Listen I like Blacksburg as much as next guy. Lived there 1st 2 years on #Hokies beat. But Charlottesville's a better college town. Period.— Hokies Journal (@HokiesJournal) December 3, 2013
I don't really know much about Charlottesville, but come on Hokie Journal, did you really just tweet that?
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College town? Only if you're a hipster dufus.
There are some decent eateries on The Corner, but it's not a Football Town, therefore Advantage: Blitzburg.
I prefer Sacksburg. Blitzburgh is reserved for a certain steel-mill town in southwestern PA.
I've spent some time in Charlottesville. I went to football camp there one summer. The City of Charlottesville and the Town of Blacksburg are about the same size, population wise. But Blacksburg actually looks and feels like a college town. Charlottesville is a pit-stop adjacent to I-64. Charlottesville could continue to exist with about the same size population if the university disappeared. Without Virginia Tech, Blacksburg would be a suburb of Christiansburg, the I-81 pitstop.
I don't know what else to say... I took my daughter on a tour of college campuses before her senior year in high school and UVa/Charlottesville failed to impress her even in the slightest little bit. She didn't like the "Grounds," the way the university was laid out, the "town" adjacent to the "Grounds," or any of the people we met there. Granted, she was already in love with George Mason University by the time we got there, but UVa placed dead LAST of all the schools we visited in her rankings.
Better College Town? Blacksburg, Hands down. No town can beat Blacksburg for Best College Town.
Better Town To Live After College? Charlottesville. Jobs, Access, Surrounding Area. (I'm partly biased because I grew up there)
Ive been to many campuses and both are at the top for similar reasons. My #1 will always be Blacksburg but Charlottesville is up there for the #2 spot ... but football changes everything and... well you get the picture....
JMU has a prettier campus than UVA
never been there, just seen it from 81- not going to 'talk up' "the grounds" in C-ville.
but there are alot of very bad campuses in the country and its not one of them (best I can do)
I'm not saying that Uva's campus isn't pretty...but I would hardly rank it in the top 2
Charlottesville is a better town that Harrisonburg - and UVA's "grounds" are better than JMU. I-81 splits JMU's campus - PLUS there is a railroad track that cuts through the middle of campus. Brother and sis both went to JMU. Even they'll admit UVA "grounds" > JMU campus.
I'm pretty sure he is a Michigan grad. Also if you look at the tweet he lived there when he was on the Hokies beat meaning he wasn't a college student. How you can evaluate the effectiveness of a college town by living there when you were NOT in fact IN said college, is beyond me.
He forgets that most college students don't judge colleges by their access to local wine.
Yeah, what a dick. Also, in Blacksburg everything is possible. In the other town you are just a douche.
I think some troll hacked HJ's twitter account. It's the only explanation.
What makes a good college town?
Physical proximity of university to "town"? Adv BBG.
Collegiate "connection" of university to "town"? Huge Adv BBG
Restaurants? Huge adv CVL
Bars? College bars, BBG. Bar diversity, CVL.
Attractions not named football? Huge adv CVL.
Outdoorsy things to do? Push.
Proximity to bigger cities? Adv CVL.
I'd give Charlottesville a slight edge, but it can't be overstated how little Charlottesville cares about UVA sports. Part of that is at least 1/2 of CVL is full of non-UVA fans....probably 20% are VT fans and the other 30% are imports from other universities due to grad school or jobs in general. That doesn't happen in Blacksburg, nobody is there who isn't affiliated with VT. It's gotta be 95%.
But, damn, the restaurant situation in Charlottesville is good and is really, really awful in Blacksburg.
Well, the restaurant situation in Cville is nice due to the ability of the locals to pay for more than "locals" in Blacksburg/Christiansburg.
Maybe so. But Blacksburg could try harder. It's basically chains and college bars and The Cellar.
for shame .. with 2K+ legs this should not be possible sir
huge adv: downvote
I've only been to 'Hooville for a handful of Hokie beat downs, a wedding and a few concerts. The restaurant scene (and music scene, I would have to say) are certainly nicer. I've always told people it would be a very nice town if it was stripped of its douchiness. Upvoted for unnecessary down votes.
this
The "douchiness" destroys everything else. Elitist snobs who care nothing for Football, not to mention most other sports, are the bane of hooville's existence. When your peeps are preening losers who care more about image than substance, your "college town" is a lame excuse for what a real university/town partnership ought to look like. Give me Blacksburg and its chilly winters/warm friends every day of the year.
But DP Dough's
Every time I visit Blacksburg I have a hard time hitting all of the restaurants that I like to go to.
