Relocating to Watertown... (New York, Buffalo, Syracuse: environment, military, travel)

[Lisa898]

We are looking at a probable move to Watertown for husband's new job sometime within the near future. While we have managed to find a bit of information about the area via the internet,we are at a loss as to how to choose a good school district. Thank goodness we found this forum! Can those of you out there in or around the Watertown area give us direction? We have two elementary aged children--next year they will be in the 4th grade and kindergarten. Where are the best schools in the area? We greatly appreciate any information you can give. We have never moved anywhere and this whole process is a bit daunting! Thank you so much.

[rbro5841]

Hope you know that Watertown has extremely long winters (Nov-Apr). If you move south of Adams (I-81 exit 41), you will be in lake effect territory....where you can get 1-2 feet of snow in a day without warning. Also
I-81 between Watertown & Syracuse can be impassable during the winter.. be warned. You will want to be close to your husband's job because nobody wants to drive miles & miles in blizzards to & from work, even though there isn't any traffic. I know there is snow in Michigan, but this is worse. If you stay on the north/northeast side of watertown, there is slightly less snow, but the temperatures are colder.

Many school districts are small in watertown area (eg 35-80 per graduating class). Sackets Harbor is a nice, small town, close to Watertown. Mannsville Elementary (part of South Jeff district) & Copenhagen Elementary are more traditional elementary schools -an article in the paper highlighted that they got good test scores with this approach. South Jeff, General Brown, Watertown, Lowville (pronounced like plow) Thousand Islands, and the ones near Ft Drum (Carthage,Indian River, Beaver River) are larger districts. (and have more AP courses etc if your kids get to high school up there)

We moved to watertown when I was in high school and I HATED it and left as soon as possible, but I can't say the same for my siblings who still live up there. There is some negative connotation about Belleville-Henderson ( a small school SW of Wtown)- something about there are alot of farms in the area and cows smell cow-y. If I were forced to move back to the area, I would go for one of the larger schools far away from Ft Drum (assuming you're not military) or find a house on water (either the St. Law River or Lake Ont.), preferably not neighboring a dairy farm in Belleville. Henderson is nice enough, there are a lot of seasonal people that come in for the summer. The people in the whole area are very friendly and in a small school your kids will make friends quickly because everyone always wants to get to know the new kids.

[Lisa898]

Wow! Thanks for the great feedback. We definitely need all the help we can get. I am not surprised about the snow--in fact we have just been discussing that. You're right, we do not get much snow here. At least not where we are along the shore of the "Thumb". The lake protects us from heavy snowfall--or so I'm told.
I am a bit concerned about not having much to do in NY as opposed to here. I pulled the demographics and on paper the two areas are similar but we are less than an hour from Detroit, 2 hrs from Flint, about 2 hours from Ann Arbor, etc. So anything we could possibly want or need for fun, entertainment or culture is close at hand if we so desire. What can we expect to find likewise in the Watertown area? We are assuming it is mostly small town/rural communities around there. I guess the main concern for us is that there are opportunities for our kids to learn and grow.
Thanks again for your timely reply. It helped a lot.
Lisa

[Orwelleaut]

Watertown is only 67 miles from Syracuse, which is a metro area as large as Flint, but far nicer. Far lower crime, far more culture and a much more educated populus. Syracuse University is quite expensive and prestigious. Detroit has nothing on Syracuse culturally.

For a Michigan-like city in upstate NY, visit Buffalo. Very much of an auto industry, union, blue collar town.

An interesting aside about Flint vs. Syracuse: Flint gave us Michael Moore. Syracuse gave us Tom Cruise. Good or bad? You be the judge!!

[Sgoldie]

It's not unusual for people in the north country to go into Canada for their city fix. Have your passport ready as you'll need it to cross the border by car in another year. Ottawa and Toronto are both spectacular big cities and less than 2hrs away. Kingston, which has Queens college (Canada's Yale), and another which is their version of West Point is just across the border and another fun place to visit. The culture on that side of the border is more sophisticated than you'll find on the US side.

[Orwelleaut]

Originally Posted by Sgoldie

It's not unusual for people in the north country to go into Canada for their city fix. Have your passport ready as you'll need it to cross the border by car in another year. Ottawa and Toronto are both spectacular big cities and less than 2hrs away. Kingston, which has Queens college (Canada's Yale), and another which is their version of West Point is just across the border and another fun place to visit. The culture on that side of the border is more sophisticated than you'll find on the US side.

This is definitely true of Northern NY. The Saint Lawrence Valley towns like Massena and Ogdensburg are pretty close to Ottawa. Never been in Kingston, just past there on the 401, but I have heard there is a lot there culturally. Watertown is about 25 miles from the border, so I'm guessing Kingston is about an hour away at best, definitely closer than Syracuse.

