Blacksburg’s tailgating atmosphere embodies the New River Valley, a region defined by welcoming and inclusive small towns. In fact, in 2016, Virginia Tech and Blacksburg were ranked #6 for having great town-gown relations by the Princeton Review in response to their annual survey which asked students whether they got along with their local community.
WalletHub’s data team compared communities in Virginia across 21 key indicators of family-friendliness.
Singletracks.com has ranked Virginia Tech a top 10 Best US College/University for Mountain Bikers.
New River Valley, VA – Did you know that Wade’s Supermarkets, a local New River Valley grocery chain, pioneered online grocery shopping decades before AmazonFresh?
Lane Stadium is the largest stadium in VA according to Fox Sports. The well-known home of Virginia Tech football has 66,233 seats, which beats Scott Stadium in Charlottesville by about 5,000.
This summer, five towns (technically four towns and one city) were voted to top spots in the Happiest Mountain Towns reader poll by Blue Ridge Country magazine. Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford, Floyd, and Pulaski all received top honors in the magazine’s rankings which used quantitative data like unemployment rates and commute times as a baseline, but also accounted for readers’ passions for their hometowns.
Canoe & Kayak featured an article titled, “(Next) Best Paddling Towns: Pembroke, VA Exploring the New River Water Trail through Giles County, Va.”
Two New River Valley towns are among the safest places in Virginia, according to BackgroundChecks.org. The public safety focused organization recently ranked the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg on its 2016 list of the 25 Safest Cities in Virginia. BackgroundChecks.org had this to say about Blacksburg and Christiansburg:
#6 Blacksburg “Located in Montgomery County, Blacksburg is a town that has a current population of 42,600 residents. Best known as the home of Virginia Tech, the town was named by Business Week as one of the best places in the U.S. to raise kids and by Southern Living as the Best College Town in the South. The violent crime rate here is 90.6, and residents of Blacksburg have a 1.1% chance of being involved in a property crime.”
New River Valley, VA – Floyd continues to rack up third party recognitions as one of the best towns in the South. Over the past year, it has been featured on lists by USA Today and Southern Living.
In February, Southern Living Magazine named Floyd as one of the South’s Best Small Towns for 2016. Published since 1966, Southern Living highlights the beauty and culture of the growing South and has a reach of more than 23 million people each month. Floyd was among 20 small towns to be featured on its list.
NerdWallet.com has ranked the Town of Pulaski the No. 9 Best Place in Virginia for First-time Homebuyers.
