Warsaw/Southbend Relocation (Fort Wayne, South Bend, Valparaiso: fit in, apartment, to rent)

[trixietrader]

I am considering a job in Warsaw. The final round interview is in two weeks and if I get and accept the job, I have decided that I will commute from South Bend since I will applying to a a post graduate program at Notre Dame and the thought of living anywhere without a Starbucks gives me the shivers. Also I am a loft, condo, townhouse city kind of a girl.

I have a list of questions and will appreciate any answers.


I am a single female minority and wonder how Southbend and Warsaw are for minorities?

Is there a single scene in Southbend?

Are there a lot of Condo and townhouses properties in south bend?

Since the commute from Southbend to Warsaw is about 46 miles, how are the roads in the winter? Are the road plowed and salted? Route 30 & 31 in particular?

Lastly, of no consequence, I am very high maintainence..... I like spas and shopping but figure that I can always go to Chicago for that but any info will be helpful.

Thanks in advance

[domergurl]

Oh my ... wellllll ... to be blunt, I'm not sure you will like Warsaw or SB or Indiana in general. Warsaw is a small town, very conservative (not that there's anything wrong with that, I grew up in a pseudo Warsaw town close by called Bremen). South Bend's townhouse and condo communities are mainly for empty nesters and retirees. Other than that, the singles scene will consist of ND students, so if you want to plunge into South Bend, stay as close to ND as possible. The commute from SB to Warsaw will be blah. 31 south to 30 west and into Warsaw. They are main US hwys, so they will always be the first plowed and salted.

Go in with an open mind. Yes, Chicago is accessible, but it's still a haul. There are spas in South Bend and also in Valparaiso. You may have to adjust your expectations a bit in order not to be miserable.

[lovinglakelife]

You will NOT tolerate the winter haul from South Bend to Warsaw. Believe me. We get some nasty winters around here and honestly, it's just not worth the risk to life and limb.

You sound like you fancy yourself to be quite cosmopolitan - and Warsaw does not fit the bill. It is an oasis of good jobs with the solid orthopedic industry companies in the area: Zimmer (an offshoot of Bristol Myer Squibb), Depuy, and Biomet to name the biggies in the area.

Unemployment is low. Housing prices are, especially by "big city" standards still quite low. It's a low crime area. Good ole' American town.

If you're into outdoors life it is a city with many lakes surrounding it.....which is what most people around here like to do in the summer.

Lake Wawasee is in Syracuse - about a 20 minutes drive from Warsaw (about as long a drive as I like to make in Indiana winters). Lake Wawasee is the yuppy lake to be seen on in the area - although lakes closer to Warsaw are growing in popularity - and correspondingly as property values rise, so do our property taxes - which is something that is causing quite an uproar around here lately.

There is not much culture to speak of in Warsaw. No big sporting events beyond the local high school teams - which this town is VERY proud of - and have built what you'd think is a monument to some Greek god when you drive past the local high school.

The restaurants are overall pretty ordinary.

Bottom line: This is not Sex in the City territory.

Still, it is a wonderful city by "grown up" standards. Low cost of living. Good schools overall. Low crime. Even the "bad" parts of town are pretty decent.
You can truly afford to buy a nice home here and make a life. There are some decently educated men to be had. The jobs here draw educated men - and provide a decent standard of living for a new family.

Now don't get me wrong - the town THINKS of herself as very cosmopolitan - there are the "Warsaw Man of the Year" events and people are downright "filthy rich" if they live in a house that's worth $650,000 - which, of course by Chicago standards would be a piece of crap.

You can get a perfectly respectable home for not alot of money around here - and to be frank, I think one should certainly consider the life they COULD have in Warsaw is better than the one they COULD have in a bigger city where there IS a professional sports team, sushi bars all around and spas on every other corner.

After all, you CAN cut your own toenails.........and I can slap down a bill for 5 times what it cost me for a piece of raw fish and roll up yesterday's rice for you if it's really that important to you.

