Or what about Lynchburg Virginia? (schools, university, living)

[badger74]

We actually looked at Lake Monticello, Houses lacked quality and charm and there is really nothing out there. You have to drive into town for anything. When I talk about better weather, it seems storms come through the pass and down into C'Ville with more intensity and cold than in Lburg. There were numerous times when we get a little dusting of snow or rain and C'Ville would get dumped on.

Actually I think the breakpoint where Rivermont turns a little slummy is well after Randolph and right about at the Virginia Arts School. But as the Burg picks up it might be a smart move to buy and fix-up some of those older homes as the location is great. That has already happened around downtown in the Historic Districts. Areas get reclaimed a block at a time. The prices are still dirt cheap but you have to be handy or the costs will kill you.

[badger74]

Nuclear industry designing state of the art facilities in the Burg.
Hardly the work of Conferderate Flag fans.

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA/MGArticle/LNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353829815&pat h= (broken link)

[Jerry_Williams]

Quite high tech for Lynchburg I must say. More of this and Lynchburg might be a decent place in the end. Funny that AREVA is a French company and most people I know around here hate France...a country most of them have never been to. Sadly an attitude I encounter so often in Lynchburg. If they actually had spent time in France I might take their strong hatred for France more serious, when it is mostly based on cable television news channels it is a bit harder to really understand.

You mention that Rivermont turns a little slummy, and I agree. But that is what Lynchburg looks like. I recommend you to drive from Boonsboro around Lynchburg General Hospital and then out to 460. Everything I see is very slummy and worn.

[badger74]

The Burg is a very old city and it is in transition to some extent. Even C'Ville and Roanoke have rundown older areas too. They are old towns and not restored like Williamsburg etc. They are real towns with rich poor people not that far apart. In big cities like DC or Chicago you might go several miles between rich and poor but they are there and their slums are far more nasty and dangerous than the Burg's.

As I said, see it as an opportunity to buy in cheap and renovate what are some really nice old buildings. Asheville NC looked just like Lynchburg 20 years ago, believe me. Defunct downtown, rundown homes all over. then the artists and hippies moved in and made it into what it is today.

[Mr_Jonas]

Badger74, I do believe you. Not that I have been to Ashville but you seem to be very sincere in what you write and you also do make some good points in what you write. In my case I rarely spend much time in the rich parts of town. (I live outside the city limits BTW) so it is kind of hard to feel very upbeat about Lynchburg.

This might be just in my personal case, but before we moved here my wife’s family was always talking about how Lynchburg was growing and I did not understand the amount of opportunities here etc, etc. Now, in hindsight it is obviously that they really did not know what they were talking about and/or that the idea of their daughter moving back to central Virginia clouded their judgment. (They could also have flat out lied…). In the end I decided that, OK, prove me wrong. Here is the danger in hyping Lynchburg and how it is growing etc, etc.


The Lynchburg Living Magazine recently wrote that this town was a fantastic place to start one’s career. Ehe…how is one to interpret such claims?? Just an editor trying to have something to say or…..completely out of touch with reality?

According to the magazine themselves, their average reader makes 80.000 a year. That is a lot of darn money. Who in Lynchburg makes that much?

I agree that if one has cash to buy up property to restore you can probably make a good few bucks. However, in my case after I have paid my bills and mortgage there is little left to save.

Lynchburg has ridiculed me and even though I do not think that one should hold grudges and that it is better to look into the future then dwell on the past…it is hard to shake. Driving through Lynchburg, seeing all slum like streets really puts me in a depressed mood in the morning.

[badger74]

You are absolutely right on the job thing. Unless you grew up there or have very specific skills that are needed locally it is very tough to make any $$$. We planned to retire there so jobs were not a big deal. But we moved there a few years ago assuming with our experience we could find something to take us through the last few years. My wife has 30 years of medical experience and with all the medical in Lynchburg we though she would have no problem. Wrong. After 9 months with nothing--even part-time she gave up and we moved back to Seattle to put in a few more years before retiring for good. She did not want to go back to her old job here but in just a few days she had a number of interviews and two offers at around $20/hr for a medical asst/scheduler. Not bad. I got my old job back after spending a few months working at the Boonsboro Starbucks which was fun but did not pay much. So our new plan was to make "Seattle" money and buy cheap homes in Lynchburg and become landlords in retirement as that is a job we don't need anyone for. Seems to be working as we'll own three homes free and clear which will generate at least $3000/mo in income plus the value increases over time. So I understand frustration to large degree. I can just see it from a greater distance and like the potential and what is there to build on. I'm betting in 10 years you will be reading about Lynchburg as another hot place to retire or move much like Roanoke today (which to me has not that much more to offer than the Burg right now). keep your head up.

