Are small towns like this the LAST places in the country that are affordable and safe?
The first tiny town I that randomly came up is here, Little Emporia, Virginia. Population 5,442. I didn’t know anything about the place, and as I found out, I think I picked the WRONG place to start this experiment of mine. But I learned a lot along the way, and I think you will too.
But no matter what small town you pick, there’s gonna be some good things in all of them. I mean you’re not gonna see homeless people, tents, needles on the ground, poop on the sidewalks, woke people all over town or graffiti all over the place. You also won’t hear a lot of gunshots. For the most part.
Emporia Virginia’s not gonna wow you. It’s certainly not fancy. It’s right along I-95, so it’s the kind of place where people stop while they’re passing through. You’ll see license plates from all over the east coast. I also hear they make a lot of money pulling people over for speeding, which is evident by the numerous traffic cams in and near downtown.
As you might expect, there’s not a lot here. I think they have three schools in town. There’s a grocery store that sells mostly meat. A few mom and pops, some restaurants, a few parks. They have a Walmart here. And a bunch of Dollar Stores. I counted four of them within a few blocks of downtown.
If you don’t live in a rural area, let me just say - in small towns like this, dollar stores have become the lifeblood of these communities. And that’s sad because like Walmart, they tend to run the mom and pops out of business. They’re kind of under the radar small business snipers. The Dollar Generals are VERY popular in rural America. They’re kind of a combination of Walmart, a travel center and a yard sale. Look at all that cheap Chinese made stuff, people.
Emporia has some awful friendly folks. We’ll meet some of them soon. Many work in one of this city’s fine restaurants. This is Logans Diner - it’s a popular eatery right in the heart of downtown. It’s a simple place, Logans is - the kind of place where you come to hear small town gossip and gobble up cheap, home made food. Look at those prices, everyone!
On the low end, you could get a home in a neighborhood like this for about $20-$25,000 (say I have an email with a screengrab of how cheap the houses are. ). Now MOST of us aren’t used to reverse sticker shock like that. Heck, many of us spent more than that on our cars. Some neighborhoods in Emporia are 10 times cheaper than where you live.
But it’s cheap for a reason - it always is. Emporia doesn’t have a lot going on to draw in younger families, and there are practically zero white collar jobs in town. For SOME kind of work, you’d have to commute 20 minutes to Roanoke Rapids North Carolina, or more likely, 40 minutes into Petersburg, Virginia, which is a city that’s…not very nice. Richmond is an hour away. That’s a big city.
There have been studies that show that commuting longer distances is actually good for your health. Commutes create structure and purpose in our lives.
Anyways, another reason it’s so cheap here - people just can’t AFFORD a regular cost of living. A quarter of residents here live in poverty, which is one of the highest rates of poverty in the state. That means YOU, big earner, would live like a king if you made this your home.
It’s pretty dangerous here in Emporia, too. Last year there were two murders here, which means, statistically you’d have a 1 in 2,721 chance of being killed yourself. But it’s likely gonna be robberies and assaults that would ruin your day. Of all cities in Virginia, Emporia ranks 11th highest for crime.
#virginia #moving
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