daniellevi writes: According to a new book out today, Charlottesville is the #1 place in the U.S. to live. See the article from USA Today.
Just behind us are Santa Fe, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Honolulu. Ashville, a town often compared to Charlottesville, ranks #8.
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on four six and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #
Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
Archive for Sideblog »
people might want to move here, quick erect the gates!
Look, we are full …nothing to see here… move along.
After hitting number one we have nowhere to go but down.
I blame the media elite in general and I suspect that Katie Couric involved with the entire industrial/military complex, since NBC is owned by GE.
Does anybody really know what happens in the at GE plant on 29?
Please other than having Waldo move back ;)
is there anything we can do so that this never happens again?
tell the media that we don’t like roads like a bypass or anything. And we have traffic because no ones like to ride a bike anymo.
turning into huge cartoon dollar signs.
I live in (tr)Asheville, which received a multiple "Best Place to Live" award a few years ago. AARP nailed us, then US Today, then Money Magazine, then Outside. Damn their souls.
It’s not a single wave of bodies, it’s an onslaught. First the seniors will arrive, demanding services like they had in Florida or the New York. They eat out some and don’t tip. A bypass won’t help when the top speed for most of these folks is 45mph in the left lane.
Wave 2 will be the "earth biscuits". This is the crew I feared the most. Move in with nothing and sap the system. Hangout at coffee shops between panhandling. Bathing isn’t part of their life, where they’ll get their next tatoo or piercing is. I was getting lunch the other day at a moderately priced restaurant when the 4 tatoo’d and overly pierced people next to me were asking where would be a good place to park their cars. I replied "on the street". They meant parked as in to live out of.
After these folks are all settled in the locals will take note. Good luck, they’ll fill city council with their ilk. You think your taxes gag now, wait until the demand for city services increases because someone has to help the unwashed masses. Then zoning will get gutted to allow "affordable housing" everywhere. Got a vacant lot? You’ll be pressured into putting up as many dwellings as possible and renting them cheap while the unwashed masses ***** about the lack of affordable housing. The liberals will welcome them with open arms.
Those "best places" books need to be banned. Nothing destroys a community faster.
The positive side is that the house next to me which sold for 138k three years ago just went for 242k. Wait until they get their new tax bill…muahaha.
sounds like CVille now
You have the taxes. You have the zoning…though the minute you step outside of Asheville it’s wall to wall mobile homes. Oh, UVA is a real college, UNCA is a little wart on the backside that serves little to no purpose here.
What else…we are getting a super walmart. Council approved it, within days every tree on the land was gone except for a couple along the river. Funny thing is that it’s on a partial superfund site. Great, the chemicals will make the walmart crowd even denser than they already are.
Why can’t this happen to Lynchburg? Falwell would love to be eating lunch while the guys next to him swap tongues.
Being rude helps.
Nothing can help one recover from these lists, maybe Mr K can have any and all copies of this book destroyed and the writers castrated.
Hey, if you’ve been wanting a career in tourism now is your chance!
we don’t have wall to wall moblie homes just yet. We got wall to wall "AFFORDABLE" housing in surrounding counties.
Yet, the anti-everything as I call it, wants people to move back into the city because with more people there is more cars. But wait, you say there isn’t any affordable housing in CVille. Well, we just have to have a ‘living wage’ . That is a great idea instead of having 4 employees working a certain wage, you as a employee would have to cut 3 jobs and pay the lucky guy a ‘living wage’ so he can live in Cville and take the bus.
YET we are still the best place to live.
I live inside the city. The downside are the taxes…this house is taxed at 138k and my tax bill was 1800.00. There are some dumplexes (spelled that way for a reason) down the street that are occupants to some action packed section 8 types. Nothing like having rap blaring 24/7, er, 24/7 until the police told the owner he’d have to evict.
We have a living wage here, but it’s only paid to migrant workers. Instead of paying one guy 8.00/hr you can hire 3 mexicans at 3.00/hr.
