11-11-2008, 05:41 PM
.RJ Wrote:The company I work for is based out of Blacksburg - so the past 2 years I've spent a lot more time down there than in Harrisonburg.
Its a pretty big difference between the two places - in Blacksburg, VT seems like its part of the town, rather than some contentious relationship that always seemed to be the case between JMU and Hbg. Everyone in Blacksburg seems a bit more friendly and certainly more welcoming. I cant speak for the 'shit getting torn up on weekends' factor but as a whole the town seems pretty clean. There also isnt the 'crawling with cops' vibe on the weekends.
Just an observation.
Along the same lines, I've been down here at Clemson for about 5 or so months and I've noticed the same exact thing. Down here the school is literally "part" of the town (albeit the city of Clemson is smaller than Harrisonburg). Shops, restaurants, etc down here embrace the college, and its almost a night and day difference from how Hburg is with JMU. The schools are almost the exact same size, and it's pretty much the same as what RJ describes above.
It always baffled me why JMU has never integrated itself into the city of harrisonburg as a lot of other universities have into their respective college towns.
2008 Mazda 3