Best Cities For Black People In...Part II: VIRGINIA

[TDA92]

Where do you live? Please expound on why you say that, everyone's experience matters!

 

[murksiderock]

Fredericksburg is an underrated place for black people. Less than an hour from DC, lots of tech jobs nearby, safe neighborhoods. Nice place to raise a family

Didn't you grow up there?

@TDA92 you didn't say anything ...

 

[TDA92]

Ok (and this is just my personal opinion), so I've lived in Virginia for 15 years. From 2007- 2011 I lived in NOVA (Chantilly to be specific). It's great for raising families but if you want to be bored to tears AND sit in traffic. Virtually zero black people (with the exception of some Africans) unless you travel out to Woodbridge or or DC/Maryland. A very expensive area with nothing but shopping malls and Chipotle's. It gets old very VERY quickly.

After I graduated, I moved to Petersburg/Richmond. I'm not going to lie, I had so much fun. HOWEVER I was like 18,19,20. Nowadays Petersburg has virtually no money. They have VSU and that's about it lol. They don't even have enough firetruck for their city! It's desolate. I transfered to VCU (after attending RBC for 2 years). Once again, it was slightly when I FIRST got to Richmond. I loved it.

I don't even know where to begin. First of all, VCU bought everything. Everything. Businesses, real estate. The gentrification the entire city besides the projects. The city is only for out of town plants and VCU students. The people who work for the City of Richmond cant even afford to live in it...and it's not a big city at all. VCU has completely gentrified The Harlem of the South...and I attended VCU!

It used to be thriving with black people but now everyone is trying to leave. Rent is skyrocketing and the city is dull with zero entertainment. It was built for students and it pushed everyone out.

 

[TDA92]

Unless you know a lot of folks, it's very little room for opportunities and growth here.

 

[desjardins]

this might be outdated from the "Virginia is for lovers" era
but back in the day the old ppl in my family use to always mention how VA had so many light skin people cause the biracial thing started there early
Of course Thomas Jefferson set the standard for that and his b*stard kids had all kinds of offspring that passed too, but I knew a very light old man as a young child that was from them VA mountains and he pretty much was telling us that a thing in VA
Is this something VA is actually known for or am I way off here?

 

[murksiderock]

Ok (and this is just my personal opinion), so I've lived in Virginia for 15 years. From 2007- 2011 I lived in NOVA (Chantilly to be specific). It's great for raising families but if you want to be bored to tears AND sit in traffic. Virtually zero black people (with the exception of some Africans) unless you travel out to Woodbridge or or DC/Maryland. A very expensive area with nothing but shopping malls and Chipotle's. It gets old very VERY quickly.

After I graduated, I moved to Petersburg/Richmond. I'm not going to lie, I had so much fun. HOWEVER I was like 18,19,20. Nowadays Petersburg has virtually no money. They have VSU and that's about it lol. They don't even have enough firetruck for their city! It's desolate. I transfered to VCU (after attending RBC for 2 years). Once again, it was slightly when I FIRST got to Richmond. I loved it.

I don't even know where to begin. First of all, VCU bought everything. Everything. Businesses, real estate. The gentrification the entire city besides the projects. The city is only for out of town plants and VCU students. The people who work for the City of Richmond cant even afford to live in it...and it's not a big city at all. VCU has completely gentrified The Harlem of the South...and I attended VCU!

It used to be thriving with black people but now everyone is trying to leave. Rent is skyrocketing and the city is dull with zero entertainment. It was built for students and it pushed everyone out.

Unless you know a lot of folks, it's very little room for opportunities and growth here.

Where do you live in Rich? I lived at St James and Jackson in The Harlem Of The South...

Black Richmond has shrunk as VCU has transformed the city but Black Richmonders have always had a predilection for moving out to the burbs (Henrico, Chesterfield, Tri-Cities). The growth of VCU has just intensified it...

Yes, formerly majority black areas have been transformed, but the foundation is still there. The Richmond pre-2010s/pre-2008 was one of the most dangerous cities in the history of the US in terms of violence, with staggering rates of black poverty. Places like The Ward and Church Hill were upwards of 90% black when I was growing up in the 00s but were no-gos, they were dilapidated war zones...

