What do you think about Jamestown, NY? (Buffalo, Chautauqua: rent, homes)

[Dragonchaser]

My fiance and I are debating on moving back. We both grew up there and own a home that we currently rent out. We really love the area...the good and the bad. To be perfectly honest, we found the good outweigh the bad, and we are in our young-mid 20's. People like to bash the area for several reasons, but I think we know what makes us happy.

One thing that the area lacks is a huge shopping district, and an assortment of the arts. Honestly, living smack dab in the middle of Buffalo, NY it still takes a half an hour or more to get to very places J-towners complain is too far for them. I don't know, maybe we are simple, but this area has everthing we want.

What are your thoughts?

[Krisps]

I've lived near J-town for the past couple years. The only bad I see is lack of job opportunities and new industry, it seems to be a town with some old industrial remnants and based more on social services. I like the downtown, it has some character and quite a few festivals in the warmer months. There seem to be no real bad areas, extremely affordable to live in, has many very nice homes, and is very close to beautiful country side and of course the lake and institute. I've never understood what type of shopping is lacking. I hear the same from people in Erie and I think Erie has an excessive shopping district, people probably say this nearly everywhere along as they do about the weather. Jtown is the perfect size in my book, just big enough to have decent entertainment options and a decent shopping area and the great Wegmans, but not big enough to have congested traffic and endless stripmalls and suburbs. Generally though, I like the whole atmosphere of Chautauqua county, there's something very unique to it.

[Rog72A]

I have not visited for several years, but plan to visit this summer. I love the lake and the hills of the western NY area. Where I live in OHio it is quite flat. I used to visit my Grandfather in Jamestown back in the 50s, it was a very different town then. I remember the city buses traveling all over town. Rog72A

[Laura C.]

If I had the time and money to travel, I would visit Jamestown because that is where my mother was born (in 1927), she is deceased now. She loved life in J-town and NYC.