The view from Church Hill - the neighborhood that I stayed in while visiting Richmond.
Now that it is 2024, the search for a new home is really picking up. I determined in episode three that I would make in-person visits to the few cities that have made the final cut: Raleigh/Durham, Wilmington, and Richmond. (Visit to Charleston deemed unnecessary due to visiting there many times over the years while living in Asheville.)
Due to some scheduling changes, I was able to start the year with a two week trip to Richmond on January 1st. This blog post will be a recap of my time there and what I did to determine living compatibility.
Monday, January 1st
Drove down from D.C. after hanging out with my awesome little nephew, and settled into my Airbnb in Church Hill. A historic and walkable neighborhood that would be a great place to settle down. Lots of Christmas lights still up, and many people out walking their dogs. The research I did on Richmond neighborhoods said it was a good spot (part of the reason I booked my Airbnb there), and that information was quickly confirmed.
Tuesday, January 2nd
On days that I work, I finish at 5pm and that's when I can get out and explore the city. For my first full day in Richmond, I took it easy by booking a class at my preferred gym after work. There I talked with the staff about living in Richmond and received some recommendations for things to see while in the area. After class, I drove around the city, specifically by the apartments that I had booked tours with for Thursday so I could see what they looked like at night. Richmond is definitely a beautiful city at night, especially the neighborhoods around VCU and any view of the city while driving over the many bridges of the James River.
Wednesday, January 3rd
Before arriving in Richmond, I looked up run clubs in the area, and found one that met at a brewery near my Airbnb. I reached out to them on Facebook to let them know I'd be joining them from out of town, and Wednesday evening they gave me a 5-mile tour of the city! With it being a cold night, there were only two guys running that night who are very serious about running. Even though I slowed them down a little bit, I thankfully can still knock out a 5-mile run in 50 minutes. We ran along the canals and over many of the bridges over the James. It was this night that confirmed to me that Richmond is a cool city. We passed so many other running groups as well. At first I thought it might be a lot of people exercising for their new year's resolutions, but the amount of people that had the full nighttime running gear definitely demonstrated that Richmond is a city of people who are serious about exercising.
Thursday, January 4th
I took the day off and booked many apartment tours, specifically looking at places in Shockoe Bottom and downtown that are walkable and in the center of activity. My main takeaway from these apartment tours was that while being in a walkable area is nice, I definitely wouldn't want to be in a place with poor parking options. Therefore, a quieter suburban neighborhood like Church Hill would be more appropriate for me. At my Airbnb in Church Hill, I only had a few destinations to walk to, but I would prefer that with good parking over a place that is in the middle of everything but parking is a nightmare. Also worth noting: this is when I discovered how much tobacco is part of the culture of Richmond due to the smell of smoke in almost every apartment building I looked at.
Friday, January 5th
I took it easy on Friday. After work, I had another gym class, and then I spent the night looking into other neighborhoods online and planning the upcoming week.
Saturday, January 6th
Saturday was all about exploring the Church Hill neighborhood with a local guide. Special thanks to Sarah and John Greene for connecting me with their friend Emily who was a great source of information about what it is like to live in the area. We grabbed breakfast at a market in the neighborhood, and then walked around various parks where I learned all about Richmond history, the culture, and what it is like to live there. The dominant culture that I gathered from Richmond was "old industry renovated by hipsters" - for any of my Asheville friends, think of the vibe of West Asheville combined with neighborhoods that used to be trainyards or carriage manufacturers. One of the parks we looked at was essentially a tomb after a train tunnel collapsed on a train car of people and was sealed off.
Sunday, January 7th
On Sunday, I checked out a church that I wrote about in my last blog post. Spoke to quite a few people there about exploring the area and gathered more information about neighborhoods that I was planning to look at on Wednesday. I spent time driving around the Glen Allen area to see what it would be like if I ended up in an even more suburban neighborhood. Made sure to get back to the Airbnb to watch football.
Monday, January 8th
Mondays are typically the busiest day of work for me, and I didn't plan much to start the week off other than a gym class after work. Finished booking my apartment tours for Wednesday, and stayed in the neighborhood for the night.
Tuesday, January 9th
A heavy rainstorm came through which was pretty cool. Cancelled my plans to walk around Belle Isle, and was reminded of the other side of the double-edged sword of living in a historic neighborhood with old homes when two of the windows in the Airbnb started leaking.
Wednesday, January 10th
I took off work so I'd be able to do the final tours of apartments. I focused on neighborhoods surrounding the city. Again I witnessed examples of smoking being allowed in pretty much every apartment building I looked at. Even one tour I went on the staff there told me that they have a no-smoking policy but it is pretty impossible to enforce it due to the amount of people who smoke. Sort of similar to the consistent smell of weed in downtown Asheville during my years there, even though marijuana wasn't fully legal in NC. After I finished the apartment tours, I felt I explored Richmond enough to form a well-informed opinion on what it would be like to live there.
Wednesday evening, I met up with my brother's coworker at a wine bar and had a great recap and discussion of everything I had experienced in Richmond. Explained my experience and current opinion of Richmond: It is a really cool city, but I wasn't impressed with the apartment options and hope I like the living situation better in one of my other finalist cities.
Thursday, January 11th
Being content with my information-gathering on Richmond, I felt like I could enjoy the last couple of days as a tourist. After work, I checked out the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which was one of the most impressive museums I've been to in my life. It was endless hallways of art from many different cultures all over history. I'd definitely recommend visiting if you ever go to Richmond.
Friday, January 12th
My last full day in Richmond. After work I went to a gym class, did laundry and cleaned the Airbnb to preserve my 100% 5-star Airbnb rating. Walked a few blocks to grab the best burger I've ever had from Cobra Burger. Absolutely perfect.
Saturday, January 13th
Was on my way to Asheville by 8am - thanks for the memories, Richmond!
That's the full recap! I had a great time and am loving traveling to these cities to check them out before making the final decision. I'd definitely go to Richmond again during a warmer month when more events are going on along the river, but at this time I am hoping that I like Raleigh/Durham or Wilmington more.
Charleston Update: I've had my Zillow app notifying me of any apartments in my price range, and I don't get a lot of updates. At this point I'm pretty married to the idea of having my own place without a roommate, and unless I want to be 45 minutes from the beach (which is the main reason to go there), Charleston probably isn't going to happen.
As always, thanks for reading!
Jeremy