Church Hill is still ~57% black today, The Ward is still ~51% black. Yes, they are highly gentrified from what they were but these two neighborhoods specifically, I remember what they looked like 20 years ago. Fewer black people live there but this isn't San Francisco, the black history isn't lost and black people still live in these areas, the foundations of blackness are still there and black people are still represented at the civic level...

Richmond was losing population and plagued by All-Time levels of violence from 1970 thru the recession, city didn't even start gaining population again until the '10s. City was once nearly 60% black but those black residents that have left were mostly in the worst areas of the city, that are no longer the worst...

Richmond still has areas like this particularly on the Southside, and I'm not I'm favor of pushing black people out, but I also know Richmonders have always moved back and forth from the city to the burbs...

Unless I'm wrong, while there are more whites in certain neighborhoods today, I can't think of anywhere that has lost its black foundation...

And I think Rich has outstanding nightlife and entertainment. I do agree that Rich is less mobile for black people than other places, it isn't easy to advance here, but it's as thriving as its been in a long time for black people. And all the students you mentioned are confined to a small square mileage Uptown and Downtown, they don't experience the rest of the city so I don't agree that they've ruined it, or that VCU has ruined it, VCU has gentrified a core that was dying 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago...

I do appreciate your perspective but if you didn't get here until 2011-13 you came in the early stages or rebirth, you're not gonna have the remembrance of what Downtown Richmond looked like in 2005, let alone years prior...

 

[BigMan]

subscribed for later

used to live in NoVA for a hot second and i often visit VA beach

 

[BigMan]

this might be outdated from the "Virginia is for lovers" era
but back in the day the old ppl in my family use to always mention how VA had so many light skin people cause the biracial thing started there early
Of course Thomas Jefferson set the standard for that and his b*stard kids had all kinds of offspring that passed too, but I knew a very light old man as a young child that was from them VA mountains and he pretty much was telling us that a thing in VA
Is this something VA is actually known for or am I way off here?

VA does have a lot of light skin people. There's a long and interesting history of that.

ppl who know know

 

[TDA92]

Where do you live in Rich? I lived at St James and Jackson in The Harlem Of The South...

Black Richmond has shrunk as VCU has transformed the city but Black Richmonders have always had a predilection for moving out to the burbs (Henrico, Chesterfield, Tri-Cities). The growth of VCU has just intensified it...

Yes, formerly majority black areas have been transformed, but the foundation is still there. The Richmond pre-2010s/pre-2008 was one of the most dangerous cities in the history of the US in terms of violence, with staggering rates of black poverty. Places like The Ward and Church Hill were upwards of 90% black when I was growing up in the 00s but were no-gos, they were dilapidated war zones...

Church Hill is still ~57% black today, The Ward is still ~51% black. Yes, they are highly gentrified from what they were but these two neighborhoods specifically, I remember what they looked like 20 years ago. Fewer black people live there but this isn't San Francisco, the black history isn't lost and black people still live in these areas, the foundations of blackness are still there and black people are still represented at the civic level...

Richmond was losing population and plagued by All-Time levels of violence from 1970 thru the recession, city didn't even start gaining population again until the '10s. City was once nearly 60% black but those black residents that have left were mostly in the worst areas of the city, that are no longer the worst...

Richmond still has areas like this particularly on the Southside, and I'm not I'm favor of pushing black people out, but I also know Richmonders have always moved back and forth from the city to the burbs...

Unless I'm wrong, while there are more whites in certain neighborhoods today, I can't think of anywhere that has lost its black foundation...

And I think Rich has outstanding nightlife and entertainment. I do agree that Rich is less mobile for black people than other places, it isn't easy to advance here, but it's as thriving as its been in a long time for black people. And all the students you mentioned are confined to a small square mileage Uptown and Downtown, they don't experience the rest of the city so I don't agree that they've ruined it, or that VCU has ruined it, VCU has gentrified a core that was dying 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago...

I do appreciate your perspective but if you didn't get here until 2011-13 you came in the early stages or rebirth, you're not gonna have the remembrance of what Downtown Richmond looked like in 2005, let alone years prior...

