Every place has its stereotypes. You rarely ever see positive comments about Danville there. The way people describe the city is often so far disconnected from reality I have to roll my eyes. I know many of you feel the same way.
I checked out the comments on the crosspost about the confederate flaggers. A common theme with these posts is that people think city council either funds or supports the flaggers. Council has been vocal in their opposition to the flags and they’ve openly talked about how it’s made it difficult to attract outside businesses.
The flags are on private property and most are supported by a pro-confederate flag group that has a statewide presence. Danville’s population is 50% black and the city consistently votes blue. How people come away from all this with the impression that the majority of folks here are racist is beyond me. I’d say the flaggers have been successful in warping the city’s perception in the minds of very online redditors.
Besides that you often see some comments telling people interested in the area not to move here because of racism, out of control crime, drugs, the casino, etc. They make it sounds like an active war zone. It’s comparable to the way Fox News talks about Chicago, New York, or LA.
All of this feels very goofy. Crime is way down, new businesses are coming (hello Mellow Mushroom 😀), there are hundreds of new apartments and houses (with many more on the way), schools are being renovated, and our two decades of population decline have come to a halt.
Sorry for the cringe rant. Like all places we have our problems. At the end of the day we’re a normal city of 42,000 people.
I’ll end with this note: A couple of weeks ago I had an in person meeting with a state employee from the Shenandoah Valley area. It was his first time in Danville. Like many others, he had heard that Danville was in bad shape. He was so blown away by what he saw during his trip down here that he’s bringing his wife and kids back in the spring for a long weekend. He loved downtown and the Riverwalk trail.
I saw that post too. I think getting a big reaction was what the poster was looking for honestly. They posted here then reposted r/Virginia. The way I look at it, no matter how much I disagree the flagers I have no control over what they do so I'm not going to waste my time clutching my pearls every time they're mentioned. All anyone can do is live their own life in a positive way and let the negative people argue amongst themselves.
The confederate flag is a threat, and the racists in town are getting their way by showing how unsafe it is without repercussion. This isn't a matter of positivity shielding people from the negativity being possible, ignoring it will keep people away and yall will be crying it's because of pearl clutching and/or fearmongering
Thing is that these people are just another species of people wanting to blame others for their problems and paying a lot of attention to them allows them to think they are the victims, stoking that rather common human tendency to want to be a victim so they can have an excuse not to work on making their own lives better.
Sometimes though it is sort of an attempt to build solidarity among people who are a little bit prickly.
To me, I am mostly astonished that people still think people like General Lee or his autistic sidekick Stonefaced Jackson are relevant. Let's all just work on getting all of VA's kids educated and a skill or two with a spirit of optimism thrown in. These flags are symbols of backwards-looking.
Danville is definitely moving up and progressing, the issue is that it's ina weird place where the population is pretty starkly divided on some issues, and we're gonna have to square with that.
One side wants to acknowledge our history, mark our points of progress, and know we still have work to do.
Another wants to wash over history with an alternative idea of it, or ignore what's uncomfortable or difficult so as not to offend their own sensibilities.
Well, sure.... but should you beat yourselves up because you were involved with the cigarette economy? I mean, past is past, you really shouldn't be proud or ashamed of a places' past --you should be proud of what you are doing now, and if you aren't proud of THAT, you should do something else.
Flying flags or condemning them is pretty weak tea.
I follow r/Virginia and have never been to Danville but the only impression I’ve formed of it is that it’s likely much like every other small town in the state, i.e. full of normal, happy people with a small but all-too-visible wingnut population.
Danville is your textbook white flight town. All of the racist inbreds moved out to Pittsylvania county, and Danville City was left under developed and under funded. For a long long time, the only major employer in the city after the textile mill closed was the Goodyear factory, but most of the jobs were taken by people from the county. Poverty was a big problem, and this did lead to high crime. Nine years ago, Danville had a spike in crime, and outlets reported on it saying that Danville's murder rate per capita exceeded Detroit. It's true, but the per capita metric is very misleading for a population as small as Danville. Any small change can swing the number drastically. OP is right that crime in Danville is down. It's been down 5 years in a row, and 8% this year alone. Education in the city is extremely poor. All of the schools are ancient, the children are very disruptive and disrespectful toward teachers (I'm not blaming them. It's a product of poverty. However, there is a very high turnover rate of teachers, and that's not helping the situation), and overcrowded. It's very nice to hear that they're finally renovating these buildings, many of with were built prior to 1955.
