Moving to the Eastern Shore? (ocean city/salisbury area) (Annapolis: homes, find a job)

[TheDarkHorse]

Originally Posted by oncesir

Ive lived on the shore for a few yrs and I moved from a large city. Its a huge culture shock. Unless you live near all the crime that is present in the downtown Salisbury area you will find yourself driving ALOT. Nepotism is the rule for job seekers locally. If your friend in OC knows someone then that can be your "in". Take it from someone who has lived here long enough to know that the shore is incredibly overrated. Considering the unemployment levels I have no idea how locals have come up with the idea that the area offers a high "quality of life". Last time I checked having a good paying job that helps make ends meet is pretty high on my "quality of life" scale. Most ppl here are afraid of places like Baltimore(locals call them Baltimorons, yet the education average here is low)and nearly any large city. Ive heard locals talk of being unable to drive in large cities because there is "too much going on". I'd take the stress of your daily city life to living in this backwards redneck infested place. My wife and I will hopefully be moving when (if) the market rebounds, which cant happen soon enough.

Thanks for the honest opinion. This makes me a bit worried about whether id be able to assimilate into the local culture and make new friends. I am very "jersey" in my accent and mannerisms. Are the locals a bit hostile toward outsiders?

Im actually heading down to OC in the morning to visit for a couple days for the christmas holiday. I will definately go exploring and try and get a feel for the area, converse with some locals, etc.

Merry Chirstmas...

[Lumerian Feast]

People are right about the Eastern Shore being very sleepy. The economy there is poor. Regarding Ocean City: during the offseason it's one of the bleakest, most boring places around. Almost everything shuts down and the only people there are retirees. And the thing is, once you've spent a few weeks there in the summer, summers aren't great either. It gets very monotonous very quickly. It's a resort town, and you can only go to the boardwalk and miniature golfing so many times before you swear them off forever.

I do miss Thrasher's, though!

[oncesir]

Originally Posted by TheDarkHorse

Thanks for the honest opinion. This makes me a bit worried about whether id be able to assimilate into the local culture and make new friends. I am very "jersey" in my accent and mannerisms. Are the locals a bit hostile toward outsiders?

Generally speaking locals frown upon "come here's". I moved here from the Midwest and havent had a problem with too many ppl, aside from the rude ones. Also, anyone that makes the statement that EVERYONE here is friendly has obviously not spent any real time here. That statement is horribly false. Ive met lots of ppl here that were just as rude as ppl from large cities(if not more so). Ive found that holding doors and having common courtesy isnt anymore prevalent here than anywhere else. There is little to no culture and as long as entertainment is in the form of dinner and a movie and nothing else then you should be fine. Concerts rarely happen here and there arent that many festivals locally. Professionalism around here is a joke. Rules are bent and excuses are made for those in the ol'boy network. There are so many shore apologists out there that make endless excuses and talk this place up. Excuses about crime, real estate prices(which are high here considering the lack of jobs), the quality of life(falsehood) and nearly anything else at a local level that is poorly executed.

You should definitely visit, it may make you realize how great your current home town is. Living here has made me realize how great St Louis(my previous home)is.

[NYMD67]

We also just relocated from the Eastern Shore. We are not from there at all and if honesty is what you are looking for, here it is.
If you are not from the Eastern Shore, it will be an extremely difficult transition for you I believe.
We did meet some very nice people,however,the majority of local people were not welcoming-at all.
The Eastern Shore is a beautiful place,we wanted to live there because of the "quality of life" we had heard so much about and we loved being there when we would go to the beach,etc...
Living there unfortunately is a different experience.
The small towns are wonderful to visit and if you did decide to live anywhere, I would say that Easton is the best place to look into.
It is starting to have many conveniences that other areas (besides Salisbury,which I wouldn't consider at all...) ,they have a great downtown area,restaurants,etc....
They also seem to have the largest number of "transients" coming in from either the Western Shore or complete state relos.
You may decide that you really like it once you arrive,I would just say,don't expect anyone to show up at your door upon your arrival with a basket of cookies...

[TheDarkHorse]

OK, im back from my weekend at the eastern shore. My observations...

West Ocean City (near where I was staying) is becoming more developed with lots of new condos and retail amenities. I actually enjoyed the atmosphere here. However, downtown Ocean City is pretty much a ghost town this time of year...and doesn't seem to be a place you would want to live permanently.

I did drive to Salisbury one day...and it didn't seem like a very nice place. Lots of dilapidated houses, shady looking characters, etc. The "downtown" area of shops, restaurants, etc. was only a few blocks long and seemed to be practically deserted anyway. Not somewhere id want to live.

Most of the areas in between were very rural. Beautiful scenery...but too rural for this city dweller to ever adapt to.

The people I met seemed pretty friendly in their demeanor.