I was around when the nightlife was amazing. There was so much to do down in Shockoe and the fan. Have A Nice Day Cafe (closed) Mansion (closed) The Pilazzio or Vanquish Nightclub (closed). Fishbowl (closed and turned into a bar). Kingdom Nightclub (closed down on 2014 I believe due to vioence)violence. And that was just 7 years ago, I already know it was lit way before that too.


Crime was worse back then, but now it's starting to get back to that. There's not even a Creighton Court anymore. There's black people all over Richmond but it's concentrated in high crime, high poverty areas. The city is pushing black people to the projects, not Short Pump or Chesterfield. I lived all over Richmond. From Mosby to Henrico Arms to WCary St to Lincoln Mews back to Cool Ln and now Chamberlayne.

 

[murksiderock]

this might be outdated from the "Virginia is for lovers" era
but back in the day the old ppl in my family use to always mention how VA had so many light skin people cause the biracial thing started there early
Of course Thomas Jefferson set the standard for that and his b*stard kids had all kinds of offspring that passed too, but I knew a very light old man as a young child that was from them VA mountains and he pretty much was telling us that a thing in VA
Is this something VA is actually known for or am I way off here?

No bruh, there are entire families of lightskinned blacks and no one bats an eye. It's really different from the rest of the US...

Sonya Curry is from VA with a black mother and father, no one considers her "mixed", though everybody knows Virginia's long history of racial miscegenation. There are thousands of her in VA who would be fawned over as "mixed" around the US but in VA they black like those of us who are darker...

Chris Brown's mother is black the same way, so is he himself, people don't view them differently...

VA was different, for one, of course I'd seen lightskinned blacks before but o don't think I ever saw entire families of light brights like that, meaning mom, dad, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, everyone. But i didn't even notice this until I left VA after high school, because in VA skin tone was rarely brought up. We knew they were black like us...

I think my experience as an adolescent in VA is why I detest the phrases "mixed" or "biracial people not black" so much. Everybody black in the US is "mixed" with white ancestry to various degrees, unless you are a recent immigrant or child of recent immigrants. It has never diminished your blackness. I never knew a "biracial" person in Virginia who didn't claim themselves as black, never saw that until I left Virginia, and this doesn't mean VA biracial don't do this at all, but it's more rare here than anywhere else...

There's just a different pride in blackness I witnesses in VA!

 

[UberEatsDriver]

The dmv region super clean

Most of these places are not in the DMV

 

[UberEatsDriver]

Ok what makes Virginia so good for black people? Northern VA which seems to be the economic powerhouse of VA seems to be mostly cacs and Indians. I actually thought of moving to Tyson Corner to work at KPMG a few years back and didn’t see much Brehs out there.

Any list of middle class black upper class communities and what is the main power position of black folks? (Federal government?)

 

[1thouwow]

I recommend the whole 757. Specifically VA Beach.

 

[murksiderock]

I was around when the nightlife was amazing. There was so much to do down in Shockoe and the fan. Have A Nice Day Cafe (closed) Mansion (closed) The Pilazzio or Vanquish Nightclub (closed). Fishbowl (closed and turned into a bar). Kingdom Nightclub (closed down on 2014 I believe due to vioence)violence. And that was just 7 years ago, I already know it was lit way before that too.


Crime was worse back then, but now it's starting to get back to that. There's not even a Creighton Court anymore. There's black people all over Richmond but it's concentrated in high crime, high poverty areas. The city is pushing black people to the projects, not Short Pump or Chesterfield. I lived all over Richmond. From Mosby to Henrico Arms to WCary St to Lincoln Mews back to Cool Ln and now Chamberlayne.

Is that chicken spot still at the gas station on Chamberlayne behind the McNasty's? I can't remember the name but that chicken spot was fukking A1...

 

[1thouwow]

Ok what makes Virginia so good for black people? Northern VA which seems to be the economic powerhouse of VA seems to be mostly cacs and Indians. I actually thought of moving to Tyson Corner to work at KPMG a few years back and didn’t see much Brehs out there.

Any list of middle class black upper class communities and what is the main power position of black folks? (Federal government?)

Military, govt, city, and contracting jobs. I see black ppl eating on all levels at those jobs.