On a statewide basis, this shows Iowa ranks 8th nationwide for middle schools.
http://www.swivel.com/data_columns/spreadsheet/2595121

And Iowa ranks approx #4 for high school graduation rates. http://www.swivel.com/data_sets/show/1005906

Here is another listing that shows Iowa as #8 of 50 states.
http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank03.htm

Been there, done that, lived in LA, Phoenix, and now reside in a town of 14,000 in southern Indiana. I make twice what I made when I was in LA here. I feel LOADS safer. I know my neighbors. I have access to all of the culture of a Big 10 university (20 miles) and am within one hour of major medical centers in Louisville and Indianapolis--not to mention, I work every day in a hospital. I have personal relationships with many of the local doctors.

I have $135K in my house--which is average for this town. We're comfortable. The mayor is a personal friend. My children attend the public schools with no seeming ill-effects. :)

I love a small town....

For ACT test scores, Iowa ranks 3rd in the nation. http://www.dubuque.k12.ia.us/ACT/

And Iowa ranks #1 in the nation for SAT test scores.

vivian31, your small town is not small.

Diagonal is small

Mount Ayr is small

Anything over 5,000 is not small.

It's not large. But it's not a small town.

Says the woman who lives in a neighborhood where a single block would hold more than the town of Diagonal.

Having grown up in a part of the world where the COUNTY SEAT has only 1,700 people, I find this to be a pet peeve of mine, the use of the term "small town" to apply to what are really large towns, or small cities.

Creston, Iowa, has almost 8,000 people in it. I never considered it to be a small town. I had friends who went to school there, and there were people in their "town" they had never met. Therefore, that's not a small town.

what's great about stats, is that they always conflict..
Iowa vs National
Graduate / Professional Degree: 6.5% --8.9%
Bachelor's Degree: 21.2% -----24.4%

income declining in Iowa and poverty level shows very slight increase, another reason young people are fleeing

Here is a link that might be useful: economic view

We made a mistake and moved to Iowa several years ago in search of an inexpensive house in a small rural town.

Oh, what a horrible experience that was. We are so glad to be gone. Do we miss the smell of the hog lots, ethanol plants, meth labs, and moldy businesses? Nope - we sure don't.

Do we miss the co-workers we worked with in Iowa who came to work drunk, high, or constantly late (if they showed up at all)? Nope, not at all.

Congratulations to all the Iowans who are leaving the state. Glad you are giving yourselves a chance for a nice life because it will never happen in Iowa.

Those houses are cheap for a reason. Nobody wants to live there.

This posts cracks me up. Lots of views and in my experience, all are correct. I live in a suburb of Des Moines and yes, they have suburbs even though the city is small. I lock my doors, windows too, car even if in driveway (we do have a meth problem here along with our great schools!)

I moved here from Pittsburgh, PA and Scotch Plains, NJ. I was a big snot about having to move to hickville (Allegheny County PA had more people than the entire state of Iowa the year I moved here.) Surprise, surprise, I never moved away. Lots of people do but it still surprises me how many yearn to be back to the slow pace of life here. So long as you can afford vacations (particularly to warm places in winter) it is an OK place to live and not all unlike where you all probably live...

I don't think any car manufacturers will be looking here soon but Google is opening up a data center here. Iowa is looking to be more of a high-tech state...but yes, there are cows right around the corner of my subdivision...I can hear them moo on a good day...and the largest building in Des Moines is only 44 stories...but it really is OK.

Now, I would never move to Diagonal! I don't even know where that is!! LOL!

Here is a link that might be useful: To Get Ahead in Life you must make sacrifices - or live in Iowa

This posts cracks me up. Lots of views and in my experience, all are correct
Yes, isn't it funny we all see things differently, but I certainly don't hope for the death of the millions of people who have chosen a different lifestyle.

i hope the quote about california and natural disasters was a weak attempt at humor,but talk about inappropriate comments..

whenicit, take 169 south to highway 2, go west about 7 miles, and turn back north for about 5.

Or take the railroad, and hop off as soon as the track turn to go on the diagonal....