Bus? Pfft. The routes here are crap. Folks have asked council to create passenger friendly busses, like the trolley types cville uses, it didn’t work. The last time I was in cville I took those things everywhere, it was handy. Our busses smell like urinals.
Affordable here is a single wide. Actually you can buy a few places in the city…1k sq/ft for 135k if you don’t care where you live.
Job drain? Watch those 1400 factory workers stand in line for unemployment as their jobs are going to Mexico.
Do the people who write these books actually take the time to live in each of these places?
Do they just steal cities from other lists of best places to live and decide which ones they like most?
Or do they poll people who live in these places, and ask them if they like where they live?
No, of course these rankings have nothing to do with real-life experiences. They take stats from everywhere and anywhere they can get them consistently. Stuff like how many avg sunny days per year or what’s the median household income and housing costs. How many schools and especially higher educational institutional capacity per inhabitant (cville is 1/3rd transient, so that makes a boatload of spots counting per household). What’s the smog factor and how many green parks per HH. Etc. Stuff like that.
There’s very little correlation between real-life experience and their rankings. That said, as it is invariably skewed towards "family values", there is definitely some resemblance there. Besides, cville is not the WORST place to live, right?
I think they cull them from information the Chamber of Commerce provides.
Some writer probably came to town and got wined ‘n dined by City Council. And there you have it. They didn’t drive them around "certain" parts of the City to see what a toilet C’ville really is.
maybe?
"Toilet?"
yeah like anything beyond 250 bypass
"Albemarle County Supervisor Lindsey S. Dorrier was pleased with the recognition but far from overwhelmed.
“I’m not surprised it’s been rated the best place to live, because I’ve known it for 60 years,” he said. “We better not brag too much though, because some more people might come here to live.”"
Yeppie, we are number 1 BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT MOVE HERE! More people = More trouble
They are speaking of the Metropolitian statisical area (MSA) so that would be the city, county, and some outlying counties.
You don’t seem happy living here.
Is there a place you’d rather live? How is that place different from Charlottesville? How come you don’t live there?
I had mixed feelings, too, when I saw the report.
First I thought, "Oh, no! More people are going to move here!"
But then I got a little bit of pride knowing that we’re number one in somebody’s eyes.
It also made me think of how fragile these things are. If the wrong people get in positions of power, they could radically change the direction the city has taken, and make Charlottesville look like every other paved over city in the country.
http://population-awareness.net/
World population reached:
1 billion in 1804,
2 billion in 1927 (123 years later)
3 billion in 1960 (33 years)
4 billion in 1974 (13 years)
5 billion in 1987 (12 years)
6 billion in 1999 (12 years)
7 billion in 2013 (14 years – projected)
8 billion in 2028 (15 years – projected)
10.7 (high) or 8.9 (middle) or 7.3 (low) billion projected for 2050
give them time
when you have people moving here, they want 22 screen movie theatres, they want a Olive Gardens, and they want Strip Clubs. So these transplants will elect public officals who in turn will allow this.
The "transplants" who have moved here over the past 20 or 30 years haven’t done so. What makes you think future "transplants" will?
because this generation is all about "I WANT I WANT"
Could it depend on which transplants you get? When Asheville was given the #1 rating by AARP the seniors wanted stuff that would improve their lives – theatre, more gated areas, etc. When Outside rated this place high, the outdoor crowd wanted free access to any public land (or even private land in some cases) so they could practice their sport. Now the city is popular amongst the unemployed tatoo/piercing/coffee shop set they want affordable housing (and rent controls!), more assistance from the city and more stuff to help them live their lifestyle. After our 1st #1 rating we elected a mayor whom owned a landscaping company in Florida and hadn’t lived here too long.
The Florida crowd that moved in was the most demanding. Yankees with tans. Everything was "We didn’t do that where I came from". Good, then don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way home.
