12 Most Hated Southside Virginia Towns — Locals Ranked Them Themselves

Get The Virginia Retirement Guide ⬇️ https://virginiaretire.com #SouthsideVirginia #VirginiaTowns #SmallTownAmerica Forget the tourism boards. Forget the real estate listings. Forget my opinion. The most honest ranking of Southside Virginia's towns comes from the people who actually live in them. This list comes from digging through the overlooked corners of Southside Virginia, the old tobacco, textile, furniture, and railroad belt along the North Carolina line, hunting for what residents really say about their own hometowns. Not a tourism brochure. The real thing. Star ratings from residents. Hard numbers next to every one. What you'll find in this video: A city where a single textile mill once employed more than 14,000 people, in a place of only 40,000. A college town that lost its college. A city that gave up being a city. And a factory town where unemployment once hit 18.7 percent. These 12 towns won't show up on any brochure. That's exactly why their stories matter. 🏘️ TOWNS FEATURED (with resident ratings from Niche and how many people voted) Clarksville, Virginia — no town rating found; Mecklenburg County rated 3.29 stars out of 5 by 17 residents Chase City, Virginia — no town rating found; same county score, 3.29 stars from 17 residents Kenbridge, Virginia — no resident rating found; population fell from 1,316 in 2000 to 1,105 in 2020 Victoria, Virginia — 3 stars out of 5, from only 6 reviews Halifax, Virginia — 2.75 stars out of 5, from only 4 reviews Crewe, Virginia — 2.71 stars out of 5, from 7 reviews Lawrenceville, Virginia — 2.5 stars out of 5, from only 4 reviews Emporia, Virginia — 3.47 stars out of 5, from 19 reviews South Boston, Virginia — 3.2 stars out of 5, from 46 reviews Franklin, Virginia — 3.17 stars out of 5, from 12 reviews Martinsville, Virginia — 3.13 stars out of 5, from 80 reviews Danville, Virginia — 2.97 stars out of 5, from 174 reviews 📌 WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER What residents actually write about their own towns, the harsh reviews and the warm ones The jobs that disappeared: Dan River Mills closing in 2006, about 1,100 paper mill jobs lost in Franklin, and the railroads that left Victoria and Crewe How Lawrenceville lost about 30 percent of its population in a single decade after Saint Paul's College closed in 2013 Why South Boston became the first Virginia city to give up being a city, in 1995 📍 SOUTHSIDE VIRGINIA QUICK FACTS Southside is the old tobacco, textile, furniture, and railroad belt along the North Carolina line When those industries collapsed, the tax base went with them The ratings come from Niche, a national review site where residents grade the place they live Several of these ratings rest on a handful of reviews, and ratings change; only the top five towns have enough reviews to carry real weight 🚀 KEY TAKEAWAY None of these towns failed. Each one was built to do a job, and did it well for a hundred years or more, until the jobs were taken away by decisions made in boardrooms far from Southside Virginia. Even the angriest reviews were written by people who stayed. What the residents are really saying is not stay away. They are saying, do not forget us. — 🔔 Subscribe to [CHANNEL NAME] for weekly videos on Virginia's overlooked towns, the places the brochures leave out, and the real stories behind them. 👉 Which Southside Virginia town surprised you the most? Drop a comment and let us know. 👉 Live in one of these twelve towns, or left one? Tell us what we got right and what we got wrong. #SouthsideVirginia #VirginiaTowns #SmallTownAmerica #Virginia