I grew up in Danville, so all I know is the bad. The city never grew, poverty was rampant, racists coming in from the county was common, confederate flags everywhere, high crime, poor education, no third spaces. If you would have asked me 10 years ago, I would have told you that Danville was going to continue to be abandoned and shrink into a town that's only utilized by county dwellers as a shopping hub. The casino changed things. I don't live there now, but I have friends who live there and work for the city, and they have done an amazing job turning things around. This really was the exact stimulus they needed. Seeing Danville not just getting a new store here and there but ACTUALLY growing is awesome, and culturally, they're thriving as well. Danville was even voted best micropolis or something like that a while ago.
In 2025, of course, you still have your poverty, you still have your yokels from the county trying to ruin things, it's not yet your fully modern city, but things are changing, and they're changing for the better. The yokels are going to be left behind and ignored, and hopefully the city council makes decisions that address inequities and not simply embrace the new money and gentrify the whole city.
Agree with a lot of this and happy things have turned around but try not to be so racist.
Could you add a bit more about the effect of the Casino? Here in the greater Richmond metro Petersburg to the South is getting a casino and I hope that will accelerate the slow progress the city has made of late. Petersburg has also been benefiting from the growth around Richmond and some pharma businesses siting plants here. The people of Petersburg are mostly fine but get a bad rap from longstanding grudes it seems and I think (as an ex-NYer) that some of those who moved out of Petersburg 50 years ago have been rooting against it for 50 years and this is just one more example of "cutting off ones nose to spite their face" since a rotten Petersburg's problems don't stay in Petersburg.
I am no expert on Pittsylvania County (how could I be? I heard there is a school there...) but most of the people who live in the rural areas around Petersburg are mostly decent no matter how rural they are and not all the twisted minds are the most rural ones, even if they do tend to skew poorer -- poor people often feel shame and want to blame other people and find someone to look down on. I find those flags historically ironic and often a kind of "Trailer Park Punk" --- an F you TOO!! sorta thing.
Not a Danville resident, but I live in the area and work in economic development.
The casino has pumped a lot of money into the local economy. Between jobs created, tax revenue, and increased tourism, there’s more money in circulation for improving infrastructure and other public programs. There was also a lot of local pushback prior to the casino opening, so Caesars has done a lot to support good will, from charitable donations, partnerships with local businesses, and making an effort to sell products from small businesses within the region.
Unrelated, there are several industries opening plants in Pittsylvania and Henry Counties leading to the area currently being the fastest developing region of the state.
As much as the casino as benefited the community, I am curious to see how it pans out. I have several friends who work at the casino, they’ve mentioned seeing less foot traffic lately and having their hours cut back. Not sure if it’s seasonal, the result of the economy, or novelty of the casino wearing off, but I am curious to see how things go as more casinos come online across the state.
This is interesting. I have a few friends still in Danville and they have told me that the Casino has caused a lot of things - like hotel rooms - in Danville to get more expensive. They also have implied that most of the employees for the casino have come from outside the area so there is not as much a great boon as originally hoped. I don't live there so I don't know.
Time will tell on the casino. The reduced foot traffic could be that the overall economy of the country is slowing. I know the stock market is up but there are a lot of people all over the country that can no longer afford to go to places like casinos anymore. I hope Danville can get more diverse opportunity in the future.
Hotel rooms going up is indicative of higher demand due to increased tourism, which directly benefits the community from more transient tax being collected. I could see it being a problem for locals who live out of hotel rooms, but in general most residents aren’t paying for overnight lodging in their own community.
