Quote:
Originally Posted by Dude
I'm going to hijack this thread a bit here (should I start another?). We're on the other end of things. We have 2 young kids (8 and 2) and looking for basically the same criteria except good schools and provide the kids, outside of schools, opportunities to be good people and find their thing.
We're in a great suburb of Philly with blue ribbon schools and all the things that people look for in a neighborhood. However, it's not for my wife and I. We jokingly call it a "suburban hellscape." The riding is a 4/10 but we have all of our modern conveniences - a trader joes, whole foods, acme and Giant all within 3 miles of us. Rock climbing and choices of youth athletic leagues. A voting district that we politically align with, it's safe, the community is involved, proximity to trains into/out of a major metro city and great neighbors. Really, it's a fantastic place. We just don't like it.
I used to live in Saratoga Springs and am concerned it's a little too insulated from the rest of the world (lack of diversity and/or ability to leave our bubble). Per this thread, I've looked at Northampton too, housing stock seems even more limited than Saratoga right now.
So....would throwing kids into the equation change your answers?
|
I know what you mean, but, as another former Saratoga Springs resident, I dont think it's that isolated, but, yeah, not exactly diverse. It does have a lot of the shopping conveniences you speak of, except I had to go to Albany or Manchester for dress clothes.
I too live in a suburban hellscape that is a wonderful place for families. I bought a condo here because it was cheap after the crash, and I was looking forward to my 70s and beyond when, sorry, I know it's morbid, I may actually need that senior's bus come around to bring me to the supermarket or the senior center, and, yes, the ambulance wont have to travel far to get me to the hospital. (The biking is pretty awesome for NYC metro, too.) We all have fantasies of living in some idyllic place in the country with winding lanes through light traffic hills right out our door, but, the downside to that is isolation at an old age, and the upkeep of the place can be pretty hard, too, with landscaping and snow shoveling alone. How many times have you biked by a home with just an older woman getting the mail out on the road? That's your wife after you pass, and, statistically, she's outliving you easily.
My girlfriend and I are looking for a place to buy together, and both of us have been wowed by country cottages, but, are mature enough to know, eh, pretty far from anything. Maybe suburbia ain't that bad, as long as the biking is good.