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Hi there! I'm doing fine how are all you fine Mountaineers out there?
I'm speaking about these areas in general, not necessarily just the cities themselves although I'm probably most interested in the big towns that I listed. I put Clarksburg/Fairmont together because I consider that one general area since they are only ~15 minutes away. However, I don't want to include Morgantown in that area since I would likely live closer to Clarksburg. Although, maybe I should include M-town I don't know... but if I did, then I think obviously Clarksburg/Fairmont wins out yes? So I would rather not for now.
In any event, how do these areas compare in terms of recent growth and/or projected growth both economically and population wise. Not only that, which area do you personally feel has the greatest potential for:
1. The highest quality of life
2. The highest standard of living, and why?
You know what, just speak on any of these areas which you desire to, if you would be so kind. Don't worry about any guidelines I have set forth.
Oh one more thing, is Lewisburg effected by the radio free zone even thought it's right near the southern edge of it? How would this effect my ability to get high-speed internet?
Lewisburg isn't in the Radio Free Zone, and Frontier and Suddenlink should have HSI packages available . Its also not really comparable to Beckley, Clarksburg, or Fairmont, as it is significantly smaller and more isolated. Its not a bad little town; its just on a different scale. The town has ~4,000 people and the county has ~35,000
Just looking at the numbers, The Beckley Metro is estimated to grow modestly over the next 5 years and increase from 124,900 in 2010 to 130,100, with the vast majority of this occurring in Beckley's Raleigh County. The other county in the metro (Fayette) is expected to see much slower growth, if not stagnation. Much of this expected growth is likely being attributed to the new BSA national camp and its peripheral entities, as well as a further consolidation of services and retail across So.WV into the greater Beckley area.
The Clarksburg Micro is also estimated to grow slightly over the same period, going from 94,200 in 2010 to 97,400 in 2020. This area includes Clarksburg's Harrison County, as well as neighboring Doddridge and Taylor Counties.
The Fairmont Micro, which is just Marion County, is projected to have slight growth over the next few years, going from 56,400 in 2010 to 58,400
Truth be told, Fairmont is more tied with Morgantown than with Clarksburg and I wouldn't be surprised to see it lumped in with Morgantown and Mon. County in the next census.
All three of the larger cities are similar in size and offer similar standards of living and similar qualities. One edge with Fairmont is its proximity to Morgantown and even Pittsburgh.
Beckley is fairly isolated, with Charleston being an hour away.
Hey Mattec that's wonderful info and neatly packaged, it is much appreciated I'm busy packing and tying up loose ends atm I don't have much time to research and compare numbers (never was good with keeping numbers straight in my head), thank you so much for that rundown. I didn't realize Beckley was the biggest metro of the three (excluding Morgantown). What makes you say that services and retail are being "further" centralized into the Greater Beckley area? Sounds like a great idea though, from my end... WV needs another city(ish) area besides Charleston and it seems Beckley may start to qualify at some point (hopefully with some luck).
I assume BSA is The Boyscouts right? Hey I wonder do you have to be religious to be a troop leader? Heard they were pretty conservative and wasn't sure if that meant religious. Apparently they're hiring but I wonder if it would be worth my time, I'm great with kids and I'm sure they would enjoy wilderness adventures led by none other, but I fear the vetting process of those that hire would exclude me. (not that I have a criminal record, I do not).
Hey Mattec that's wonderful info and neatly packaged, it is much appreciated I'm busy packing and tying up loose ends atm I don't have much time to research and compare numbers (never was good with keeping numbers straight in my head), thank you so much for that rundown. I didn't realize Beckley was the biggest metro of the three (excluding Morgantown). What makes you say that services and retail are being "further" centralized into the Greater Beckley area? Sounds like a great idea though, from my end... WV needs another city(ish) area besides Charleston and it seems Beckley may start to qualify at some point (hopefully with some luck).
I assume BSA is The Boyscouts right? Hey I wonder do you have to be religious to be a troop leader? Heard they were pretty conservative and wasn't sure if that meant religious. Apparently they're hiring but I wonder if it would be worth my time, I'm great with kids and I'm sure they would enjoy wilderness adventures led by none other, but I fear the vetting process of those that hire would exclude me. (not that I have a criminal record, I do not).
I know that you didn't mention this in your post(s) at all, but WV does have another city(ish) area. Huntington is almost the same size as Charleston, and some may argue it might have a larger population.
Anyway, I believe that Beckley is poised for some real growth here in the near future. It will have two universities in the city, whereas 5 years ago, it had none really (not counting MSU). Also, the government there seems to be pushing for the right kind of development. Could be interesting.