I’m not sure about the ratio of local vs commuters for the casino (or Danville/Pittsylvania County for that matter). The people I know who work there commute (which is good for Danville, bad for my community) but I could definitely see the issue if all the upper management positions were filled by people who relocated over qualified individuals who already lived there. Not suggesting that’s what happened, but I could understand why locals would be angry if it did.
I hear they have a Tank Museum down there. I'd see that. I would even travel there if it was a Submarine Museum.
Locals always want locals-only hiring, but usually not only is that impossible when it isn't like Philadelphia or somewhere big where the pool of EMPLOYABLE people isn't large enough, but also these non-local often contribute to the local economy and often move there --- which is good unless you are one of these people who want to impossibly engineer a phenom where you keep the dirt-cheap house prices, etc, but suddenly have good jobs that hire the mentally ill and innumerate.
Yeah, I've seen in I think Cardinal news that ..... what? .... Danville fastest growing what?
There is also that advanced manufacturing facility too...
Where are the costumers coming from. The naysayers say that it will drain the Petersburg citizens, but they don't tend to have the spending money.
I’m not a gambler, so I’m not very familiar with casinos around the state. I know Danville and Bristol got casinos around the same time. In both cases, they closely border states where gambling is illegal. I’d guess most of Danville’s come from the region, but probably catch plenty from NC that don’t have a closer option (outside of reservations). Guessing it’s a similar situation for Bristol.
As far as Petersburg, I’m not sure who their target audience is. I’ve never been to Rosie’s in RVA, but I always heard it was a casino or like a casino, so I thought people in the area already had an option. Maybe it will be close to 95 and they’ll catch people that way?
You’re probably right about pricing. Again, I’m not a gambler, but I’ve been to the casino several times since it opened for birthdays. Even if you don’t gamble it gets expensive quick, especially if you don’t have much disposable income like me. Can’t justify a $20 pint serving of veggie lo mein with a $11 beer.
Yes, I didn't think of the illegality of gambling nearby.... if past is prologue, NC and TN may eventually loosen that.
Yes, Rosies exists, but it is in a somewhat esoteric spot and doesn't get high roller types I bet.
To my mind, the main draw is indeed I-95 because I think you will literally see it from 95 and it is right on an exit that they've bought a huge parcel of land adjacent.
This one road I think is the busiest in North America and you'll have a hotel that is geographically central on the east coast and somewhat central population wise --- the Richmond area is sort of "Drive THROUGH Country" as opposed to "Fly Over".
I've only been in casinos when the hotel was the best deal in the Reno-Tahoe area --- and in the case of the one in Reno it was a great deal in that the swimming areas were a real trip --- not exactly high class like the Homestead or whatever, but definitely interesting.
Never sat on the gambling floors ----- the cigarette smoke alone...
There SEEMS to be a connection between nicotine and gambling dopamine-wise.... once I had to help run a BINGO opperation for a non-prophet fundraiser at one of those ethnic drinking-club buildings and the cigarette smoke was so thick as these unhappy people were spending their money on BINGO cards and hotdogs that I literally had to strip naked at the back door of my house, shower and then throw the clothes out the next day, and I say this as someone who was once addicted and smoked a pack and a half by age 15 so I am hardly extra sensitive to the smoke --- it just seems to smell far worse the next day in your clothes --- I don't know how people survived the 60s-80s.....
But they will be able to catch people like me that just don't want to sleep in their car when they've driven the last ten hours. That won't be good for the mini hotel across the street though.
Yeah, I would never pay for that in Petersburg --- I only do that if I am on some junket where a first class hotel is free and the bar looks like 1940s Havanna or the restaurant is supposed to be a gigantic palm hut --- then I'll pay crazy prices to sip my Cuba Libra or Mai Tai --- but I only order one so I have the right to be there and soak in the ambiance or vibe as the kids say.
What's fascinating for me is that I come from one of the best school districts in North Carolina and Danville's schools absolutely blow it out of the water. The education my kid is getting here is night and day compared to what she was getting in a much wealthier district.
