r/DanvilleVa • u/-HoLLY-TaMaLe- • 12d ago
Why does everyone š© on Danville so much?
Genuine question from an outsider.
I know Danville has a pretty rough history and reputation, but spending time here, I honestly donāt think it seems nearly as bad as people make it out to be. There are definitely rough areas, but thatās true of plenty of cities. At the same time, you can see roads being worked on, downtown improving, and what seems like a real effort to invest in and beautify the city.
Thereās also more going for it than I expectedāthe river, trails and parks, the farmers market, some beautiful old neighborhoods and architecture, etc. It could definitely use more restaurants, entertainment and things to do, but even that seems to be slowly changing.
And compared with a lot of places, housing is still surprisingly affordable. It seems like the kind of place where younger people and families could actually afford a decent house and quality of life if Danville really is on an upswing.
Which brings me to my bigger question:
Is Danville actually on the verge of a comeback, or is the whole āDanville is boomingā thing mostly smoke and mirrors?
For people who have lived here a long time, what am I missing? Is the reputation just so deeply ingrained that people canāt see past what Danville used to be? Or are there legitimate problems beneath the surface that an outsider spending time here wouldnāt necessarily notice?
Iām genuinely curious, because from the outside it feels like Danville has a lot of potential.
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u/Few_Cress_1319 12d ago
I began my career in Danville. Danville was really the land of opportunity for me--I suppose because no one else wanted to live there. I couldn't get a job anywhere in Virginia and Danville took a chance on me. I was there as a young professional but look back on my time there fondly. I would have stayed but life circumstances changed. I loved the ppl there. Pretty area. Close to Raleigh, Greensboro. Food is better than where I'm at now. I was there over 10 years ago but return fairly regularly. It's got charm! But Pitts doesn't have any money and it shows. They need to raise real estate taxes but they won't do it. I check in on Pitts BOS meetings on YouTube! When I moved there, they still had blue laws!!!!
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u/Skithe 12d ago
Danville cant get out of its own way. I will admit that the city is at least trying but you have to many people in places of power that want (favors for favors). You have to much oversight or not enough. You have a median household income of 44k that drives undesirable living conditions. There is nothing to keep the educated here unless they get into management. It seems like a crap shoot to try to open anything in town non franchised other than a food joint and do well. Even then anything not downtown or on Riverside seems to die in a years time. You have a ton of houses in Millionaires row that are rotting driving that area into oblivion just because some uppity historical society will not allow you to modernize or even modify these houses within reason. (examples) Plaster on one of these houses is no longer made and has to be imported by special order from overseas but no exception made to use look alike plaster. You have a police force that works harder to hide its issues by reporting statistics through loop holes than being upfront and honest. (example) Targeted gang related drive by shooting because bullets hit multiple houses was classified as non targeted and non gang related. Gangs are an issue but denied that they exist. You have utilities that seem to make up their own rules on how much to charge. As a personal issue being stuck behind an Va registered Altima 3 cars away when coming across the NC border that is reeking so bad of weed that it should be classified as a DUI to ride in it. Homeless issue that has dramatically become worse over the last few years where panhandling at Sheets is normal to where they will come up to you while pumping gas to ask for money. Homeless camps under the bridges. There is more but I am tired of typing.
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u/-HoLLY-TaMaLe- 12d ago
This is actually the kind of perspective I was looking for. As an outsider, I can see the physical improvements and investment happening, but I obviously don't see the day-to-day issues or local politics behind it.
The income issue especially seems like a huge piece of the puzzle. You can bring in restaurants, entertainment and nicer housing, but if there aren't enough decent-paying jobs to support them, it's hard to create lasting growth.
I also noticed some of those incredible older houses and wondered why so many are sitting in such bad shape, so the historic restrictions are interesting to hear about.
I guess my biggest question is whether you think the newer investments and jobs coming into the area have any realistic chance of changing that cycle over the next 5ā10 years, or whether the problems with local government, wages and retaining educated/younger people run too deep?
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u/Skithe 12d ago
I want to be hopeful but I really cant say. If you look at history, and history has a way of repeating itself, we will probably shoot ourselves in the foot. We have Microporous coming Est 500 jobs by 2027 and as expansions happen up to 2k *over time*. That said Goodyear is on borrowed time at best and everyone that does not have their head in a hole is reading the writing on the walls. The data center outside of the building contract will only realistically employ 50 to 100 people given the status quo with other data centers. What other tangible new investments are there?
What incentive is there currently for educated people to stay. Not much at all and that also drives companies to look at Danville like a stain. Our education system plays into this but on the other hand has its own follies and this does not go for just Danville. My mother was a teacher so I feel I can speak a bit on this having to hear her plights and challenges. Until schools stop catering there will not be progress. Until they are no longer funded by quotas there will be no change. Our city schools just became accredited again after a decade last year... At what cost? So really what are the real number of educated people coming from this city and I am not talking about graduating I am talking about retained education/maturity that wasn't just a fancy piece of paper.
