Starting Over in Charleston - pretty specific on what I prefer!! (Huntington: apartments, rental)

[Almost Heaven WV girl]

Hurricane would be too long of a commute if you want 20 minutes. Nice area, but a good ways down I-64W. Roxalana and also another one in Dunbar called The Oaks seem to be pretty nice from what I have seen online. (I haven't looked in awhile.) Southmoor are low-income housing. Probably not what you are looking for. In addigtion to the larger apartment complexes, there are lots of smaller units scattered around the valley that you might find. We have two local newspapers -- The Charleston Daily Mail (- - Charleston Daily Mail - West Virginia News and Sports -) and The Charleston Gazette -- (- - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -) where you can check rentals in the classified section.There are usually more rentals listed in a local publication called The Ad Bulletin. It comes out every Tuesday and is about $1.50. You can pick one up at convenience stores, etc.

Welcome to the Charleston area. I think you will like it!

[Almost Heaven WV girl]

The post above mine came in while I was typing. I don't think I would want to live on South Park Rd. It has some kind of rundown houses. Just my opinion.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Originally Posted by MINITRUCK83

removed

I might check this out. Its the lawn mowing part that makes me think twice since I'll be going to school full time and possibly working. From the looks of it it isn't part of a tradtional type trailer park.

Wonder if anyone knwos of anyplace that has all-inclusive utilities that seems to be rare.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Almost Heaven......whats your opinion on the Country Club Village (in South Charleston) commute? Some people have mentioned traffic concerns, and also regarding traffic across the bridge from Nitro and Cross Lanes to the south side of the river.

Does Charleston actually see very heavy backups and delays in rush hour? I have a lot of experience with similarly sized cities and traffic has never really been an issue.

Thanks again to everyone for the help so far. I should be going again in early May to check out places in person. Charleston does seem very nice. Even the "bad" part in that S. Park road looks VERY nice compared to "bad" areas in Baltimore City which I think averages around 170 homicides a year. In terms of the culture would y'all say its a very friendly and laid back culture? I'm used to that growing up in Louisiana and living in this part of the Baltimore area. Charleston felt kind of Southern to me while other parts of WV particularly Fairmont and Morgantown felt very northern.

[MINITRUCK83]

Originally Posted by Almost Heaven WV girl

The post above mine came in while I was typing. I don't think I would want to live on South Park Rd. It has some kind of rundown houses. Just my opinion.

I forgot, the bad part down near the mouth of South Park. Mea culpa.
Don't even try the back way in snow! The back side of Pennington hill when slick is not for the faint hearted. AND THE COUNTY DOESN'T PLOW IT!


Tom Lennox, you can always find someone to cut the grass, although that one might run better than $50.

Might look in the hill area of South Charleston, I bought a house on Central for $22.5 several years ago, and there were several rentals at that time, bet there still are some. Kind of a little neighborhood up there by itself, very few outside folks passing through.
Only bad thing about SC is the air gets rank sometimes, especially on Sunday, I was told... and don't know how true it is, that the chem plant shut down the scrubbers when the EPA was closed for the weekend. It would bring tears though.
That area would give you a short shot to McCorkle and straight to UC. The Jefferson Rd/Kanawha Tpk intersection is/was a mess except at oh dark 30 iirc, which you'd encounter with CCV.

BTW: After a week hunting upstate, I'd get the same burn about 30 miles north of Charleston coming down I77............ got used to it by city limits though.
(that was 15 years ago, maybe it's better now)

[SorryIMovedBack]

Does Charleston actually see very heavy backups and delays in rush hour? I have a lot of experience with similarly sized cities and traffic has never really been an issue.

Backups are the traffic from the west (all those ppl from Teays Valley) trying to get into Charleston in the morning, and then all of those people trying to exit Charleston in the afternoon. Live east of Charleston, and you will be going against the flow.


Hurricane is much too far away plus all the traffic is a problem. You don't want to live any farther west of town than Dunbar. All of the traffic is going east into Charleston in the morning and going west back to Teays Valley in the afternoon. Don't even go there, lol. Also, that's familyland and there's nothing else to do out there.