However, Fairmont is definitely going to be growing. There is a lot of development going on up there. The only issue that I have with that area is the kind of development that they are doing. Most everything is are suburban offices. Instead of building downtown and investing the community, they are building outside their cities for the most part. That kind of development is bad for local businesses and outdated. Beckley is investing more in its city center than it did in the past. Also, Fairmont probably has a bit less blighted areas than Beckley.
I haven't mentioned Clarksburg because I don't know a lot about it, but from what I've read, they are starting to develop their city in a more sustainable fashion as well. Clarksburg itself is kind of a cool little city. Its core is really dense for its size and it has a small city feel to it for sure. I suspect that Clarksburg is just a few developments away from an urban boom. Just a thought...
What is the purpose of your inquiry? Is it just curiosity, or are you looking for a particular reason?
It is fallacious to pay much attention to the MSA ratings. They are in many ways arbitrary, being based on county lines, and that can be hugely misleading. If you are looking for trends... look within the counties themselves, not within the clusters the Government uses for their statistics. I live in Morgantown, and the reality is we are closely tied to our surrounding area economically and culturally. The research and healthcare interactions between Morgantown and Clarksburg are extensive, and many in Morgantown work for the FBI Center in Clarksburg while there are plenty of Clarksburg folks who work here in healthcare. Unless you get stuck in Morgantown traffic at the wrong time of day, you can drive from one city to the other in about half an hour making commuting not really an issue. Fairmont is in the middle of the pack, and their folks typically go in both directions easily. We also have a lot of interplay here with western Maryland and with Fayette and Greene counties in PA... both less than 10 miles distant.
In terms of pure growth potential isolated into counties or government groupings, and specifically the counties you mention, there isn't a lot of difference. But don't neglect the proximity to nearby areas and the effects of that on real conditions. There is no way Fairmont and Clarksburg aren't going to be impacted in a positive manner by the continued growth taking place in nearby Monongalia.
What is the purpose of your inquiry? Is it just curiosity, or are you looking for a particular reason?
It is fallacious to pay much attention to the MSA ratings. They are in many ways arbitrary, being based on county lines, and that can be hugely misleading. If you are looking for trends... look within the counties themselves, not within the clusters the Government uses for their statistics. I live in Morgantown, and the reality is we are closely tied to our surrounding area economically and culturally. The research and healthcare interactions between Morgantown and Clarksburg are extensive, and many in Morgantown work for the FBI Center in Clarksburg while there are plenty of Clarksburg folks who work here in healthcare. Unless you get stuck in Morgantown traffic at the wrong time of day, you can drive from one city to the other in about half an hour making commuting not really an issue. Fairmont is in the middle of the pack, and their folks typically go in both directions easily. We also have a lot of interplay here with western Maryland and with Fayette and Greene counties in PA... both less than 10 miles distant.
In terms of pure growth potential isolated into counties or government groupings, and specifically the counties you mention, there isn't a lot of difference. But don't neglect the proximity to nearby areas and the effects of that on real conditions. There is no way Fairmont and Clarksburg aren't going to be impacted in a positive manner by the continued growth taking place in nearby Monongalia.
They're not arbitrary. They're based on movements and urban integration between counties and separated urbanized areas. If a certain threshold of people commute from Marion on Mon., then it will get included in Morgantown's MSA. It's already fairly close, as the two form a CSA. As for Clarksburg, it'll take more than a handful of people commuting to the FBI center to tie it to Morgantown. However, once Marion is included with Morgantown's MSA, the number of people commuting between Harrison and Marion might tie it in.
Hey Mattec that's wonderful info and neatly packaged, it is much appreciated I'm busy packing and tying up loose ends atm I don't have much time to research and compare numbers (never was good with keeping numbers straight in my head), thank you so much for that rundown. I didn't realize Beckley was the biggest metro of the three (excluding Morgantown). What makes you say that services and retail are being "further" centralized into the Greater Beckley area? Sounds like a great idea though, from my end... WV needs another city(ish) area besides Charleston and it seems Beckley may start to qualify at some point (hopefully with some luck).
I assume BSA is The Boyscouts right? Hey I wonder do you have to be religious to be a troop leader? Heard they were pretty conservative and wasn't sure if that meant religious. Apparently they're hiring but I wonder if it would be worth my time, I'm great with kids and I'm sure they would enjoy wilderness adventures led by none other, but I fear the vetting process of those that hire would exclude me. (not that I have a criminal record, I do not).
People are leaving the coalfields to the south and west and while there are a lot that are leaving the area all together, there are also many resettling in Raleigh County.
You don't have to be religious to work for the BSA. If you don't make a big deal about it, then you shouldn't have a problem, especially if you work directly with the organization and not through a church sponsored troop.
