Finger Lake town info/impressions

[averagenyjoe]

I saw your posts a few pages back describing what you want in a town. I posted my perfect town on another thread describing almost exactly what you have. I have also lived in the South and have come back for many of the same reasons. I am currently in Schenectady but just renting until I can find a more suitable place in Eastern or Central NY. Please write back and let me know what you are finding. My wife is also a teacher and has run into qualifying in NY. She has taught mostly in Private Schools and could continue with the same with just minor adjustments. Public is another story.

Also, I like sports like anyone but you're right about the obsession in the South. I like to challenge people to name at least a half dozen colleges in the South that are more known for their academic excellence rather than their sports team. Then name the Schools in the North that are Sports obsessed to the likes of VT or Tennessee or Auburn or Georgia or you name it. That should be telling

Please write back here or privately

[por924sche]

if your in the finger lakes,,seneca falls n y,,there are a lot of very friendly people here,,small town 6.000-8,000 people,,cayuga lake,great winneres,bed and breakfasts,35 miles in between rochester,syracuse,and ithaca,n.y.good schools,colleges,and the best thing,,quiet,,we have a lot of people from the west coast that come here to relax,,best hidden place to spend a few weeks of r&r,,,

[12buttons]

Originally Posted by i'minformed

Well, I think you said it would be nice to be within close distance to a city.... Canandaigua is within half an hour of Rochester, there are some suburban areas on the fringes of the town, but most of it is homes where built before WWII, and quite a few even before the Civil War . I'm not as familiar with Auburn but I know it's a bit larger than you seem to want, with about 30,000 people. Candaigua has about 11,000. It may also be a concern to you that Auburn is home to Auburn Prison, a "hard crime prison" where they send a lot of the gang members from the NYC area. If you hadn't already guessed, my suggestion would still be Canandaigua, it just sounds like it's more the kind of town you are looking for. It's also RIGHT on one of the finger lakes. Ontario County was just rated the best rural county in America in which to live as well (Canandaigua is the county seat of Ontario County). Here's a nice little article from the organization that ranked it the highest explainign why and giving a good description of life in the area. ProgressiveFarmer.com: Best Places: Ontario County, New York

this is ridiculous - you know why? at NO time is the mention of TAXES!!!!
Number ONE? my gosh - are these farmers inhaling the methane?
Ontario county has some of the WORST taxes on the planet!

[12buttons]

Originally Posted by homeward bound

Hi, Muggy. Please do tell us all you can about Canandaigua & Auburn!

In terms of our preferences: Quaint/old houses & buildings over new.
Small (2,000-15,000 population) over big. Small-town/village feel over city/new suburb. We've got two little boys (2 years old & 2 months old), 2 teenage daughters (one's off to college in the Fall). Having a lot of night-life choices doesn't matter to us--we like walking the dog around a nice town, swimming in a natural lake, fishing, hiking, camping, gardening, playing sports, biking, summer festivals on the village green, etc. One or two good restaurants in town is fine--with the little ones, we don't eat out much anyway. A good tavern or pub is fine, too. A softball league. We're not lavish shoppers. I grew up in and around Buffalo, my wife in Colorado and North Dakota, so we actually miss getting a lot of snow. We wouldn't mind having to drive here and there to get to lakes, biking, etc.--the distances up there are much smaller than they are where we live now (southwest Virginia, a place much more barren than you might suppose). Thirty, forty miles is not a long trip for us to get to/do what we like. We love driving those county highways and learning the towns & lakes. We know & like Buffalo & Toronto, go to Ontario whenever possible, want to take the train to Boston or NYC now and again, explore the Adirondacks, be near the Great Lakes, love the northeast's/Great Lakes' state's history, etc. As teachers, we're guessing we'd have job options among the cities & their suburbs (Rochester, Syracuse, etc.) and in the smaller towns--we wouldn't mind driving a half hour or so to get to work. Two big aversions: 1) College students. Can't stand living among them anymore! Would rather watch the paint peel with the retirees than be in some "cool" college town or area. And 2) Too much ugly, isolating suburban/history-less development. We'd rather have stately-core-but-somewhat-run-down around-the-edges than ugly sprawl.

