Liberal Place: Blackburg, VA

...and another comment...

I'm a grad student at Virginia Tech so I thought I'd comment. I really don't get any feelings one way or the other about Blacksburg being liberal-friendly. Blacksburg is certainly not liberal-UNfriendly, but it's no Charlottesville either. On the other hand, Blacksburg does not suffer Charlottesville's notorious reputation of being an elitist town, at least as far as UVa is concerned (I've actually been pleased with the down-to-earth "townies" in Charlottesville). In other words, Charlottesville's/UVa's liberalism seems to be of the condescending "pointy-headed" variety rather than a truly progressive one. Kind of like a cross between Berkeley and Harvard, minus any real and meaningful activism or radicalism. On balance I would have to say Blacksburg is a rather moderate town, although probably the most liberal town in Virginia west of Charlottesville. Remember, Virginia Tech is (obviously) mainly an engineering school, not a hotbed of liberal arts (that's what UVa is for). Thus, politically there really isn't much ideological bent that I see here. The district's congressman, Rick Boucher, is a relatively moderate Democrat (he actually voted with the Republicans to release the Starr report).

One thing that is interesting is that Blacksburg is not like the other town in this nation with a big state school and a corps of cadets: College Station, TX (which has Texas A&M). College Station, as you can find out in the "Liberal Un-friendly" list, is VERY conservative. Virginia Tech's corps of cadets are more or less respected by most (at least it seems so) and fit nicely into the campus without seeming to aggresively impact the political landscape of the school or town. As a side note, it also seems that Virginia's public military academy, VMI (about 90 minutes north in Lexington), has had a relatively trouble-free integration of women into the campus, unlike The Citadel South Carolina.

Blacksburg is also not a terribly diverse place. Not that it's intolerant or racist by any means. Many if not most undergraduates come from the rapidly-diversifying Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia (Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Prince William County, etc.), which as a region ranges from moderately liberal to moderately conservative. However Blacksburg and Virginia Tech remain fairly "white" places (minus the campus, the town is probably 95-99% white), but I don't think minorities would or should be particularly uncomfortable for any reason. The locals are fairly accustomed to having students and faculty of different ethnic backgrounds living, working, and playing in and around town. There are also a lot of foreign students at Virginia Tech. The school has plenty of minority student groups that organize cultural activities and events. I've never felt the least bit concerned in Blacksburg as an Indian-American, although I've been peeved at some secretarial staff for assuming I'm a foreign student (it's more because of their rather benign ignorance rather than racism, per se; there are very few if any graduate students of Indian descent here who are U.S.-born like myself).

Now, I will say that downtown Blacksburg, which is right south and east of campus, is generally a more explicit liberal-friendly area. A prominent landmark is the Lyric Theater, a small art-house-type cinema. There is at least one (probably more) used book store, mom-and-pop cafes/restaurants/coffee shops, and assorted boutique shops, all walkable within a compact, sidewalked area that has a nice small-town main street feel combined with a progressive college-town atmosphere. At the very fringe of what might be considered downtown there is also a small but very good health food store. It's Blacksburg's downtown which reminds me most of many other mildly progressive college towns like Columbia, MO an Bloomington, IN. But as far as campus and town politics go, I really don't see any real ideological edge.

Overall I'd say that Blacksburg is liberal-friendly to the extent that a mildly liberal lifestyle can be pursued or developed here. If you're looking for a more political liberalism, though, I would look to UVa and Charlottesville, but even then it is a more academic rather than an activist liberalism. If you think Blacksburg is the "Berkeley in the Blue Ridge", you'll be sorely disappointed; if you have liberal leanings you'll fit in fine here.