Handshaking with Blacksburg

Handshake 2.0 covers some of Blacksburg’s latest rankings, and does a good job recapping them.

Blacksburg sunsets

Blacksburg sunsets

Beyond lists though, why do you love Blacksburg and the New River Valley?  I’ve talked with one individual who has quite a list, and maybe she’ll contribute.  What do you like about our area?  I’ll start:

  • I love coming back to the area and seeing the mountains.  The variation of color and topography can be breathtaking.
  • Game day!
  • I’ve never seen more vibrant sunsets – anywhere in the world – than in the New River Valley.
  • There’s an energy in the Blacksburg community, particularly from August to May.

How about you?  What do you love about our area?

18 thoughts on “Handshaking with Blacksburg

  1. Jeremy Hart

    Thanks for clearing that up, Julianne, I was going to ask you about that. I’ve heard the comparison to NY before, as well, but had no reference point – just hearsay.

    Blacksburg and NRV FTW!

  2. Jeremy Hart

    Thanks for clearing that up, Julianne, I was going to ask you about that. I’ve heard the comparison to NY before, as well, but had no reference point – just hearsay.

    Blacksburg and NRV FTW!

  3. JD

    Very interesting. I definitely find no problem with tap water in Blacksburg. It’s not as good as the old spring on the hill behind my folks’ place in W.Va., but I drink it unfiltered and love it!

  4. JD

    Very interesting. I definitely find no problem with tap water in Blacksburg. It’s not as good as the old spring on the hill behind my folks’ place in W.Va., but I drink it unfiltered and love it!

  5. Julianne Grau

    Hey JD,

    That one was straight from my microbiology teacher. The New River is the 2nd cleanest water source in the US next to a source in up state NY who pipes water to a lot of cities up there including NYC. As far as I have tasted in all my travels it sounds right to me!

  6. Julianne Grau

    Hey JD,

    That one was straight from my microbiology teacher. The New River is the 2nd cleanest water source in the US next to a source in up state NY who pipes water to a lot of cities up there including NYC. As far as I have tasted in all my travels it sounds right to me!

  7. JD

    I was pleasantly surprised to find out the info about being the highest per capita place in the world for Internet usage, which I found vouched for in a couple of sources.

    However, I’m wondering if you can provide a link to something verifying the second-cleanest drinking water in the U.S.? I can’t find anything to support that claim. I found mostly that a lot of larger cities are listed as having the cleanest tap water, but maybe you know of a study that looked at smaller towns in comparison to the large cities and the studies I’m finding only looked at large cities. Unfortunately, most of these cutesy Internet lists don’t provide a lot about the validity of the study and/or how it was actually conducted. Salt Lake City, Boston, Columbia, Buffalo, Las Vegas and such are all showing up when I try finding info about this.

    I really do love the NRV. I grew up in West Virginia, so this is like home to me only with better services and more open-minded people. Unfortunately, the job market here stinks! Well, I realize it’s not great anywhere right now, but I would absolutely love to stay in such a great place as Blacksburg or at least Roanoke… can barely find one or two job openings though, mostly at VT, and my contact in HR there tells me hundreds of people are applying for the two or three job openings they’ve had in my field. Here’s to hoping things start looking up! Otherwise, looks as though I’ll be going elsewhere until I can come retire and become a townie… which now that I finished grad school, I guess I officially am anyway.

  8. JD

    I was pleasantly surprised to find out the info about being the highest per capita place in the world for Internet usage, which I found vouched for in a couple of sources.

    However, I’m wondering if you can provide a link to something verifying the second-cleanest drinking water in the U.S.? I can’t find anything to support that claim. I found mostly that a lot of larger cities are listed as having the cleanest tap water, but maybe you know of a study that looked at smaller towns in comparison to the large cities and the studies I’m finding only looked at large cities. Unfortunately, most of these cutesy Internet lists don’t provide a lot about the validity of the study and/or how it was actually conducted. Salt Lake City, Boston, Columbia, Buffalo, Las Vegas and such are all showing up when I try finding info about this.

    I really do love the NRV. I grew up in West Virginia, so this is like home to me only with better services and more open-minded people. Unfortunately, the job market here stinks! Well, I realize it’s not great anywhere right now, but I would absolutely love to stay in such a great place as Blacksburg or at least Roanoke… can barely find one or two job openings though, mostly at VT, and my contact in HR there tells me hundreds of people are applying for the two or three job openings they’ve had in my field. Here’s to hoping things start looking up! Otherwise, looks as though I’ll be going elsewhere until I can come retire and become a townie… which now that I finished grad school, I guess I officially am anyway.