So, would kooks like us be a good match for Canandaigua, Auburn, or the other towns there?

Thanks for your feedback!

have you checked the taxes in NYS? They are very high - property taxes are obscene.

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by stc123

i have found more info about geneseo NY click this link:

Where the singles are - Geneseo, New York (10) - Money Magazine

also click this link:

MONEY Magazine: Best places to live 2007: Geneseo, NY snapshot

PS: the first web site probably makes people think that geneseo is only a good place for singles and not families but belive me geneseo is still a great place for families.

PS the second web site says the high temperature in July is 50 degrees. that is false. the hottest it usually gets in July is usually 95 degrees. that is very hot for here.

Geneseo is a great place. Like the poster above said, great schools, safe, small/quaint town. The only thing to watch for though is that it's approximately 35 miles from Rochester. I used to commute there for college from downtown and it took me around 40 minutes. Map it on Google Maps if you're interested. Just a heads up!

[mmh]

can anyone tell me about farmington ny. i'm relocating from nyc and would like to know more about the community and school district.

[itSmellsBAD]

Originally Posted by Phish Head

Please stop talking about how beautiful the Finger Lakes are! I'm so envious of you upstaters! I'm going out of my mind here trying to get the heck out of here and up there!!!!

The Finger Lakes are CAFO country. Industrial sized dairy farms that spread manure over thousands of acres. Vast tracts of land have polluted well water. It stinks for many months and the the dairy farms are getting bigger and bigger due to record high milk prices. It's a dumping ground. Famr Bureau lobby is more powerful than anything you've ever seen. All this pollution and expansion is being paid for with your tax dollars and the polltuion is getting worse. Smells like an open sewer. It's a damn shame...........

[Ellie C.]

The Finger Lakes are CAFO country. Industrial sized dairy farms that spread manure over thousands of acres. Vast tracts of land have polluted well water. It stinks for many months and the the dairy farms are getting bigger and bigger due to record high milk prices. It's a dumping ground. Famr Bureau lobby is more powerful than anything you've ever seen. All this pollution and expansion is being paid for with your tax dollars and the polltuion (sic) is getting worse. Smells like an open sewer. It's a damn shame...........

Can you be a little more specific about where these farms are located? I live in the Finger Lakes area and I don't have any near me that I'm aware of.

And yes, hb, beware of the property taxes. One town can have a tax bill of say, $6000 on a $200K house, but if you go one school district over it would be half that. It can vary that much. Also, the STAR exemptions vary. There is also the "middle class" tax rebate. The Middle Class STAR is over and above the basic STAR rebate, and it's not hard to qualify. It's based on a sliding scale according to your income, with the benefit being reduced if your income exceeds $90K. If you make over $250K you do not qualify.

I just found this out on my own. Nobody told me!

[BathNative]

Originally Posted by I'minformed2

By B'port you don't mean Brockport do you? That's not really in the fingerlakes, but there is a lot of new construction going on there as people continue to spread out in the Rochester area.

How about Branchport...and yes, that is on K-Lake.

[Finger Laker]

I think I'm the 3rd Bath native to chime in on this thread - but here goes

Skaneateles is really nice - but I haven't spent that much time there as it isn't in my part of the lakes

Geneseo is a nice town as well

Penn Yan is pretty decent and it's on the like - some decent trails around it as well if you are into walking / hiking (the finger lakes trail system is pretty solid all the way through)

I would also highly consider watkins glen & ithaca - both are right on their respective lakes - corning is also a little larger and as mentioned before, not on a lake but very easy access to a few different ones

if you are teachers then the #1 issue that drove me away wouldn't really affect you - and that is lack of desirable jobs - in fact, you can carve out a pretty nice life

best of luck in your search