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Appreciate your comments, actually reading your comments made me understand the OP a little better, but trying to read the OPs post again just gives me a headache. I understand that the junior enlisted can be annoying. They come from all different types of backgrounds and join the military for different reasons. It is that 1% that give people a bad taste in there mouth for the actions that choose to make. The reason why I made the money comment was due to the possible move of one of the carriers...The City, Businesses even just threw a fit when there was talk about it happening. Sure the area would survive but to come on here and bash people based on 1% of that community(the military) is wrong. Maybe if he came at it another way it may have went over better. Then again Im not surprised, the internet allows people to say things they couldnt normally say themselves in person otherwise. I surely did not choose to come to this area but I was happy that I did. I am a former military person myself, wounded in Iraq and chose to stay here because I like the communities good and bad. Its not just Hampton Roads, everywhere in the United States you have good and bad communities. Anyways thanks again for your comments!
im not ******* bashing a group based on 1%, iits not 1% its every "junior enlisted" , half of the young yuppie transplants and a hefty chunk of young military families.
and 1 more thing. don't get me started on (especially) the transplants that sit up here and say "don't put your kids in Norfolk schools" "your best bet is in va beach" bashing Portsmouth Hampton Newport news Norfolk,... the majority of the cities in the region. there are good and bad in all of the cities. are you too good to live within a 5 mile radius of a neighborhood that is over 51% black.. or a working class neighborhood. oh lord and the people who say "you would love the kellam area" or "you want your kids in the cox district" kellam is not an area, its pungo and princess anne courthouse. and they aren't school districs, va beach is a district cox is a zone. do you even know the average price of a home in those areas, so what if the school is diverse and more kids qualify for reduced lunch, it doesn't make it "bad"
If it smells and looks like a pig, it's a pig. My parents were stationed on Ft Monroe when I went to ODU and graduated mid-80's. Having lived all over the east coast, west coast, and Germany, I could not wait to get out of this trash-heap of an area. Wife and I left a year after we graduated college to the Northwest.
It turned out to be a fantastic decision, despite the fact our families were here. I remember my dad telling me when we left after I told him I felt bad about leaving family to just live where we wanted and it's our lives to live.
One kid graduated from USMA in NY and the other is still in School in Seattle and went to great public schools in the Seattle metro area.
After a couple of years in PHX, we decided to live here for a year or two since our parents were getting very old and need more help than our siblings could give. I was reluctant to come back but we had to if we wanted to see much of our parents. I remember my wife saying "who knows, we may like Va and decide to stay"
So here we are in NN. Her parents and sisters are in Hampton, my parents and bro are in WMBG.
We're still trying to cope with the utter culture shock and horrific nature of this place upon returning. Here are some observations to compare:
-This place is full of moronic, unskilled drivers. I've never seen the stupidity and lack of judgement anywhere compared to here. I have never, ever seen so accidents happen on an interstate - how dumb can you be to get into an accident on a highway???? (i..e. no intersections) it happens at least 1x/week on 64 on the peninsula. It seems like 80% of the people here also text while driving. I know everyone does it everywhere, but not to the extent I've observed here. I tend to find 2 different traits of drivers in the cities I've lived and visited. Aggressive/Non aggressive and Skilled/unskilled/stupid. For example, Phoenix has lots of very aggressive drivers, but at least they're skilled and pay attention. Seattle has mostly passive drivers, but they are average to below average in terms of skill. This place is full of aggressive, unskilled idiotic drivers.
-Unintelligent traffic lights. Out West, if you go to a traffic light at ,say, 1am or 5am and it's red, it almost immediately gives you the green. (Note to locals, there are things called sensors in the road that are connected to little computers that make sound decisions based on who's at the intersection to help traffic move more efficiently).. You'd think implementing something like that would be pretty common all over the USA. But noooooooo - it doesn't work that way here in backwards tidewater. I have wasted soooooo much of my time waiting at intersections being the only car there , waiting for the stupid light to cycle through it's barbaric timer to give me the green with it's 1950's era technology. On the way to the gym on old oyster point road, west of 64 , NN installed a brand new traffic light near that 2-bit Strayer college. For a while it was just blinking yellow immediately after they installed it. Now it's 'working' fully. Just 2 nights ago some cars and I were going down the road and the frikking light just decided to turn red for all of us. OK, I thought , someone's coming out of Canon or Strayer - NO !!! There was nobody there !! WTH the light, out of the blue, just decided to turn red for all of us going down the main road of the intersection. stupid, stupid, stupid.
