Thats it...F#ck Harrisonburg

[Goodspeed]

I haven't had a good rant in a long while, so here goes....

To hell with this town, and somewhat, with JMU itself. This place has gone right down the shitter in the last year.

This is the second year I have lived in an apartment (Squire Hills). Last year, I really couldn't complain much. College living being what it is, it wasn't perfect, but rent was fair, people were nice, and it was a safe community.

This year, our community has fallen into disrepair. Our AC system went out, part of our ceiling fell down, and on top of this, what was generally decrepit since the 1974 inception of our apartment has remained the same and...rent has increased. This whole community, and many others in the area, have just turned into cash cows with little/no and even negative improvement paralleled with increasing rent.

My car...last semester, someone slashed my rear tire. After those were replaced, someone poured koolaid all over it. I have since installed an alarm, which went off last night leading me to discover someone possibly fleeing and a nice fat cigarette burn on the cover I now have on it. Luckily it didn't burn through. My roommates have experienced similar incidents all the way to two hit and runs and one totalled vehicle from a drunk driver in our parking lot.

JMU keeps accepting ghetto-ass shady people in increasing numbers. I mean, where do these people come from? Granted, a majority of the crime committed here occurs because of local gang activity. Two nights ago someone was shot in the head in Hunter's Ridge literally across from our apartment and is listed in critical condition in a coma at UVA; suspected gang activity. But at the same time, we are getting a "timely warning" email every week it seems of a case of rape, assault & battery, home invasion and robbery involving probable JMU student perpetrators, and those are only the ones that get reported. I read of a JMU student recently who liked to rob convenience stores and finally got caught...wtf?

JMU and its student body has lost virtually all of its charm. Any given day you will encounter classless, tasteless lowlifes and I wonder how in the hell they got in and what they are doing here. They could be degenerates at home and save their parents lots of money. Whereas once you would encounter good-hearted people having a good time on the weekends, now I'll often see the same kind of shady people matching the descriptions in the DNR of wanted criminals.

Bottom line, there are still good people here, and some who remember the glory days, but to the OGs, you wouldn't miss this, and to any prospective students, watch yourself. JMU no longer represents the laid back and friendly times your older siblings and friends told you about. Next year I am moving to a new community on the edge of town with individual garages and a few dozen security cameras, and I hope that in doing so my GTFO meter won't be as pegged in the red as it is now. Only time will tell.

[BLINGMW]

:vomit: kinda sad

[ScottyB]

wow...sucks to hear you're having so much trouble with vandals. i will say this - putting a cover on your car is like putting a bulls-eye on it. if it's covered, people will automatically equate that to "nice" and want to f with it. i understand what you're trying to do, but the only solution as i see it is to park your car far away and ride a shitty bike.

squire hills was going downhill when i was there years ago and represents alot of harrisonburg apartments...when i was in sunchase, the place was only a year or 2 old and felt like it was built from paper mache and toothpicks. many of the doors didnt even fit the frames properly and the floors weren't level. i have not been to any aparments in harrisonburg that i found to be built well or run by people that put anything more than superficial "upgrades" into the buildings just to get naive people in the door.

as for harrisonburg turning for the worse.....it was always kinda hit-or-miss with the local attitude IMO. however, college is college...people are going to act retarded, sometimes in funny ways but sometimes in really bad ways. alot of kids aren't brought up well and when many are let loose into or around a college experience (usually all-expenses-paid) it's more of a vacation/camp then an academic undertaking and the repair bills reflect that.

[Evan]

holy crap.

Yeah it sounds a lot worse than when I was there. There were always the dumbass locals doing stupid shit, but I remember when it was a big deal when there were reports that a townie brought a gun to a party. Now kids are getting shot in the head? What has JMU become, Virginia Tech?

[flintster55]

Speak of the devil another timely warning from 20 min ago!

The Harrisonburg Police Department is investigating a home invasion robbery that occurred this weekend. On Nov. 9, around 1a.m. three male suspects forced their way into an apartment in the 800 block of Port Republic Road. The suspects were wearing dark hooded sweatshirts, ski masks, and gloves. Once inside the residence, one suspect displayed a firearm. Money and other items were stolen from the victims and the suspects fled in an unknown direction. No one was injured during this incident.