So I believe you that it should be better, but it's still bizarre and appalling to me how bad education in America is allowed to be.
That's accurate, as far as I can see.
I just overlook it tbh. A majority of r/Virginia are NOVA residents, and they don't have a favorable opinion on the rest of VA in general. Virginia is so divided culturally that unless you've spent time in each region, you're not gonna realize that. Even the stark contrast between Pittsylvania County and Danville is pretty interesting, let alone the coast or the mountains.
Born in the mountains and raised on the coast, 100% can confirm!
I've lived in Virginia, south central and south western for over 70 years. I would offer that my opinion of the Richmond, Tidewater, and NOVA areas is very low too.
I feel like the Piedmont region in Virginia is so underutilized. In Europe, the Piedmont region of most countries is prime wine country. There is a little of that in Virginia but not nearly as much as it could be.
There certainly are pretty areas of Appomattatox County and Buckingham has a lot of woods --- lots of cheap land.
I think this issue is a bit like Wheeling, WV or even Cleveland, OH ---- you can say that what they have there is undervalued until you are blue in the face but the answer they can't answer is "Why not _____?" because there is an abundance of undervalued places in the region (no one moves to Wheeling for instance because you can get a cheap house in Pittsburgh or Columbus.)
There's still lots of room near Richmond to build --- some of the fastest growing counties like New Kent, Powhattan Caroline and Spotsylvania. There's lots of land north of Charlottesville too.
whats the difference between pittsylvania and danville?
Demographics. Danville is more diverse racially and politically leans blue. Pittsylvania is the opposite, and you'll feel the difference being a part of either community.
I love Danville and all its quirkiness. It’s a great little place with tons of history.
I miss ol Danville. Whole family from there we used to get together on holidays. Played baseball at the Daniel’s park or w/e it was called lol. Lot of childhood memories that’s for sure.
We're relatively new to Virginia (from Michigan, moved for my husband's job), and we were impressed with Danville. It has the good Sam's Club, an amazing pancake place we need to go back to, and it reminded us both of Lansing (a city that needs more money to fix infrastructure issues but never quite gets it).
Sure, flags, but we see those in Michigan, too (no idea why considering which side we fought and died on). There's progress, though, and that's something to celebrate. There's also a long history of fighting for civil rights, and that shouldn't be forgotten.
It's a nice small city. People are nice, it's not hard to get around in, and there are good businesses there.
Well, I think the idea that "We" fought and died on ANY side is false and a complex idea. I'm from NYS, but my family isn't. My father could've been considered "anti-racist" esp for his time, but he grew up in Indiana, which was pretty racist, and he had a relative that fought on BOTH sides of the civil war because he was from Arkansas and didn't really understand the issues. He also had relatives from western VA, though no one in my family sees themselves as being "Virginian" even though my nuclear family lives in VA.
My mother's family was mostly from CT, and sorta middle upper middle class, so they had abolitionist ancestors, but also merchant shippers, so possibly involved with the western slave trade --- that that didn't make my mother an abolitionist. The only thing she ever did was not join the DAR when asked to.
My take is I once saw a local news story in Maine and they were talking to a woman in a trailer park and there was a confederate flag sticker there on a car or residential window --- in ME, as I said.... yeah, doesn't make sense --- State that had Joshua Chamberland as Governor, that was formed to create another free state even.
Doesn't make sense until you realize that we aren't the same people who fought in the civil war, were slaves, or were slave owners.
People in r/Virginia have not been to r/Danville. I’m 66, lived in VA my entire life and have been to Danville once in the 80s. I thought it was grim, a bit like all the sad towns in PA. Hopefully things are better now, but I don’t know.
Yeah, me too, only stopped there once on my way back from Smith Mt Lake --- looked grim, and the comparison to PA factory towns is apt.
I moved here from Durham last year and some people have acted like I was moving to the moon, not to a small city an hour away with multiple sushi options, a nice Thai place, and a great farmer's market.
Really like it here. Very happy we moved and chose Danville.