-horrible roads - most secondary roads are full of pot holes
-Inconsiderate lazy people. We have lived in many places and this place in stores has the absolute worst bunch of thugs and malcontents working retail. At home depot or lowes in Hampton or NN, the first thing you get when asking to find something is "We don't got that".... to that I reply, "your website says you have 34 of them in stock" . With a disgusted look on their face, they they call someone else to help. Another example of the general population here is the plethora if shopping carts one consistently sees all over the parking lots here. I took a pic a few days ago at the costco in NN where a bunch of lazy slobs left at least 15 shopping carts strewn all over a dirt 'island' and the surrounding parking spots, rendering 5 parking spaces unusable. Again, never have seen this anywhere else like here. Occasionally I'd see 2 or 3 in phoenix, but never nearly as many I've seen here all over. It just goes to show you how lazy and inconsiderate people are here.
-Pedestrian unfriendliness - This one is just hilarious. Out west, Pedestrians have the right of way in a crosswalk , Oh, no, wait , isn't that's how it's supposed to be everywhere ? LOL - no way. crosswalks are categorically ignored by cars here and it's dog eat dog if you want to cross. I would imagine any transplant from Seattle who would find themselves regularly walking across roads here would last just a few weeks before they're beaned by a car. In normal, civil places, a car slows down if they see someone trying/starting to cross a crosswalk - here the pedestrians have to wait for all the cars to go by (why bother with the crosswalk?)..
-Cost of living - It's extraordinarily high here - I have NO idea why food costs so much more here - SMH.
-State control of Liquor - I know some bible-thumpers will tell me I'm a sinner, but guess what ? Out west you don't have to go to a state-controlled store to get alcohol ! You can get it at costco and grocery stores and pay, on average, 40% less than the monopoly the state has here...
-Racisim - it's alive and well here - and it appears to go both ways.
-Commercialism. Need I say more ? Not many at all 'local' places here compared to most 'decent' cities, Go Applebees!
-Fitness. This was not a real surprise, but what the heck happened here ? In PHX , I'd see a grossly overweight person out and about maybe every week or so . Here, I see some people who obviously eat at McD's every night before I'm a mile away from my house on the way out running errands !! I guess this explains the 'virus' of 7-11's that have spread all over the peninsula. Bottom line? Being fat is the norm in Hampton Roads.
I could go on and on, but I know enough about this place and others to say, with much confidence, that Tidewater is a craphole of crapholes. If the military pulled out, including NNSBuilding, this place would absolutely die on the vine, with the exception of a few hotel maids who have to clean the 70's era hotels on Va Beach.
If it smells and looks like a pig, it's a pig. My parents were stationed on Ft Monroe when I went to ODU and graduated mid-80's. Having lived all over the east coast, west coast, and Germany, I could not wait to get out of this trash-heap of an area. Wife and I left a year after we graduated college to the Northwest.
It turned out to be a fantastic decision, despite the fact our families were here. I remember my dad telling me when we left after I told him I felt bad about leaving family to just live where we wanted and it's our lives to live.
One kid graduated from USMA in NY and the other is still in School in Seattle and went to great public schools in the Seattle metro area.
After a couple of years in PHX, we decided to live here for a year or two since our parents were getting very old and need more help than our siblings could give. I was reluctant to come back but we had to if we wanted to see much of our parents. I remember my wife saying "who knows, we may like Va and decide to stay"
So here we are in NN. Her parents and sisters are in Hampton, my parents and bro are in WMBG.
We're still trying to cope with the utter culture shock and horrific nature of this place upon returning. Here are some observations to compare:
-This place is full of moronic, unskilled drivers. I've never seen the stupidity and lack of judgement anywhere compared to here. I have never, ever seen so accidents happen on an interstate - how dumb can you be to get into an accident on a highway???? (i..e. no intersections) it happens at least 1x/week on 64 on the peninsula. It seems like 80% of the people here also text while driving. I know everyone does it everywhere, but not to the extent I've observed here. I tend to find 2 different traits of drivers in the cities I've lived and visited. Aggressive/Non aggressive and Skilled/unskilled/stupid. For example, Phoenix has lots of very aggressive drivers, but at least they're skilled and pay attention. Seattle has mostly passive drivers, but they are average to below average in terms of skill. This place is full of aggressive, unskilled idiotic drivers.
