Check out the Huntington area. While the city has seen some decline since the 50s when the manufacturing jobs began to leave, the area has undergone a lot of revitalization in the last few years with plenty more things planned. Huntington as a whole has a lot to offer on many different fronts. Marshall University and the city seem to be growing together with several new projects planned for each. When it comes to shopping, the area is home to the largest mall in WV in the Huntington Mall. It's a nice mall with a good variety of stores and the selection just keeps improving in my opinion. When you combine this with Pullman Square and some of the other shopping downtown, the area offers alot. Downtown also offers a good variety of things to do with a lot of live music venues, good shows at the local civic center, a Funny Bone comedy club, one of the top 1,000 movie theaters in the nation at Pullman Square (meaning we get a lot of the limited runs) and several great performing arts venues with some wonderful shows. There are also several good local theater and dance troupes that put on some great shows throughout the year. The area also has many different festivals including the Greek Fest, Hot Dog Fest, Oktoberfest, Chilifest, Ribfest, Ritter Park Days, Heritage Farm celebration, Pumpkin Festival and Civil War days just to name a few. The parks here are wonderful and the Ritter Park area is definately worth visiting, both for the parks and the beautiful homes in that area. Crime is high here for a WV town (as most have little to no crime and this is the 2nd largest city), but when compared to most of the nation, crime isn't bad here at all. Weather here is also a plus as we have 4 distinct seasons, but our winters here are the most mild in the state. The are some very nice areas in and around Huntington including Pea Ridge, Barboursville, Milton and others. I recommend if you want to be close to things though, live downtown. If you watch "We are Marshall" with Matthew McConaughey it will give you a good idea of what Huntington looks like as a lot of the movie was filmed here (and it's a good movie too). Here are some links to give you an idea of the area. Hope this helps and let me know if you need anything else.
Tim
Huntington, West Virginia (WV) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders
City of Huntington, West Virginia (check out the videos at the bottom of the page)
Homepage - Huntington, WV - The Herald-Dispatch
Huntington News Network : Huntington's Premier News Resource in West Virginia
The Greater Huntington Community Web Portal
Marshall University School of Journalism & Mass Communications (I know you aren't looking to go to school but they may be able to help with job opportunities)
Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District
http://www.huntingtonmall.com/home/index.ch2
Pullman Square - Restaurants Shopping Entertainment
Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV
Modern Photo Album | Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, Inc. (http://www.keithalbeearts.org/node/133 - broken link)
Marshall Artists Series
Huntington Symphony Orchestra of Huntington, West Virginia
Welcome To Your Huntington Funny Bone
Big Sandy Superstore Arena - Huntington, WV
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