What’s not to love about Richmond?
Actually, I’m going to get the ‘not to love’ out of the way early. There are really only 2 negatives that we’ve discovered thus far: what I heard one local refer to as “The Pollening”
and the “sultry /very humid” summers. If you are from Austin, you are very familiar having every outdoor surface coated with a thick dust of pollen each spring. And to that I say, “Girl, you ain’t seen pollen yet!” The hellscape of yellow over the last week-ish has
been so thick at times that it thickens the air, and after a heavy rain the roadsides look like the yellow brick road of Dorothy’s dream. After looking it up for 2024, Richmond is the 8th worst city for allergies in the country. I’ve been assured that this is only for 4-8 weeks in the spring and only a few weeks in the fall. So, it’s fairly easy to call it a luxury tax (especially if Jim can count on me losing my voice for a bit once a year). As for the steamy summers, it’s been really easy for us to write that off given our many years in tropical HTown and the crippling heat of the recent extended Austin summers. In the last 5 years, Richmond high temp only clocked 89 degrees in July, and it still gets down to the upper 60s/low 70s at night. So, this is a complete non-issue for our household.
Ok, on with the enchantment. Richmond is setting the bar high for future cities and I’m grateful that it’s given us a good baseline. The city is situated on the James River which features class 4 rapids, is approximately 1/3 mile wide and has ~100 miles of trails in
and around Richmond….yes….I said 100. Whether you are a mountain biker, hiker, lazy walker, canoer, tuber or adventurous kayaker, you have something right outside your door. We’ve visited 3 key areas of downtown and all are ridiculously walkable and honestly made me redefine what that means to me. Whether it’s multiple vet or doctor options, great cheap food or fancy fare, yoga or bootcamps, pharmacy or groceries, these folks LIVE in their communities supporting local small businesses.
As for affordability, we were shocked by this too. Firstly, the city thinks community first in a way that is demonstrated through action. The buses are free, full meals for 2 including a beer each from $27-60. Many of their festivals are flipping FREE people!
I’m talking their 6 stage, 3 day Folk festival and many, many other events. The groceries are demonstrably cheaper, although I wish I had tracked this more closely. Property taxes are half and state/local taxes average 5.75%. Finally, the same $1M+
condo in downtown Austin is between $350 and $500k, with one 1200sqft one running for $400 that had panoramic views of the river. Whoosh…that is a bfd over time!
Finally, art and politics. Even though their governor is a whack job Trumper, I feel really confident that he’s out in his next race. Kamala won by almost 6 pts, the 2 senators are 2 of my personal faves and the state is ‘light blue’ overall, with Richmond and most of the cities being very progressive. AND…being right outside DC, the city is watching DOGE shenanigans closely. The art scene is errywhere! The street art is STUNNING! We also hit the Civil War Museum (built around original forge used by the North) and got to see a fantastic Frida Kahlo exhibit. So yeah – we loved it.
Next week, stay tuned for our “it ain’t always rainbows, unicorns and cake sprinkles” edition. 😉