-Unintelligent traffic lights. Out West, if you go to a traffic light at ,say, 1am or 5am and it's red, it almost immediately gives you the green. (Note to locals, there are things called sensors in the road that are connected to little computers that make sound decisions based on who's at the intersection to help traffic move more efficiently).. You'd think implementing something like that would be pretty common all over the USA. But noooooooo - it doesn't work that way here in backwards tidewater. I have wasted soooooo much of my time waiting at intersections being the only car there , waiting for the stupid light to cycle through it's barbaric timer to give me the green with it's 1950's era technology. On the way to the gym on old oyster point road, west of 64 , NN installed a brand new traffic light near that 2-bit Strayer college. For a while it was just blinking yellow immediately after they installed it. Now it's 'working' fully. Just 2 nights ago some cars and I were going down the road and the frikking light just decided to turn red for all of us. OK, I thought , someone's coming out of Canon or Strayer - NO !!! There was nobody there !! WTH the light, out of the blue, just decided to turn red for all of us going down the main road of the intersection. stupid, stupid, stupid.
-horrible roads - most secondary roads are full of pot holes
-Inconsiderate lazy people. We have lived in many places and this place in stores has the absolute worst bunch of thugs and malcontents working retail. At home depot or lowes in Hampton or NN, the first thing you get when asking to find something is "We don't got that".... to that I reply, "your website says you have 34 of them in stock" . With a disgusted look on their face, they they call someone else to help. Another example of the general population here is the plethora if shopping carts one consistently sees all over the parking lots here. I took a pic a few days ago at the costco in NN where a bunch of lazy slobs left at least 15 shopping carts strewn all over a dirt 'island' and the surrounding parking spots, rendering 5 parking spaces unusable. Again, never have seen this anywhere else like here. Occasionally I'd see 2 or 3 in phoenix, but never nearly as many I've seen here all over. It just goes to show you how lazy and inconsiderate people are here.
-Pedestrian unfriendliness - This one is just hilarious. Out west, Pedestrians have the right of way in a crosswalk , Oh, no, wait , isn't that's how it's supposed to be everywhere ? LOL - no way. crosswalks are categorically ignored by cars here and it's dog eat dog if you want to cross. I would imagine any transplant from Seattle who would find themselves regularly walking across roads here would last just a few weeks before they're beaned by a car. In normal, civil places, a car slows down if they see someone trying/starting to cross a crosswalk - here the pedestrians have to wait for all the cars to go by (why bother with the crosswalk?)..
-Cost of living - It's extraordinarily high here - I have NO idea why food costs so much more here - SMH.
-State control of Liquor - I know some bible-thumpers will tell me I'm a sinner, but guess what ? Out west you don't have to go to a state-controlled store to get alcohol ! You can get it at costco and grocery stores and pay, on average, 40% less than the monopoly the state has here...
-Racisim - it's alive and well here - and it appears to go both ways.
-Commercialism. Need I say more ? Not many at all 'local' places here compared to most 'decent' cities, Go Applebees!
-Fitness. This was not a real surprise, but what the heck happened here ? In PHX , I'd see a grossly overweight person out and about maybe every week or so . Here, I see some people who obviously eat at McD's every night before I'm a mile away from my house on the way out running errands !! I guess this explains the 'virus' of 7-11's that have spread all over the peninsula. Bottom line? Being fat is the norm in Hampton Roads.
I could go on and on, but I know enough about this place and others to say, with much confidence, that Tidewater is a craphole of crapholes. If the military pulled out, including NNSBuilding, this place would absolutely die on the vine, with the exception of a few hotel maids who have to clean the 70's era hotels on Va Beach.
I'm from Norfolk. Is it my favorite place on earth? Not even close. Do I make the best of it while I'm here? Absolutely. I try to stay engaged with my community. I volunteer when I can. I choose to do constructive things.
Now, as someone born here, I didn't choose to be here the same way those of you who get stationed here don't always choose to be here. But I do choose to spend my time wisely, making the best of it when possible. For those of you who hate it here (and I've been right there with ya), understand that this is where you are. The negative qualities you point out about this area aren't new to us locals - believe me, we know. But THIS IS WHERE YOU ARE. You have the ability to change your perspective and make your time here more positive.
And realize that the problems you are pointing out about HR are in fact the same problems in most places. Seems to me the problems get exaggerated because many of you are forced to be here. My two cents.
If it smells and looks like a pig, it's a pig. My parents were stationed on Ft Monroe when I went to ODU and graduated mid-80's. Having lived all over the east coast, west coast, and Germany, I could not wait to get out of this trash-heap of an area. Wife and I left a year after we graduated college to the Northwest.
It turned out to be a fantastic decision, despite the fact our families were here. I remember my dad telling me when we left after I told him I felt bad about leaving family to just live where we wanted and it's our lives to live.