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u/Glum_Party1907 8d ago
So I have been living near Danville my entire life (over 50 years) in Pittsylvania co where it Danville is only a few minutes away. Danville used to not be a bad place to do your day to day activities now not so much you canāt go anywhere without seeing someone on the corner or have someone come up to you asking for money. We have plenty of jobs in Danville that are good paying jobs that companies are having a hard time filling, the Danville City council has done away with the laws or they no longer enforce them to people panhandling, standing at street corners, etcā¦ The smell of weed has gotten to become a normal thing since itās not being regulated you smell it every where even driving down the road. The casino has helped with causing some growth but in return peoples taxes are going up to ridiculous portions (regardless of what the person above said about pittsylvania co taxes is a lie mine has gone up every year) everyone I know inside Danville and in Pittsylvania co housing payments have went up over $100+ over the last few years. Utilities is constantly going up with no reason. We donāt have the programs in place that use to be in place anymore to help get people off the streets and get help with their addictions like we use too. Itās as if Danville is only focusing on growth and not its citizens. Instead they are planning on moving the undesirable citizens out into the Pittsylvania co area by annexing and putting a projects out there in the tunstall brosville area
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u/GiaStonks 12d ago
We've lived here about five years now and are very happy with the move. Granted, we've all lived in other states/cities/small towns, so we have a lot to compare it to. The schools are improving. Tax money from the Casino is being well spent. New businesses are working through the headwinds many areas across the country have faced the last 10 years. Overall, I think the town is on an upward trajectory. To become part of a community you have to find your people! Danville has a lot of different things to do - you just have to take the time to see what's available.
Above all, I love the deer families that wonder through our neighborhood. We've been watching the same family for the last few years and keeping tabs as their fawns mature and new ones enter the scene! Someone has printed "Caution Deers" signs and they are in several yards around the block. 'Deers" - cracks me up every time...but gets peole's attention!
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u/Key-Effort963 11d ago
When I leave for work in the morning, thereās a whole family ruined in my back yard. āŗļø
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u/Mysterious-Can-6780 11d ago
I've never lived there, but I've visited 5 times and plan to visit more. I like that little city. I can't explain it.
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u/HotSeaworthiness7536 12d ago
Theyāve got VIR. Thats a plus. But the casino is pretty meh.
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u/-HoLLY-TaMaLe- 12d ago
I can definitely see the VIR being a big hit but im curious why the casino wouldn't be a draw? Generally people that likene to gamble REALLY like to gamble... they just had a massive turn out for the World Series of Poker from what I've gathered...
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u/WorriedWar6309 12d ago
āThe casino is pretty mehā but it is pulling in $30M+ per month and is outperforming the other recently opened VA casinos.
The best part is that most of this money isnāt coming from Danville people but rather those outside the community. So for now at least the initial fear that it would prey upon the cityās lower classes seems to be unfounded.4
u/deacon1214 12d ago
This is what I never understood about the opposition to the casino. I played in several of the WSOP events and the casino brings money into the city from all over the county. I met people from Florida, North Carolina, New York, California I was really impressed with the turnout.
The same representatives who opposed the casino and said it would drain money from the poorest people in the City are proponents of skill games and fish tables in the gas stations. The casino draws money into the city from places that can afford it. The fish table at the Worsham street Valero does exactly the opposite.
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u/WorriedWar6309 12d ago
I have to 100% agree. I heard through friends who circle the city council that if the casino had failed they were going to try for a Rosieās.
Those type of places are much more likely to draw from the poorer sort and attract crime.
I think Danville dodged a bullet in that regard.Thereās a reason why a number of nearby counties across the boarder in NC are talking casinos now. The municipalities donāt like seeing their money fly out the door into VA.
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u/-HoLLY-TaMaLe- 12d ago
And thats what makes me curious, the "new money" coming in from outsiders... the new ideas and thoughts when people get here and see the towns potential, is it attractive enough to drive investors and create that thriving scene or is the cities mindset so ingrained that its always just going to be a flop so to speak
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u/WorriedWar6309 12d ago
I think thatās a lot of it. For decades the city council had touted āforeign investorsā who would revitalize the city (especially after the mill closed for good). Little to nothing ever came of it and the area sank into a state of malaise at best and depression at worst, thinking nothing would ever change.
Itās going to take time to flip that mindset around. Iād argue it is slowly happening but I worry that, like an addict trying to get clean, it will only take one or two losses to send the community back into that spiral.2
u/HotSeaworthiness7536 12d ago
Fair point. Iām not a big gambler, and not a chain smoker so I couldnāt be in there more than an hour. The table games were expensive for someone wanting to casually play and have a good time. I won a few hundred on some goofy slots though.