Basically ive concluded that the only place id be interested in relocating to is the area around west ocean city/ocean pines. However, the real estate/rental prices seemed to be a bit high considering the area. Also finding a good job seems like it would be a real issue. Im keeping my options open, but for now im putting the idea on hold indefinately until I explore other areas of the northeast.

Thanks everyone for all the great info. Happy New Year.

[ShoreBoy725]

You may like going to OC in the summer because of all that's happening there, but once you move here you will hate it. There is nothing special about OC to me, I live in Queen Anne's County and my family has lived in the same town for generations. Traffic shuts down the highways and the tourists that have been coming over enough to somewhat know their way around take the back roads, the other tourists catch on and follow and its a snowball effect moving serious traffic to the back roads. It took me an hour to get to work one morning because of back road traffic, it's usually a ten minute drive. You just have to know people to have a good night life. Nothing is better to us than a barn party on our buddies farm. It's small town life across most of the Shore. Our big events are the 4-H Fair, the Homecoming football game, and when Queen Anne's plays Kent Island at the end of the football season. We hunt every weekend and go fishing all the time. You love it if you are interested in those kinds of things.

[mdswines]

If you like to hunt & fish and dislike culture & progress, then the Shore is for you.

[westsideboy]

I don't think most urban people really want to live in the country. They get a couple of hours away from a metro area and then complain "there is nothing to do." They move to tight-nit communities where families have been living together for generations and then say it is the "good old boy network." They find normal problems like crime, rising housing prices, and trouble finding jobs that exist everywhere and claim they were duped by some "quality of life" argument. Natives and locals that may not be over-educated, wealthy, liberal, or beating down the newcomers door to make friends are branded as backward "rednecks."

I would recommend places like Damascus, Poolesville, and Northern Baltimore County for these types of urban folk. There are enough open spaces, hobby farms, and rich people that can buy a bit of privacy to fool the unaccustomed to think they are in the "country."

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by TheDarkHorse

Thanks for the comments.

Im doing more research and the area job market looks pretty bleak from what im seeing. Is this just due to the economic downturn, or are jobs just hard to come by in this area?

Im also reading ALOT of negative things about Salisbury in regards to crime, so ill probably scratch that idea. There seems to be a disproportionate amount of crime for such a small city. Dont get me wrong, there is tons of crime in some parts of NJ but there is also 20x more people up here. This is unfortunate because Salisbury seems to be the only town on the eastern shore with any considerable year-round nightlife/social scene.

Im a bit surprised to see Ocean City also has a high crime rate...this is news to me since ive visited many times and never noticed anything amiss, although every time ive stayed with relatives it was in the quiet outskirts of town...far from the downtown area.

I suppose I cant have my cake and eat it too. I guess it comes down to whether id be able to handle the initial culture shock of the more rural areas.

Thanks again for the help. Keep the comments coming!

Generally, tourist areas show high crime scores. The reason is all crimes in a town are counted but a non-resident criminal is not included in the population calculation. It's number of crimes/resident population. Most tourist towns have a low resident population so the crime scores are inflated.

[Howlingwolf]

To TheDarkHorse, listen to me and listen to me good: "RUN DO NOT WALK THE OPPOSITE WAY FROM THIS PLACE-RUN AND DO NOT LOOK BACK" this area is the pitts, everyone I know hates living here. The night life sucks but you get used to it and go to the crappy bars because where the hell else you gonna go. WInter time this place always sucks with jobs even before this messed up economey, they are very picky who they hire, if you are a white female in college you pretty much got it made when it comes to jobs. They do not like new people from out of town, they could care less about you. The people here have something wrong with their thinking. Do not put any trust, faith or loyalty in any job or boss I'm just telling you that for your own good. I'm from New Orleans, been here since November of '05. I first lived in Ocan Pines and I hated it at first, now I love it and want to get a small vacation home there one day. I like Ocean City but you can only enjoy it so much as a toursit, the thing you have to do is enjoy the locals and what they are about during the off seasons. Do not worry too much about Ocean City crime or even Salisbury crime because you are from N.J. and I'm from New Orleans, this ain't crime to me but don't be niaive either. The people of Ocean City are much better to deal with than those in Salisbury, and I cant wait to get out of Salisbury. I'm only here because my parents rushed into buying a house here after we had to leave Ocean Pines, they were trying to move to Chesapeake, VA where my mom is from, thats where I'll probably head next for awhile. Since I've been here on the Eastern Shore, and Salisbury area, I haven't advanced my life not one bit due to the way this place is and I'm not trying to falsely place blame, unless you are in the good ole boys club you are going to have a hard time advancing. So try it out foryourself so that you'll know if it is or isn't for you but based on what I gather about you, I would just try out Ocean City. Now is a good time if you can because you get to see what its like at the peak of bordeom and watch it progress into the summer. By summers end you will have a very good idea of what you want to do.