Keene NH?? (Dover, Portsmouth, Exeter: appointed, rent, crime rates)

[beckyanne]

Thayer (the Winchester high school) got shut down because the building was condemned. And I read in the paper that Mondanock is in danger of losing its accreditation because their facilities are substandard as well.

The Keene School district is by far the best in the area.

I grew up in Keene itself, and I loved it. If you're interested in a more rural setting, Chesterfield and Westmoreland are really nice too. I've always felt safe here, and I hope to find a town like Keene to raise my own family in.

Crime has been on the rise lately, and it seems to be directly related to the influx of drugs. Unfortunately, the city is growing, and with that growth comes more diversity and more problems (which is not to say that diversity leads to crime, I'm just saying that both come with growth).

The majority of these problems seem to be cropping up in the downtown neighborhoods around the college, so if you stick to West Keene or the outer neighborhoods, you'll be fine. It wasn't until I moved to an apartment downtown that I even realized that there is actually crime in this town. And a lot of the violence is directly related to the drug problems, so as long as you aren't buying heroin in the middle of the night you'll be fine.

I would recommend Keene if you like towns with a small-town feel and a decent amount of stuff to do. It's a great place to grow up.

[tracyh903]

Originally Posted by vter

Just out of curiosity, what happened to the high school in Winchester?

The taxpayers voted against repairing it. It was losing, or had lost (forgive me for not rememebring, this was 3-4 years ago) it's accreditation due to the structural issues. They chose to pay Keene, rather than rebuild.
It's a shame really. Dennis Littky put a lot of effort and love into shaping Thayer into a good school. Once he left though, it all went down hill.

[paisleydragon]

People in the Keene area can be very accepting of outsiders, or not. Perhaps the question is how accepting will you be of us? As mentioned in several of the threads Keene is a college town. Keene State, Antioch NE, NH Vo-Tech, Franklin Pierce... So there are lots of 'outsiders' coming in.

Though Keene is building up and currently in a growth stage, this is a rural area. People stay or return because we value a rural lifestyle. I think lots of times people don't understand what that is, and when they get here think life would really be perfect if only there was a Starbucks or a Walmart -which there now is.

Surrounding towns have rushed to preserve their colonial charm. Zoning ordinances are being enacted to keep big box stores out and development at a minimum. They're buying up empty tracks of land to put into trust so there will always be fields and streams and wildlife. There are laws regulating the cutting of trees. We'd rather be stuck in the mud than stuck in traffic!

So the question becomes, is that really the kind of lifestyle you want to live? If the answer is yes, you'll have few problems fitting in.

[Torrey]

Originally Posted by paisleydragon

Though Keene is building up and currently in a growth stage, this is a rural area. People stay or return because we value a rural lifestyle. I think lots of times people don't understand what that is, and when they get here think life would really be perfect if only there was a Starbucks or a Walmart -which there now is.

Surrounding towns have rushed to preserve their colonial charm. Zoning ordinances are being enacted to keep big box stores out and development at a minimum. They're buying up empty tracks of land to put into trust so there will always be fields and streams and wildlife. There are laws regulating the cutting of trees. We'd rather be stuck in the mud than stuck in traffic!

To bad they didn't keep WALLY WORLD out. That is one thing I am totally against. Walmart has killed a LOT of small businesses and they have been kept out of some small towns in Texas by the people who live there. Walmart doesn't think anything of ruining the old world charm of a town, they're just interested in making money off the residents. I hate walmart. Ban me if you don't like my attitide towards wally world, but some things just shouldn't be soiled by their presence.

[iwonder]

It sounds like lots of people are moving to Keene. Uh oh! This is my first post so I'm a bit nervous....

We are moving from Colorado. The mountains are breathtaking - I can see a snow capped fourteener from my back windows and the weather is unbelievable (except July which is hellish hot - but no humidity). The people are super nice, open and accepting. Even at the license bureau they greet you with a smile - must be the sunshine...

So why would we ever want to leave? We miss the true four seasons. We miss green - most people don't realize how arid it is out here. The ground cracks and nothing grows without irrigation and you have to watch for rattle snakes in lots of places... But the HUGE reason is that everyone lives on a postage stamp right on top of each other. I hunger for a different life where my boys can make a pile of junk lumber into a space ship and I can have a garden and that we don't have to shake hands out our windows or parallel park in our neighborhoods.

So here is my fantasy and why we are considering the Westmoreland/Chesterfield/Keene area(don't know if I have those names right?). We'd like a modest 3 bdrm house on 2.5ish acres. We'd like to have a big garden where the whole family pitches in in helping to create our "food". I want my boys to run and explore and find stuff and holler and bash old logs with a hatchet without some HOA tellling me I have 72 hours to re-trim and mulch my 4x2 flower bed. OK - my secret fantasy is also to raise a few chickens but who knows about that....By the way what I just described would cost about 1.2 mill - IF it were available, that is!

