Please Explain the Cultural Regional differences of Virginia (Norfolk, Richmond: find a job, theater)

[slowlane3]

Virginia's senator (and most recent previous Governor) Tim Kaine, grew up in Overland Park, KS.

[Veritas Vincit]

Arlington isn't really Virginia. It's the "not Virginia" region of Virginia.

[Ebck120]

If you know the Midwest well then.... (disclaimer - imo only)

Arlington/Nova is like your Chicago/Minneapolis (epicenter/posh)
Richmond is your St. Louis/Milwaukee/Columbus like cities
Roanoke/SW VA is your Missouri/Kansas like area with UP like topography without the lake..
Chesapeake/VA Beach area is your ..... well, I would never recommend this area. I just don't like it. But I know this area the least in all of VA.

[Bliss2424]

Thank you for all the feedback so far! We will head that way for a scouting trip soon. Out of curiosity, has anyone ever been to Lincoln Nebraska? How does Roanoke compare to that city?

[EricD]

You might want to look at Richmond. Reasons being that there are lots of parks and outdoor recreation opportunities. (Hiking, rock climbing, kayaking the rapids, standup paddle board, etc) There are tons of festivals. (Often several per weekend) The city just renovated the downtown farmers market, but the biggest one is the South of the James market at Forest Hill Park. The suburbs have great schools, but are generally just 15-25 minutes from the city. People generally prefer the suburbs to the north and west of the city. (Midlothian, Short Pump, Glen Allen, and Mechanicsville)
Political views are all over the place, but generally start in the left in the city and move right, the further you go away. The outer suburbs I listed are pretty evenly split (though I'd say Mechanicsville leans more to the right) Once you start seeing farms on the north side of the city, you'll also start to see tea party signs, but in the city you'll see a 3 story mural of Bernie Sanders dancing.

Roanoke might also be a good fit for you guys, but with teenagers, I feel like Richmond would have more opportunities for them. As others have said, you may not like the hussle and bustle of northern VA or the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, along with their higher cost of living.

Oh, and if you like craft beer or hard cider, I have heard that Richmond has the most craft breweries per capita of any city... Not sure if it's true, but it sure feels like it.

[Watchful]

Originally Posted by Bliss2424

Thank you for all the feedback so far! We will head that way for a scouting trip soon. Out of curiosity, has anyone ever been to Lincoln Nebraska? How does Roanoke compare to that city?

Haven't been to Lincoln but I used to live in KCMO...so this is just a wild guess.

Metro area size roughly comparable, but climate quite different, and scenery quite different, and I would guess that with Lincoln being state capital and home of the university, there are huge differences economically and culturally as well. There may be some other similarities.

Feel free to message me offline if you have any questions about comparing KC and Roanoke.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by Bliss2424

Thank you for all the feedback so far! We will head that way for a scouting trip soon. Out of curiosity, has anyone ever been to Lincoln Nebraska? How does Roanoke compare to that city?

I've been to Lincoln and Roanoke.

Lincoln is extremely clean and tidy for a city that size. It feels newer and better maintained in a way that greater Roanoke doesn't. Roanoke feels poorer and much more "Rust Belt."

Roanoke has far better weather, outdoor amenities, and even location. Lincoln may be nicer in and of itself, but the other drawbacks would make choose Roanoke easily.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by Ebck120

If you know the Midwest well then.... (disclaimer - imo only)

Arlington/Nova is like your Chicago/Minneapolis (epicenter/posh)
Richmond is your St. Louis/Milwaukee/Columbus like cities
Roanoke/SW VA is your Missouri/Kansas like area with UP like topography without the lake..
Chesapeake/VA Beach area is your ..... well, I would never recommend this area. I just don't like it. But I know this area the least in all of VA.

From Akron, OH so I have a dog in that fight.

For me Hampton Roads is most like Columbus. The populations are similar. The build is similar. Hampton Roads is disjointed and lacks a clear downtown, but if you put all of their downtown/lifestyle center neighborhoods together you get something similar. Columbus is definitely more of an urban area, in general, than Hampton Roads though. I'll offer that since you are not familiar with Hampton Roads. Sometimes I would rather be in Columbus though.

Richmond is a smaller St. Louis/Milwaukee/Cincinnati/Cleveland. Or it is a really large Dayton/Akron/Youngstown. Your choice, whatever floats your boat.

I would not give Arlington as much credit. Maybe Northern Virginia in general comparison to Minneapolis that is new to me, but Northern Virginia on the whole. I would leave Chicago out of this argument though metro Chicago is larger than the entire state of Virginia. Metro Chicago is similar to the size of Ohio. For those unfamiliar with Chicago, put all of our cities in Ohio together and you might get Chicago. This is why Chicago is such a big deal in the Midwest. It is like Chicago>Ohio>Detroit, maybe Detroit and Minneapolis are equivalent since few live in Detroit these days> and then Indiana, Missouri, Kansas are down there somewhere.

But, if you look at Arlington together with DC or the "DMV" then I could see that argument for Chicago, as that is clearly the effect it has in DC.

Hampton Roads makes small but significant strides though. Like Chesapeake has a significant development in Greenbriar that can help bring it in parity with Norfolk. All cities are growing. Portsmouth may take off if they drain the swamp and bring in people that know what they're doing. Just get rid of everyone at City Hall in Portsmouth. Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, specifically, have all of the available land. Suffolk has land but they're more interested in growing peanuts.

[goofy328]

OP short answer is that Northern Virginia continues to have a million more people than Hampton Roads, which continues to have a million more people than Richmond metro. And when one area gets new development, or more people move there, the same happens to the other three metros. Even Southwest gets new people; honestly Southwest is more like Kentucky and West Virginia culturally though, for what that's worth. So I doubt that hierarchy will ever change; anything is possible, but there are no signs of this order changing during our lifetimes.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by Ebck120

Uhh.. it was purely in context with midwest/VA comparison. Of course Nova cant compete with Chicago. And BMore/Richmod are more alike then w St. Louis....

I think you're talking about infrastructurally, like both cities have the row houses, etc. People are going to split hairs concerning your comparisons.

Primary difference between the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic is that the cities are smaller in Virginia. By far. Only thing in the region that is comparable is DC and Baltimore. Everything else is a joke at best if you take it city by city. Best way to make the comparison is to take Virginia's metropolitan regions. Like I said before, Northern Virginia is 3.15 million, Hampton Roads is 1.7 million, Richmond is 700,000. Richmond is comparable to Akron, if we're talking about population and Summit County. Northern Virginia is comparable to Minneapolis/St. Paul as you already mentioned. Hampton Roads is comparable to Columbus. People forget that Minneapolis/St. Paul is larger than Columbus, which it should be because the metro is two different cities.

The issue you ran into is throwing Chicago, which is three times the size of Minneapolis/St. Paul, into the equation. And that is just because people are petty on C-D and take comparisons literally.

People also struggle to wrap their mind around analogies on here. I just about gave up on talking about Columbus, OH with respect to Hampton Roads because no one can appreciate just how large the population of Hampton Roads is with comparison to other cities, because everyone's preoccupation is how large it is with comparison to other cities on the East Coast. They would rather compare Hampton Roads to Charlotte, or Atlanta, and you'll lose every time with that comparison. Forget about the East Coast; see where Hampton Roads sits in general. This region will never compete with other East Coast or even West Coast metros. It was never designed to.