Two years of life in Morgantown, WV. (300 pics)

[whatsthepoint13]

I will continually update this until I leave Morgantown in May!

For about two years now, I’ve lived in Morgantown, West Virginia, a small city, centered around West Virginia University. The city has a population of 29,660, urbanized area population of 111,200, and a metro of 129,709, and growing; this does not count the 30,000+ WVU students. Living here, I have noticed a revival in the urban, historic neighbourhoods, more businesses coming into the central neighbourhoods, new residents, new developments, rehabilitation of abandoned buildings, new construction, and a newfound pride in the city’s grit. Downtown Morgantown’s successful revitalization and the gentrification of the Wharf District has lead to revitalization in surrounding core neighbourhoods and gentrification along the Beechurst corridor, with a signature 9-story mixed-used facility under construction All of which are contributing to the recent renaissance. There has also been recent talks of expanding and updating the PRT system, and Morgantown has just been added to Megabus. The city has been featured nationally for weathering the recession, having a high quality of life, and having the lowest unemployment rate in the nation in 2010. The pictures here are of anything I found interesting at the time, sorry, some will be blurry. I highlight the negatives and the positives. Anyway, this is my city!

[OhioGuy]

Thanks for the extensive view of Morgantown. It certainly seems like a great little city!

[Lakelander]

Thanks for sharing. I've always wondered what Morgantown looked like at street level.

[novaCJ]

What? No couch burning?
In all seriousness, this is a great little town, quite possibly the best in W.Va., it's good to see they are embracing the inner city. It has really changed for the better, as my mother tells me(she attended WVU in the '70's, in the pre-PRT era!)

[Evergrey]

Exhaustive tour of my favorite Big XII city. Especially love photo number 300.

Now we need to get you afield to photograph the quirky delights of Grafton, Philippi and Point Marion.

[whatsthepoint13]

Thanks everyone for the great comments!

Originally Posted by novaCJ

What? No couch burning?
In all seriousness, this is a great little town, quite possibly the best in W.Va., it's good to see they are embracing the inner city. It has really changed for the better, as my mother tells me(she attended WVU in the '70's, in the pre-PRT era!)

There actually is a picture of a burning couch in my riot pics toward the beginning.
And that's great, always nice to hear about a fellow Mountaineer!
Thanks!

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Exhaustive tour of my favorite Big XII city. Especially love photo number 300.

Now we need to get you afield to photograph the quirky delights of Grafton, Philippi and Point Marion.

Thank you very much! I really appreciate that, especially coming from a Pitt fan.
I'd love to go explore, I no longer have a car though. I miss my weekends in Pittsburgh and Charleston.

[Innsertnamehere]

morgantown is truly lucky to have the PRT system. I was amazed when i learned a city of 120,000 had transit in the form of something other than buses!

[Austinlee]

Impressive, quality, educated town. Judging from pictures, having never been to this city I would say it seems like the most vibrant and growing metro in the state of WV.

I gotta take a day trip sometime.

[whatsthepoint13]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Impressive, quality, educated town. Judging from pictures, having never been to this city I would say it seems like the most vibrant and growing metro in the state of WV.

I gotta take a day trip sometime.

Thank you! We are indeed the fastest growing metro in the state of WV (to Charleston's disdain, of course). The vibrancy here is incredible, I've been to big cities that don't have half as much, so Morgantown is lucky.

I plan on continuing to add photos, so here are some new ones!

From my porch this morning:


A surprise I found while on a walk today:


WVU party!:

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by whatsthepoint13

Thank you! We are indeed the fastest growing metro in the state of WV (to Charleston's disdain, of course). The vibrancy here is incredible, I've been to big cities that don't have half as much, so Morgantown is lucky.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...on-growth.html

Report expects Morgantown region to keep growing

Pittsburgh Business Times by Paul J. Gough, Web Producer
Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 1:23pm EDT

A report released Tuesday finds that Morgantown, W.Va., south of Pittsburgh on Interstate 79, has a bright outlook over the next five years.

The Bureau of Business and Economic Research from the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University projected a 1.8 percent annual growth rate between 2012 and 2016. Growth would be due to Marcellus and Utica shale development and other natural resources, along with health care, government and leisure/hospitality.

That growth rate would outpace the 1 percent expected during the same period for the state of West Virginia and 1.7 percent in the U.S.

The Morgantown region increased its employment and economic growth between 2010 and 2011. The growth -- 0.2 percent -- was slower than West Virginia (0.7 percent) or the United States (0.7 percent). But the report noted that the Morgantown region's three-year growth rate of 1.4 percent has been higher than state and national averages.

“Local job growth was relatively slow last year, but that was likely a temporary pause caused by the completion of a large infrastructure project and by the loss of temporary federal government jobs related to the Census 2010 count,” said George W. Hammond, associate director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research in a prepared statement “The forecast calls for the Morgantown MSA to continue to post solid growth in jobs, income and population during the 2012-2016 period, assuming the nation avoids recession.”

[ColDayMan]

Morgantown is always fun.

[whatsthepoint13]

Evergrey, thanks for sharing, that's exciting!

[whatsthepoint13]

PRT:


St. Patty's Day: (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP0Xod-L1Yw for further entertainment)


In the synagogue's parking lot:


The rest are from the Riverfront Park: