Considering Moving to a Small Town

[Mambi]

The letters from the new HOA board members always started with "Your house is not a board approved color, your lawn is all dichondra and you have to keep your garbage cans behind a fence or in an enclosure. Our house was "Lavender Cloud" (very pale lavender) with Navajo White trim. That lawn only needed mowing once a month and it wasn't too water thirsty. We kept the garbage cans beside the garage but in front of the side gate for a reason; the walkway between the house and fence was too narrow for garbage cans. The lawn adn the paint choices were the landlord's choices, not mine. We were on a rent to own contract so I couldn't make changes anyway. A house down the street a few doors was black(!) with bone white trim and deep gray toned shingles. Yeah.

My letter back to them would be far less formal and a LOT more colourful, to say the least! Sheesh...

 

[Chibi-Choko]

The letters from the new HOA board members always started with "Your house is not a board approved color, your lawn is all dichondra and you have to keep your garbage cans behind a fence or in an enclosure. Our house was "Lavender Cloud" (very pale lavender) with Navajo White trim. That lawn only needed mowing once a month and it wasn't too water thirsty. We kept the garbage cans beside the garage but in front of the side gate for a reason; the walkway between the house and fence was too narrow for garbage cans. The lawn adn the paint choices were the landlord's choices, not mine. We were on a rent to own contract so I couldn't make changes anyway. A house down the street a few doors was black(!) with bone white trim and deep gray toned shingles. Yeah.

The worst IMO is the HOAs near lakes. They ALWAYS hog them, saying nobody but the members of the HOA can use it. Even if the lake is in your bloody backyard. :/

 

[Connor J. Coyote]

Hmm.... I thought I replied to this thread some time ago... but I see I didn't, (I guess).

Anyway.... I guess I'll add this, in that - small towns have their positives as well as their negatives, in a lot of ways.... and the same is true for living in the big city, (where I am). I've lived in both, and I can say that based on my experiences there's some drawbacks to each way of living.

Smaller communities can mean lesser convenience usually; and less options for services if you may need them in these places. Bigger cities offer more options for things that one may need (like better transportation, more community services, etc)..... but - can come at a price also, with a higher cost of living and more urban problems (like crime, blight, safety concerns).

And so, it's kind of a trade off either way, I think..... unless one can find a semi-large small town that may have elements of both..... (big city convenience and a small town vibe).... and in those places, sometimes that's the ideal way to live for many.

 

[Shyy]

So, "Suburbia" for alot of folks, might be the ticket.

 

[Baron Tredegar]

I live in a small town thats about 30 minutes from a city. It has mostly cons. High crime rate, racism, poverty, basically the stereotypical small town in the Deep South. On the bright side I live on the edge of town more in the rural area and my family has a decent sized chunk of land that we've had since the end of the Revolution.

 

[Kellan Meig'h]

The worst IMO is the HOAs near lakes. They ALWAYS hog them, saying nobody but the members of the HOA can use it. Even if the lake is in your bloody backyard. :/

I have family that live on a lake (or what's left, it's drying up with the Cali drought) and they would agree; nothing but 'tards on the board. The lake has a public launch but they seem to think it's not a public lake. Homeowners in pontoon boats harass fishers on a regular basis. One group of fishermen have resorted to retaliation; They put a cheap yellow nylon rope on a float that one end is anchored about one hundred feet away from them and the other end right by their boat with home made anchors. Pontoon boat comes to harass, gets too close, gets a propeller full of that nylon rope. What makes it tough to remove is the heat from the friction as it winds up around the prop shaft melts it together. The prop needs to be pulled to remove the rope. The homeowners are always putting up signs like "No Fishing" "Private Lake" "No Internal Combustion Engines" "No Water Skiing" "Speed Limit 5 M.P.H." "No Fishing Within The Subdivsion" "No Bank Fishing" and other things like that. The lake and fifty feet of shoreline from the common water line actually belongs to the county and the only ordinances are in line with state regulations except a 45 M.P.H. speed limit. The Fish and Game wardens patrols the lake and takes down their signage as quickly as they put it up.

Hmm.... I thought I replied to this thread some time ago... but I see I didn't, (I guess).

Anyway.... I guess I'll add this, in that - small towns have their positives as well as their negatives, in a lot of ways.... and the same is true for living in the big city, (where I am). I've lived in both, and I can say that based on my experiences there's some drawbacks to each way of living.

Smaller communities can mean lesser convenience usually; and less options for services if you may need them in these places. Bigger cities offer more options for things that one may need (like better transportation, more community services, etc)..... but - can come at a price also, with a higher cost of living and more urban problems (like crime, blight, safety concerns).

And so, it's kind of a trade off either way, I think..... unless one can find a semi-large small town that may have elements of both..... (big city convenience and a small town vibe).... and in those places, sometimes that's the ideal way to live for many.