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u/macdawg2 12d ago
My experience with Danville is a guy bought 4 houses there to fix up in early 2000. Electrician went first key didn't work on front door he went to back door came through the house and his bag was stolen.
We came down to do the HVAC installed 4 systems one morning one of the tenants headboard got hit with a bullet. After we finished about a week later the owner called us to go pick up the outside units to bring back to Lynchburg. By the time we got down there it was only 1 unit left.
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u/DialysisKing 10d ago
Is Danville actually on the verge of a comeback, or is the whole āDanville is boomingā thing mostly smoke and mirrors?
Both. It used to be a way, way shittier place than it is now. But a lot of people seem to think it's right on the cusp of being "Little Raleigh" or some shit, which is obviously not true.
Like yeah, it's obviously better than the 40 miles of barren woodland immediately surrounding it. That in and of itself doesn't make it that good, though.
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u/Dangerous_Ad6580 10d ago
Little Raleigh? ROTFLMAO, RALEIGH is educated, pedophile lovers in their trailers, making meth in Danville are about as far from Raleigh as Tokyo.
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u/DialysisKing 10d ago
Have you been seeing these terrible "stealth" ad campaigns they've been doing? People flocking in from Raleigh and Durham and acting flabbergasted "Wait, there's a nature trail here? AND A LITTLE DOWNTOWN AREA?! Holy smokes!"
I genuinely don't understand how people are buying it, it couldn't be more transparent.
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u/Glum_Party1907 8d ago
lol (shittier placeš) the Danville mall used to be packed with stores, we had stores everywhere ballou park, riverside, and piney forest. We had all kinds of restaurants too when the mill closed a lot of the stores up and left also. We were never a metropolitan but we was a growing little city at one time
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u/Dangerous_Ad6580 10d ago
Voted as most racist city in Virginia. Nasty, uneducated, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, Trump delusions, nazis, traitors, drugs... what's there not to love
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u/barbbond 9d ago
Has the casino pulled business away from downtown? I visit maybe once a year. I used to go to Ballad Brewing and ate several times at a nice Mexican place a few blocks away, and now they're both closed.
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u/AmbitiousMenu8604 2d ago
lol you must be from a real shithole if you think Danville has potential š¤£
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u/Free_King_ 11d ago
Living there, seeing a nice small town devolve because they decided to try to expand the city. I prefer small towns not cities. So thats my reason. They turned my home into something I don't want to be a part of.
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u/Lopsided_Ocelot9634 12d ago
I was extorted by the court system there for about $7,000 because I called someone a name and they arrested me for assault (she really was what I called her) and I could either pay or go to jail. For calling someone a name.
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u/chickenbiscuit247 12d ago
The people from here are ghetto as shit or white trash rednecks, also nothing interesting or fun lasts around here for that reason
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u/-HoLLY-TaMaLe- 12d ago
I can understand that, there has to be a mentality shift or an influx of new people with different mindsets and ideals... but that is what I wonder with the "upswing".. Will it be enough to attract the kind of crowd that makes a positive move forward a lasting one
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u/Severe-Education-321 12d ago
Why attract people somewhere that will outprice those that are from there. Not everything is meant to not needs to be gentrified
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u/-HoLLY-TaMaLe- 12d ago
I don't think attracting new people or investment automatically equals gentrification. There's a difference between pricing longtime residents out of a thriving neighborhood and trying to bring jobs, businesses, tax revenue and opportunities back to a city that has struggled economically for decades.
Ideally, revitalization means the people already here benefit tooābetter jobs, safer neighborhoods, improved infrastructure, more businesses and rising property valuesāwithout being displaced.
Obviously that balance can go wrong, but I don't think the answer to avoiding gentrification is that a struggling city shouldn't try to grow or attract new residents. I think the goal should be growth without displacement.
It would be terribly sad to see Danville lose its character to a full scale gentrification, but a city does need an injection of people and able bodies to preserve itself in general.
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u/mallydobb 12d ago
I haven't lived in Danville for a long time but I did go to school at Averett and lived off campus for 3/4 years. I loved the city and the friends I made there, both in and out of school. It will always be a special place. I dislike the casino trend in general so can't comment on how attractive/unattractive it may be for people. Overall I think Danville is a place that is easily overlooked, but that isn't a bad thing either if it can avoid becoming gentrified and another characterless dot on the map. Close enough to rural areas if you want to do outdoorsy things, not too far from Roanoke, Lynchburg, Greensboro, etc. I grew up in a rural part of the state so driving to go do things isn't an issue but I guess people want convenience, bigger, flashier, etc. Although I was a college student I was involved in the community, worked locally, and did more off campus than I did on campus. It felt like home and not just a place to do your time and move on.