Anderson - what is it like? (Indianapolis, Muncie: hardwood floors, to rent, crime)

[Fastlane Freight]

sounds like there is no place in the area for me, I want rural, far, far from the ghetto, redneck is ok,small house with land......

[Badatta2de]

I noticed one thing people didnt post here. Anderson is the ONLY place that will take in homeless that are getting out of prison via parole or probation for child molestation. Indianapolis, Muncie, etc, wont take em. Not terribly important if you dont have kids, but if you do it is something to think about.
Other than that, I moved here about 5 yrs ago as it was a cheap alternative to where my husband was working in Fishers. It wasn't such a bad place I guess because there were still a few jobs here. Now it has turned into 1/2 a ghost town. So yes housing is cheap, but you have to wonder who is crashing in the 2 to 3 abandoned houses on the block every night.

[highliner]

Just so you all know-that last post was complete BS. No city in the USA has won a court battle to keep out sexual offenders. They are coming home to your community and mine, and I seriously doubt that Madison county, Indiana is actively recruiting them, off the prison steps.

[jamh13]

If you like lots of old people driving really slow then anderson will be perfect for you. Consider Brownsburg area.

[Randy47sm]

I've lived in Anderson for the past 40+ years. I love this town even though there are problems like any other city it's size. First off it just depends on the side of town you live in what the problems are. The city is working hard to clean up the town. After so many people have moved due to the plant closing there are alot of properties that are not being cared for. Were I live we all help to care for properties that have been left empty. As I see it most of the real trouble with the run down house's are because of slum lords that dont take care of there rentals. If they would do inspections of there rental, and fix or care for the house's that are not being cared for then morethan half the house's in this town would be nice. Mowing seems to be a big problem for people who rent, (not all). Landlords sould pay to have this done if it becomes a problem. There are lots of was to fix the trash problem in this town. People on work release could clean trash up if they can't pay there fee's. There could be a program to help clean the streets or alley's for traffic fine's. The ideas are endless, but most would take an effort from the city. This county has 2 prison's and plenty of inmates that would love to get out and work on road crews. It seems to me that bringing this city back to life and cleaning it would be a priority. The people are great here. I really do enjoy living here, maybe we will get someone in the mayors office that will put the city first and there own needs last.

[machman]

Well....Anderson is an old factory town that once had GM employing around 30,000 employees. You read that right. Now, there are a few hundred, if that. All of the other companies that boomed when GM was doing well are also gone, like box companies, crate companies, tooling companies etc, leaving Anderson a bit ghost townish, like many factory towns in the Midwest. Essentially, Anderson has become a bedroom community for Indianapolis. To that extent, there is very little industry in Anderson, so there are some things that suffer tax wise. IE: Streets and parks are not maintained as well as they should/could be, etc. etc.

However, depending on where you move, you can still find nice neighborhoods. Old Edgewood on the far west side of town for example is nice, and very close to Lapel and Noblesville. There are areas or pockets all over town, which are nice, as far as good value for your housing dollar, etc. That being said........

Anderson has very little to really offer anyone. The one mall they have is small and has many store sitting empty, and has for years, even after a very nice renovation. The food court had only 1 offering last time I was there, and all the others were no longer in business. There is really only 1 theatre left in town, and the only real places to eat in town are chain locations that can be had elsewhere, with a few exceptions. The downtown area has some very nice historic building to look at like the Paramount Theater, and you can see where the town was once very nice. There was mega bucks spent trying to renovate the downtown area a few short years ago, but that ended badly as well. Anderson does have the horse track, and the newly opened casino, so maybe as time goes by, that will offer more job opportunities and other complimentary businesses for the town. Time will tell.

In the end, Anderson is a depressed area with the overall people being nice. You can find crime and thugs anywhere.

Pendleton is indeed a nice historic town that has grown a lot in the last 10 years. It has great schools, a very nice community, and is very close to Indy for when you want to "go to town" if you will. Depending on what you are looking for, I have a home for sale in Markelville, which is just east of Pendleton, and south of Anderson in the country.

My job moved me to Arizona, and I will say that while I do not miss the snow, I do miss the people of Indiana. As a whole, they seem much more friendly.