Souvlaki, Cellar, Boudreauxs, Bull and Bones, El Rod's, and on campus dining are all great.
Whenever I'm driving through Charlottesville I make sure to go to Bodo's, because that is all that damn town is good for.
Yeah. I've been to both, eaten in both, and Blacksburg's got a lot more good food going on. Charlottesville might have more pretentious food. Like. Food you eat to prove that you're cool.
I'm living in Charlottesville now. If there were a job that I could get in Blacksburg, I'd be there. The traffic in Cville is ridiculous, the drivers are crappy, etc. However, there are a lot more Hokies here that I thought moving to the area. The housing is ridiculous, too.
They had an article in the newspaper here a few months back that spoke of the median salary required to be able to afford a place here. The housing market here as far as pricing is concerned is on par with NoVA, but the COLA is matched at the rate of Harrisonburg.
Housing in Charlottesville/Albemarle is high....outlying areas not so much. Agreed traffic is stupid here...when I first moved here, it drove me crazy trying to find my way around, because the names of roads change without notice and with no discernible demarcation (Park st/Rio/Hydraulic). And there are several duplicate street names (no less than three Park Streets). They won't build roads where they need them...and they slow down roads that need to be faster (I honestly had never heard of "traffic-calming-devices" before; and they build a road that should be a 45 mph road at least, and make it a 35 mph road). And we won't even talk about watching idiots try to drive in bad weather.
It's not just the bad weather. I've driven in many places in this great country of ours, and this is honestly the first place I've driven that made me want to not drive anymore.
I've tried to place it, and maybe I'm wrong, but the drivers around here have more of a "Me first and FUCK you" attitude than anyplace I've driven, NoVA and Los Angeles included.
You need to come out to the DFW Metroplex. I thought driving down I-81 Sunday after Thanksgiving was the worst thing ever with all the bad drivers and insane truckers trying to drop off their shipment by Monday. Then I drove on the I-35s here and good lord I want my truckers and 81 back.
I drove from Winchester to Christiansburg the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I got off on 11 in Harrisonburg and laughed every time I saw another backup on 81, since I was still flying by at 60+ off to the side.
Also, I personally witnessed two rear-enders from my vantage point beside 81. SO glad I decided to get out of that.
Jobs is a big part of it. More of them in Charlottesville, thus housing is more expensive. Also not as much available land in Albemarle, and the zoning is stricter than Montgomery.
The article discussing the housing was stating the ideas that it's not just the jobs, it's the high turnover of it. The students of UVA, the UVA Healthcare System, UVA as a major employer, and then the Army as a huge employer on the northern end of town because of the NGIC, means that rent can be high since no one will be looking to own a home. Homes here tend to be made into apartments where they can bring in about 500 bucks per person per month in rent (on the lower end). It kind of forces those that live here long term into getting housing outside of Charlottesville, to actually work in Charlottesville.
As far as actual houses to buy, it's the history, prestige, and location of Albemarle that drives up the cost. A home in Waynesboro (just over the mountain) goes for about 300-500k less than a home here. If you don't mind a townhome (again, similar to NoVA), then you can get one for 250-400k, and they are pretty nice.
Same way with Christiansburg/Blacksburg or Giles/Blacksburg. People love to live in the Town of BBG proper and will pay for it. Schools have a lot to do with it, if you can get in the Western Alb or Monticello district, the real estate values charge a premium.
Fellow Hokie in Hooville here. I, too, would've never left Blacksburg if there were jobs available for me there.
However, now that I have lived in Charlottesville for nearly 8 years, this city has really grown on me. Lots of good people here, great places to eat and drink, and about 2 hours away from everything.
I still want to move back to Blacksburg later in life and retire there, though.
I think you have summed it up pretty well. The entire Albemarle and Central VA area is very nice. Charlottesville has everything you need, great dining, shopping, premium beer selections, outdoor activities, close to mountains, etc. A great place to live - post college.
Blacksburg is a great college town. Without Virginia Tech, Blacksburg would be just another Pearisburg. Without UVA, Charlottesville would still exist, for the most part.
The Charlottesville area is a nice place to live. There are some nice stores, good entertainment, very good health care (I prefer Martha Jefferson over UVA, btw), and the scenery is some of the most beautiful in Virginia. The cost of living is average, the weather is usually not bad, on the whole.
