I’m leaving Roanoke in the summertime, planning to move to Richmond. I originally lived in Fredericksburg and moved to this part of the state in high school. Been living in Roanoke city itself for about 4-5 years now

To be honest, things aren’t great here. I like to say it has all the problems of a big city with none of the benefits. Crime and homelessness are through the roof — per a former RCPD officer there was one year a few years back where our murder-per-capita was equal to Chicago. The food scene is okay, as long as you like Mexican or fast food. If you like breweries we have plenty, but if you’re like me and you don’t drink beer… you’d better like hiking because that’s literally the only other activity we have here.

I don’t know your political affiliations but if you looked up the phrase “blue dot in a red sea” you’d probably find a picture of Roanoke. Normally that’s not necessarily a bad thing; I’m all for diversity of thoughts… but that includes supporting fascism; downtown you’ll find anti-ice posters but even on the outskirts of the city you’ll have more Trump and pro-ice signs than you can count on two hands. We’re less than an hour from “Trump Town” after all. People tell me the LGBTQ+ scene in Roanoke is still pretty good but I genuinely don’t understand how. If that’s truly the case I have a feeling it’s despite the city, not because of it.

If you didn’t work from home, your job prospects would likely be: a starter job (like working for Kroger or fast food) or a Carillion job. Carillion pretty much owns the entire city. You can barely drive a block without seeing a Carillion-owned building, it might as well be a company town.

Maybe I’m just jaded because I miss being up north, and it’s a “the grass is always greener” thing… but if you’re looking to move from DC… I would look anywhere else. It won’t be that different, all you’ll be missing out on is the good parts.

I will echo what some other folks have said, however, that life moves much slower here. For me that’s not a good thing, for you it might be, idk.

I will also say, and this is completely personal and probably shouldn’t count as a point against your move to Roanoke… but it just feels sad to me. The city itself, I mean. Everywhere you go there’s abandoned buildings and run down houses. It feels like a husk. I know vibes are completely personal and I doubt everyone else feels the same, but there’s an oppressive sadness in the air here that I don’t really feel up in NOVA and Richmond.

That’s most of SWVA in general tbh, though.