Virginia seems to have always had a nice blend of people from a variety of places that meshed together nicely. I’m hoping that it stays that way. As far as people "taking over" if the folks who have lived there continue to vote and to hold council responsible for keeping Cville as is then you have a chance. Let the possible influx take over then you could be in trouble. I never put up with the transplants…if they didn’t like something then I’d tell them to pack sand and go home, as did a lot of people.
ps No strip clubs? Dang, I guess that means you’ll have to drive to Richmond or Norfolk. :)
or three or four. i mean, c’mon, that ultimate bliss place has been open for like, a year now, and none of the horrible things they said were goign to happen have.
besides, the extra money that the hot UVA coeds who would work there would make could go directly back into the economy. it’d be a great boon for charlottesville. and, it’d keep the old-folk transplants away b/c they don’t like anything that’s fun or cool.
You are exactly right, Paul. I don’t like living here. I am stuck here for at least 2 more years then I am looking forward to moving on. I can’t afford to live here. The places that are borderline affordable are in bad neighborhoods. People keep talking up Belmont and how great it is. I think it is a dumpy area that has a few nice homes here and there. Take a ride around the entire city one weekend and compare the number of nice neighorhoods to slums. My opinion is that there aren’t many.
Charlottesville could use a strip club. I suggested the old Grands building on the mall sometime ago. Have some scantily-clad dancers in the two front windows in cages. Man, wouldn’t that be great!! Well see that happen about the time you see Maurice Cox drive a car!
what does Maurice Cox use when it rains?
OH yeah, he rides the bus. But what happens, if they decide to honor the passing of someone and it rains, what does Cox do then?
Santa Fe is too snobby and kitschy (well, compared to Las Vegas, NM across the hill), Santa Barbara too Republican, Honolulu too expensive and exotic. Only San Luis O is..well, nice…oddly like Charlottesville in academic and cultural cilmate. It’ll help absorb the newcomers for us.
No kidding. At first I was all excited that my house has appreciated about $50,000 in 2 1/2 years, but then realized that any house I was going to buy went up that much, too. So you can’t get ahead unless you can sock $1,000 a month in the back for 5 or 6 years.
It wouldn’t bother me as much if there were a reason for it. There is nothing special here.
College. Big deal. This an 10,000 other localities.
"The Arts" – what exactly does that mean, any way? I’m supposed to pay an extra $100,000 for my house because some people play guitar on the downtown mall?
Blue Ridge Parkway. Nice, but you can only go so many times.
Climate. Hot and sticky most summers. Winters are cold but we don’t get much snow to enjoy outdoor activities – just cold.
Traffic. No, it’s not because of Best Buy. It’s because the boneheads in charge only allow construction along route 29. And, 29 is the only real way to get there from here in many cases. I expect better planning for the #1 city.
Slums. There does seem to be a lot of bad or marginal neighborhoods in the #1 city in the country.
Lots of little shops – that are pricey and never open. It’s OK – I like taking time off from work to buy things …
Expensive. Everything here is more expensive. I went to the new trendy mall in Richmond and got a cup of coffee at Starbucks – $1.70 – still too much but cheaper than the Starbuck in Fashion Square Small that wants $1.90 for the same size. We do all our grocery shopping at Super Walmart in Harrisonburg – we save enough to make it worth the 30 mile drive.
This isn’t the WORST place I have ever lived – it’s OK. But certainly not #1. Come on – we beat Honolulu? In Hawaii?
We don’t have to worry about OUR liberals welcoming anyone. Unless they are rich.
You see, we don’t even have "real" liberals in Charlottesville. They act like they care about the poor and downtrodden, yet continue to put in place policies that drive up real esate and rental prices. Why? Poor people don’t pay taxes.
Yes, Charlottesville’s "limousine liberals" drive their Ford Expeditions to the recycling center. They drop off an occassional load at the Salvation Army because they are too cheap to pay to dispose of their junk themselves. They go home to their $350,000 homes in gated communities. Complain about an NRA shirt in school, go to a couple of plays, and on nice days stand outside to protest the hot protest du jour. A trip to Barnes and Nobel and a $3 cup of coffee sets the tone. Yes, welcome to the wonderful world of pseudo-liberalism in the #1 city in America.
It’s a good thing though – I couldn’t live here if we had REAL liberals.
The really funny thing is how seriously Charlottesville’s liberals take themselves.