The worst part of living here is the wahooland amusement park. The economy is geared toward everything-UVA. The whole town kisses up to them. It seems like the town is almost set up to provide wahoos a place to work after their graduation, with very few businesses not connected in some way to UVA. The area has a dearth of good old-fashioned blue collar types who can fix your car, your plumbing, or your air conditioning. Of course, if Mr. J. hadn't established his institute of holier-than-thou education here, I'm sure this would still be a sleepy little country town, with I-64 running through Lynchburg rather than skirting Charlottesville.
Clearly they have not seen the report by the American Institute of Economic Research:
https://www.aier.org/sites/default/files/cdi/cdi-docs/Blacksburg.pdf
Summarized here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/best-college-towns-2013-14_n_43...
One other item of note....if you shop in Blacksburg, you can go all day and never see an item for sale with a UVA logo on it. There usually is as much VT merchandise on display in most of the stores in Charlottesville as there is UVA stuff. Which reminds me, I need to figure out how to market a picture of the stadium with "Lane Stadium-North" on it. I think it would sell...
Neither is the best in VA. William & Mary has the best town & surround.
Outdoorsy stuff: Advantage Tech
I gotta go with that. W&M is outstanding as a college town.
Saw some list the other day that rated Harrisonburg as the #5 college town in the US. Nearly shit myself. Probably one of the worst college towns you can imagine in terms of how campus, downtown, and off-campus housing are tied together. Cville vs. Blacksburg.... I'd imagine both are pretty solid places.
Completely agree- Brother and Sister both went to JMU. Harrisonburg is an awful college town. JMU's campus is split by I-81. Downtown is practically non-existent- JMU students have house/block parties - there is not downtown option for them.
jmu grad here. you're absolutely right. its more about apartment parties in hburg than the bar scene. staunton has a better bar scene than harrisonburg does. 81 and the railroad never bothered me as much as the dog food smell when its cloudy.
hokie confession: i like cville. good music scene, mountains nearby, good variety in shopping and places to drink. as a younger man my friends and i found the pickings over there plentiful.
what's said above about the lack of school spirit is absolutely true. you can buy tech gear all over cville and plenty of bars have vt stuff hanging up. i wear tech stuff all the time when i venture over the hill and nobody even looks at me. hell, when my daughter was in the nicu at the hospital one of the nurses and i started talking football. she and her family were season ticket holders. she told me she didnt think tech should be in the acc. i asked why she felt that way expecting some bs about academics and thuggery. to my amusement she says, "those boys from tech are just tougher than ours!" it was too perfect.
blacksburg is virginia tech, and virginia tech is blacksburg. one of the things that made me fall in love the vt football all those years ago was the electricity in the air all over town on gameday. cville just doesnt have that feel. charlottesville has more job opportunities but as far as being a true college town, to me, blacksburg cannot be beat.
This is where I disagree with him. Life in a college town (to me, at least) should be all about the college. Blacksburg and Clemson are the quintessential college towns to me. UGA has a similar feel, but there are far more chain restaurants than BBurg. Chapel hill is a town with a college in it.
If you routinely see residents wearing clothes from other universities, it's not a college town. If it's possible to ignore the university's sports teams, it's not a college town. If it's in a major city, it's not a college town.
Agree 100%. And some of the examples he tosses out are bad ones if he's trying to differentiate from Blacksburg. For example, Chapel Hill pretty much just a college town centered on UNC. Ann Arbor and Madison fit this 'other stuff' profile but that basically eliminates them as college towns. (Ann Arbor is closer to being a college town than Madison is though.)
Based on his definition of the best college towns, NYC is the best college town because it has the most other stuff for Columbia students to do...
And he missed to awesome ones in Athens and Lawrence
is it normal for a beat writer to troll the fanbase who's providing his or her job?
For the record, Mark Giannotto covers both the Hokies & the Hoos.
https://twitter.com/mgiannotto
https://twitter.com/HokiesJournal
https://twitter.com/CavsJournal
i see. well, fuck em.
In regard to this latest tweet: I don't get it. How can it not be about the college in a 'college town'? Wouldn't it just be called a 'Town'? (Philosorapter?)
Agreed.
Otherwise, we would be talking about New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Atlanta as college towns. Without snickering.
My first year I lived in Roanoke, a guy tried to buy my truck because it was the correct color of maroon.
'nuff said.
I think Charlottesville has a lot going on besides the university. It's more of a town with a college. Blacksburg, to me, is more of an actual "college town". And it's better because it has the world's greatest Polytechnic Institute and State University.
The funniest part is all the LOLUVA fans retweeted and favorited this.
Shame on ALL of you for even discussing this.
As if...
