Richmond, VA opinions - I may relocate from CT

[nakia]

Richmond has several different "areas" that they talk about, and each is fairly unique in terms of demographics, houses, schools, etc. There is downtown, and there are a lot of companies downtown. It has its own style, and a lot of it is right on the river. Parts of it are nice, and parts of it you wouldn't want to be in after dark. There is the "fan" area which is just westish and northish from downtown. Lots of museums and ecclectic shopping. The University of Virginia is there, so it's got a lot of college-energy to it with people walking around and stuff. There's a science museum, and a children's museum, which my daughter just loves. We bought a season pass to it.

These areas are in the Richmond school district, which struggles. Apparently it goes from being accreditted to not, and so it's not very good. The east side of town, and some of the northern section, and the south side are fairly depressed, and a lot of that is old industrial parts of town. A lot of those sections are very poor, and many of them you wouldn't want to be in after dark. If you're caucasian, you'll be a minority there. In fact, demographic-wise, Richmond has more blacks than whites. It's really, really segregated, though, which is a shame.

Just a quick correction: It's Virginia Commonwealth University that's in Richmond (not UVA, which I attend and is in Charlottesville, about an hour west) VCU is the border between The Fan (called because it "fans out" from VCU/Downtown) and downtown proper. I'll second die_kluge's comments about The Fan; it's a cool area. There is also Virginia Union University and the University of Richmond in the city (along with other schools, I'm sure)

Richmond does have it's share of racial politics and problems. It was certainly a victim of "white flight" during the 1970's and 1980's, where the (mostly white) folks with money moved out to the suburbs. That trend continues, which leads to a lot of the school problems in Richmond proper. But the African-American community of Richmond has rich tradition of music and other cultural elements that, at one time, rivaled that of Harlem. The city is working to recapture some of that, whiich is no small task in the city that was once the captial of the Confederacy and has a whole street of monuments to (mostly) Conferate generals.

I live in Charlottesville, but like Richmond a lot and have visited frequently.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Richmond does have it's share of racial politics and problems. It was certainly a victim of "white flight" during the 1970's and 1980's, where the (mostly white) folks with money moved out to the suburbs. That trend continues, which leads to a lot of the school problems in Richmond proper. But the African-American community of Richmond has rich tradition of music and other cultural elements that, at one time, rivaled that of Harlem. The city is working to recapture some of that, whiich is no small task in the city that was once the captial of the Confederacy and has a whole street of monuments to (mostly) Conferate generals.

I live in Charlottesville, but like Richmond a lot and have visited frequently.

Believe it or not, I had a crotchety old white cab driver take me back to the airport on Monday and he went on & on about the new black mayor of Richmond - only he was praising the new mayor, which surprised me having heard stories about the South...(Crotchety in the sense, "Oh, you're flying US Air? I call them Useless Air")

My wife (who is not Caucasian) probably would prefer to live in the suburbs, either Chesterfield/Midlo or Henrico. Good schools is most important to me (I am Caucasian)

 

[TheYeti1775]

Congrats

Congrats on the job and welcome to the South.

For International Flights Dulles will be the way to go, sometimes though if you don't mind the extra drive you can fly cheaper into BWI (Baltimore Washington International). I grew up in Northern VA, went and fetched a South GA wife (via Okinawa, and Albany/Atlanta, Georgia) and promptly moved back up here. If your a history buff, there are very few places that will compare in American History.

Don't know a lot about Richmond aside from the attractions around it, just wanted to welcome ya down here.

Best thing about Richmond is everything is close to it.

 

[NewJeffCT]

To get a feel for it, have your screenname changed to "SlightlyUsedJeffVA"

Long story behind my screen name... I had something like JeffCT1966 for a long time, and had my old work ID set up as the contact email address. I switched jobs, but forgot to change email addresses, so had to come up with a new screen name. So, rather than terribly long like "NewJeffCT1966", I just used NewJeffCT.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Congrats on the job and welcome to the South.

For International Flights Dulles will be the way to go, sometimes though if you don't mind the extra drive you can fly cheaper into BWI (Baltimore Washington International). I grew up in Northern VA, went and fetched a South GA wife (via Okinawa, and Albany/Atlanta, Georgia) and promptly moved back up here. If your a history buff, there are very few places that will compare in American History.

Don't know a lot about Richmond aside from the attractions around it, just wanted to welcome ya down here.

Best thing about Richmond is everything is close to it.

I haven't quite gotten the job yet, though I'm the only candidate they've talked to in about 3 months, so I suspect I've got a good shot at it. I was originally scheduled to go down in early January, but that was snowed out... and I was too busy at work at my current job to take time to go down there until this past week.