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Who Here lives in the best town and why?

my town (coral springs) i herd recently on the news was like the seventh best place to raise kids in the states. If only the news really new about coral springs you know that part of the town is safe but if you go to riverside and ramble wood by the mall its not so nice. lots of crime and thug wanna b's. Oh and you can also buy any drug you could possibly imagine at the mall too, very easy.
 
I used to, but times have changed.

Then: When I first moved here, my family couldn't sit down to dinner because so many neighbors wanted to welcome us to the neighborhood. There was an old fashioned ice cream shoppe a few blocks from where we lived, a pizza parlor, and the field behind our house was regularly used to play baseball.

Now: People have no respect for others. I'm tired of listening to dogs barking all hours of the night and music so loud, I can hear it a block away. The downtown is in ruins. It's nothing but a few struggling shops. It's depressing to look at. It's gotten so bad that one candidate for mayor said he planned to bankrupt the town if he won, and that would have been a good thing.

There are still a few good things left here, but the town is a shade of what it once was.
 
8k here. It fucking sucks. There's nothing to do, except go see one of the 2 movies the theatre is playing.

I suppose it is a great town if you are married with kids, but not when you're 21. Thank god I only have 1 more month til I move back to school.
 
Best for what? If you're looking for one of the best areas to raise a family, then my town would rank very highly. If you're looking for one of the best towns for a 21 year old who had lived in a city all their life, then my town would suck.

Cost of housing is incredibly cheap. One place we almost purchased was a 4 bedroom farm house, with a barn, 114 acres, storage building, garage for tractors, pond, etc. - 90k. Our current place has 18 acres, barn, etc., and was less than half of that 90k. The school system is excellent. Very high graduation rates, excellent scores on state exams.

Now here's the part that will blow your mind - kids actually spend most of their time playing outdoors!

The volunteer fire department has chicken bbq's about once per month. In my life, I've never had better chicken bbq than there. And, the volunteer fire department is incredible at doing their job. I saw them put out a barn fire when the structure was fully engulfed. The entire structure was still standing. It was still a total loss, but most barns burn to the ground when they catch on fire. I witnessed them remove a 100 year old maple tree that had fallen across the road in 5 minutes, including sweeping up the road of all the sawdust generated by the chain saws. A large crew showed up (about 1 minute after the siren went off) and almost without a word being spoken, everyone knew what their particular job was - it was as if this was a competition they had practiced for a thousand times.

Sorry, no movie theaters. No play grounds either. Who needs a playground when you have 1000's of acres of state forest that surround a few small lakes? Excellent greenhouses, lots of fresh baked Amish goods, plenty of places to get fresh produce. Lumbermills if you want to get lumber to build something - a small fraction of the cost of big chain store lumber. Air quality is excellent. In fact, I think I'm going to hit "post quick reply" then go pick a few pounds of blueberries down the street.
 
We've got too many transplants already so I'm not saying. But my property tax is ~$500/yr city and county for a $225K house (fair market value).
 
Best for what? If you're looking for one of the best areas to raise a family, then my town would rank very highly. If you're looking for one of the best towns for a 21 year old who had lived in a city all their life, then my town would suck.

Cost of housing is incredibly cheap. One place we almost purchased was a 4 bedroom farm house, with a barn, 114 acres, storage building, garage for tractors, pond, etc. - 90k. Our current place has 18 acres, barn, etc., and was less than half of that 90k. The school system is excellent. Very high graduation rates, excellent scores on state exams.

Now here's the part that will blow your mind - kids actually spend most of their time playing outdoors!

The volunteer fire department has chicken bbq's about once per month. In my life, I've never had better chicken bbq than there. And, the volunteer fire department is incredible at doing their job. I saw them put out a barn fire when the structure was fully engulfed. The entire structure was still standing. It was still a total loss, but most barns burn to the ground when they catch on fire. I witnessed them remove a 100 year old maple tree that had fallen across the road in 5 minutes, including sweeping up the road of all the sawdust generated by the chain saws. A large crew showed up (about 1 minute after the siren went off) and almost without a word being spoken, everyone knew what their particular job was - it was as if this was a competition they had practiced for a thousand times.

Sorry, no movie theaters. No play grounds either. Who needs a playground when you have 1000's of acres of state forest that surround a few small lakes? Excellent greenhouses, lots of fresh baked Amish goods, plenty of places to get fresh produce. Lumbermills if you want to get lumber to build something - a small fraction of the cost of big chain store lumber. Air quality is excellent. In fact, I think I'm going to hit "post quick reply" then go pick a few pounds of blueberries down the street.