They're not arbitrary. They're based on movements and urban integration between counties and separated urbanized areas. If a certain threshold of people commute from Marion on Mon., then it will get included in Morgantown's MSA. It's already fairly close, as the two form a CSA. As for Clarksburg, it'll take more than a handful of people commuting to the FBI center to tie it to Morgantown. However, once Marion is included with Morgantown's MSA, the number of people commuting between Harrison and Marion might tie it in.
It's still arbitrary because it is based on county lines, not on actual clusters of people. Fayette County, PA for example has large numbers of people commuting to Morgantown every day, but because even larger numbers commute north to Allegheny County the entire county is included in Pittsburgh's MSA. It is more than just commuter figures that count in an area's interactions too. Shopping and leisure are just as important factors, and those are not properly measured.
I don't see any logical reasoning behind the sudden inclusion or exclusion of an area from one cluster because a certain arbitrary threshold has been crossed.
Thanks to all for educating me, also I love debates, many times both parties are right in certain aspects. I learn a lot from watching debates. So thank you to CTMountaineer and Mattec for your back and forth.
To PynballWyzard yes I know about Huntington, and thanks for your response... the Charleston and Huntington areas are exactly what I'm looking for in terms of size (more people, businesses and nightlife), I really wish I could live there. But they are just too far away from the recreational areas I wish to spend much of my free time (hiking/rafting/swimming/cliff-jumping with emphasis on water activities), if I'm not close enough to my desired recreational areas I won't end up recreating. (I'm about to get back in shape after years of working too many hours at a sedentary type of job, and falling off in terms of my previous sports activities of tennis/basketball which I'm no longer as interested in). If only Charleston where half an hour closer to Summersville. There has been a lot of "if onlys" with West Virginia... if only Summersville was a little bigger and I could drive 5mph over the speed limit (I do have a lead foot) without receiving a ticket, for instance, although at least they seemed to be mainly writing tickets and not violating people's rights in more intrusive ways like searches.
I really want to move to Clarksburg as I see potential and I like dense downtowns, but again, it is slightly out of my desired distance from certain recreational areas. I really like the location and setup of Richwood but the town is so depressed economically.
I could move half an hour south of Clarksburg, but I would like a place where I could just pop out after work and there would be people/businesses/events in the area (I don't like driving long distances everywhere) which is why I would like to live in a populated area or just outside one (no more than 15 minutes).
I'm going to have to compromise somewhere, I do plan to visit Charleston this summer (the only real city in West Virginia) just to experience it, but I can't be making daily 2 hour+ roundtrips in my car ON my days off (To Gauley/New Rivers and Summersville Lake). I need to be CLOSE to the natural areas that I wish to enjoy (and exercise in). Like half an hour away at the most.
Beckley is curious to me because it has a large population and seems to be poised for growth, but it still seems rather downtrodden in some areas. Downtown doesn't look particular active (and correct me if I'm wrong) but even Fairmont seems to have more happening downtown despite less population. I know you said that they are doing more in terms of development in downtown Beckley but at the moment would you say Fairmont has more of a downtown? I've only been to Clarksburg and Bridgeport (and Morgantown) out of the places I listed initially, it seemed like more development was taking place in Bridgeport with the plaza and stuff but I liked the density of downtown Clarksburg. They were building affordable housing in Clarksburg (Glen Elk) as well, which I think is good (many others may not lol). However, I still found the city of Clarksburg to be not very happening (but with great potential). On the plus it has probably the best (albeit small and simple) Bakery in the state.
Beckley also seemed to have a lack of shade trees in the neighborhood areas as I was browsing on google street view, maybe I was looking too much in East Beckley which is less desirable and appears to have an element of crime. I don't mind lack of trees as much in a dense downtown area like Dtown Clarksburg but in residential neighborhoods I do like trees.
Ahh so many things to consider, I have been trying to move for too long but I will continue to persevere in trying to find the right place I'm on the verge of another visit to WV but first to the Catskills for some high-level cliff-jumping and maybe a brief stop by the PA Grand Canyon for a swim on the way to almost heaven. I also wish that Morgantown was in the position it is in growth wise but without the university, lol. I'm not a college town type of guy even though I don't mind an element of wild young people. What a finicky cat I am huh? jeje.
The good thing on my end is I have saved enough for a downpayment on a house or property even if I take a whole year off to travel before returning to work (if there is work by then lol) but I'm an optimist for now.
Last edited by Gringomania; 05-19-2015 at 12:24 PM..
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but if I did, then I think obviously Clarksburg/Fairmont wins out yes? So I would rather not for now.
