View Full Version : Rough Neighborhoods vs. Small Towns - Any Preference?
This kind of goes in line with Jill's thread about the value of loving where you live. Didn't want to hijack that thread...
I grew up about as rural as you can get and find urban settings intimidating. At least urban settings that have high crime rates, gang activity, organized crime, poverty, etc. I understand how people end up in those areas, or for that matter begin in them, without many options to leave. What I don't get is why people who have at least some resources would move into areas like that. It's a safety thing I guess.
My sheltered, mid-western, Wonder Bread view is that I would move to any one of 1,000 tiny little towns before even considering the 'urban wasteland'. No question I could live at least as cheap in a small town. If it is in an agricultural area, like mine, there is no doubt I could find enough work to get by. I'm sure there are supportive communities that form in urban areas, I know there is one in almost every small town. Overall I guess it boils down to my perception that you are less likely to encounter violence in one setting vs. the other and that fits nicely into my picture of quality of life. How about you guys?
Sad Eyed Lady
7-9-12, 10:20am
I agree Gregg. Although I gripe about my small town, (see my post in Jill's tread you mentioned above), with its lack of resources and all the other complaints I have, still I would choose it over the kind of neighborhood you mentioned above. I too am intimidated by high crime, gang activity and so on, and maybe more so as I get older. I believe if this was happening where I lived then I would actively be looking for a way to move.
Unless "small town" includes close-in suburbs, that would be a difficult choice for me, as I don't like isolated burgs or crime-ridden inner city neighborhoods.
My small hometown seems to be turning into just one big rough neighborhood anymore! ... if the local newspaper is to be believed.
Pain pill and meth related crimes are rampant - and it is not being contained to the neighborhood on 'the other side of the tracks' - it is in all parts of town.
It is very sad.
I really want to move back there, but to be quite honest I am really starting to wonder if I do.
Right now I live in a place where the property taxes pretty much function like a gated community fee - I am not too hip on that because my children are not getting a life experience that resembles anything like reality.
But it has the best schools with the most convenient commute near DH's job. Two things that mean a lot to us right now in this phase of life.
We looked carefully to find a place that was a combination of both, avoiding the worst of either one. We are close enough to a city to be able to see a concert, watch a film, go to a lecture occasionally as a special treat....but far enough away that when the sh*t hits the fan we will not be within easy striking distance of the chaos into which most big cities will descend (imho). There is crime almost everywhere, but a little drug-related crime is nothing compared to the 24/7 vigilance needed to live in rougher urban areas. The inner city is no longer for me, I'm afraid. I leave it to those who are more resilient than I, and who still find it culturally stimulating.
I think small towns can really vary in the amount of crime there is. We live in the country, outside a smaller town, and it has very little crime. But its definitely moving this way from the big city that's close by.
But I would never move any closer to town than I live now. I love the country.
Pain pill and meth related crimes are rampant - ...
My understanding from speaking with law enforcement types is that this sort of crime/activity has infested even our "safe" low-population rural areas. It certainly has hit my neck of the woods.
Absolutely. I guess it's easier to run meth labs and conduct business in the outback.
Mtnlaured: ditto about the gated community tax rates--the price of admission is pretty steep. I really bring down the household income average. http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/standart/dance3.gif
Greg, I don't think that rough neighborhood vs small town is an either/or proposition. I certainly know of a few small towns where drugs and drug related problems are more common than my old geezer neighborhood in the city, though they have less gang related violence. I feel relatively safe where I live and it's probably on the border between big city and suburbs.
There is an area on the fringe of the core city where I live that at one time was very rough, but is undergoing gentrification. There are trendy coffee shops and art galleries. Property values have escalated hugely and it is popular with upper middle class professionals. But there is enough of the crime element left to have routine drive by shootings, some random, and break-ins to steal from the more wealthy are common. It remains a mystery to me why people would pay a premium for real estate and then have to live in paranoia.
ApatheticNoMore
7-9-12, 2:39pm
I grew up about as rural as you can get and find urban settings intimidating. At least urban settings that have high crime rates, gang activity, organized crime, poverty, etc. I understand how people end up in those areas, or for that matter begin in them, without many options to leave. What I don't get is why people who have at least some resources would move into areas like that. It's a safety thing I guess.
Frankly it's not for me either. I prefer SUBURBIA. And I would rather RENT somewhere nice than buy in a ghetto even if I could afford to buy, I would rather pay a little more rent than renting in the ghetto as well. And so I do. A little tiny bit edgy I could more than handle and actually LIKE, but I assume you are talking true inner city here, and like I said that is not for me.
My sheltered, mid-western, Wonder Bread view is that I would move to any one of 1,000 tiny little towns before even considering the 'urban wasteland'. No question I could live at least as cheap in a small town. If it is in an agricultural area, like mine, there is no doubt I could find enough work to get by.
yea work to get by maybe, but in the urban setting you can have a professional career (well assuming that's what you want, that is certainly not for everyone either!).