Stuff like this makes me really glad I live away from Port Rd. and Devon Lane. The parties are great but really, this stuff is just sad.

[WRXtranceformed]

To be fair, you do live in the ghetto bro. I lived in Hunter's Ridge in the building right next to you and my old WRX was keyed on every quarter panel one night. There are always drunk haters in college, that's just how it is. I've visited my brother and partied with him a couple of times since he's been there and it seems like the same old JMU, it's just getting bigger... and as the school gets bigger you're going to mathematically have the chance to enroll more retards.

I ended up parking my nice car in VA and driving a beater while I was at school. It's nice to not have to worry about your car while you're down there. The other option like you said is to move to a nicer part of town (anyone remember how I used to park my STi at Aaron Graham's parents' house every time I would visit??), but even then your car is gonna be at risk every time you drive it to campus.

I think you're right in being frustrated but it really isn't THAT much different since when I went there. As far as building repairs that's shitty, but I don't blame the landlords... think about how many times their properties get wrecked over and over again by college kids. There's probably only a handful of students who don't trash their college apartments at JMU. Can you imagine being a landlord at Ashby?? hahah

My old landlords at JMU LOVED my roommate and I because we actually kept the place really neat and clean. We did have some parties there but we always took care of the place. They liked us so much that they came in and installed real hardwood flooring in our kitchen and living area for us hahah. There was some shit wrong with our place too but we just asked nicely and they fixed it. Make a big stink about the stuff that is wrong ... the squeaky wheel gets the grease so they say.

[WRXtranceformed]

What has JMU become, Virginia Tech?

Ohhh haha... it's not too soon is it?!? :wink:

[Jake]

Stuff like this makes me really glad I live away from Port Rd. and Devon Lane. The parties are great but really, this stuff is just sad.

Me too. The reason I'm living by myself this year is because my 2 prospective roommates decided to live in Ashby. I said thanks but hell to the no, and got out. I'll be over at Pheasant Run next year, which still has parties but is farther away from the freshman-walking-to-open-parties scene.

I agree with the car cover statement too. I have one for the Miata but refuse to put it on unless we are guaranteed snow or ice overnight (gotta protect the plastic back window). Otherwise I'll just deal with water spotting and crap on the car. Probably doesn't help that my cover is bright blue, either.

Goodspeed - you're going to North 38, right? Those should be some nice places. I really wish the older places would clean things up a bit, but I think every "college town" has an area like our Port/Devon and places like Ashby will always exist to one extent or another.

[HAULN-SS]

I lived in PRun, and I never had any problems there. It probably helped that my roommates dad owned our townhouse...so we could basically tell the front office to Eff off when they'd be getting on our case about stuff..but at the same time, we kept the place pretty nice since his dad owned it.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I dont completely agree with goodspeed, but I do agree the environment has changed since I was a freshman. But since we are here everyday of our lives, it is minor in the scheme of things compared to the alumni visiting who see a much broader, but one or two visits instead of everday. Stealing has definitely increased and this has been noted by the police who say especially in the past two years that crime has risen dramatically.

I know if I were to be here next year I would get the hell out of Devon Lane/Squire/Ashby scene.

[Feersty]

What has JMU become, Virginia Tech?

Ohhh haha... it's not too soon is it?!? :wink:

Well we are trying to go Division I-A aren't we?

The Harrisonburg Police Department is investigating a home invasion robbery that occurred this weekend. On Nov. 9, around 1a.m. three male suspects forced their way into an apartment in the 800 block of Port Republic Road. The suspects were wearing dark hooded sweatshirts, ski masks, and gloves. Once inside the residence, one suspect displayed a firearm. Money and other items were stolen from the victims and the suspects fled in an unknown direction. No one was injured during this incident.

This sounds like the Commons where I lived, 877 though. I was lucky though, that my grandfather(rest his soul) gave me a 1989 Buick Century to drive while I was at school. It didn't attract much attention, but it sucks that to have a nice car, you then have to worry about vandalism. The Commons was a great location to walk to Squire Hill, for parties at my friends' place, and Ashby for costume parties. I ran back from Stone Gate at 430am one time....lol. No drunk bus at that time.

