Agree with Kelly on perception problem
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11/30/2005
I fully agree with Kelly's comments on the perception of crime in the City of Richmond. My wife and I live in the Historic Museum district and it is safer than many areas in the outlying suburbs. Also, if you factor in the danger and cost of driving, the city suddenly becomes more affordable and safer. We walk to all of our daily needs and only spend a fraction of what our peers in the burbs pay on transportation costs. There is also a misperception of the schools in the city. Many young families choose the city until they have kids and then move to the counties. This is largely an unfounded perception that all of the city schools are not exemplory. We send our daughter a city school where the SOL scores are as good if not higher than many of the county schools. There remain some ethnic problems in this city that have unfortunately penetrate the regions institutions and the public's world-view. My wife and I are not from Richmond but the people we know that have lived here there whole lives, (both white and black), have claimed on more than one occasion, that there is a "Richmond Affliction" that stifles change. We feel this is ridiculous and that perhaps what Richmond needs is an infusion of people that are not from Richmond to help the locals get out of there own way.
Jonathan | Tuckahoe, VA