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I live in Charleston and the polite word to describe people around here is "reticent"
Inclined to keep one's thoughts, feelings, and personal affairs to oneself. See Synonyms at silent.
Restrained or reserved in style.
Reluctant; unwilling.
Not quite sure exactly what you are implying - I too live in Charleston and agree with "Inclined to keep one's thoughts, feelings, and personal affairs to oneself." Don't find people to be judgemental, etc. or if they are, they keep it to themselves. Also, people let you live your life as long as you are not trying to impose your life on them.
But I find the people to be very friendly. Maybe it is me - I am a friendly person, act that way to others, so they respond in kind.
I'm a newcomer to charleston. I've been to huntington and enjoyed the nostalgia during my visit. My question regarding the whole topic of this thread is... why must either of these cities be compared to any other? NYC or Seattle is not for everyone, it doesn't make it unworthy of existing. Same goes for WV cities. Same goes for every human being you'll meet in your life; do you accept them as they are or do you mean to rearrange them to suit yourself?
Life looks vastly different when you approach the world, and the people you meet, in terms of learning what there is to appreciate. Often when we fail to find something to appreciate it's a reflection of who we are, our own limitations, our own needs, and much less about the outside world we're judging.
Should Huntington as a city decide it aspires for change, my only wish is that they fully know the price of that change (not just in dollars) and decide what's best for all. To listen to people carry on with what amounts to be envy about what another city is or has vs what huntington is... it's more economical for them to go to disneyland than to recreate it in Huntington, because what would be lost is a very steep price to pay.
I think the young generation in Huntington would be very wise to listen to the older generation and look again about what it is they mean to keep. I'll use this as an example. People can get ridiculous with historic districts where every nail requires twelve forms to approve installation, but in a balanced approach, upgrading the electricity of the historic building preserves IT as much as it's restored to useful service for modern times.
People can argue forever, let the inevitable electrical fire or neglectful termite treatment budget settle that argument passive aggressively, or they can be respectful of the past yet reasonable about how 'things' serve people, and not the other way around. Huntington being thought of as a mausoleum for someone else's memories... not good. Huntington bulldozing itself for trendy nonsense... not good. Honor the past and yet move forward is tried and true best for all.
I've been to Huntington and believe me it's not all that bad. I've been to similar sized cities that are far worse off financially, socially and aesthetically. In NY- Binghamton, Utica. In Pa- Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, Johnstown, Easton. In OH- Canton, Youngstown, Akron. And of course lets not forget the bigger cities like Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland etc... Try living in one of those cities and then say Huntington is so horrible
Huntington being thought of as a mausoleum for someone else's memories... not good. Huntington bulldozing itself for trendy nonsense... not good. Honor the past and yet move forward is tried and true best for all.
I think, so far at least, Huntington has done a good job with balancing this out. They've got the new construction like Pullman Square that was designed to fit in with the architecture of the city yet modernize the offerings. Then you've got some wonderful building owners, like Dr. Touma, who who have restored buildings closer to what they used to look like and modernized them at the same time. Others are taking these wonderful old buildings and turning them into condos. No less than 5 buildings downtown have been/are being renovated into condos in the last few years with great results. The problem to me seems to be the building owners who WON'T do anything with their property. One owner I know of in particular has had several developers go to him cash in hand to buy and develop several of his buildings but he won't sell them. He lets them sit there and does slowly develop them over time. This has made the development downtown slower than it could be but overall, it's coming along quite well. Can't wait to see where Huntington is in 5-10 years. It's a great place to live and I have such a love for this town, as many on here know.
I want to say I think it is unfair to characterize Huntington as an unfriendly town. I have never had trouble making friends there, and I don't even speak with a southern Appalachian accent. There are cliques, but you will find those just about anywhere. The town is what it is... a blue collar town that has seen its share of industrial decline, and that has a small university located within it. Overall, the town is ergonomically somewhat better off than it was 7 or 8 years ago, and economically somewhat worse off. But, the people are friendly there. I'm with Bailey on that one.
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