I feel ya. Certainly visible confederistas doesn't exactly attact big investors, but everyone knows they were never the only problem.
I am glad things are looking up for y'all, it seemed bleak when I was there circa 2009. Flaggers and street criminals should not make any Virginian root against Danville --- it is a part of VA and everyone should want it to be wind in VA's sails and not a drag.
Unfortunately, first impressions matter. And when the first thing you see when driving into town is a huge confederate flag, that forms a person’s first impression very quickly, regardless of what may actually be true.
It’s important for Danville’s future that the area debunk the perception that they’re socially backwards. The city’s location allows it to connect to the fast-growing Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina as a possible future Greensboro suburb; it’s also a pretty easy drive to both Winston and the Triangle. If they want the economic opportunity that comes with this, Danville must prove that they’re a forward-thinking city.
I've been to Danville many times, I have yet to see it's positives.
As the person who did all those posts the last few days, I have to say that I really love Danville (and Southside VA). I want to see it evolve and become better.
I apologize for going a bit overboard with the uploads. I just wanted to point out the fact that Danville still has an issue with the Confederate flags. They aren't gonna make people want to stop and check out the area. It's not a good look and it adds to the bad reputation that people have of us.
As this city starts to grow, I believe that these flaggers are going to have to be dealt with. They have free speech, but flying those flags on giant flagpoles near public areas is just being arrogant.
I won't deny that there's lots of more important problems here than just the confederate flags. But it's one that should be addressed.
And just how does one “deal with” people doing something completely lawful on private property? I mean, it’s not my thing, but your comment seems, well, ignorant of the law at best, and threatening at worst! IMO, flags are the least of Danville’s problems. The drugs and crime have been a huge problem for some time. Additionally, the systemic issues in the city government is a perpetual problem!
Bingo. Though I will say the overall crime problem has seemingly gone down. Several years ago a police chief instituted a series of neighborhood outreach programs that has had beneficial effects. Nearly every week now you read of a murder in Lynchburg or Roanoke yet Danville remain quiet. That police chief was actually just hired by Roanoke last year to see if he could replicate what was done here.
Being not a resident of either place I would say that is GREAT NEWS and if he is successful in Roanoke then hopefully he gets hired in an even larger town.
From what I have seen, and I have been around, it isn't just some magic chief with some novel ideas but rather someone who has backing from the politicians to do things that have been proven effective long ago and they are willing to both pay the expense and risk the political capital to get things done, and it usually a hybrid approach politically -- both "cracking down" AND community outreach measures.
IDK what you could do to stop them from flying without violating the 1st amendment. Perhaps a height ordinance for flagpoles near roadways. AFAIK some counties have them, I'm not sure if Pittsylvania or Danville have any.
A city councilman literally getting set on fire doesn't help the reputation, either.
Don’t forget about the one who’s house was shot up in a drive by shooting.
It is very common when there are BIG problems that are real that people try to focus on the smaller problems.
From what I have seen of the south when the big problems are dealt with problems like confederate flags go away. If you get a lot of success going on in Danville without a lot of crime and violence, the "flaggers" are just going to look silly, probably even to themselves.
Yeah but, if you have flagger people doing this..... you have flagger people doing this ---- it's a bit like saying we can't allow the news to report on violent crime in downtown Danville because it's a "bad look"
Dealt with? Maybe bring them a pie or something.
A majority of the commentors on r/Virginia hate all things that they belive are Conservative or Trump Supporting. The few ignorant citizens of a town do not represent the majority. Every city has its problems and that's all people want to talk about. How about sharing more of the good thats going on around the state. Thank you for your post, it definitely deserves an upvote.
Agree. Just like a small percentage of Danville residents that commit crimes (it tends to be a small percentage everywhere, whether they are African American or European American or Latin American.) doesn't mean everyone in Danville is bad, or any one group is mostly bad.
Here in Richmond we got a few people with those flags in Hannover county, and the Richmond Reditors LOVE to call it Klannover, even though Hannover county has great schools, low crime, and is pretty diverse compared to the national average (if not Richmond) --- it's really not many flags, and condemning the whole county is unfair, and frankly stupid. They mostly don't give a thought to what Richmond thinks of them though because they are doing better than Richmond on almost every metric.