Overall I guess it boils down to my perception that you are less likely to encounter violence in one setting vs. the other and that fits nicely into my picture of quality of life.
Yea but it's not just about violence. Yea I sleep fine in my bed at night. No I don't mind living alone (the layout of these apartments feels very safe). No I never worry about crime (but honestly it's not a thing I'm inclined to worry about anyway). Yes I take walks at 1 am at night sometimes when I feel the urge. No it never disturbs me in the slightest being a female taking a walk at 1 at night. Fear of crime just pretty much never enters my mind. No I don't worry too much about car theft (though I have had them broken into), yes I lock it and insure it against theft nontheless. No I don't worry about theft of my possessions (such as they are - hmpf). But also there are more trees in a nicer neighborhood, there are more parks, it's less polluted. I go to the parks, I fill my lungs with sweet air. That's why it's preferable to an inner city, walks at 1pm at night and a lot of parks to choose from!
I sometimes like to visit cities, but have no desire to live there. I don't want to be always looking over my shoulder, or worrying about my personal safety as a relatively weak, small female. I don't own a weapon or a fierce dog and don't have any martial arts training, so I prefer the relatively safety of my smallish town. We have had some vandalism, but that's it.
Reading Apathetic's thread made me laugh, thinking about taking walks at 1:00am. Where I grew up, you'd be taking your life in your hands doing that. But nowadays, if I were to ponder a walk at 1:00am, I'd think: Mountain lions. Bears. Mother elk with babies. Er, maybe I'll wait 'til morning LOL
Still preferable to me to a place where personal violence by homo sapiens is commonplace......suffered enough of that in this lifetime already, thanks.
I grew up in a small rural town but have lived most of my adult life in large cities. One thing I did not realize until I became an urban dweller was how incredibly varied cities can be. My current, low-crime neighborhood feels more like an affluent suburb (it was, in fact, at one time before the city grew out to meet it) and has very little urban feel but I am a couple of miles from the heart of one of the country's largest cities. As a woman, I am careful about safety precautions wherever I go, country or city, but I don't feel particularly unsafe here. I used to be more nervous driving country roads alone at night when I lived in a small town. Of course, there are some neighborhoods I wouldn't set foot in. In some ways I am safer--for instance, if I were to have a bad accident, the emergency services could have me at a Level I trauma center in just a few minutes. That wouldn't have been an option in my little country town...
I do know that some people are willing to trade for a little rougher neighborhood if they believe the area is gentrifying. It doesn't always work--I know of some people who have gotten stuck--but in other cases people end up in terrific neighborhoods that they could never afford to buy in once the area became popular.
I am a fan of small cities (around 50,000-100,000) that are within an hour of a large city and also have access to the outdoors. I don't like small towns that much. I love to visit them and I get a picture of them in my mind and the picture is pleasant, but the reality is something else. I grew up in a small town and have lived in a few of them and find them a bit too cloistered.
Speaking of small towns and meth, have y'all see Winter's Bone? It really gets into your head. A good movie, but not a happy one by any stretch.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399683/
I've lived in Boston for over 10 years now, and I have no plans of leaving. It really depends on when/where in the city you are. We have problems here like anywhere, but it really depends on what part of which neighborhood you are in.
But I'd chose rural over suburbs, anyday. And whatever you would call the smaller coastal towns about an hour or so north of here - they aren't rural, not suburbs although they have some commuter population. Lived outside of Chicago in the burbs for a bit and didn't like either (although day trips into Chicago with kids were fun). Boston just feels "rightsized" for me.
Honestly, I am able to live in a zip code where the murder rate is in the top 5% worldwide because I am good at denial. Probably that's it.:D
While I truly do not worry about my own safety in our inner city neighborhood, I worry about my dogs. And, if I had children, I wouldn't raise them here. This is good enough for me but not for my kids. That' said, we've got many friends who raised children in this neighborhood and the kids are all grown and are great.
I am a fan of small cities (around 50,000-100,000) that are within an hour of a large city and also have access to the outdoors. I don't like small towns that much. I love to visit them and I get a picture of them in my mind and the picture is pleasant, but the reality is something else. I grew up in a small town and have lived in a few of them and find them a bit too cloistered.
Speaking of small towns and meth, have y'all see Winter's Bone? It really gets into your head. A good movie, but not a happy one by any stretch.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399683/
I like small cities, and midwestern university towns are great (although are not cheap, relative to what's out there in outstate places.)
Winter's Bone was made in MO and Floaton knows some of the people who appeared in the film. It was grim.
