8 Reasons to Live in Roanoke, Virginia!

Sometimes when you live in a city for an extended period of time, you start to take it a bit for granted. I've been guilty of this myself. I often lament that I don't live in a large city with loads of weekend activities and ethnic restaurants. (I love ethnic food). BUT, when I really sit back and think about it, we have it pretty good in the city of Roanoke, Virginia.

Roanoke isn't the largest city in Virginia, by any means. It has a population including the city and outlying counties of around 250,000 which makes it of respectable size, although it probably wouldn't be on the radar of someone who wants to live in the midst of a busy metropolis.Roanoke is fondly known as the "Star City of the South" because of the large star that sits on top of Mill Mountain. The Mill Mountain star is lit at night and is rather large, measuring eighty-eight and a half feet tall. It uses 2000 feet of neon tubes and 17,500 watts of power to create it's warm glow which can be seen all over the city at night. It's glowing mass of lights serves as a sort of beacon to welcome you to one of the friendliest cities around.

The more I live here, the more reasons I can come up with for living in the little city of Roanoke, Virginia. Here are just a few:

1. Lack of traffic

Commuting is an absolute breeze for the average Roanoker. I can count the number of times on two hands the number of times I've been stuck in traffic since we moved here 7 years ago. I don't know about you, but I HATE traffic! Not having to do deal with it is excellent for the stress level. Life can be challenging enough! Why add traffic to the situation!

2. We have an excellent selection of restaurants.

I've read somewhere in the past that Roanoke has the second highest density of restaurants per capita in the country with the exception of Portland, Maine. I can believe that! In addition to all the chain restaurants, we have a variety of excellent independent restaurants of all types. Although I'd like to see more ethnic restaurants in our area, we have some of the best Indian restaurants I've been to anywhere in the country. Plus, our restaurant population continues to grow. Roanokers love to eat!

3. It's a friendly city.