Richmond is a town of about 20,000 people, rust belt, some local industry still surviving. It has Earlham College, a Quaker liberal arts college. In terms of "scene", well, from comments here I'm sure all you young urbanite whippersnappers would be disappointed. In terms of sending my daughter to Earlham College for classes at $100/credit hour through the local high school's talented-students program, though, I'm totally pumped. Also the concept of not paying rent or mortgage at all, well -- thank God I can work entirely online, but y'know? This is really working for me.

Yes, the huge is freaking huge. I didn't actually think to look at aerial photography until after I'd bought it. I could probably start my own artist's colony just with the one house. Or hacker colony, whatever the hell that means. I guess with a big enough pipe, that would work out.

See the half-hexagonal bay window structure on the second floor? That's going to be the library.

The neighborhood is mostly blue-collar, mostly rentals now. In the early 1900's, or 1890, when this house was built, it was the Place to be Seen. I'm told there's a slight trend towards gentrification; these houses are truly stunning, and they built them to last.

I guess for the sake of fairness, I should quote city-data.com:

   	 	2007:
  Murders 	0.0
  Rapes 	37.7
  Robberies 	153.5
  Assaults 	255.9
  Burglaries 	1220.1
  Thefts 	3668.3
  Auto thefts	323.2
  Arson 	115.8