flocking to the beach after possible tornado." The poor reporter (who was surely ashamed of this assignment) walked up to tourists on the sunny beach and was like, "what are you doing on the beach? The tornado yesterday didn't scare you away?" The tourists looked at her like she had three heads. "Huh?" LOL.
I agree poquoson. I'm from Hampton Roads and even I prefer to lice somewhere else because I'm young and single, it's not a bad place if your married with kids. There is no crime wave that's happening. The news likes to report crimes and play up those stories for ratings. Unsurprisingly, the news can alter ones perception of what a place can be like.
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good luck!
