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I like the Morgantown area. It has sports,cultural events,shopping,a nice downtown. I don't care for the cold winters,but that's most places in the state. Beckley seems like a growing area,at least what I see of it as well.
Come to Martinsburg we are the fastest growing place in WV. Over 94,000 residents now reside in Berkeley County.
Martinsburg is a great example of how a town can go from one of the best in WV to one of the worst. How long have you lived there?
Most West Virginian's now do not even consider Berkeley and Jefferson County as West Virginia anymore but Washington DC. Very unfortunate.
I feel sad for my "home town". I know hindsight can be tough, but when I went back to my home town after an absence of many years, I felt sad. It looked so tired and dreary. I felt bad that I felt bad because of it, if that makes any sense!
I feel your pain Chick,
I have photo's and painting on my wall of my Martinsburg hometown at my house, books on the area, etc.
The downtown is dreary, worn, and lacks pride. The outskirts which were once rolling hills and orchards are now packed with nail gun specials on the same single lane tar and chip roads.
Rapid growth, no zoning, has not helped at all.
I definitely without a doubt say that Huntington is the best city in WV. I am new to this forum but am excited about all this talk about our wonderful state. I am glad that each of us thinks our own cities are the best. Any positive attention on WV is a good thing.
I will say that I am kinda shocked at neatsark07 opinion on Huntington. The #1 reason I LOVE Huntington is because it is such a great place to raise a family. It is very appealing because it has the safe hometown feel + their is a TON to do. You can have that hometown feel but be out in the middle of nowhere. Huntington has the best of both worlds.
It is a college town which makes the city feel very vibrant and I know there are a few bad areas of town, but what town doesn't have that? But it is nothing like the reputation that WVU in Morgantown has for being partiers (and I even cheer for WVU when they play Marshall so it is not even about liking Marshall better). Also unlike WVU Marshall is not the only thing in this town. For kids & families you have go karts, putt putt golf, Camden park, Billy bobs wonderland, laser tag, beautiful parks with great playgrounds, public pools, hiking trails, the biggest mall in the state, awesome Libriaries with GREAT childrens activities, Civic Center with TONS of kids shows contantly coming to town (this month it is the Kidz bop live show & Doodlebops), awesome little league sports programs all year round, I could go on and on and on and thats just the stuff for kids.
All you have to do is look at the pictures of Huntington on this site to see how beautiful our town is. We are the 2nd largest city right behind Charleston, but we are making GREAT strides to resume Huntington to its heyday in the 1950's.
It is a beautiful, fun, vibrant, VERY safe feeling, clean, & awesome city to live in no matter what stage of life you are in.
Pardon my being so late to this party, but I was just poking around and was reading this thread. I don't live in West Virginia, but my mother grew up in Wheeling and I visited my aunts and uncles there many times over the years. I was surprised to see some people on this board call it rich and snobby. After I moved to California, I didn't get back to see my elderly aunt too often, though I talked to her on the phone every Saturday. In 2001 she became very ill, and I flew back just in time to visit her in the hospital before she died. I have to say, if I were sick, I would want the nurses at Wheeling Hospital taking care of me. They were incredible, let me spend the night in her room, they brought me snacks, and everything. They kept me aunt very comfortable and the next morning after I got there, she died. I went to her house to start taking care of things, and the neighbors across the street noticed me going in the house and came over to see if she was all right. They were newer neighbors whom I had never met (I knew the ones on either side real well from all my visits), and they took me out to dinner that night. If they hadn't offered, I probably would have forgotten to eat - my aunt had no kids so I was alone taking care of everything. Everyone was so helpful it was amazing. As much as I love it where I live in California, I know that I wouldn't have had that kind of neighborly help here. I have great neighbors, but people are just too busy with their own lives to pitch in and help others the way my aunt's did. When she became housebound her next door neighbors fixed a plate of food for her every Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was just that kind of place.
I also used to backpack a lot in the Monongehela National Park when I was a college student in Maryland. I am sure that part of the state has probably changed a lot, with a lot of vacation homes built by people from DC, would be my guess, but it was so wild and sparsely populated then. You all are lucky to live in such a beautiful state with such nice people.
I am about to move from Huntington only because there is not a lot of work in this city. I worked several years in Charleston and lived comfortably. Moving to Huntington last year just put me behind and the job search has been very hard. I'd say moving closer to Charleston and driving the 30 minute drive is the best option for me.
Berkeley County is TRYING to get some zoning laws passed...if it flys..
I wish you much luck, they have tried numerous times to no avail.
It is needed as much as a local government overhaul.
Jefferson was finally able to do it in 2005 and look how much the county has improved.
Good Luck Martinsburg, You need it!
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I agree