One kid graduated from USMA in NY and the other is still in School in Seattle and went to great public schools in the Seattle metro area.
After a couple of years in PHX, we decided to live here for a year or two since our parents were getting very old and need more help than our siblings could give. I was reluctant to come back but we had to if we wanted to see much of our parents. I remember my wife saying "who knows, we may like Va and decide to stay"
So here we are in NN. Her parents and sisters are in Hampton, my parents and bro are in WMBG.
We're still trying to cope with the utter culture shock and horrific nature of this place upon returning. Here are some observations to compare:
-This place is full of moronic, unskilled drivers. I've never seen the stupidity and lack of judgement anywhere compared to here. I have never, ever seen so accidents happen on an interstate - how dumb can you be to get into an accident on a highway???? (i..e. no intersections) it happens at least 1x/week on 64 on the peninsula. It seems like 80% of the people here also text while driving. I know everyone does it everywhere, but not to the extent I've observed here. I tend to find 2 different traits of drivers in the cities I've lived and visited. Aggressive/Non aggressive and Skilled/unskilled/stupid. For example, Phoenix has lots of very aggressive drivers, but at least they're skilled and pay attention. Seattle has mostly passive drivers, but they are average to below average in terms of skill. This place is full of aggressive, unskilled idiotic drivers.
-Unintelligent traffic lights. Out West, if you go to a traffic light at ,say, 1am or 5am and it's red, it almost immediately gives you the green. (Note to locals, there are things called sensors in the road that are connected to little computers that make sound decisions based on who's at the intersection to help traffic move more efficiently).. You'd think implementing something like that would be pretty common all over the USA. But noooooooo - it doesn't work that way here in backwards tidewater. I have wasted soooooo much of my time waiting at intersections being the only car there , waiting for the stupid light to cycle through it's barbaric timer to give me the green with it's 1950's era technology. On the way to the gym on old oyster point road, west of 64 , NN installed a brand new traffic light near that 2-bit Strayer college. For a while it was just blinking yellow immediately after they installed it. Now it's 'working' fully. Just 2 nights ago some cars and I were going down the road and the frikking light just decided to turn red for all of us. OK, I thought , someone's coming out of Canon or Strayer - NO !!! There was nobody there !! WTH the light, out of the blue, just decided to turn red for all of us going down the main road of the intersection. stupid, stupid, stupid.
-horrible roads - most secondary roads are full of pot holes
-Inconsiderate lazy people. We have lived in many places and this place in stores has the absolute worst bunch of thugs and malcontents working retail. At home depot or lowes in Hampton or NN, the first thing you get when asking to find something is "We don't got that".... to that I reply, "your website says you have 34 of them in stock" . With a disgusted look on their face, they they call someone else to help. Another example of the general population here is the plethora if shopping carts one consistently sees all over the parking lots here. I took a pic a few days ago at the costco in NN where a bunch of lazy slobs left at least 15 shopping carts strewn all over a dirt 'island' and the surrounding parking spots, rendering 5 parking spaces unusable. Again, never have seen this anywhere else like here. Occasionally I'd see 2 or 3 in phoenix, but never nearly as many I've seen here all over. It just goes to show you how lazy and inconsiderate people are here.
-Pedestrian unfriendliness - This one is just hilarious. Out west, Pedestrians have the right of way in a crosswalk , Oh, no, wait , isn't that's how it's supposed to be everywhere ? LOL - no way. crosswalks are categorically ignored by cars here and it's dog eat dog if you want to cross. I would imagine any transplant from Seattle who would find themselves regularly walking across roads here would last just a few weeks before they're beaned by a car. In normal, civil places, a car slows down if they see someone trying/starting to cross a crosswalk - here the pedestrians have to wait for all the cars to go by (why bother with the crosswalk?)..
-Cost of living - It's extraordinarily high here - I have NO idea why food costs so much more here - SMH.
-State control of Liquor - I know some bible-thumpers will tell me I'm a sinner, but guess what ? Out west you don't have to go to a state-controlled store to get alcohol ! You can get it at costco and grocery stores and pay, on average, 40% less than the monopoly the state has here...
-Racisim - it's alive and well here - and it appears to go both ways.
-Commercialism. Need I say more ? Not many at all 'local' places here compared to most 'decent' cities, Go Applebees!
