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I did a search of the forum here and was pleased to see what I felt was more positive feelings towards Charlseton than negative.
Often when one looks up certain towns in various states on this forum all you hear is "Stay away! This place is terrible! Everyone just wants OUT!" and so on.
I encountered a little of this sort of thing in my search, but there seems to be a great number of people who really love WVA and Charleston.
Anyway, I recently relocated from the Midwest to Roanoke, Virginia. My family (wife and two daughters 8 and 9 years old) really love it here. It is wonderful to be around the mountains. The people are friendly, there are a lot of little festivals and such, it's affordable and the city has been very good to me as far as my job is concerned.
However, I was looking at jobs in my profession and there is one that interests me in Charleston. It is with the University in fact. They did not annouce the salary, but I expect it is on par with what I make now, if not more. Mainly I am interested because I would like to make the move from the public to the academic sector.
The people I know or have spoken with who live in or are from West Virginia seem to really love it and speak of it fondly. I know Charleston is likely to have its share of problems, but I don't know of any place that is problem-free.
We don't require a lot of wild night life or anything, but we are concerned about crime, taxes, housing costs, quality of education, etc. We do like to feel there is some culture and some options for things to do, however the older I get the more I like the idea of a slightly smaller place to live (I believe Charleston has roughly half the population of Roanoke, and this suits us, particularly as it has a university.)
If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions or advice, I would welcome and appreciate it. We have never owned a home but are looking to buy one soon. We have been looking here in Roanoke but I am a little reluctant to do it because as much as we like it here, this is my first professional position after finishing graduate school one year ago and, as I say, I really like the idea of working in a university atmosphere. I am curious about property taxes in Charleston and whether they may be less in smaller surrounding towns or neighboring counties that aren't that far to commute.
Thanks so much for any responses. I'd really like to hear all the good and the bad. As we are fairly close we hope to be able to come up for a visit soon and check it out for ourselves.
You can find good neighborhood for any pocket in Charleston. In Kanawha city the house price range is wide- from 150 to 1 million. If u gonna work for UC or WVU/Charleston division your commute will be 5 minutes. Look at South Hills too. It's a buyers' market so u can get very good price on a very good house. Taxes a low- I'd recommend you to check official websites. They are about the same as your annual home insurance premiums.
I wouldn't recommend to settle somewhere 30min away from Charleston. Live in Charleston, enjoy 10 min commute, no traffic jam, close proximity of airport, train station, Clay Center, downtown.
If you don't mind my asking, other than a job offer or possibility of an offer, are there other specific reasons why you want to leave Roanoke?
I grew up in Charleston and while I haven't been there in a while, my family still lives there. I have also had friend who live where I do now (Atlanta) who have been to both Charleston and Roanoke on job projects that lasted anywhere from a few days to a month stay. I'm certainly not bashing my home town, but overwhelmingly everyone else I've known who have been to both all have said they prefer Roanoke. More lively, active, doesnt quite die at 5pm, etc.
Charleston is certainly not a "bad" place to live - especially as bigal said in the Kanawha City area. But I've always been a firm believer in quality of life being more imporant than a few extra dollars on a job. If ALL OTHER aspects of your life in Roanoke make you and your family happy, why risk a relocation just for a job, especially if you can find something similar or close to it where you're already happy?
Just curious is all. I tend to see a lot of folks in forums who live in ideal places for them uproot for a job and go elsewhere where the shoe doesn't fit quite right. Just make sure your old shoes aren't perfect before you throw them in for a new pair.
I grew up in Charleston and have relatives in Roanoke (I live in the DC area) so I am down that way quite often. I've been all around Roanoke and to be perfectly honest there is not really anything more going on in Roanoke than Charleston. Charleston in my opinion has more of a city feel to it than Roanoke, although its population is smaller...mainly because I think there are maybe 2 or 3 municipalities in Roanoke Valley as opposed to at least 10 in the Kanawha Valley. The US census bureau has Charleston metro being slightly larger than Roanoke. RECenter Metropolitan (MSA) Population Data
Charleston's downtown is much nicer looking in my opinion, larger buildings, mall downtown, etc, I guess more of a small city feel is what I am trying to say. However I will admit the area around the Center in the Square museum (I believe that is the name) in Roanoke is indeed quite nice. Charleston seems to have more chain restaurants/stores than Roanoke, this might be why Roanoke has more specialty stores.
These are just a few casual observations I have noticed between the two (my relatives are always constantly battling over which one is better) so I've heard from both sides. Smith Mountain Lake is AWESOME however, and sorry to others who feel differently but the lakes in West Virginia just don't have the festive environment that area has.
Last edited by NOVAmtneer82; 01-03-2008 at 07:27 PM..
Charleston's downtown is much nicer looking in my opinion, larger buildings, mall downtown, etc, I guess more of a small city feel is what I am trying to say. However I will admit the area around the Center in the Square museum (I believe that is the name) in Roanoke is indeed quite nice. Charleston seems to have more chain restaurants/stores than Roanoke, this might be why Roanoke has more specialty stores.