In my travels in Northern NY, I noticed than the Canadian feel was very strong. Locals sound very Canadian, possibly more so than the Canadians from around Windsor, where the influence of the U.S. is very strong. The scenery is just gorgeous, and the summers are absolutely perfect weather. Few places are nicer. Probably the only minus is the rather long winter..

[Lisa898]

I just want to thank everyone for their info and advice. I think we will do well in Watertown. If the job calls us there we won't really have much choice anyway. As I wrote originally, the schools are our main focus. With a good school in a safe environment--well, the rest will fall into place.
I mentioned Flint, Detroit etc mostly for reference to where we now are. Frankly, I haven't been to Flint since I can remember--there is really nothing there I would need to travel there for. And the crime is high. We have been to Detroit on a number of occassions for concerts and such but again not on any sort of a regular basis. I hadn't even thought of Toronto. We love it there! I think living in a border town such as the one we are in makes us take Canada and it's offerings for granted--but, yeah it has some great stuff to see and do.
I grew up in the middle of no where. It was isolating and boring. Better once I had a car and could get myself places, but still rather dull. I do not want this for my kids which is why I asked about stuff to do in Watertown. One poster mentioned the smell of the dairy farms--how well I know that scent! Also my school was just down the road from the sugar plant and there isn't a scent that smells much worse than the processing sugar beets! (Unless it was the pickle factory down the road from that! ) Potent stuff.
Again, we thank you for your help. We are looking forward to our future in NY. See you there!

[Orwelleaut]

Sounds like you are ready to move!

Wanted to offer one final positive regarding Northern NY: In August, I will be taking my bride to Northern NY for our honeymoon! We considered Northern MI, but decided on NY for our special trip. Much closer to NE Ohio thanthe UP, but just as scenic! Waterfalls, mountains, Lake Ontario beaches, the Thousand Islands, etc. NOrthern NY, "the North Country", is God's Country!

[TughillTina]

I live 15 minutes away from Watertown. Now basically it really ultimately depends on how well all of you can adapt. I moved here from Colorado and the two are as different as can be but I can **** and moan about the differences or choose to see the good in the place. I've decided to look at the positive because I'm no fun to be around if I'm complaining.

The winters are very long. There is nothing like a lake effect snowstorm. Blinding snow and alot of it. You will need something to move all of the snow-shovel,snowblower,plow, tractor..... The positive of the winters well here is a story for you, I was online playing Pogo and was watching a player write about how just last night she heard someone at her window, she went outside and sure enough there sat a chair next to the window. She was being watched. Now at the time I was looking outside my window smiling because number one, I had snow all the way up to the bottom of the sill and number two, it was 25 below outside and honestly who in their right mind would be commiting crime in any fashion. So my point to this is look at the winter as a ally, I've learned to.

This area is extremely rural and I have grown to love it. Wide open spaces and lots of friendly cows. It is alot of fun to visit a dairy farm.

Watertown is finally getting some new restaurants and new stores. Avoid the square if you can it is a free for all.

As others have said there is plenty to see. If you need a big city fix there are options out there that are not to far away.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy your new adventure!

[Angler & Author]

My family moved to Watertown some four years ago for my wife's job. I'm from Ann Arbor, so I can do a good job of comparing Northern New York to Michigan. First off, too much is made of the weather here. Our climate is virtually identical to that of the Traverse City/Mackinaw area, except that Tug Hill gets far more snow. Watertown was a very wealthy city at the turn of the century and it shows in the area homes and architecture. The local library is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. That said, when the city fell on hard times after the closure of the paper mills everything went down hill. Still, there is a very strong sense of local pride and the neighborhoods are filling again with people restoring the old homes. We live in a nice neighborhood with great neighbors, and we know them by name. I have no fear for my children playing on the sidewalk in front of our house. The area has a low crime rate, but you can find problems if you look hard enough, which is no different than anyplace else. As far as cultural activities go, you'll pretty much have to find it elsewhere. Syracuse is an easy drive - I actually do most of the grocery shopping there. The Wegman's in Dewitt is the best grocery store I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them. Ottawa is only an hour or so away, Kingston is just down the road, and Lake Placid is an easy day trip. The schools are just okay. We are comfortable with the elementary school that our child attends, but I wouldn't call it perfect. There are some outstanding pre-schools. As far as shopping is concerned, a Target just opened, as did a couple of chain restaurants. There is a mall here, but it's a joke. You will do a lot of internet shopping, or just drive to Syracuse, which has most of what you would need on a daily basis. The Syracuse airport is very user-friendly. The principal driving force behind the local economy is Fort Drum, but this is not the typical military town. One piece of advice I must offer is that you absolutely must have a place to live before you come here as the housing market is very, very tight.

When the wife's job is up we will, without question, return to Michigan. But I can I tell you that are far worse places to live than Watertown.