Oxford vs Hamilton - grad student with kids

[Briolat21]

Thanks for posting your follow up - glad you like Oxford, it really is a lovely little community. Re: Hamilton getting a bad rap - I felt that way myself. We considered Hamilton when we were moving to SW Ohio (plenty of really lovely neighborhoods, esp on the West Side, love Pyramid Hill, love the sculpture) and I started a thread asking about it much as you did. I got much the same replies you did - and in addition to that all my coworkers were very negative about Hamilton. (I work in WestChester, so the commute would have been reasonable).

I finally decided that on the off chance that our move to SW Ohio is not permanent, that for the fact of RESALE - we needed to avoid Hamilton, as while we and other transplants seem to not think Hamilton is bad at all, the locals here seem to have a very negative opinion of it (not all, but probably 85%) - and we want to make sure (at resale time) that we are not limiting ourselves unnecessarily.

While our ultimate choice has not proven to be our ideal personality-wise, for resale I think it will be fine. If we end up staying here (long-term) - and selling the place we're now in (when the market recovers - of course) - I'd definitely consider a older house in Hamilton. Some brick bungalows and queen anne's to die for.

[Tinawina]

Originally Posted by mabulati

Hello again, I wanted to post a follow up. As I mentioned before, we decided to find a place to live in Oxford instead of Hamilton or one of the other townships near by. My family and I arrived late December, and within a few days had found a great house to rent that met our needs perfectly, and for an affordable price. 3 bedrooms and 2 baths is plenty big for our growing family. We are living in the SW part of town, and there are no frat houses nearby, which was one of my original concerns.
I have nothing but nice things to say about Oxford. The town is clean and the people are friendly. After looking all around town, I came to the conclusion that there are no really "shady" parts of Oxford. The perception I got, was that most everyone living in Oxford, is living in Oxford because they WANT to, not because they are stuck in Oxford. The small town feel is great, and there appears to be a good deal of community involvement and things to do, although it is kind of dampened by cold weather right now. The library is very nice.
I was a little worried about the town being too small, but now that we are here, we really like the feel of the community. The town has a bus service which I take advantage of to get to school, and the bus stop is just 2 blocks from our home (so is the grocery store). We live close enough that when its warm, I can bike to school in 10 minutes, a much better commute than coming in from out of town every day. Given the close proximity of the grocery store and school, we don't use much gas for transportation except for when we visit Hamilton or Cincinnati. The neighborhood is great, my neighbors have stopped by to greet me and get to know me, and the area feels very safe. I feel very confident that my family will be safe and happy in our new home. There are not a lot of stores in town besides walmart, but there are enough to easily meet the normal week in week out family needs. We've discovered that Hamilton (~20 min drive) has more variety of stores to choose from, and even more so in fairfield (~+10-15 min), but we haven't had to drive there much. I've only been in class for two weeks so far, but I really like Miami University already, and I think Oxford is a great place to live. Very happy with our choice.
side note-
As I mentioned, we've made the trip town to Hamilton since moving in. I have to say, I did not find east Hamilton to be all that "ghetto", shady, or scary. I did find some neighborhoods with homes that appeared to be owned by lower income families and individuals, but they were definitely not as bad as I was expecting based on some opinions I have read on the web. Oxford was definitely a much better choice for my family, but I can't help but think Hamilton gets a bit of a bad rap. I did meet some "rednecks" at the stores in Hamilton, and they were friendly. I do not refer to them as rednecks though, just honest blue collar folk.

lastly, a few FYI items that out of state people should be aware of:
1. Oxford water is extremely hard. This means especially during really cold spells, we need lotion to keep from getting cracked skin.
2. Winter temperatures get pretty cold, and there seems to be plenty of snow, maybe 2-3 inches in a week, then it melts, then we get 2-3 inches again. repeat.
3. parking is hard to come by in town, you're better off to walk, ride a bike, or take the bus. Leave the car parked at home.

well, that's all I can think of. Hope this proves helpful to someone in the future, and thanks again to all who provided much appreciated info to help us make this decision.

That's awesome! Sounds like you live near Kroeger's. Have you checked out that community center near you yet? The one with the pool? Its pretty cool, and they have plenty of stuff for kids there.

Also, try going to Colreain every once in a while. Its about a 25 minute drive but there are a lot of stores, malls, whatever. Or maybe you have - perhaps that is what you are calling Hamilton? Hamilton is the one that is about 12 minutes away, not Fairfield. There's also a nice shopping area in a town right over the border in Indiana (go past the Walmart, keep driving) called Richmond.

Oxford is a nice place to be for graduate school if you have kids. Welcome!

[Sunnydee]

Glad you are happy in Oxford. I think it's one of those places that it'd be hard not to like. It's my ideal midwestern college town.