Cross Lanes is a total pita. I lived there for 2 years back in the '80s when I first moved to WV. I worked at the South Charleston Tech Center, Union Carbide. Cross Lanes is too far away, has nothing to do, it's hard to get in/out especially in winter when you have snow or ice. Oriented from I-64 looking in at Cross Lanes, If you live on Big Tyler past that traffic light at Goff Mtn/Big Tyler Rd and Cross Lns Dr/ Wash St West, you will be cursing all winter and most of the summer at either the traffic, or the way the snow shuts down that road. There are lot of apartments out there, and some townhouses. But it's familyland and there is NOTHING to do there. You will always have to be going to Charleston. Skip Cross Lanes.

Dunbar Roxalana Hills was pretty popular. It's not in the most convenient location but it's far, far better than Cross Lanes. The complex had some events for residents to meet each other, and there is a pool and a community room. The place seemed well maintained.

Southmoor rent used to be based on income, so you had a mix of low income tenants with everyone else. I know a few people who lived there for a year or two in 1986-1987 and they have had anything bad to say about it. The managers did come into apartments to snoop and to spray for bugs or something, though. They did accept pets. Convenient location. I don't know it it's still income-based or not. Maybe they only had to do that until they paid off loans.

Country Club Village, I was only there once. It was where the Carbide people who came on temporary assignment without a family in tow stayed. Don't know anything more than that. Convenient location.

(Either CCV or Southmoor should not be too annoying of a commute. Generally what you want is a commute that doesn't involve I-64, and you can get to Chuck U from So Chas without going on the Interstate. Dunbar/Roxalana, you can cross the Dunbar Bridge and use MacCorkle Ave. )

Kanawha City is a nice area, if you can find an apartment. Great for walking or cycling. Convenient to town. Better class of people.

South Charleston, I highly recommend. It's not walkable but is convenient. There are a lot duplexes in So. Chas that look like houses, until you look twice. Sometimes you can drive around and find a For Rent sign in a yard or window for a place that's not publicly advertised. You can be downtown or down Corridor G to the shopping in minutes, even if it's rush hour.

South Hills is up there on the hill. But there used to be a lot of singles living in the apartments up there.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

Wonder if anyone knwos of anyplace that has all-inclusive utilities that seems to be rare.

I never found any. Tenants at least paid their own electric. I had a real nice older apartment in So. Charleston for years, and I paid gas (heat), electric, water, sewer, municipal service fee, cable, phone, just like you would for a house.

So, be sure to ask WHAT utilities the tenant pays, especially on a townhouse or other big apartment or duplex.


Charleston's "bad" parts are considered to be the West Side, and parts of the East End. Virginia and Quarrier St are desirable. Lee was transitional when I left, with some gentrification occurring. Washington St and north to the Interstate was all pretty questionable with parts of it becoming ghetto.

You could look up in the Edgewood section of Charleston, but I think it's mostly houses and not duplexed or subdivided into apartments.

[cldwv]

For what it's worth... I just (5 months ago) moved to Charleston from the Morgantown & Fairmont area (WV). I found a very nice little house in Dunbar. The commute into downtown Charleston takes me about 10 minutes every morning (15 max). I don't particularly care for Dunbar but I really like the house and close proximity to Charleston.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Also, I would not be concerned about chemical exposure, fire, or explosion from the chemical plant in South Charleston if I were living up on the So Chas hill or at Southmoor or Country Club Village. It might be more of a concern to those living on the flat in So Chas, or over in North Charleston. It was pretty rare to even get odors up on the hill. And, there used be be maybe 3x-4x the amount of chemical manufacturing going on in South Charleston compared to now. Most of the bad stuff happened prior to 1980. And all of the Union Carbide ag chemicals were made at Institute. The area around DuPont's plant in Belle used to be really bad in summer in the '80s but I don't know what it's like now. Those plants are all shadows of their former selves.

[doubled8206]

so what would be the best area in the downtown charleston area to live in? I know not the west side but what apartments/town homes are nice?!