My Review of Charleston, West Virginia

Just after Raleigh, I spent a bit of time in DC to watch Nicky and Brian's cats, catch up with friends, and catch up on my blog (which I completely failed to do, despite having a lot of time and few obligations).

But my next real stop on my journey was Charleston, West Virginia, which was one of the original eight cities I picked out ahead of time to test drive as a possible new home.  You may be wondering why Charleston was on the list in the first place.  It's because several years ago, I took some quiz on the internet telling me where I should live, and its top result was Charleston, WV.  So I went.

The best thing about Charleston is it's got the cheapest gas in the whole U.S!

Just kidding, it actually has very expensive gas.  $3.49 in Charleston on the same day it was $3.19 in Northern Virginia.  This sign is from an out-of-business gas station, a testament to the declining economy of Charleston, which from the sounds of it, has been hit harder than the U.S. overall during the recession.

Since I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression, I probably won't put "susceptibility to recessions" on my list of factors by which I will judge the cities I'm considering.  If I did, Cleveland would probably be right out, but being my home town, Cleveland will definitely be a contender.

I will, however, have "physical beauty" on my list of factors by which I'll judge a city.  And in this category, Charleston earns the dubious distinction of being the most beautiful and the least beautiful city I auditioned this year.  Its natural beauty is stunning.  Charleston is nestled in a valley along the banks of two rivers.  Even in early winter, with no leaves on the trees or snow on the ground, the area surrounding Charleston is very pretty.

Not bad, even in winter, eh?

Sadly, there is a thick patina of man-made ugliness on top of all of the natural beauty.  Downtown, there are  above-ground parking garages on every corner.  All over town, billboards mar the scenery.  I don't know how much Charlestonians recycle or rely on clean energy, but I didn't see obvious signs of either, such as recycling bins next to public garbage cans.  And on my driving tours of the greater city area, I saw a lot more run down neighborhoods than I've seen elsewhere.  Every city has some poor parts or bad parts, but there seemed to be a lot more in Charleston than other towns I visited.

An example of ... the entire town.

Among the things I liked about Charleston were its size, the ease with which I could get around (including a very easy drive to and from the airport), and the willingness of the locals to talk to me about the city.  Charleston has a few unique places to shop and eat, like the Capitol Market and The Seoul of Charleston, which serves Korean and soul food.  They go surprisingly well together!

Fancy foods sold here!

The food is good and the price is right.

I also liked this feature of many 3-way intersections in town, which I've never seen before:  When a traffic light is at a T-shaped intersection, the right-hand lane of the straightaway traffic opposite the side street always has a green light.  Maybe this exists elsewhere, but I've never seen it.  It really keeps traffic flowing smoothly, because one of the three directions of traffic is moving at all times:

See the green arrow above the right hand land, which is separated from the rest of the intersection by the white posts?  Very efficient.

Of course, I'm not going to move to a city because of a unique and efficient traffic pattern, so while I found this noteworthy, it didn't sell me on the city.

Another thing that did not sell me on the city was how close a massive amount of industry was to downtown.  On my driving tour, I went to check out a golf course, and not 1/4 mile down the road was the start of a mile-long industrial park, spewing all sorts of crap into the air.  :(  Not how I'd want to spend a day on the course or jogging along the river.  (I'm under the impression that West Virginia generally isn't super concerned with treating the environment all that great, e.g., by strip-mining and stuff like that.  I'm also under the impression that the mining industry has really shrunk over the years, adding to WV's economic woes, but hopefully improving its physical environment.)

That smoke is heading straight to the park & golf course next door.

Charleston is also the only town I visited that failed my sushi test!  If you're wondering what the sushi test is, I basically wanted to confirm in each town that it had at least one sushi restaurant with fish I'd like to eat.  I was unable to test this in a couple of places (Des Moines & Asheville) but I made sure to eat other meals at seafood places, so I could gauge whether the city at least had good fish.  And everyplace either had good sushi or good fish.

Charleston on the other hand ... Well, first of all, the sushi bar was out of my two favorite pieces, and its overall selection was pretty small.  I ordered a spicy tuna roll, which is on every sushi menu and which can vary widely.  And it was really untasty.  :(  I couldn't even finish it, it was spiced so bizarrely.  The final blow was getting cold nigiri, as if the fish had just come out of the freezer.  As with a number of other factors, I doubt that the quality of Charleston's sushi would make or break my decision to move there.  But it sure didn't boost my opinion of the city.  (Nor did my observation that there are far more chain restaurants than local restaurants.  In fact, twice I asked people for restaurant recommendations, saying I wanted "something local" and they'd recommend something like the Cracker Barrel that was only two blocks away.  When I'd clarify that I meant "something only Charleston can offer," they'd scratch their heads.  Sigh...

Back to something I liked:  I liked downtown.  Although there's not a lot of housing downtown, there is some.  And aside from the parking garages (which, sadly, are everywhere), the downtown is fairly attractive.

Around town, I ran my usual errands that I save for my auditions cities (things like changing my car's oil, beauty treatments, shopping for necessities) because it allows me to interact with people.  Everyone I met while doing chores seemed pretty pleasant.  But I also... I'm not sure how to phrase this... picked up a weird vibe from the population generally that indicated they just don't care.  About their surroundings, about being polite to strangers, I dunno.  Maybe as if, a lot of the residents of the city were born in a barn and don't know how to act when they move to the big city.

I wound up talking at some length to four women (in three different groups).  All four were very nice, but while two of them liked Charleston a lot, and urged me to move there, two others -- Donna and Mary -- hated it and could think of no reason to recommend it.  The two who hated it grew up, moved away for several years, and moved back because of family obligations.  And have regretted moving back ever since.  They went on and on about how the area was plagued by drugs, low wages, gossiping neighbors, government corruption, lazy cops, ignorant people, etc. etc.  The conversation sure made me laugh, but didn't paint Charleston as a great place to move to.

Birthplace of Booker T. Washington.  In the background are Donna & Mary, who knew I was from out of town by the number of photos they watched me take.

Well, I hope I'm not forgetting any key pieces of information about Charleston.  I can say that Charleston is no longer on the list of cities I will consider moving to.  Even without the two thumbs down from Donna and Mary, I don't think it would make my short list, due to all of the things I didn't like about it, listed above.  I'm a little sad I didn't like the city all that much, but every time I can cross a city off my list of possibilities, the easier the next part of my analysis will be.