(or get on the "high and dry" in Creston--"the high and dry" being a local name for a country highway--though to me, "county highway" still sounds like an oxymoron)

Thanks talley_sue_nyc....is it on the way to anywhere? I will take a Sunday drive someday...

"OTOH, when I fell and broke my leg .... I had to crawl halfway across the backyard, up two flights of stairs, and halfway across the house to where my cell phone was recharging!

A call brought me help in less than 20 minutes. But believe me, I SERIOUSLY thought about just lying there and waiting for someone to find me, because I just knew it was going to hurt like the dickens to crawl all that way to the phone. Trouble was, even in the midst of the city, my neighbors were both at work and wouldn't be back for hours!"
-------------------------------

Being close to neighbors that are home doesn't always help. I live in a low crime area in what the people here consider an upscale neighborhood but...a middle aged woman (this really happened) can ring their doorbell (of 2 neighbors) as a medical emergency is occuring, they will stare out their window and never answer the door. (so much for the value of "good" neighbors)

As for medical help..it is a roll of the dice. You can literally walk in a hospital with a minor problem (broken bone) and you may leave in a box. That happened to my friend 2 weeks ago. Some time back, I actually warned him that could happen. Yes, you want to live close to a hospital but all it takes is ONE incompetent in a chain of events and you will soon be at room temperature. Who checks on the stats and staff of a hospital before moving into a neighborhood?

Or you can be like me, I wouldn't have that problem, I don't have a backyard, just an alley behind my house, if I fell down in my front yard, someone would surely see me, people walk by all day. I guess there are advantages to close living that I never thought of before.
Reminds me of when the neighbors dog fell out their second floor window, within seconds people were running to help and took the dog to the hospital, the owners weren't home, but strangers walking by assumed the responsibility and cost to care for the dog.
I should add, our neighbors are very close, the street in front is just a narrow pedestrian street, no cars, only walkers. Not for everyone, but I love it.

>>a middle aged woman (this really happened) can ring their doorbell (of 2 neighbors) as a medical emergency is occuring, they will stare out their window and never answer the door. (so much for the value of "good" neighbors) Oh, I can absolutely believe this. My MIL now lives with us, and she refuses to open the door to ANYONE, even the postman. It's been over a year and she still can't even get our neighbor's name right, LOL! However, we've lived in our neighborhood for 17 years, and know not only both our neighbors on either side but most of the folks on the entire block. It's a nice change, actually from living in San Francisco proper where in 17 years we hardly even knew our fellow apartment neighbors! Amazing what a difference it is yet we're only across the Bay Bridge from SF.

Congratulations to all the Iowans who are leaving the state. Glad you are giving yourselves a chance for a nice life because it will never happen in Iowa.

Iowa is a great place to live. I've moved here twice. The first time with my x dh as a very young bride. The second time with my new DH because I chose to.

I live in a very well educated area of Iowa. The university of Iowa is 25 miles from us. We have great hospital(s and a great educational system at our disposal. Our school district is one of the best small districts in the nation. BTW, after review of the best school listings above it's apparent they are all "metro" kind of districts with a bigger population base. Although there is no indicator of such it seems apparent that small districts were left out of the mix. Of the districts listed on the above list all were in this area, the Iowa City - Cedar Rapids corridor. Iowa is noted for its educational system and quite proud of it. So much so that the state quarter depicts a school house.

I can't speak for other areas of Iowa as I've only lived in this area, however, the job base is pretty diverse and the unemployment rate is low. Both DH and I work for fortune 550 companies, mine at 12; DH's at 542 but who's counting huh? Benefits for both are outstanding, and salaries are great. Not sure where the ex Iowan worked but it was obviously not at either of the companies we are employed at. My company hires 3% of those who apply so likely they'd have been weeded out at the first interview or even the application process. Perform any less than expected or anticipated and you are a "no longer with the company" employee. For myself, Warren Buffett is a great although demanding boss. :~)

Housing IS relatively inexpensive. DH and I took our first and last months rent and deposit from Northern Cali and put a down payment on our first home in Iowa. We have since sold that property but own two others. One outright and one with a nasty mortgage. Housing prices continue to climb in this area. It won't ber long until they are comparative to everywhere else. I can't speak for Diagonal though, I've never heard of it.