[badger74]

In a small city this will have a very positive impact.

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA/MGArticle/LNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353855076&pat h= (broken link)

[Jerry_Williams]

Thanks for the links Badger74. Lynchburg needs as much improvement as it can get. Viva la Areva :-)

[Mr_Jonas]

I am trying to keep my head up as much as possible.
The AREVA news is very good, I agree.
Lynchburg needs more corporations like that. Many times I read about how Lynchburg has such a diversity of companies and low unemployment. The whole “diversity of companies” has always puzzled me. finally understood that it meant Lynchburg has a lot of family owned small companies…and they empty other family members and a neighbor or two.

This (in my view) very dated concept of hireling practices as to be modernized. I work in social services. On of my colleagues got at job at Nationwide insurance as a Personal Lines Underwriter. It turns out that her mom worked there and she got her the job. I perfectly understand that one wants to help out ones children, but EVERYTHING in Lynchburg works this way.

If Lynchburg can progress in a positive way the job market has to be strong. This whole thing with “low unemployment” is very weird. The numbers they display only include people registered at the Lynchburg Workforce Center. Majority of unemployed people in Lynchburg are not registered with them. I fully understand we all want to put the place that we live in, in a positive light. These unemployment numbers for Lynchburg is a bit too much.

It also seems that there are quite a few who live here who really do not work in Lynchburg and this explains how some of the nice neighborhoods can sustain a fair amount of wealthy people. I am acquainted with a geologist who works in the oil industry. She used to live in Huston but now lives here. All she needs is a powerful PC and a good internet connection. She basically has a salary an already quite well paid job I Huston, Tx. This salary goes VERY far around here. I know of some traveling sales-reps who work the Mid Atlantic region, so their salary is based on places like Alexandria or Charlotte. I would say they probably get twice out of their money living here as compared to a big Metropolitan area.

However, I do not think Lynchburg can only hope that people basically get paid by corporations OUTSIDE central Virginia.

I also wonder how Lynchburg’s position as “the buckle of the Bible belt” will affect future development. Even though I did not live here when Barnes & Noble opened but a handful of Liberty students showed up and protested some that they were selling some books they did not like. (What books I can not remember).

I personally think there is much difference between Lynchburg and Roanoke. Sure, ynchburg has improved since I first visited the place over 15 years ago. I think one example is that when people from our Roanoke office travel here they always think they are “lost” and “in a really bad part of town”. Then they realize, that it is just what Lynchburg looks like.

But I guess it has to do with if you look at the glass as half full or half empty. Yesterday I saw a truck with a confederate battle flag and the text “Worth Fighting For!. At times like that, I see the glass as being almost empty…

Thanks for posting the AREVA link. I rarely read Lynchburg News & Advance as it usually put me in a bad mood, and I think I need all the positivity I can get.

It is interesting talking to you. (Maybe I am just rambling.) quite therapeutic.

[StoneCold_Calvin_Austin]

The South will Raise Again!

As for you who wondered about if all yankees are liberals. I kind of think they are. Just take my cousin in Coneticut. The man says he is a conservative but he has no problem with killing unborn babies, the man never goes to church and he think he is too good to hunt deer on a cold fall morning. I was discussing gun laws with him last time I saw him and he was telling me about all the gang shootings they have in some place up there. Sorry, but but if some blacks and puerto ricans want to take each other out, what does that have to do with me? If I want to go and buy a Heckler & Koch MP5: 9 x 19 mm Luger today and then tomorrow get me a Winchester M 70 tomorrow that is my God given right. I demand my freedom.

Well, that is what I told him. He can be all low-taxes and stuff, but he sounds like a liberal to me. Most of them do infact.

As long as Areva dont bring in a bunch of French liberals and snobby yankeesI am ok with that project they completed.