That sounds nice! It doesn't matter what I think is best I wanted hear what everyone else had to say so thank you. Sounds pretty rural where you are now what is the town population and are their jobs available ?
 
That sounds nice! It doesn't matter what I think is best I wanted hear what everyone else had to say so thank you. Sounds pretty rural where you are now what is the town population and are their jobs available ?

If the housing prices are that cheap, I highly doubt there are many if any jobs out there. Sounds like a great place to live if you can work at home or are retired.

DrPizza, what is the name of your town?
 
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That sounds nice! It doesn't matter what I think is best I wanted hear what everyone else had to say so thank you. Sounds pretty rural where you are now what is the town population and are their jobs available ?

he lives in the boonies, its a great area but def the boons

IIRC hes 40 or so miles west of here http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=alfred+ny&sll=42.284929,-77.953835&sspn=0.172715,0.308647&safe=on&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Alfred,+Allegany,+New+York&ll=42.239702,-77.882767&spn=0.345678,0.617294&z=11
 
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Best for what? If you're looking for one of the best areas to raise a family, then my town would rank very highly. If you're looking for one of the best towns for a 21 year old who had lived in a city all their life, then my town would suck.

Cost of housing is incredibly cheap. One place we almost purchased was a 4 bedroom farm house, with a barn, 114 acres, storage building, garage for tractors, pond, etc. - 90k. Our current place has 18 acres, barn, etc., and was less than half of that 90k. The school system is excellent. Very high graduation rates, excellent scores on state exams.

Now here's the part that will blow your mind - kids actually spend most of their time playing outdoors!

The volunteer fire department has chicken bbq's about once per month. In my life, I've never had better chicken bbq than there. And, the volunteer fire department is incredible at doing their job. I saw them put out a barn fire when the structure was fully engulfed. The entire structure was still standing. It was still a total loss, but most barns burn to the ground when they catch on fire. I witnessed them remove a 100 year old maple tree that had fallen across the road in 5 minutes, including sweeping up the road of all the sawdust generated by the chain saws. A large crew showed up (about 1 minute after the siren went off) and almost without a word being spoken, everyone knew what their particular job was - it was as if this was a competition they had practiced for a thousand times.

Sorry, no movie theaters. No play grounds either. Who needs a playground when you have 1000's of acres of state forest that surround a few small lakes? Excellent greenhouses, lots of fresh baked Amish goods, plenty of places to get fresh produce. Lumbermills if you want to get lumber to build something - a small fraction of the cost of big chain store lumber. Air quality is excellent. In fact, I think I'm going to hit "post quick reply" then go pick a few pounds of blueberries down the street.

sounds like where i live (well except for the acres of state forest).

for a family its great. my kids school is 2nd best in county (best is a expensive private school). the local volunteer fire department has fish fry's, fried chicken, breakfast a few times a month. My kids spend far more time outdoors if the weather is not bad (rain is ok. lightening is not) then in.

i know EVERYONE in town (lol not hard considering there are like 300 people). People are willing to help if they can. hell in the winter if i don't have my driveway done out by noon someone will come by and do it for me.

the negatives are no cable TV unless you do satatlite, no broadband unless you do wireless or satalite, police and fire take like 20 min to get here. nearest store is 20 min drive.
 
My town, is about 10,000, less than 20 miles into Victoria, BC, Canada. Loads of great restaurants, very quiet, 5 minutes to Intl. airport, 5 minutes to ferries, and I'm about a block to the ocean.

Close to fairly sizable high-tech market in Victoria, and my company is based out in my town.
 
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I used yo live in Natick, MA. It is now over the 30k population (31K now). I hated living there. It was BORING. My biggest excitement there was getting FIOS.
 
My town has under 2000 people in it. I live less than a block from my post office and 2 blocks from the center of town. We got 4 places where you can get alcohol and no grocery store. My kind of town.
 
Best for what? If you're looking for one of the best areas to raise a family, then my town would rank very highly. If you're looking for one of the best towns for a 21 year old who had lived in a city all their life, then my town would suck.

Cost of housing is incredibly cheap. One place we almost purchased was a 4 bedroom farm house, with a barn, 114 acres, storage building, garage for tractors, pond, etc. - 90k. Our current place has 18 acres, barn, etc., and was less than half of that 90k. The school system is excellent. Very high graduation rates, excellent scores on state exams.

Now here's the part that will blow your mind - kids actually spend most of their time playing outdoors!