Yes, it drives me nuts. I think part of the goal of the people putting the confederate flags up is, in fact, to drive the perception that old racist white people are in control of the town. But it's a 50% Black, majority liberal city that has long been neglected by the rest of VA, and it's hard to see that if you're an outsider who drives in and only sees the flags. I also think there's a huge difference between someone from Danville pointing out the very real racism that poc face in the city, and someone from the outside labeling us as racist hicks who no one should care about.
I love Danville! It's got some good things going! But people don't want to see that, or else can't see that.
The r/Virginia demographic skews very young, very blue, and not many outside of metro Richmond, Tidewater and NoVa.
When their life experiences are summed up in upper middle class suburbia and college life, their views can be as myopic and distorted as the groups they look down on.
touche'
This Virginia Flaggers group also puts flags up on private property near Charlottesville -- with the explicitly stated goal of goading the Charlottesville City Council ("the I-64 flag of defiance"). This was after they were forced by Louisa County officials to shorten a flag pole on private property that exceeded the ordinance for height code. This is a small vocal fringe group that pushes its neo-Confederate agenda on localities, even when they're not from there. They're like a dog pissing to mark its territory. Definitely don't take them as representative of these various communities.
In the 2010/ a series of arsons burned down historical sites and records offices of black graveyards they happen to be in. The path of the billion dollar ceasar’s palace/schoolfield development project.
I worked for a paging company in the 90s..(yes I'm old) most of our customers were EMTS and Doctors..... Not in Danville and Martinsville...so many of our pagers were found in drug busts...
Someones talking about Danville? Why?
The new mellow mushroom coming means civilization LOL
🧒 The Discounts are deeper in Danville 🤣
Danville is horrible if you drive through the city you see abandoned buildings, broken streets, despair everywhere. I’ve visited Danville because of the casino and it is by far the worse Caesar’s in the brand. The rooms are too high, the employees are rude and nasty and the restaurant prices are that of Vegas not to mention it’s like a club on Friday with people just hanging out not gambling, not drinking just hanging out. Why because there is no other place to go in Danville. The Cherokee Caesar’s is 200 times better. When Caesar’s went to Cherokee and built a casino the community benefited greatly from the casino. They built housing, sent kids to college did a lot for that area. I don’t see what Caesar’s in Danville has done for that community the whole city is a eyesore.
This kinda proves my point. You’re complaining poorer neighborhoods which exist in every city. Casino revenue is paying for tons of things in the city including new streets, parks, reduced utility rates, and continued revitalization
I wouldn’t worry about what they think, r/Virginia is run by Neo nazis. They banned me and when I appealed the ban, the moderators called me racial slurs. They are happy to call an entire town racist, while the moderator team calls people the N word in DMs.
I'm not going into the racism debate. I'm going to just post what people tell me. It means they're proud southerners. And yeah -- although I know what people are going to think. And i'm not trying to be part of it.
It really is just, "this is my linage, I was born and raised southern". And for a lot of them, that doesn't mean They grew up in a trailer, and and drive a dirt old pick up truck, hating other people for political racial biases.
Well, I realize my identity makes me suspect but as a "Yankee" that chose to live in Virginia I DO get that a lot of people have ample reasons to feel defensive and there is a longstanding grudge about the south generally being more the victims of the civil war no matter that there are a lot of other details to consider.
But, frankly, the few people who I would say are "proud Northerners" don't tend to have much to be proud of personally --- they usually identify as "Americans" --- they don't identify as being into opposition to something, esp some vague, now irrelevant historical thing.
I don't see it as all racism either -- certainly the people I've talked to about it say it is more directed toward the North and the upper-middle class come-heres. They don't care, btw, and the few that do are usually virtue signaling or worried that it will decrease their property values, but not more than a lot of other things could reduce their property values.