Shea still hasn't chimed in about a pumpkin being thrown at his STi. That is the most ridiculous incident I have heard. People these days, gesh.

[BLAIR]

i had a few nice cars at JMU with no issues at all. to be honest, a car alarm and a car cover is going to attract more negative attention, than a car without.

I can totally see the drunk conversation. " look at this pos car with a cover.. he think its cool or something? lets fuck with it"

But i do see JMU getting shittier. Everytime i go back i hate it more and more. This years graduation is my last planned trip

[Feersty]

Wow, that is bad, people going back and liking it less and less. I want my fiancee to eventually experience a weekend at JMU. Blair you didn't mention your sister, with her Si, and the vandalism with that.

[Chris]

yeah I have to admit I wasn't as pleased visiting for homecomming this year. The party was fine with a lot of you guys, but elsewhere people just didn't seem the same. I went to my old apartment and got screamed at by this drunk chick for trying to see my old place! All I asked was if I could come in (huge party going on) and was blocked by 3 guys. If it was me, an alumni visiting his old place would be inside with a shot in hand!

My response to them as I walked away in shock was, "what the hell happened to JMU hospitality?"

[flintster55]

I think you have to take the good with the bad really. I work for Chanellos delivering pizza as my job. A while ago, I delivered to this guy at Eagle on campus that wanted to haggle about the price of his pizza with me because we got it wrong the first time or something. The guy wanted his $8 pizza for half price since he had to wait so long. I told him I couldn't and it wasn't up to me and that he would have to call my manager, so he pulls a pistol he had tucked in his belt and waves it around. Needless to say he got his pizza for half price. But really come on, if you're pull out a pistol you better make it worth it. What a dumb mofo. All that not because he wanted the $200 i probably had on me from the night, or my wrx sitting 2ft away idling, he just wanted his pizza for half price hock:

On the other side of things, recently I accidently left my ipod in a locker at UREC one day. I went to the welcome desk the next day and somebody had turned it in. I also lost my Jac card and keys last year and somebody emailed me that day to let me know they had picked it up. It was even returned with no flex or dining dollars missing :lol:

[.RJ]

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.

[Ryan T]

I've been living amongst the JMU community for 6 years now (1 year in eagle, 2 years in prun, 1 year in dogwood commons and 2 years in squire) and I'll admit aspects of it have certaintly gone downhill. JMU's drive to go Division I-A has caused an pretty drastic increase in the number of people in a short period of time. It stands to reason that as newer/nicer appt complexes are built the more well-to-do students are going to move towards those while more townies and such are moving into the cheaper/older units. It seems to me that there really isn't any more gang violence/disorderly conduct/mayhem going on in hburg than there ever was, it's just becoming more localized to what has always been "JMU Territory", namely hunters ridge, ashby, commons, devon lane, etc.

I haven't had the greatest luck with automobiles here, supra was hit in prun, truck totaled in squire, supra hit in squire, and now I guess I'm on the countdown for the vette to get hit.

[rezarxt]

The majority of these problems could be solved with an m4 goodspeed. You know you want to :lol:

[BLAIR]

Wow, that is bad, people going back and liking it less and less. I want my fiancee to eventually experience a weekend at JMU. Blair you didn't mention your sister, with her Si, and the vandalism with that.

that doesnt count. it was a civic si, stuff just get stolen and before to long the car disapears, has nothing to do with JMU

[Feersty]

yeah I have to admit I wasn't as pleased visiting for homecomming this year. The party was fine with a lot of you guys, but elsewhere people just didn't seem the same. I went to my old apartment and got screamed at by this drunk chick for trying to see my old place! All I asked was if I could come in (huge party going on) and was blocked by 3 guys. If it was me, an alumni visiting his old place would be inside with a shot in hand!

My response to them as I walked away in shock was, "what the hell happened to JMU hospitality?"

That is crazy to me. That made JMU the great party school is(was). I went to rand0m parties all the time, and was never thrown out or anything. Man if that is the case, then JMU sure is losing its charm. Three guys standing in front of the door as bouncers? come on now.

Did you say you were an alumni? They didn't even let you drink from the keg?

Man if there is a lot more people there, I can't imagine what the parking situation is like now?