The volunteer fire department has chicken bbq's about once per month. In my life, I've never had better chicken bbq than there. And, the volunteer fire department is incredible at doing their job. I saw them put out a barn fire when the structure was fully engulfed. The entire structure was still standing. It was still a total loss, but most barns burn to the ground when they catch on fire. I witnessed them remove a 100 year old maple tree that had fallen across the road in 5 minutes, including sweeping up the road of all the sawdust generated by the chain saws. A large crew showed up (about 1 minute after the siren went off) and almost without a word being spoken, everyone knew what their particular job was - it was as if this was a competition they had practiced for a thousand times.

Sorry, no movie theaters. No play grounds either. Who needs a playground when you have 1000's of acres of state forest that surround a few small lakes? Excellent greenhouses, lots of fresh baked Amish goods, plenty of places to get fresh produce. Lumbermills if you want to get lumber to build something - a small fraction of the cost of big chain store lumber. Air quality is excellent. In fact, I think I'm going to hit "post quick reply" then go pick a few pounds of blueberries down the street.

Yeah but I don't see ANY mention of a Walmart or Taco Bell?!?!??
 
Wauconda, about 12K population.
I love it, there's a LOT of forest preserve in the area, a nice little lake, it's close to the fox river and state parks, and people are friendly. The night life is kinda bleh, but, there is a good bar that's open pretty late (Lindy's Landing), and there are several more quite as fancy (Murphy's Pub for example.) The town invests in all it's various functions throughout the year, 4th of July Fireworks, Waucondafest, live music downtown, very well funded public library, good schools, etc. It is a bit of a "boring" town compared to the city, but it's the perfect place to hang out and have a BBQ with friends. Also, the Blues Brothers scene where they were driving on the beach was filmed in Wauconda. 🙂
Cost of living is affordable, crime is low (I don't really need to lock my door). It's my peaceful refuge in this crazy world.
 
Yeah but I don't see ANY mention of a Walmart or Taco Bell?!?!??

We don't have a Walmart in my town. We don't have a Taco Bell either. In fact, we don't have a Walmart in this COUNTY. The only chain restaurant around is McD's, that's in the village about 6 miles from here. If you want chain restaurant food, you'll have to drive to the city in the next county over; ditto for Walmart - about 25 minutes. Else, you can drive to the largest village in this county, about 35 minutes away for a couple small but common chain restaurants - I think they have a Burger King, McD's, and Pizza Hut. They might even have a Friendly's or something.

Those are more reasons why this town is *better.*

edit: just realized that there's a Subway in the village and another Subway as part of a gas station over the hill in Friendship.

Things that are bad: no broadband, except satellite. No cable television (choices = directv & dishnetwork. Forget about OTA; this is the boonies.) Not a lot of employment opportunities. There's private garbage collection that you have to pay for, else you can just take your trash to a transfer station or the county landfill. Or, burn it if you want. I forgot to mention crime. We went on vacation for a week, didn't lock the front door. I actually was going to, but realized for the first time in 5 years that our door doesn't lock. I'm not sure if the lock has always been that way, or when the lock broke. Keys are left in the ignition fairly often. I think keys are in the ignition of two of the cars now. And, my neighbor is a great shot & aware of what's going on. A fox got one of our chickens around midnight one night. Shot in its tracks as it got to the edge of the road. So, any criminals would have to be sneakier than a fox late at night.
 
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We don't have a Walmart in my town. We don't have a Taco Bell either. In fact, we don't have a Walmart in this COUNTY. The only chain restaurant around is McD's, that's in the village about 6 miles from here. If you want chain restaurant food, you'll have to drive to the city in the next county over; ditto for Walmart - about 25 minutes. Else, you can drive to the largest village in this county, about 35 minutes away for a couple small but common chain restaurants - I think they have a Burger King, McD's, and Pizza Hut. They might even have a Friendly's or something.

Those are more reasons why this town is *better.*

That was my point 😉
I distinctly recall when the small town I grew up in got our first fast food joint (Hardees of all things). heck I recall when the 1st stop-light was installed. Major events!

Now, 25+ years later, its got everything and then some. McDs, Walmart (twice infact... a 2nd larger one was needed), Home Depot, Cousins... you name it. Everythign except a Hardees ironically.

My parents still live there, but its hardly the town I grew up in.
 
Not anymore, but I used to.
Twice actually.

Ridgecrest was great for a lot of reasons, but when I left the Navy no one wanted to hire me.
Eugene was pretty darn nice too, but when Hynix shut down I couldnt find any other jobs. In fact I often wonder what became of that town afterwards.
 
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