As I've said elsewhere, you see those emblems in trailer parks in MAINE, and those people are not proud southerns, but probably have inferiority complexes.
It's a kind of Rural Punk Rock. You go to Kansas you don't see confederate emblems, but you see a lot of people in cowboy hats singing "You can kiss my country ass" along with the jukebox.
If the confederate flags are so notable that they have to be explained then I totally understand why people who don't literally live in that area get a certain impression about it.
I live a couple hours north of Danville in a very small town, driven through there often and have a dear friend moving down next month. Yes, the flaggers post was served by my algorithm and I found it disheartening, but while Danville has some great aspects, crime is an issue.
Just looking at the homicide numbers, there's something going on in Danville that is not normal. Yes, there's a high clearance rate and props to the detectives for nailing that down, but y'all have four homicides so far this year. For 42k people? San Jose CA has a population of a million, with 22 homicides. Or to keep it closer to home, Lynchburg has five homicides this year, but twice the population. Ironically, Danville CA has the same population as Virginia's Danville, with zero homicides.
My closest big town is Charlottesville, about the same population. one murder back in January. Farmville is closer, with none. That's what we're used to.
I'm not trying to argue or demean the town, but there's history in Danville that shouldn't be forgotten, and issues that shouldn't be ignored just for the cause of positivity. Cheers to all y'all.
Remember when Danville was chosen as a location for vaccine distribution during the pandemic, and so few people in Danville wanted the vaccine that they threw the doors open to anyone who could get there from the rest of the state? It was the only time I was happy to go to the "Last Confederate Capital" in Virginia as the town proudly displays as you drive in. Seriously, your population was too stupid to choose life and put flags of the slaver's army everywhere, the bad reputation is earned.
I grew up in the big D. Moved away 25 years ago and only came back to visit family every year. I moved back here a few years ago for family.
I'm sorry to say it, but Danville sucks. It is horribly run. The work ethic here is beyond pitiful. Talk to anybody working in retail or at the restaurants. They will almost always tell you nobody wants to work and people don't give a flying flip when they do. People have no self drive or self-worth.
There are very few good paying jobs here. This has nothing to do with whatever flag is flying. The only people who care about that are the same attention seekers that have existed here for years. Most of them have no clue about the Civil War or the history of slavery. They just like to yap, complain, and look for any excuses to treat people like crap themselves.
Any business person who says they won't come here because someone on their private property displays a flag they supposedly don't like is a business person that isn't serious about actually operating a business. Keep telling yourself that excuse is legit. Don't let the fools on city council lie to you. Business owners want to make money and will go anywhere they can turn a profit. The problem is many businesses cannot turn a profit in Danville because Danville is a poor area, not because some dude or organization flies a flag.
Racism is a heart issue, not a town issue. There are whites who are racists, blacks who are racists, Latinos who are racists, and so on. And trust me, /Virginia is full of whites out of northern Virginia and many of them are racist. They'd have a freaking heart attack if a black guy showed up at their door.
Having said all the negative stuff, let me get to the positive. The good people who are here are among some of the nicest and lovable people I've ever met. They work hard at their jobs. They say thank you. They smile. They give back. They are helpful. These people come in all sorts of colors and ages. Danville is far from hopeless. While I don't see things as rosy as some, I see so much potential. I won't give up on Danville. Don't you either. You cannot change someone's heart. Rather than worry about it, pray for them - then you be the best you can be towards all people. Don't make excuses and recognize your own faults. We all have them! Put God first, and He will supply all you need.
Talk to anyone working retail or food service anywhere and they'll say that. There's no self-drive or no self-worth because it's poor with no good jobs, not the other way around. Why y'all gotta blame people first is beyond me when you already said the problem.
Need jobs, not God. Thanks.
This is not inaccurate unfortunately!
r/Virginia is as woketard progressive as r/Charlottesville
These people prefer censorship and forced exile rather than allow a single second of critical thinking or self awareness. They’ve replaced rationale with the same moral supremacy of a fundamentalist Islamic caliphate.
Bubba, you're barking up the wrong tree.