What Iowa could use is a professional team of any kind. The poor Hawkeyes could use a dose of reality. I don't much care for winter, but I suppose you have that most places. I also am not a huge fan of tornados. I much preferred earthqakes. No warning, a good shake and you're done. Equal damage spread throughout your neighborhood. The dread of watching a radar is worse by far. I think some more entertainment is in order as well here. It's kind of boring. I doubt that we'd do anything anyway as we've been in construction mode for the last 4 years since the purchase of this home.

I do sometimes wish I could drive down the street and be at Menards or Lowes. It takes us 25 minutes to get there, however, I remember driving in Los Angeles and having it take 25 minutes to go 10 miles instead of 25 miles. It's all the same. I don't have the patience or endurance for traffic. Driving around Atlanta two years ago, I developed a new appreciation for Iowa driving. I may have to manuever around an Amish buggy or a combine from time to time but it beats the bejeebers out of 10,000 of my closest neighbors all trying to get to the same place.

So, Landrover, pardon me if I don't put a lot of stock in your statement. I have found quite a bit of success and happiness here in Iowa. Good luck to you wherever you are now. I'm glad you are so much more sucessful there.

terrig, you must be in vicksburg. i am north of you in Greenville. like i said, if i was in town i could not leave my house unlocked when gone, but outside town where we live eveyrone watches out for each other.

my wife's uncle borrowed my garden tractor a while back. he brought it back while we were at work. he wanted to put it in my shop because he did not feel comfortable leaving it outside with the key in it. anyway he was trying to jimmy the lock, i can do it in under a second, and next thing he knows he has a gun to his head asking just WHAT does he think he is doing. he turned around and it was a Deputy Sheriff standing there. he tried to explain what he was doing and who he was, but the deputy called me on my cell phone to verify it. The funniest part is my wife's uncle is the Assistant Chief of Police and was in uniform! teh deputy told him he did nto care if he was the President, he knew me and knew i was not home and until he talked to me he was prepared to go forward with an arrest for attempted burglary!

davidandkasie: "yep, small town pricing is cheap"

Depends on where the small town is located....here in rural NJ, the deer outnumber the humans in our town of less than 4500...spead over about 40 square miles.

However, if one earns 50K and has 4 kids.....one qualifies for affordable housing...as the median home price here is at about 500K....with property taxes up the wazoo.

Small is not the only criteria for cheap. Once again, its location, location, location....and, of course, how crooked the State government is...and in that respect, NJ seems to take the prize...

NJ crooked?? nah, really??? lol....To be a politician in NJ, the 1st requirement is to understand how a bribe works..

You are so correct logic, many small towns in good locations are very expensive. Small does not equal "cheap" or crime free. Every state has the good and bad cities, big and small.

"Great schools in Iowa? Here is the top 1300!!! High schools in the country, and there are a total of 4!!!! from Iowa, ouch!!!!"

That's all based on a certain set of criteria and most of the schools in that listing are from more populated areas. Look how many schools from the Midwest overall are on that list...quite a few. I think if you did a comparison of test scores, graduation rates, and the like, you'd find Iowa schools are ranked higher than most other states. I know lots of people who move here just so their kids can get a great public school education.

I don't make a six-figure salary, but I get nearly 10 weeks of paid time off a year, including vacation, sick leave, and holidays, and my company pays 12% of my salary into my 403b. My husband also doesn't make six figures but his vehicle is entirely paid for by his company, everything from gas to new tires. He also has a great deal of paid time off each year. Maybe this doesn't mean much to you, but we value the generous time off over money. You can always earn more money, but you can never get time back.

DavidandKasie: No, I am not in Vicksburg. I'm just west of the Quad Cities in a town of 30,000 on the Mississippi (don't really care to disclose it since this is a public website).

Like I said, Iowa is not for everyone, and that's perfectly fine with me. I'd much rather look out my office windows and see smog-free clear blue sky than concrete and skyscrapers any day.

