Charlottesville is overrated
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5/30/2006
My husband and I moved to Charlottesville for a year while he served as a visiting professor at UVA. We were both open and excited to an experience in Charlottesville, as we generally like small university towns. Unfortunately, we were dismally disappointed. The city is EXPENSIVE, to begin with. We were coming from Boston, so if WE think the city is costly, that let's you know how costly it really is! Boston is by no means cheap, but at least I feel I get something in return --- a walkable city, with public transportation and many free city events, concerts, festivals, etc. It has a street life. Instead, in Charlottesville, houses in the city itself BEGAN around $400,000 and up (WAY UP) range. There was hardly any public transportation to speak of. We were the only ones in the neighborhood ever to venture out and use the sidewalk. (And there weren't always sidewalks). The route 29 sprawl grows worse everyday, with more traffic and more cookie-cutter suburbs. Grocery shopping costs a fortune, as there were few decent stores, and the few that offer fresh produce and meats cost an arm and a leg. Generally, the city felt like it was run for and by the "gentry" as an exclusive club of rich whites who benignly rule over the poor blacks and hispanics in the city. There was hardly any diversity. Black people by and large lived on one side of the tracks, and whites on the other. The inequities were striking. There was no sense of a public spirit. If you want to play tennis, go swimming, take a hike, listen to music, you're going to pay for it. In fact, you must now pay for the Friday concerts on the mall that used to be free. There were a few decent restaurants in town, but far more that charged an arm and a leg for mediocre fare that would cost a tenth of the price in New York City. It felt elitist. The University itself is not diverse at all, and is MUCH less interesting than other campuses I've been on. And what mystified us most was how the people in Charlottesville seemed so proud of where they lived, when all we could see was how poorly the area compared other places we had lived, both large and small! Maybe the lack of humility about a place that has a long way to go was the worst of it all. My prediction is that in 10 more years, with more construction along route 29, more cars, no public transportation, and an inadequate roadway system, this area is going to become another Washington D.C.-sprawl nightmare.
Pam | Boston, MA