  9. Sean Sharp

    All of the above, plus:

    1. http://www.ucarshare.com is coming to town
    2. Bollos
    3. Easy Chair Coffee and Tea
    4. Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea
    5. Gillies
    6. The Lyric
    7. Great parks for kids and families
    8. Free Wi-Fi on the bus
    9. Great parades on the 4th of July and at Christmas
    10. The Draper Mile

  10. Sean Sharp

    All of the above, plus:

    1. http://www.ucarshare.com is coming to town
    2. Bollos
    3. Easy Chair Coffee and Tea
    4. Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea
    5. Gillies
    6. The Lyric
    7. Great parks for kids and families
    8. Free Wi-Fi on the bus
    9. Great parades on the 4th of July and at Christmas
    10. The Draper Mile

  11. Julianne Grau

    Just to name a few…. 😉

    1. The cost of living is very low
    2. It won’t ever take you more than 15 minutes to get to work (and that’s with traffic!)
    3. Strangers say hello to you when you are walking down the street
    4. People hold doors for you
    5. Amazing sense of community
    6. Blacksburg Farmers Market twice a week with fresh produce
    7. Downtown Merchants of Blacksburg
    8. The waitresses call you darling
    9. Free parking on Sundays
    10. Great School System
    11. No aggressive drivers
    12. All the bars are within walking distance of each other so it’s easy to meet up with friends
    13. Virginia Tech offers an array of activities to the community including athletics
    14. Summer weather is perfect. Between 75 and 85 every day
    15. Named #43 on CNNMoney’s best places to live and launch
    16. Gorgeous flowers line the streets in the spring and summer
    17. Stepping out street fair where regional artists come to sell their stuff
    18. International food festival
    19. Lots of vineyards nearby means lots of wine festivals
    20. BrewRidge Beer and Music Festival
    21. Lots of lakes where you can rent boats and jet skis
    22. Minutes away from Mountain Lake, where Dirty Dancing was filmed
    23. Lots of huge artists come perform right on the VT campus for around $10
    24. Lots of places to camp and explore outside
    25. The cascades waterfalls are minutes away
    26. 2nd cleanest tap water in the country
    27. Beautiful Mountains with amazing overlooks and sunsets
    28. Safe and cheap (or free) bus system all over because of VT
    29. Named #31 on Forbes Best Small Places for Business and Careers
    30. Top 10 “best places to retire young” by CNNMoney
    31. #8 best place to live by Men’s Journal
    32. The highest per capita use of the Internet in the world with more than 87% of Blacksburg residents online
    33. First town in the world to adopt an all-Internet model for a community-wide network
    34. Highest business use of the Internet of any community in the world.
    35. One quarter gets you an hour in a parking meter
    36. The “max charge” at the parking garage downtown is $3

  12. Julianne Grau

    Just to name a few…. 😉

    1. The cost of living is very low
    2. It won’t ever take you more than 15 minutes to get to work (and that’s with traffic!)
    3. Strangers say hello to you when you are walking down the street
    4. People hold doors for you
    5. Amazing sense of community
    6. Blacksburg Farmers Market twice a week with fresh produce
    7. Downtown Merchants of Blacksburg
    8. The waitresses call you darling
    9. Free parking on Sundays
    10. Great School System
    11. No aggressive drivers
    12. All the bars are within walking distance of each other so it’s easy to meet up with friends
    13. Virginia Tech offers an array of activities to the community including athletics
    14. Summer weather is perfect. Between 75 and 85 every day
    15. Named #43 on CNNMoney’s best places to live and launch
    16. Gorgeous flowers line the streets in the spring and summer
    17. Stepping out street fair where regional artists come to sell their stuff
    18. International food festival
    19. Lots of vineyards nearby means lots of wine festivals
    20. BrewRidge Beer and Music Festival
    21. Lots of lakes where you can rent boats and jet skis
    22. Minutes away from Mountain Lake, where Dirty Dancing was filmed
    23. Lots of huge artists come perform right on the VT campus for around $10
    24. Lots of places to camp and explore outside
    25. The cascades waterfalls are minutes away
    26. 2nd cleanest tap water in the country
    27. Beautiful Mountains with amazing overlooks and sunsets
    28. Safe and cheap (or free) bus system all over because of VT
    29. Named #31 on Forbes Best Small Places for Business and Careers
    30. Top 10 “best places to retire young” by CNNMoney
    31. #8 best place to live by Men’s Journal
    32. The highest per capita use of the Internet in the world with more than 87% of Blacksburg residents online
    33. First town in the world to adopt an all-Internet model for a community-wide network
    34. Highest business use of the Internet of any community in the world.
    35. One quarter gets you an hour in a parking meter
    36. The “max charge” at the parking garage downtown is $3

  13. behindtherabbit

    @Jeremy ah, but the hill is what makes it so great. 😉 I love the feeling of crossing the steel footbridge and entering another world. even if it is far too short a stretch.

  14. Jeremy Post author

    Only problem I see with that stretch, @behindtherabbit, is that it’s UPHILL at the end of the run! Or, for superheroes like yourself, probably right at the middle of the run. But you’re right – it IS nice to go through there … nice temperature differential.

  15. Jeremy

    Only problem I see with that stretch, @behindtherabbit, is that it’s UPHILL at the end of the run! Or, for superheroes like yourself, probably right at the middle of the run. But you’re right – it IS nice to go through there … nice temperature differential.

  16. behindtherabbit

    @Anne I know well, and love that short stretch of the Huckleberry.

    Blacksburg is fantastic because it is a small town with a huge backyard. The trails at Pandapas Pond, the AT and spur trails, Mountain Lake, White Rocks, McAfee’s Knob, Tinkers Cliffs, Dragons Tooth, the New River, the New River Trail, Mt. Rogers, West Virginia – all (and more) within an easy drive. camping, hiking, trail running, canoeing, kayaking, climbing, caving…

    you shouldn’t need to be a pro to have fun in the outdoors. Blacksburg’s backyard is fun, diverse, and accessible, and that makes it my favorite place to live. especially between May and August. =)

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