I agree with Talley Sue, 50K people is not a small town. I live in CT, my city has 35K people. There are no sky scrapers. I'm two hours from Boston, two hours from NYC, which is convenient. I don't lock my doors, I don't even have keys for them. I could never live somewhere where all I saw was fields stretching on forever. I like winding roads and hills, and if I drive south, the ocean.

"anyway he was trying to jimmy the lock, i can do it in under a second, and next thing he knows he has a gun to his head..." Well, now, that scares the crud out of me. Then again, since I don't lock my doors, people don't risk their lives fiddling with locks when they can just open the door.

Some people love the city life, can't stand miles of open field, for others, that is utopia.

lorrainebecker,

I'm laughing reading your post. It must be a CT thing...I also don't have keys to anything but the front door which we don't use. I would be confounded to return home & find my doors locked. lol

/tricia

Talley Sue, I've got to challenge your statement that NYC lacks services for seniors. Take a look at this:

http://cscs-ny.org/memberorgs-queens.shtml

NYC is well-served by public transit, and some neighborhoods (and even some buildings) are Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs). I'm always amused to hear my mother talk about which Brighton Beach senior center she chose for lunch that day -- the one where lunch is 75 cents but she doesn't like the crowd, or the one where lunch is $1.00. Or the third one, I forget what it costs and who goes there.

Obviously NYC is a tough place to move into nowadays. But if you're already there, you can certainly grow old in place.

Most folks in this area don't lock doors...or cars for that matter....and, crime here is almost non-existent...when it does occur, it is generally petty, with bodily harm invariably the result of a dispute btween people who know each other...

However, in Bloomsbury...a tiny little town of 1 square mile with less than 1000 residents in Hunterdon County NJ, a North Carolina truck driver, who was "hunting people", parked at the nearby truck stopÂÂ.walked to town...tried doors until he found one unlocked, and murdered the poor woman sleeping inside...
He was caught in Mass. while attempting to rape a 13 year old girl in her bedroom to which he gained access by an open window with a screen..

As a born and bred NYC girl, I have always engaged in the habit of a lifetime and have always locked everything all of the time...and most neighbors find it kind of funny...in a country folk vs. city folk kind of way...

After the above horror, I think quite a few more folks are locking their doors these days.

I'm laughing reading your post. It must be a CT thing...I also don't have keys to anything but the front door which we don't use. I would be confounded to return home & find my doors locked. lol

I had that problem here in CA, when I listed my house for sale, I realized I had no key for a lockbox. I had to call a locksmith to change the lock so I could have a lockbox.
Also, in this house my brother dog sat at my house, leaving and locking the doors, but I didn't have a key, finally found a window to climb in.

My mother took to locking her doors in Mount Ayr. After some money went missing.

I live in NYC now, in Queens, and I will not be old here.
Those services are too hard to find, too hard to administer, too harsh, too impersonal.

I will not be old here. I don't know where I'll go, but it won't be here.

East coast or west coast but nothing in between for me,lol....And to harken back on Iowa, if the place is so great and schools so terrific, why do young adults leave shortly after college? Why has the median income level decline, and was has the poverty level increased,though not terribly so...Simple, not many well paying jobs, and if you're going to spend big $$$ to attend college, you don't want to come out making less then 30k a year to start

Don't lock doors much here either. I have keys to everything, but I'll be darned if I really know which one fits which door...LOL Trust me when I say that my neighbors know EVERYTHING that goes on around here--which ain't much, FWIW.

IMO, small towns have ONE very distinct advantage-they're great for raising children! All five of my kids were raised in a small town in IL, and three have already left to get out of the fast pace of CA, and remove the influnces that come with it. Of course small towns have booze, drugs, and maybe even gangs, but people look out for other people. If they see a kid they know doing something they shouldn't, there's a good chance the parents are going to hear about it.

As for crime, it happens, everywhere. People pass thru cities and towns, or may even live there, and you never know when OR where some mentally deranged idiot is going to 'let loose'. I keep my doors locked living in a large city, but also kept them locked living in a small town. Why set yourself up for a target or 'tempt fate'?

