Economic Refugees from the coast

[spencer114]

I grew up in Tidewater. Military personnel never struck me as conservative. Perhaps the military elite are but the folks that I lived around (including my father and uncle) weren’t conservative at all (especially not by today’s standard). The military (in Tidewater specifically) is largely comprised of minorities. The women that I know that were in the military are defiantly feminist. None of them had time for church. I’m not saying that they are liberal...just that I find them to be moderate on most issues. The voting patterns in Tidewater bear this out.

[nm9stheham]

Originally Posted by JGDlife

I’m fine with an urban area, I just want to move somewhere cheaper that’s not ghetto. Lynchburg is sort of like Provo, UT imo. Most conversations will tie back to liberty and church, gets fairly annoying after a while. Wanting good restaurants is kind of a normal desire for most Americans, so not sure what the conflict is. I grew up in a city of 20,000 and it had great food options. Lived in Honolulu for many years and the food overall sucked. I’m open to West Virginia as well.

Not a conflict, but just not the variety that you may be used to in the Tidewater area. Seems like the most common complaint by some larger city types settling in Roanoke (and in that other thread) is the more limited restaurants. Just want you to be aware; not really sure what you are good with in that regard. My favorites there are the Roanoke Weiner stand and The New Yorker Deli.... LOL.. so I may not be the best source!

BTW, you are surrounded by mountains in Roanoke..... not like Lynchburg where they are all out to the west.

What part of WV are you thinking about?

How about giving us a feel for the size of town/ city that you want, or nearness to big stores, etc. There is a lot of territory to consider.

[Wayfarerz]

Originally Posted by spencer114

I grew up in Tidewater. Military personnel never struck me as conservative. Perhaps the military elite are but the folks that I lived around (including my father and uncle) weren’t conservative at all (especially not by today’s standard). The military (in Tidewater specifically) is largely comprised of minorities.

The link below shows the US military as 70+% White, not "largely minority".

Never heard anyone say our military is NOT conservative. I agree that the officer corps may be different politically than other groups within the military.

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/dem...cs-us-military

[JGDlife]

Originally Posted by spencer114

I agree that Lynchburg doesn’t feel particularly churchy to me. I haven’t spent much time there but when I visit, it feels like a city of upwardly mobile educated people (and of course religious people can be upwardly module and educated too). It’s pretty and has interesting things to do. The people seemed welcoming to me.

Since it’s June I’ll use Pride as an example. I’m willing to bet that there are more pride flags on display in downtown Lynchburg right now than in Chesapeake. I’m sure that Chesapeake is more secular overall but because it doesn’t have a downtown, there isn’t necessarily a high concentration of secular folk in any area. By virtue of the fact that Lynchburg has a hip and burgeoning downtown, the area seems less churchy to me than Chesapeake. I’ve spent zero time in the Lynchburg suburbs though and wouldn’t be surprised if it gets churchy fast. I was surprised by how much I liked Lynchburg. Piers ally is still chose something in the Shenandoah Valley north of 64. The area is just better connected to the other places in Virginia and beyond that I like to visit.

My former wife and daughter lived in Lynchburg up until recently. Their family owns multiple businesses in the area and are quite connected with Liberty and the local government. My assessment is based on being very close to the decision makers there and first hand experience in that. I spent roughly a quarter of my time in Lynchburg for the last 5 years. I don’t disagree with it being a nice place to raise a family, it’s just not somewhere I’d like to live based on my personal experiences. I’m from a Native American reservation up north so no, I’m not your typical conservative military member though but I’m also not a San Francisco liberal either. I’ll look into the Shenandoah Valley area.

[JGDlife]

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

Not a conflict, but just not the variety that you may be used to in the Tidewater area. Seems like the most common complaint by some larger city types settling in Roanoke (and in that other thread) is the more limited restaurants. Just want you to be aware; not really sure what you are good with in that regard. My favorites there are the Roanoke Weiner stand and The New Yorker Deli.... LOL.. so I may not be the best source!

BTW, you are surrounded by mountains in Roanoke..... not like Lynchburg where they are all out to the west.

What part of WV are you thinking about?

How about giving us a feel for the size of town/ city that you want, or nearness to big stores, etc. There is a lot of territory to consider.

City of at least 15,000 people so there’s adequate resources to meet normal wants/needs. I have little to no experience with West Virginia except driving through it a couple times many years ago. I’d prefer to be in the mountains because we have overlanding vehicles and I like to snowboard.

[nm9stheham]

Well, then you would like WV for your off-road vehicles. The state policy on ATV's is that if the road does not have a center line painted on it, then you you can ride your ATV on that road. A lot of the rural county roads are one paved lane affairs with gravel shoulders, and if you see someone else coming, you both find wide spots to go around each other. So plenty of ATV space. Snowboarding is pretty limited, to resorts like Snowshoe, unless you bought acreage with a cleared slope LOL.

Southern WV, south of I-64 except right in eastern WV near Lewisburg, is old coal mining country and much of it is impoverished so you probably don't want that. Eastern WV is the prettiest part, but not many towns of your size. Lewisburg, Petersburg, Moorefield, and Romney may fit the bill for size but they are not large places; Lewisburg is the largest. Beckley is a coal mining support town; some of the elevated areas NE of Beckley/Beaver it are not bad.

But all of WV has a much lower level of average income than you are used to around the Tidewater. More like far upstate NY, like around Watertown. But you sure are going to get your money's worth for housing.

[JGDlife]

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

Well, then you would like WV for your off-road vehicles. The state policy on ATV's is that if the road does not have a center line painted on it, then you you can ride your ATV on that road. A lot of the rural county roads are one paved lane affairs with gravel shoulders, and if you see someone else coming, you both find wide spots to go around each other. So plenty of ATV space. Snowboarding is pretty limited, to resorts like Snowshoe, unless you bought acreage with a cleared slope LOL.

Southern WV, south of I-64 except right in eastern WV near Lewisburg, is old coal mining country and much of it is impoverished so you probably don't want that. Eastern WV is the prettiest part, but not many towns of your size. Lewisburg, Petersburg, Moorefield, and Romney may fit the bill for size but they are not large places; Lewisburg is the largest. Beckley is a coal mining support town; some of the elevated areas NE of Beckley/Beaver it are not bad.

But all of WV has a much lower level of average income than you are used to around the Tidewater. More like far upstate NY, like around Watertown. But you sure are going to get your money's worth for housing.

We’re going to take a 2 week long trip and explore the areas everyone has listed on here. I appreciate all the assistance.

[nm9stheham]

Good deal. The more I thought about it, for WV, I think you might like Lewisburg WV, though it is well under the 15,000 population size that you list. I spotted this 3 BR house in a nice neighborhood on the edge of town. Lewisburg lies in a pretty area, in the broad Greenbrier River valley. It is one of the prettiest places in WV.

https://www.coldwellbanker.com/prope...tail?src=list#

[Lockdev]

I have had two friends move to Alabama over the past year and both really like it. Might want to consider casting your net outside of the state.

My realtor was recently talking about the influx of people from Nova and out of state into the Hampton Roads area. In 30 years she has never seen anything like it. It's mostly people from out of the area, usually New England or the Mid-Atlantic, that are engaging in bidding wars. Locals have been priced out.

I worry about the politics people like this bring into the state. We've always been pretty moderate, and I see that as a very good thing. The pendulum will likely start swinging pretty far left.