So...how many actual Tech grads here didn't live in Blacksburg/Montgomery County BEFORE coming to Tech, but wanted to live or retire there after?
-My only direct experience is my year at JMU (and proximity groing up in Strasburg), and a few visits to Charlottesville for the medical center and to see friends. (Oh and I witnessed DW's front-flip-for-style TD in the Boston College game in Blacksburg a few years ago, but unfortunately didn't make it down town.)
I lived in North Carolina before going to Tech. I almost had a job that would have allowed me to live where I wanted to, and was looking at houses in Blacksburg. Wish that held up...
Excuse me but,......THE HOKIES JUST BEAT uva TEN YEARS IN A ROW IN FOOTBALL!
Who freakin' cares what some douche thinks is a better 'college town.'
That's what losers claim: 'sure your TEAM won, but our uniforms are prettier and our concessions are more nutritious, and blah, blah, blah....'
WTF?
I thought the point of the game was to WIN? That's what we did....WE WON! and won and won and won and won and won and won and won and won.......AND THEN WON AGAIN!.
Really, and you want to talk this 'best college town crap!?
What about this metric?.....I bet any party in Blacksburg last Saturday was more awesome than one in Charlottesville, because we won! Unless, it was a party in C-ville with a lot of Hokies in attendance.
How's that for a college town definition?
Take your 'we have a better restaurant selection and housing' and shove it, and I'll take my stumbling down from TOT's, stranger yelling Go Hokies, rail drinking, cold wind blowing ass to Blacksburg any day!
(Rant over, but this discussion is nonsensical.)
That's what I said. The guy thinks college town means proximity to local wine.
We're just hitting our offseason discussion stride early.
Hahahahahahahahahaha. Nice.
It's not just the douche factor.
C'ville also has terrible humidity, which is strange, given the campuses aren't that far apart. Humidity in and of itself isn't all that bad, but add in roaming crews of of sockless boat-shoe sporting trust-fund Reginald's and you have the recipe for a stink that rivals summer in Paris, Franch, the dog-poo & stinky-cheese capital of the world.
Who knows where all that moisture comes from. It's almost as if there's a completely localized source of precipitation up there that makes everything uncomfortable and sticky.
(not my meme btw... I think that was an original by someone here on TKP though).
I submit this link of "What to Do" and "Where to Go" at our neighbors in C-Ville's prestigious college town.
http://people.virginia.edu/~sfr/enlt214m/wahoo/
Anyone else see an issue with the fact that the first item on the "What To Do" list is "Streaking"?
No problem with that.
Interesting that he posted the same exact tweet from his CavsJournal account.
It never once occured to me that Charlottesville was a "college town." I think this is the problem. A nice city/town by itself that happens to have a college in it is not a "college town" to me.
If your town would effectively cease to exist without the college, it's a "college town." Using the other definititon, New York, LA and Chicago are "College Towns."
To me a college town is Blackburg,VA State College, PA or Clemson, SC.
Good point. 'College town' is defined by the town's dependence on the school.
Boston has 16 colleges and would exist without colleges but it but is it a 'College town'? NO.
I think to a large extent it's irrelevant to say one college town is a better town than the other. Speaking from experience, try bringing your wife or gf back to Blacksburg 15 years removed from the party scene etc, and although they respect your experience and feelings about our beloved school, the bottom line is it's hard to fully understand or see what the fuss is all about through the lens of an adult with different values and interests at this point in their life.
They don't have the memories that we have burned into our brain of Blacksburg PERFECTLY satisfying our every need at that point in our lives. Realistically our experience might be different later in life if we were writing a silly review or ranking, which in my mind totally invalidates the whole exercise.
The only ranking that matters with regards to this subject, imo, is this:
The College with the Most Satisfied Students? Virginia Tech
Check the date - August 2013 haters..
Boom.
Nice link. Thanks for posting.
And a great point-it's hard for someone 'outside' to appreciate Blacksburg like, I, or most others on this board appreciate it.
However, it's awesome when you bring in visitors and they do 'get it.' I'd have to say, that most people that I've taken to Hokie games walk away getting the flavor of Blacksburg and VT. They say down the line that they have started to pull for, and pay attention to the Hokies favorably after their brief visit.
It's a magical place....but like you suggested, I'm biased.
Old roommate who lives in C'burg got married in the botanical gardens several years ago. A buddy of his from high school graduated from Miami and came up for the wedding in June. We took him out in town and he absolutely loved it. By the end of the night, we had him doing the Hokie bird with the fanned fingers and the thumb out on the other hand. He was perfectly "Blacksburged."