To put it simply, everything looks greener, or better, on the OTHER side of the fence.

Well, I spent a few years in a small town when I was a kid...ages 9 through 12, to be exact. That town was Ely, Nevada.

We lived in a house originally built in the late 1890's for a family with 11 daughters, according to town legend. It was built into the side of the mountain. We lived in half the house & Dad ran his business out of the other half.

I loved living in Ely. It was a great place to be a kid. I loved the mountain lions & wild horses. That's where I got my first horse...from the annual roundup...I named my colt Flintstone. There were 'gypsies' who lived in wagons on the outskirts of town. Us kids were forbidden to go near...so, of course, we did. I loved the music & pretty, brightly colored clothes the women wore. We'd lie on our stomachs at the top of the hill & watch the dancing & singing when we were supposed to be tucked in our beds sound asleep.

My Mom hated living in Ely. We'd moved there from SoCa. In Ely, Mom had to cook on this huge coal stove. Our only hot water came from the water tank on the side of the stove. (This was late 1950s to early 1960s.) Our food pantry was earthen & built into the side of the mountain. Did I mention how much I loved being there as a kid?

I got an allowance every Saturday. Saturdays were important days in Ely. We had a radio station that was on-air from 8 a.m. until noon. That's it. I have fond memories of listening to the music on Saturday mornings.

My dog went to school with me. We inherited her with the house. Her previous owners couldn't keep her so she stayed with us. We quickly became best friends. She was a black mutt & I loved her dearly.

I spent my weekly allowance sneaking into the Bank Club by the side door & playing the slot machines. Some weeks, I could buy a soda every day after school. Other weeks, I couldn't afford anything. :) The pit boss would sometimes chase us out of the casino but only half-heartedly knowing we'd sneak right back in. Even the drug store had a couple slot machines.

Then, there was the Hotel Nevada. There was a brothel on the fourth floor. Even as kids we knew what THAT was. On the hallway walls, there was a huge mural of Ely that was famous around the county. Supposedly, it was painted by somebody famous but I can't remember who. My Mom didn't like the brothels. lol She would tsk, tsk every time they came up in conversation which seemed like a lot. I have a postcard of my Dad at the hotel's casino reaching into his back pocket for his wallet standing at the craps table. He just 'happened' to be there when the photographer came through doing publicity photos for the postcards.

There were many brothels in town. The 'ladies' often did babysitting for town families. Kinda weird sounding to me now as an adult? Didn't seem weird when I lived there. We could always tell them downtown also. They were the ones wearing the silver bangles stacked up 20 deep on both arms. I can still hear the jingle of those bracelets that I coveted as a ten year old. My Methodist mother was quite offended, I think. I wish she would have lived long enough for me to ask her about it? :)

Ely was 250 miles north of Las Vegas by dirt road (well, the first 50 miles out from Vegas were paved). We had a JC Penney catalogue store, a Woolworth's Five & Dime; the county high school, a drive-in movie open only sporadically during the summer; and the largest copper mines (located in neighboring Ruth) in the US. That would be Kennecott Copper. The trains cars full of copper ore would rumble through Ely on their way from the mines in Ruth to the smelting furnaces in McGill.

I took my DH & son to Ely when my son was fifteen. We were able to find my overgrown path up the mountain to my tree house. It's remains are still there up in the scrub oak. It brought tears to my eyes to stand there remembering. My son climbed up but the wood would no longer support a kid seeking privacy. It was a cool thing to do...taking my son there. We stayed awhile looking & listening for the sounds of either a mountain lion or a wild horse but nothing appeared. I was glad I have pictures of the lions & horses to prove their existence.

Anyway, growing up in small-town America is a varied experience. I would have loved to raise my son in Ely...despite the brothels. It's a cool place. If you're ever in Vegas & bored...just ask anybody local, "Which way to Ely?" & take an excursion. It's a memorable little American town even today.

/tricia

I just Googled & learned that the 'famous' murals were painted by Larry Bute & the hotel was designed by the same guy who designed the Eiffel Tower & the Taj Majal. Small world...