I'm really not some Laura Ingalls wannabe... I've been thinking and dreaming of this stuff my entire life. And now I watch my children lanquishing in suburbia. Even though we live in the foothills 5,000 ft. and get into the mountains pdq it is not the same as walking out your back door into something pretty.

We want to have access to beauty and nature - that is a nice thing here (35 minutes and we're pitching a tent in Rocky Mtn Natl). We want a relaxed pace of life and to get the heck out of suburbia where all kids care about is the latest x box game. Did I add that the job market here stinks royally?

OK I sound like a total whiner...Does the Keene area sound like it could be a place for us? Hubby needs to make ~45kish. We have no high-tech skills but the softer, HR and training stuff.

I also have some specific questions re: climate/environment. Everyone talks about the cold - we grew up in chicago and Detroit. Does that compare??? When does the cold hit and when does it start breaking? Is it sunny? Are there TONS of bugs - we have NONE here! Can you get around?

We don't want to be isolated. We are pretty social (can ya tell by the length of my post?) Ten - 20 minutes to town would be awesome.

I so appreciate all your info. It has helped us a great deal already. I'll save my next post for more questions about kiddos. Thanks!

[momtotwo]

Try Temple, Dublin, Harrisville, etc. (we live in Temple). It's heaven-informed, active, old new england, accesible to Boston.

[iwonder]

I'm unfamiliar with that term: heaven-informed. What does it mean?

[paisleydragon]

Yup, you can find what you're looking for here, and those three communities are excellent for it. Anywhere in the Monadnock Region, really. My advice would be to find your jobs first, then select your community. Otherwise you could end up with a longer commute than you might like.

Cold is really not so cold once you're used to it, we have cold snaps that dip us below zero for a few days once or twice during the winter. The summer heat is humid/muggy and more of a problem for most folk than the cold of the winters.

Yes, we have bugs. They're manageable. Most bugs don't like direct sunlight so it's dusk to dawn that you'll see them. They don't like the cold either so we're talking a few months out of the year.

You should check out stonewallfarm.org. It's a working educational farm in Keene that will be a great resource for you getting your garden started. They can help you with farming advice for this region.

Good Luck!

[Lecia]

Keene is a nice town and is always booming with something new. The one thing I'd like to comment on is the taxes. They are outrageous. I've heard of a lot fo complaints from the people who live there. I guess it depends upon your current income and what you currently pay for taxes. I live 20 minutes from Keene, have 1 acre of land and a home that's 1800 sq.feet and pay $3,600 yr. Fitzwilliam's taxes have gone up three times in the last five years. As far as family, there is plenty to do. Downtown has holiday gatherings like the pumpkin fest and the lighting of the tree.
Lots of good restaurants, Luca's and Michelle's are my favorites.
Good luck on whatever you decide.

[innisart]

My wife and I are considering a move to the Keene area. We just came back from our first trip to the area, and I was impressed with what it has to offer. My wife is still on the fence, however, and I'd love it if the people who know Keene and its environs could help me to answer her questions.

We currently live in Western New Jersey. I grew up in the area and thought I'd always live here, but it has changed a lot in the last few decades. Our home is an 1100 sq foot, two bedroom townhouse, with a ten sq foot yard. We pay $6200 a year in property taxes, and they tend to go up by $150-$200 a year. On top of that we pay association dues of $160 a month (they go up $120-$240 a year), and we have sales tax and state income tax. There are plans to build low-income housing in the field behind our development, and when we heard the neighbors complaining about it, we found out that households earning below $72,000 a year qualified; we qualify.

Our needs aren't much. We do want good schools, a large enough house for us and 2 (3?) kids. We want to actually have money at the end of each week to put into savings.

My wife is a dancer, and has taught tap, jazz, ballroom, and most extensively, ballet, for more than 20 years. She wants to be able to take classes (we found MoCo), and possibly continue teaching.

I am a former illustrator wanting to get back into art. I know of the local art organizations and places to continue studying art in the area. I'd like to have a studio in the house, or a barn I could convert.

I'd like a yard for the kids, but if we lived in town, that'd be okay too. In any case, we don't need a huge piece of land.

There is the possibility that I could transfer with my J-O-B to Keene. My company has a facility there, but it only employs 20 people, and jobs don't come up often. I'd have to take a pay cut to transfer, but there's no state income tax.

Alright. Now that you've fallen asleep reading my bio... does this sound doable for us? It seems to me that the cost of living will be less in New Hampshire. Sure the taxes in Keene are higher than other places, but they're still lower than here in Jersey. The houses are generally cheaper. Groceries seem more expensive. Gas is less than 10 cents more per gallon. Anybody here make a similar move, and if so, did you find the living expenses less, the same, or more?