Buena Vista?

[pepe73]

I disagree, Buena Vista is a great place to raise a child. Safe, great schools, lots of parks and events, good resturants, close to Historical Lexington, with its major colleges, the college of Southern Virginia University, the housing is affordable, yes we need more employment opportunities but the people of Buena Vista are hard working, honest people who truly care about others.

[youngcc]

Having lived in the area for 18+ years before going into the military I have seen a lot of changes in both BV, Lexington and the county that encompassed both towns.
Buena Vista is a quaint little town at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mts/ Sky Line Drive. Businesses have come and gone throughout the years but there is some businesses there (Everbright, DeChamps, Modine, Sayers) to name a few. It has its own school system (Buena Vista public Schools) separate from the Rockbridge County school system. I have known lots of people that have graduated from the high school there years ago and recently and the academics are great. The school system has a long history of sports and the town supports there teams tremendously especially the football program.
Lexington is also a quaint little town with lots of history (VMI, Stonewall Jackson's home and burial site, Robert E Lee, W&L Law school) to mention a few. The Rockbridge County School system is basically centered around Lexington with the high school being on the outskirts of town and some elementary and middle schools dispersed around the town. In the late 90's early 2000's the county build one big high school and merged Lexington City, Natural Bridge and Rockbridge High Schools together bringing all the individual weaknesses and strong areas of each under one roof.
As a former resident of Rockbridge County (living on the outskirts of BV) and looking to move back to VA myself with my two small children whom are going to be starting school in the next couple years I would not be afraid to enroll my children in either school system.
The county has lots of things to do. There are public swimming pools both in Lexington near Maury River Middle school and another on at Glen Maury Park in Buena Vista as well as the Maury River is locared in the county along with a section of the James River if canoeing is a past time or something you and your family would like to do. There are movie theatres in both towns as well as a Drive-in just north of Lexington about 5 miles. As far as colleges the Southern Virginia University is located in Buena Vista. VMI and Washington & Lee University is located in Lexington. As far as other colleges within an 1 1/2 hours from the BV/ Lexington area are Bridgewater, James Madison, UVA, Va Tech, Radford and Dabney S Lancaster. Both VMI and W&L have great libraries for high school and college students to complete term papers and such.
Since I have lived in numerous states and location the past twenty years I have found that all areas have the dreaded bad areas of town regardless of how afulent you think your area is. Drugs and alcohol are in all areas regardless but I know of no gang activity in the whole county. If you have a child who is going to go looking to get into trouble they will find it regardless of where you reside. If the Rockbridge County area sounds and looks appealling to you and your family don't hesitate to take a three day weekend and visit the area and decide for yourself. HTH and if you ahve any other questions that I may answer email or IM me.

[adctvmonkey]

Hahaha, I was born in Virginia, but not lying, I never knew those pronunciations! That is so funny. Talk about learning new things every day... I guess the eastern half of the state really is different.

[kantonburg]

Originally Posted by novanwbie

Honestly, w/a 15-year old I'd avoid BV. There's nothing to do. It's pretty rural. Lexington is great, but very expensive.

I chuckle at these sort of comments. I keep forgetting the 6 miles separating the two cities prevents the kids from BV to do all that Lexington offers

Obviously I'm being sarcastic. There isn't anything that Lexington has that Buena Vista doesn't that appeals to a 15 year old. There isn't much in either place. I agree with Lynchburg or Roanoke "County".