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Charleston looks and feels more "like a city" for a couple of reasons - first, there are three interstates going through it which gives it access to more areas (there are only a handful of cities in the U.S. that have three interstates). Also, it's the Capital of the state. Companies and corporations tend to locate in Capitals, so this is why even though technically Huntington has a larger population in the metro area, Charleston "looks" larger - there are more banks, companies, convention facilities (Civic Center), and other businesses there since it's the Capital city.
Some trivia if you don't mind: When I was in High School in the early 80s, they decided to build the Town Center mall downtown because at the time, malls were being overbuilt all over the U.S., causing downtowns to dry up as people flocked to them. The developers thought that if they built a mall in a downtown area of a city, then people would be forced to go downtown to go to the mall... hence, they'd shop at the mall AND shop downtown, too. Seemed like a plan. Well, problem - the mall was too large for the Charleston market area, and, instead of traditional parking lots which would encourage walking outdoors, they built a parking garage, enclosed. So, people just drove downtown to the parking garage, shopped in the mall, left the garage, and downtown literally DIED for years. It took a very long time for stuff to start to reopen on Capital and Quarrier Streets, and even today it's not as vibrant as it was "pre-mall". Anyway - history lesson. LOL
I would probably compared Roanoke as a "better Huntington" than I would compare it to Charleston. Charleston has always been the business city - banks, business, conventions, government offices, etc. Huntington has always had more entertainment stuff - restaurants, clubs, artsy shops... the "more fun, less business" city. Roanoke is just a slightly larger version of that. Not so stuffy and business like, but more "fun".
I have been to Smith Mountian lake and to several lakes in WV. I find the WV lakes to be much better, no lake front property at the lakes I have visited in WV.
I know exactly what you are saying Atlantagreg, one would think there would be massive economic development opportunities in a city with three interstate highways going right through it but thanks to the WV governmental powers that be, that just isnt the case. I will definitely agree that Roanoke is more like a much nicer and larger Huntington as well. I'm not trying to get off topic (well maybe I am) but I was in Atlanta over new years visiting some friends and ate at an awesome restaurant called the Buckhead Diner, Im sure you a familiar with it according to my friend it is one of Atlanta's favorites, food was terrific. New Years downtown was also a blast, I was kind of bummed to not be spending it in DC but I ended up having an awesome time!
jfronz--Buckhead Diner is SUPER! very nice 'haute cousine'. I loved it.
My philosophy is: we work hard, often too hard. when i come home i am exhausted and don't want to live my place. Of course, i leave it sometimes and go somewhere, yeah I'd have more options in NYC than in Charleston, BUT: 1 -since i work a lot it doesn't really matter 2- I'm making more money and spend less money over here so I can use this money better. I can got to other sities and visit theaters, museums almost as frequently as locals do.
Well, ok fine.. it's "alright", but it's overpriced and sometimes the service can be on the uppity side. It's been around for a number of years now. Atlanta's a pretty big restaurant city intown at least, and the guys who own it run several other higher-end places. I'm not sure I'd say it's "Atlanta's favorite", but it's still popular, especially with tourists.
The Peach Drop in downtown on New Years Eve in Atlanta to locals is considered sad. A styrofoam unlit spray painted Peach lowered on a cable with some sparklers. Heck, Huntington could do better than that. Plus there's not enough policing in the Underground area and this year there were a number of fights breaking out around there after midnight.
Anyway - back to Charleston. I was always amazed when I was younger why the three interstates didn't do more for the area, but really, it boils down to the airport. It can only handle certain aircraft, and Charleston I think still has a 15 story limit on buildings due to the flight path of the airport as well. No large corporation can build a large structure due to this, and, they can't fly anywhere they want nonstop due to the airport's limitations as well.
They've talked about a regional airport for literally decades since I was a teen, and I doubt they'll ever build it, but that's what the Chas/Hunt area needs if it wants growth. Back in the 60s, Atlanta was the same size as Chattanooga and Birmingham. Then they built their airport and now it's a metro area of 5 million, while the other two cities have seen much less growth. That's not necessarily a good thing though - as Atlanta has had TOO much growth and it's a problem now, but that's the idea of it... without a good solid airport hub, a city just can't really grow no matter how many roads pass through it.
hahahaha (I'm telling my friend he was BSing me) yeah at least the meal I had was very good, I could see how it is probably more of a tourist restaurant though. My friend who said it was one of Atlanta's favorites has only lived there for two years at the most so needless to say he might not be so well informed. As for downtown, I didn't attend the peach drop I was over at Widespread Panic concert, they put on a hell of a show!
Yeah and last I heard the regional aiport was a dead idea....I think this is the 3rd time they have said that, yet somehow every 10 years or so it comes up again and they spend millions more "studying it" only to reject the idea. I will agree though that airports absolutely are magnets for development. When they built Dulles airport in Northern VA back in the late 60s that area literally had more cows than people, now it is nothing but high rise office buildings and one of the main epicenters of economic development for the DC metro area.
I've personally always been in favor of a regional airport for Charleston/Huntington. I think regional leaders really screwed up in the 1960s when I-64 first went through and most of Putnam County was farmland, that would be prime land for an airport rather than for housing developments that have done nothing but suck people out of neighboring counties. Maybe one day....
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