/t

"Would I go to see all those wonderful things offered? No because I don't want to fight the traffic. If I'm going to stay home and be bored I might as well do it for half the price LOL!
If California is so great why do Californians keep making everyone else miserable by moving out to other states?
Mary

waving bye bye to Cmarlin as an earthquake, fire or tsunami takes California (we can only hope!)"

That's putting out some bad 'joo-joo' Mary. Hope it doesn't come back and bite *you* in the butt.

I'm not a 'native' but only came to 'reside' for a few years when the ex DH took a job transfer. After 24 years I feel the need to leave, but don't feel i'll be making anyone miserable when I make that move to Austin~it's all in *your* perception.

I think you owe cmarlin an apology as 'you can only hope an earthquake, fire, or tsuami' take him off the face of the earth~shame on you!

The one *really* good thing that did come out of living in CA is 4 out of my 5 children were able to attend Scripps Ranch HS, ranked 223~YES! ;o)

I used to want to live in a small town until I spent 4 years of college in Niagara Falls (which is my idea of a small town); it cured me of the idea of leaving NYC.

I wish you all who are talking up the small towns would do it a little louder. I would really appreciate it if the transplants who are clotting up my otherwise pleasant NYC neighborhood the past few years would go back to those small towns they're from. I'll vote for the candidate who will institute a competency test - how to walk on a narrow sidewalk (NOT 4 abreast, 3 is pushing it), how to walk your dog (curb your dog means the street curb, not the curb around the house gardens and pick it up) ... I'll stop now.

I too will disagree about services for the elderly. My parents (84 and 83 years old) who live in Brooklyn spend a morning once a week at bridge lessons at the local senior center and stay for lunch ($1). Last night she went to Carnegie Hall by subway to see Aida - a senior deal $20 for a $100 orchestra ticket. The performance ended at 11pm and she came home alone on the subway - the subway was crowded; he met her at the station. She often goes to morning rehersals at Lincoln Center. They play doubles tennis 2x/week with their fellow seniors - city courts all summer, reasonably priced bubbles on the weekday mornings in winter. When he had cataract surgery round trip private car service was included for the surgery day and follow up. If they couldn't drive or use the extensive public transportation system, car service is readily available. Both the local college and community college of City University have low cost courses on just about anything, as well as performances. She hops the bus for the 20 minute trip to get to a mall and movie matinees are discounted for seniors. I could go on.

I have a long way to go but for myself when this house gets to be too much to handle I would look for senior housing in Manhattan.

It's a big country with lots of options for us to choose from.

Why do the kids leave? I can tell you only why my kid (kid 2) left. He wanted to go somewhere that wasn't here. He moved to a place where winter isn't really winter. Kid one, the oldest, moved away when the other one did but came back to Iowa within a year because he missed Iowa.

I left California, twice. Once when I was a kid. I think it's not so much the kids that move, it's that the kids don't get replaced as quickly as they leave. Kid 2's ex girlfriend who he moved away to be with would love to move back to Iowa. She lived here to attend college for a time and dreams of coming back.

I'm sure the statistics are more troubling than they would be elsewhere based on the amount of people we're talking about. 1% of Californians leave California and the rest of California rejoices, 1% of Iowans leave and it leaves a bigger hole to fill.

I'm not sure who they're talking about having the amount of salaries not increasing. I've tripled or more what I made in California. DH has only doubled his salary. :~)

Iowa has been very good to us.

Iowa and CA are both above the national average in salaries as of 2006 per the US Census Bureau. Iowa is 24th with a median income of $48,075 and CA is 11th with a median income of $54,385. US national median is $48,023.

The Census Bureau prefers to use the median as they feel it is "considerably lower than the average, and provides a more accurate representation."[

Wow, I graduated from Yorktown HS, VA. Never know it was such a great school. Always seem so typical to me - so white.

Anyhow, my brother left CA for Austin and never looked back. He always preached to me a/b the cost of living in CA. Someday I wanted to throw in the towel and quit this state but it's impossible to imagine living anywhere but here.