If you really MUST, I'd suggest Fort Wayne over South Bend anyday.

But honestly, I just strenuously discourage commuting in the winter around here. I just can't see anyone doing that for long.

[Ronzou]

Originally Posted by lovinglakelife

If you really MUST, I'd suggest Fort Wayne over South Bend anyday.

I'd have to agree!

As for the winter stuff. I drive from CC to FW on a daily basis even through winter. The only time it was bad was when I got on the road before the road crews and that happened to me only a few times. Other than that, it wasn't really that bad. But that's just me.

[DebB1]

My husband and I are relocating to IN from IL. He is looking for a job in the Warsaw area today. We were considering the Kendallville area but have had no luck finding employment. Any ideas!!

[domergurl]

Kendallville is a stone's throw from Fort Wayne ... why not try there???

[mbuszu]

I posted something relevant about Warsaw earlier this year. To summarize The singles scene is non-existent in Warsaw - multiple friends of my wife and I left after just 1 year at her Medical Device company because they said they were miserable - they did different things and it wasn't like they just wanted to work for another medical device company in Warsaw... they wanted to leave ASAP.

Regarding Warsaw being minority friendly - well that is a tough question because there simply aren't all that many minorities there. Forgoing political correctness because I am not a politician - it's a very white town, about as white as you can imagine. If I was a minority I am not certain I'd want to live there unless I was 100% positive I could be comfortable in an environment like that. People there are friendly but over 90% have families and many are of the stereotypical white bible-belt type... if you're different, not conservative, and not church-going, well you might not fit in all that well with them. Just expressing an opinion - mileage will obviously vary.

Regarding commuting, it's good in theory but not so great in practice. My wife did the commute from the SW-side of Fort Wayne to Warsaw (50 min) and found that although an easy commute there were some problems 1) trains in Warsaw typically yet unpredictably would extend the trip an extra 15 minutes on any given leg... 2) morning fog in Indiana is intense and frequent nearly all year so your quick drive isn't so quick after all. 3) Commuting an hour isn't a big deal to those of us from NYC, but if you've never done it before really consider that you might not like it... really consider it carefully. Those 6am World-team conference-call meetings are brutal when you need to get up an hour and a half or even 2 hours ahead of time. 4) Police patrol the commuting routes to Warsaw and pull over Med device commuters like it is a sport. I'm not kidding... everyone who commutes gets ticketed - co-workers who commute talk about it. It really is that bad and the temptation is to bust the speed-limit because you can see for miles across the flat land... but you cannot do it. You need to take your time and count on having to stick to the speed limit or set aside a budget to pay for the speeding tickets you'll inevitably receive.

All that said - my recommendation to you if you are comfortable with the minority and singles situation is to rent in Warsaw for the first 6 months or year of working there. That way commute is a non-issue and you can focus upon doing a great job, scoring points with the company you work for because you can work late and come in early with the time saved not commuting. The other alternative is to get an apartment at the edge of route 14 and county-line road right on the SW edge of Fort Wayne so that you can enjoy what a mid-sized city has to offer when not working (everything a high-maintenance woman could ask for). I have not been dully impressed with Southbend - ND's campus is awesome, and directly next to it are some great things... but living there and not being a faculty member or a full-time student on-campus... well that just doesn't seem all that great (there's some pretty run down areas and not all that much going on. I have lived in Buffalo NY, got plenty of snow and the two climates are nearly identical. I certainly wouldn't voluntarily live there and want to commute to and from there every day unless I was absolutely positive I had no choice. If you can postpone your studies at ND so you can focus upon work that would be my recommendation. If not, then just consider yourself warned... you're going to experience some long commutes you won't look forward to - not just once, but twice a day.

[goldpolkadots]

Yes, everyone's very right about South Bend.
Try and stay away from South Bend...it's turning from bad to REALLY bad (high crime, run down homes, etc).
Have you considered moving to Plymouth instead? It seems closer to Warsaw.