I don't see this choice as an either/or. Until about ten years ago, I always lived in suburbia, except for university, which was in artificial environments -- small towns with fewer people in them than the university had students. I strongly prefer urban living. Pretty much every city has just a few bad neighborhoods and a lot of every other kind of neighborhood. Honestly, I think the media hype the bad news because it catches more eyeballs than reporting that life in Smalltown is pretty much the same as it's been every other day this week.
But I like living within walking distance of a choice of medical providers, groceries, restaurants, etc. I like the cultural options available to city-dwellers (as opposed to rural dwellers). And, frankly, I like the diversity of my neighborhood -- a variety of races, creeds, and socioeconomic statuses. Without spilling too much family information, I know my current wife chose to raise her daughter in an urban environment rather than expose her to being a minority in the semi-rural small town in which she herself grew up.
As I mentioned in Jill's thread, there really is nowhere in my city where I'd feel that comfortable walking around at 2 a.m. OTOH, there have been days when I've inadvertantly left the door to the house unlocked and everything was there when I returned. Residents of this neighborhood are around all the time -- retirees home all day, moms home with kids, some night owls, so it's hard to do anything major without people noticing. I help myself by not displaying in my car anything worth taking and I lock it. We notice strange cars and people parking by the empty houses on the block. It doesn't seem like a real burden to me. And, to me, it's worth the quality of life I have here.
It's a safety thing I guess... Overall I guess it boils down to my perception that you are less likely to encounter violence in one setting vs. the other and that fits nicely into my picture of quality of life. How about you guys?
Depends upon how one defines violence. For women, we are statistically most at risk in our own homes being hurt by our spouse/partner. Ditto the risk of sexual assault - our risk is from those known to us. Random stranger violence is rare for both genders.
Far more impactful for me are the tyrannies of few jobs, lousy wages, & dreadful transportation options that sadly exist in most rural areas.
Honestly, I am able to live in a zip code where the murder rate is in the top 5% worldwide because I am good at denial. Probably that's it.:D ....
Ha! We had a murder once. Years ago.
I spent my formative years in a tiny coastal town, miles from anywhere. It was picturesque, but dull--except for gale force winds and the occasional huge carcass washing up on the beach. The gossip/small minds factor was in full force. ("Cloistered" is too kind.) I always figure people living in small towns must drink to keep from going mad. I'm half kidding there. http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/artists/fool/bot.gif
. Overall I guess it boils down to my perception that you are less likely to encounter violence in one setting vs. the other and that fits nicely into my picture of quality of life. How about you guys?
I haven't read the other posts yet so hope I'm not repeating but I think that it often boils down to what part of the city you are living in rather than the general overall city. I've lived in many big cities and many other smaller cities - both that have high crime. I've also lived in the country - which in many ways had an even higher crime rates due to meth labs, etc.. And in each one it was all about location, location, location. This is true of living in the country as well as the city. Every small country town has nice areas - and not so nice areas. When I lived in the country I use to joke that I lived at the corner of Pit Bull Alley and Crack Whore Road - just turn left ate Junked UPed Cars on Blocks Street and Biker Gang Blvd. Same for the city's. They hav nice areas - often gentrified from former more rundown and crime ridden areas, that may border higher crime areas. But those communities themselves are great. Sort of like an old fashion main street with quaint shops , restaurants, coffeee houses, etc... Nice places to spend the day or live in even though they are right next to the rougher parts of town. I personally prefer that to country living - which is pretty dull for me - but I do believe you have a higher chance of encountering crime in a city just because of the sheer number of people there. The larger the number of people, the greater your odds are that there are criminals there too (but then there are many more people to become "victims too so your odds of being singled out for crime are smaller). I would still rather live in a city than the country or suburb, but my choice would be to live in the center of a small city rather than a large one. Burlington, VT or Portland, Maine sized places. Somewhere were I get all the citified stuff, but less people and probably less crime. There would be less urban and suburban sprawl in a small city too so that, within a short distance out of the city, you are in the country. Which doesn't seem as dull when you are just there for awhile :-)!
Also living in a resort or seasonal kind of small town is pretty cool (like a ski resort) is a pretty good place too. Less crime than the cities OR the country, but with much of the city stuff there on a smaller scale, everything compact and realitively close together yet surrounded by wilderness or open spaces. I've lived in one - a 4 seasons mountain, snow skiing, lake resort town and it was a pretty good place. Quiet during the slower seasons, exciting during the higher seasons, nice little cabins clustered near - but not on top of - each other, quaint old timey Main Sreet with all the trendy stuff, good community centers and preforming arts centers and active participation of the towns folks, beautiful lake, hiking and biking trails, everything within walking distance, (although they also had a great bus system that connected all the other mountain towns and even went "down the hill" to the big city), medical centers, libraries, etc... everything you'd get in a city all tucked into a nice valley surrounded by national forests on 4 sides. Of course there really aren't many jobs so not for everyone.
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