The cost of living sucks though. I took comfort in the fact that northern VA (specifically Arlington - my hometown) is just as expensive sans the beach & the weather.

However, in Bloomsbury...a tiny little town of 1 square mile with less than 1000 residents in Hunterdon County NJ, a North Carolina truck driver, who was "hunting people", parked at the nearby truck stop.walked to town...tried doors until he found one unlocked, and murdered the poor woman sleeping inside...

Wow, I'm surprised my friend never told me about that. She lives over on 627. If you live over there, you've probably seen my friend & her two kids.

I've always wanted to live over there. When I worked in Watchung, I'd get on my motorcycle and drive 78 down to Stewartsville, some days we'd get off of the highway and drive back roads. Beautiful country.

"And to harken back on Iowa, if the place is so great and schools so terrific, why do young adults leave shortly after college?" Not all of them do. I never did, nor did many of my friends. I don't know why some leave. I suppose because of jobs, marriage/divorce, kids, etc. Like I said, I know plenty of who have left and have never come back and plenty who have left and returned. One of my best friends has lived in California since high school graduation. A man took her there; they are long divorced. She wanted to get away from the cold, snowy winters. She never comes back to Iowa in the winter. Good for her. I love the four seasons.

"Why has the median income level decline, and was has the poverty level increased,though not terribly so...Simple, not many well paying jobs, and if you're going to spend big $$$ to attend college, you don't want to come out making less then 30k a year to start" I made $8k in my first job out of college...it was in newspaper journalism. That was 1987. I make about 7 times that now. I didn't stay for the job...I stayed because most of my family is here and I didn't want to, and still don't, be separated from them.

Like I keep saying--Iowa is not for everyone. I like the coasts. Been to both many times. Great place to visit, wouldn't want to live there. Why? Too many people, too much concrete, and too much crime.

There are lots of places on both coasts that have few people, little crime and hardly any concrete at all.

But many folks probably never visited those places(thus don't know about them) because they aren't places that vacationers tend to visit and the population is so small that you probably don't know folks that live there.

That is fine, because if word gets out on some of those places, then they will get more folks moving there - thus causing more people, crime and concrete.

After living in San Diego, CA for 24 years, you take the beach, weather, and other things for granted. All in all it's over-rated AND over expensive~enough said!

Triciae,
Thanks for the nice memories you shared.

I was 7 miles between two small towns in rural MI from age 7 to 17 and I loved it for the most part. We would ride our bike for miles on state game trails and have to guess where we were when we hit a road again. Our parents could not have found us if they tried!

At 17 it was back to the big city and it did have its pluses. I have lived north and south, east - but not west yet. Each area had its pluses and minuses. A flexible person can find good fun and good people anywhere. Home does feel different, though. I remember my first summer back in MI - seeing the Canadian Thistle, burdock, and Queen Anne's Lace brought tears to my eyes.
Nancy

I just relocated from Ft. Lauderdale FL to a small town in KY with under 4K people and love it. Of course it all depends on your job situation- the husband took close to a 40% pay decrease and I am on early retirement. If we were a young family raising children it would be a factor but in this stage of our lives it was the right move.

I traded a large mortgage payment for no mortgage payment (we did OK when we sold in FL and paid in full here), and a $4000 a year homeowners insurance for $600 a year policy here. Services are much less here with the added plus that they aren't all trying to rip you off.

Yes- it is harder to find certain goods and the entertainment does not hold up at all. But I am going out less and less anyway and no longer feel the need to be close to the "hip hot and happenin'" scene. I do more and more shopping online and frankly without online shopping I don't think I could do it.

When I was young I left here for the "bright lights big city" and "grass is always greener" thing all young people from small towns experience. It's just that as I aged my needs and desires changed and I came back.

cearbhaill, yes, there' *is* something about 'coming back/going back' as we age. I'm leaving the big city of San Diego for Austin, but it still has that small town flavor I crave. I originally came from the midwest, and just couldn't go 'that far back' to the snow and ice. LOL

It's all a matter of perspective, and where one is in their life. I find family definitely means more as we age, and want to be closer. In reality, i'll be in the middle, with children in TX, NC, and CA. The distance between TX to NC or CA is closer, which means less flying time. ;o)

Funny how it can work, isn't it?