-Fitness. This was not a real surprise, but what the heck happened here ? In PHX , I'd see a grossly overweight person out and about maybe every week or so . Here, I see some people who obviously eat at McD's every night before I'm a mile away from my house on the way out running errands !! I guess this explains the 'virus' of 7-11's that have spread all over the peninsula. Bottom line? Being fat is the norm in Hampton Roads.
I could go on and on, but I know enough about this place and others to say, with much confidence, that Tidewater is a craphole of crapholes. If the military pulled out, including NNSBuilding, this place would absolutely die on the vine, with the exception of a few hotel maids who have to clean the 70's era hotels on Va Beach.
Not to dump on this place... Actually, I take it back, I mean to dump on this place... Moving into HR and then moving out was super expensive and life sucking, if someone reads this and avoids the mistake I made, despite being a troll I may have helped someone in some small way.
Lots of this guys comments seem like they are situational, and I'm sure they are, but I can second that due to the poor urban design, lack of decent local politics, and general apathy of the locals (not the people on this forum), the quality of life in HR is not very good.
If you have choices, please avoid. If someone is offering you a metric crap ton of money to move here, understand that despite a big bank account you still have to live here.
GrendleX, you have some good points. We are making the best of it and it's so nice to see my mom and dad with regularity, but I do have a problem with your comment about the problems I stated occurring in 'most places'.
First of all, why the heck would I point them out if they were common on 'most places'? I pointed them out because I have been to many places, most through work, extended vacations, and having lived there. I certainly don't know about every major metro area, but I've 'been around' the US on both coasts, the NE, Midwest, southwest, and northwest enough to have a pretty good idea about those places and the people there.
My statements were comparisons between here and other places in which I've lived,(which include Seattle,WA, Portland,OR, Phoenix, Charlotte, KY, Northern VA, TN, Georgia, Austin,and Alaska) and places I've visited through work or otherwise (includes NYC, PA, CT, VT, WV, IN, FL, AL, TX, IL, WI, Iowa,OH, MN, CA , CO, NM, NV, UT, CA, AZ)
Since the mid-80's, we've come back to visit each and every year to see family. The longer we'd lived out west, the more heartily we were looking forward to our visit to the family ending. Not because of family, but we just wanted to get on the plane and get out of this dump.
Additionally to Geork's comment, this place has no metropolitan urban center, like Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, San Fran.. It's really cool to go 'downtown' to see local restaurants, one of a kind stores, and actually see people living downtown.
Here we have Denny's, McD's, Applebees, Chili's, etc etc etc as choices to offer and display the 'local flavor'...Sure, there are a few local places, but you really have to work hard to find them.
Culturally there is plenty of 'backwardsness'. When I was growing up here, I was 'taught' through living here to hate New York, blacks, California, and gays. I see that type of stereo typification here running rampant and still strong. Since I 'escaped', I realized that California and NYC are dang awesome places and I have shed the bigoted views that I was taught by living here, unlike my in-laws , who as I recall, steereded their son into playing rugby and soccer because my brother in law told him that 'football was too black' - sad...
-Fitness. This was not a real surprise, but what the heck happened here ? In PHX , I'd see a grossly overweight person out and about maybe every week or so . Here, I see some people who obviously eat at McD's every night before I'm a mile away from my house on the way out running errands !! I guess this explains the 'virus' of 7-11's that have spread all over the peninsula. Bottom line? Being fat is the norm in Hampton Roads.
There are so many absurdly inaccurate statements in your post that I have no desire to take the time to address them all. But here is one, that really sticks out.
Statistically speaking, if you are from Metro Seattle, chances are you are white, with a lot of college, with a whitecollar 6 figure job. Seattle is very literate and has one of the best healthcare systems.
But you know that and you know your hometown.
Why didn't you go-to-SunTrust so to speak and find a way to move your relatives to Seattle instead of upsetting and moving your whole family?
There are so many absurdly inaccurate statements in your post that I have no desire to take the time to address them all. But here is one, that really sticks out.
For every one of these silly lists there's another that says the exact opposite.
The lists are made by simple people, for simple people. Some of the categories used to come up with the rankings on those lists:
Tennis courts per capita
Parkland
Ball diamonds
Most sex (strangely listed under the "unhealthy" list)
I could go on and on.
You can have a tennis court for every person in your town or millions of acres of parkland, but if the residents don't use those things it doesn't matter.
It's like saying one town is more educated than another because they have more books at the public library.
The people that make these lists are not on the ground in these cities experiencing what life is really like- they're in some office using data they find on the Internet to make inaccurate conclusions and then publish it so people can jump on it like it's the Gospel of the Lord.
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But here is one, that really sticks out. 