[Stephanie1]

I found this thread about Anderson and wanted to share my thoughts. Anderson is not only where I was born...but it is also the town that I have moved back to more than once in my lifetime... Quite by choice. What I found by living in some of the "prettiest" places in America is that the scenery doesn't make a place home,,,or give a community character,,,It is all about the people.
Since it became a city, Anderson has had many set-backs, between the finding of natural gas that gave the city a huge job and population boom... but was quickly depleted (When the gas was gone, so were the jobs and the people) to the closing of it's many factories (More of the same: Jobs gone equals people gone),,,but it has always remained resilient,,,and so have most of it's residents. And no, I'm not wearing rose-colored glasses that blind me to the "bad" parts of Anderson. Anderson has them, just like almost every city of it's size across America. There are improvements that could and should be made. However, the first step is taking pride in your community and putting your own individual efforts in towards reaching those improvements. As for anyone who may refer to any part of Anderson as a ghetto or ghost town it makes me wonder how little of the world they have seen to even attempt to make that type of comparison.
When I think of Anderson I think of the beauty of Mounds Sate Park and Shadyside Park. Anderson also has a wonderful Public Library, as well as great walking and biking trails (Lenape and Indian River). As far as education goes, though it may not be considered the best in relation to many schools in Indiana, it is still far better than most of the educational systems available in this country. By and large the teachers who teach in our schools do it not for the pay...they could easily make more elsewhere...they do it because they want to. And no matter what some generic school rating system might say, that alone speaks volumes to me.
Though the Mall may not be the largest, it has the necessary stores and is endearing if for no other reason than the fact that it was one of the first indoor malls in the country. As for restaurants, there are of course all of the chains here, but there are also many locally owned places to go...more than I could ever name. But better yet, it is only a 30 minute drive to get to Castleton, and 20 to Fishers, Muncie, or Noblesville. So if you can't seem to find something here to make you happy you can always find things to do there. When I lived 10 miles from the beach it would take me 2 times that long to get that 10 miles...a 20 minute drive is nothing! Furthermore, as was mentioned in an earlier thread, it is nearly impossible to find as much house for the money as what you can here. I have a beautiful home that would easily cost me more than $100000 more if it were just 15 miles south of here. A GREAT deal for someone more than happy to live in Anderson.
So I say to anyone interested in Anderson...living here is what you make it...and it can be a really good thing.

[bananacakey]

My husband and I moved to the southside of Anderson in Feb 09. Just today we were talking about the good/bad parts of Anderson. There are bad part, like the eastside, or like the previous post by St. Johns hospital. However there are very nice areas of Anderson, for example by Community hospital (the northside and westside). I can ride my bike from my house to Shadyside park during the summer. I built my first veggie garden. We are remodeling (slowly) but I have learned so much. I know all my neighbors and we all look out for each other. The only crime I've seen is a few stray dogs. There are no gun shots - maybe some backfire from an old cars - but no gang violence. Besides the train noise, the constant wailing of sirens and the loud sterios bassing (like its 1994!) I have to say overall we are happy here. I've seen some questionable characters, but that's everywhere you go. There are some dilapidated houses that need to be condemned, but it's the MidWest! The "Heartland" of America - well it used to be.

I do have a question thought....Why are the corn fields not plowed? Does that mean it was a bum crop? I know it didn't get hot this past summer - but does all that corn go to waste?

Originally Posted by jamahouse

I just moved to Anderson about a year and a have ago. I came from a very small town outside of Middletown. I used to come to Anderson to get away from the "country scene". I liked comming here until I moved here. I am so over this town. The people here are really messed up. Well atleast on this side of town. I live behind St Johns Hospital and I figured it would be nice. Little did I know. The poeple around here are theifs and "crack heads", they are rude and don't care about anything but themselves. The yards around here look like they haven't been taken care of for years. I don't like it here anymore. The people around here ruined it for me and my family. We are ready to sell and GET OUT. I would not recommend moving over on this side. Maybe up by the eastside bowling alley on the eastside of town.Muncie is about the same. I never lived there, but my cousin did and she moved back here. So that should say something. Yorktown is better. I came from out that way. About 5 miles south of yorktown, Middletown. But every place has it's good and bad parts. I just recommed living out in the country. That is where I want to be.

[grmasterb]

Originally Posted by bananacakey

I do have a question thought....Why are the corn fields not plowed? Does that mean it was a bum crop? I know it didn't get hot this past summer - but does all that corn go to waste?

Are you referring to the fact that some corn has yet to be harvested? Those farmers will eventually get to it. Remember that the vast majority of corn produced around here isn't for direct human consumption. It's for animal feed and other uses.

[brookb361]

Obviously those of you who have spoken negatively about Anderson have never lived or stayed in Corpus Christi TX. Anderson is a beautiful old antiquey type town with a low crime rate and small population. The houses are not junky and trashy. They are old and might need some TLC but due to an aging population are not as well cared for as the owners might want them to be. So before you go running out and talking down about this quaint little town do some more research. You might find it's not as bad as you think it is. Where I come from its so much worse. Corpus Christi TX look it up.