My Mom's family arrived in MA in 1623 with her line eventually working its way to CA. I was born in CA; but have worked my way back to New England where I'm surrounded by dozens of ancestral homes that are still standing & the graves of distant grandparents that I visit on Memorial Day. I love New England & feel I've come 'full circle' with no desire to ever return to CA.

I hadn't started researching my family's genealogy until I'd moved to NH. So, when I moved east...I didn't know I was going home. My son was married in the Church his ancestral grandparents worshipped in during the period of 1640-1790. It gave me goosebumps during their candlelight service in Exeter's old Church. The chapel is on the second floor to better protect the Church from Indian attacks & just down the street stands a 17th century garrison built by an ancestral grandfather. The home is now a museum.

I understand how life evolves as we age & different things take on greater importance in our lives.

/tricia

Mary - We Californians are still waiting for an apology. In the wake of the awful fires that recently ripped through Southern California (I'm in San Diego), your comment seems particularly insensitive. I don't know if it was a lame attempt at humor, but it would be like my wishing a tornado would blow through your town, or hoping for a hurricane to hit New Orleans, or another terrorist attack to take place in New York. Horribly insensitive to say the least.
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I'm with Talley_Sue on the aging in NY thing. New York City is - in my opinion - a wonderful place to spend a significant part of one's early adulthood, esp. if one is single/newly married (no kids), starting a career and/or in graduate school, etc. It's not such a wonderful place to: (1) grow up in (I did), (2) have kids in (I didn't, but know plenty of people who do with whom I spend a significant amount of time with when I frequently visit with my 9 year-old daughter), or (3) grow old in (my mother is 86 and lives in Manhattan). Unless you're uber-rich and have private cars with chauffeurs, and people to schlepp for you, public transportation requires a level of mobility than many aging people (or younger people) do not have (lots of walking and lots of stairs). Talley_Sue's adjective is spot on: NYC can be a harsh place

(Having grown up in NYC (Manhattan) and having lived there all of my childhood and most of my early adult life (I left at age 35, but had lived there pretty much continuously with the exception of college and study abroad), and as someone with limited mobility who visits frequently with a young child, I feel that I'm qualified to pass judgment on this.

(Unlike patty_cakes, I'll never "take the beach, weather, and other things for granted," and beg to differ that it's "over-rated." Besides, compared to NYC, it not any more expensive and the quality of life is *way* better)

The chances that I would want to a small town in rural America for more than a day are somewhere between slim and nil. But different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

I am with you arielitas_mom on the small town thing, but where patty is moving to is far from a small town. Its a large city with roughly 1.6m people in the metro. My Dad lived there in the 70's when Austin was just starting to grow. Today it is nothing at all like it was back then. I think it lost the last of its small townishness when they opened Austin-Bergstrom International. However, if I were to live in Texas, Austin would be my town. Its got a great economy and close to all the major cities in Texas.

I was born and raised in southwestern Iowa (Council Bluffs) and lived in Iowa until I was 24. Iowa does have an excellent educational system (I'm a product:)). Moved to the Twin Cities and my children were raised and educated there (daughter went back to Iowa State for her college education).

17 years ago DH and I moved to the Pacific Northwest. Son and family is in Wisconsin and daughter and SIL in southern CA. I would never move back to the Midwest nor anywhere else in this country. Reason? Weather. Too many people, not enough water in CA. Hate extremes of heat and cold and humidity, so that rules out everywhere else but western Oregon. I love the mountains, the water, the mild temps, the ability to garden almost year round.

To each his own as I sure wouldn't want everyone else to feel the same way and move here.

As a fifth generation Californian I too was taken aback by that comment. While I know California will likely never be my home again, I'd like it to stay there in case I have an unlikely change of heart.

Actually, if I lived anywhere else it would be the mountains of North Carolina. I do genealogy and I could spend many many happy years in graveyards and courthouses. I believe there are still small towns there as well.