@Connor J. Coyote - I think you still live in the SF Bay Area. If so, you know my old hometown, Fremont. AC Transit, the bus lines, are a joke. There are neighborhoods that are more than a mile from the nearest bus stop. A bus ride from Fremont Blvd and Central Ave down to South Grimmer Blvd and one block south of Auto Mall Parkway. 5.5 miles. Almost two hours by bus, you have to change buses twice. I could ride my bicycle there in maybe forty-five minutes in commute traffic.

Fremont has almost nothing to do for entertainment. They have some movie theaters but that's it. Well, restaurants, if you call that entertainment. All other forms of entertainment are now gone, being replaced by three story "Stack 'em And Pack 'em" common wall housing. As far as social services go, Fremont was sorely lacking. You had to go to Union City for a number of things, since Fremont City Council didn't particularly care for any form of Outreach Programs.

 

[rekcerW]

Idk I live a bit better than 20min outside of the city I grew up in. The window in my living room overlooks the fields of some farmer family that has been around since before me... My neighbours are kickass people and we have great times all the time cause it was impossible not to meet them because our backyards are pretty much stacked on top of eachother lol; I would never be scared at all of living in the middle of fucking nowhere full-time, though. My work has kept me in those kind of places, middle of nowhere kind of shit and I love it.

I love being by myself all the time to a fault lols, it'd be pretty kickass to me to just have a wicked house in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully somewhere there's a whole bunch of wolves living around, it's my goal to live somewhere like that someday and just grab a camera and follow them around. Argh that'd be so much fun, just documenting the lives of some pack of wolves somewhere in the middle of nowhere haha

 

[Connor J. Coyote]

@Connor J. Coyote - I think you still live in the SF Bay Area. If so, you know my old hometown, Fremont.

Well, actually I don't..... and I'm only basing my responses on here as a reflection of my own experiences and my own opinions; and so - results may certainly vary, as far as an individual's needs and experiences go...... like: getting adequate transportation, affordable housing, and so on..... and so, what's "good for the goose isn't always good for the gander".... and others are certainly free to disagree.

But, as far as my own experiences go, (in the communities I've lived in, at least) - my posting above is what I think the dynamics at work are, in the various sized places I've lived in.

 

[Kellan Meig'h]

Well, actually I don't..... and I'm only basing my responses on here as a reflection of my own experiences and my own opinions; and so - results may certainly vary, as far as an individual's needs and experiences go...... like: getting adequate transportation, affordable housing, and so on..... and so, what's "good for the goose isn't always good for the gander".... and others are certainly free to disagree.

But, as far as my own experiences go, (in the communities I've lived in, at least) - my posting above is what I think the dynamics at work are, in the various sized places I've lived in.

Well, Fremont doesn't have affordable housing. At All. This is the same for any place in the Bay Area that would be safe enough to live in. There are software engineers and web developers that live in motor homes because housing is not affordable. That's why we left the Golden State.

 

[Connor J. Coyote]

Well, Fremont doesn't have affordable housing. At All. This is the same for any place in the Bay Area that would be safe enough to live in. There are software engineers and web developers that live in motor homes because housing is not affordable. That's why we left the Golden State.

Well, (I should add from yesterday) that, I *have* heard of Fremont, (I got a few messages about that, yesterday from other people)..... *but* I've never really gone there, or spent any significant time there.

I live on the other side of the Bay, for starters.... but I do know it's on the BART line, about an hour away from my city, but.... we don't really know anyone down there and there's no reason for us to go there for anything.... and so - I'm a little uninformed about the local concerns/issues that people may have that live there.... versus the city where I live.

But in any case - the affordable housing issue has been a constant concern in this area, for many years, (for now decades actually)... and so, this is no surprise.... and it's a very well-known gripe people have, and has affected many people. But let's be honest, also......in that: a semi-bucolic middle class neighborhood (away from the inner-city social problems) - does come with a price also..... (at least in our region anyway)..... and so, one can't really complain either - that rents in places like Orinda or Walnut Creek are high; as obviously, in places like this - that should probably be expected, where the average house goes for about $ 3 Million.

But with that said - affordable places can still be found for those of us who can and are willing to live in semi-urban environments, where yes - big city problems can be seen/experienced...... like: (homelessness, blight, semi-unsafe areas), etc.

No place is perfect... and so, it's a bit of a trade off also I think..... where there's drawbacks to each way of living.
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Btw: I've lived in both a small town of less than 6,000 people...... as well as the big city now, where there's nearly one million people.... and, I can honestly say that our lives are a bit easier living here, and have improved..... versus living back there, where life was a lot harder for us.

 

[Haydn Iles]

My brother is relocating in another city in September. I am helping him with the moving. We are thinking about hiring a moving company or private movers. I've came across with some expomovers warnings, and now I'm afraid of running into scammers. Tell me about your personal experience. Did you have any trouble with cheap movers? And if there is any point in overpaying?

 

[Shyy]

Only thing that I can offer for looking at a company is to do your research, throughly!!! We had a company move us and several of my wife's larger items ,including a Yamaha keyboard came up missing. Photograph <everything>, make them sign as it being present during a walk through! Also, keep your copy of the papers and make DAMN sure the inventory matches!