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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Richmond -- old southern gentry. The type that still ask you your mother's maiden name and which local (private) school you went to. Sure there are lots of newcomers that aren't generational families and have just moved for a good job, but if you truly want to get ahead in business or law, you need to be rubbing elbows at the country club and the local weddings, which you are only invited to as a generational family. So it's hard to break into the city for real, but if you can land yourself a 100k+ job and live happily in the suburbs, it's just like life in any other middle America suburb -- albeit more conservative values, more church going etc. Also a good city if you eschew all of the above and want to be a hipster; way easier to be a hipster there bc rent is cheap.[/quote]

Born and raised in RVA, but have lived up here for a decade and this assessment is true of Richmond.  If you didn't grow up there, even if your parents didn't grow up there, then it's hard to truly penetrate the inner bubble.  About 99% of the people I went to school with have all moved back, live in the same neighborhoods we grew up in, all go to CCV, all send their kids to the same schools we went to ( Collegiate/ St. Catherine's/ St. Christopher's), all have kids at the same cotillion, etc.  it's all the same, exactly the same in the real Richmond.  It's weird.  I don't see the exact same pattern in Charlotte or Raleigh or other similar size cities.  Outside the bubble, Richmond is like the tattoo capital of the US.  It also has a huge food scene at the moment.  And tons of people with personalized license plate.[/quote]

Lived in RIC for a short time for a job -- I knew I was headed back to my city so I wasn't looking to get into the inner circle. The sense I got though is that it's just smaller and has fewer newcomers than Raleigh and Charlotte. That means the "inner circle" still holds its power; and its power increases every yr as more and more 20 and 30 somethings move back, buy homes in their old neighborhoods, and send their kids to Collegiate. That inner circle can make you feel like an outsider -- most of the people I knew who moved back in their 30s were NOT looking to make new friends. They just reconnected with their HS friends and that was that -- they make no effort to bring transplant colleagues or neighbors into their fold. In CLT or Raleigh, I'm sure an inner circle exists - with exclusive private schools, cotillion etc. - but it is smaller relative to the sheer # of outsiders that have moved in; thus the inner circle can't make you feel excluded as much bc there are PLENTY of transplants to hang out with and create your own community with. That makes the inner circle less important in those other places.[/quote]

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