Is laurens a good town to live in (Greenville, Greenwood: apartment, crime)

[bribri100]

I am thinking of moving to Laurens SC how is the school system and crime rate,

[SClady]

I live 15 miles from Laurens. I don't know anyone that has children there so I can't tell you about the schools. I would be more interested in living in Greenwood. I think it is only about 30 miles from Laurens. There are alot of schools here. My daughter teaches here and I have 4 grandchildren in schools. It is a pretty nice town to live in.

[EddieFknD]

Hello,

In 2006 I went down there with a friend because she was moving there. I liked it so much I decided to stay there but had to leave because I was getting ready to go to school in Maine. Anyways, I finally made it back in the beginning of 2008. I lived there from Januray/08 to April/08 (I move a lot, it had nothing to do with Laurens)

Overall, I miss it. I miss my house most of all. It was such a cute house, with a really nice backyard, my landlord was nice, I was becoming a regular at shops around town....

The Bad:
I had issues with the post office. They told me there was a policy, where vacant houses recently occupied are required to have mailboxes on the curb... I said well all houses were vacant at one time, but they don't have one.. They didn't say much.. But bottom line was I had to meet the mail carrier out front or they'd hold my mail, and the post office was quite a hike from my house.

I'm used to living in a big city, where trash removal is standard. There was no public trash service... I guess some guy just did it with his truck, and most other people had trucks and brought their trash to the dump. I had no vehicle, and had no idea who this trash guy was.. So I had a ton of trash building up outside. Not fun.

The humidity. I have really bad allergies and asthma and it was ALWAYS so humid (and mind you I was there in Januray-April...I don't want to know what it would've been like in August) I could never breathe. I was always sweating.

No jobs. I got suspended from my job and didn't know whether or not I'd be taken back and couldn't find ANYTHING... I even called all of the employment agencies. They didn't even have anything available, to which I asked "Well then why are they open today??"

I guess I lived in a bad part of the town. "Hoodlums" were always hanging outside in groups, once I had two dogs come to my doorstep, one was missing a toe and look like it had been fighting a lot. It was a pitbull. chickens randomly roamed the streets and I'd see goats leashed up to vacant houses, which struck me as odd. Maybe this is normal, but again I'm from the city and am not used to that kind of thing.

Also, religion was always pushed on me, like really bad. No offense to anyone, but I'm not a religious person. I respect your views, whatever they may be, and I expect the same.

Now for the good:

CHEAP LIVING! - My house was 325 a month. It came with all the standard appliances, had a HUGE fenced in yard, beautiful rugs.. I loved my rugs. They really tied the room together (kudos if you get that) To move in, I just had to pay first and a security deposit, as opposed to most places up here (Massachusetts) where you have to pay 1st, last, and security for a sub-standard apartment that comes with nothing. My landlord even picked me up and brought me to the house to show it to me.

Small town living - It was quiet for the most part. The convenience store was up the street, the pawn shop was next door (I was at the pawn shop almost every day buying dvds) and further down was Rite Aid, a pizza place, a grocery store, etc. There was this one particular grocery store that was small and family run. We'd spend like $100 and over fill our cart. Literally.

The people were nice for the most part. Like I said, there were a lot of "hoodlums" but nobody ever gave me any trouble. Other than the pawn shop, there wasn't all that much to do. I got lucky scoring a nice security job overnight at the hospital. I knew someone that worked there already. Overall, I do miss it, but I wouldn't recommend moving there if you don't already have a job set up, and a vehicle. And make sure you find out who the damn trash removal guy is before going there too. And if you don't like humidity, do not go there. Overall I'd rate living there a 7/10. I look back with mostly positive memories, and do get nostalgic now and again.

As for crimes, I worked with a lot of the police out there. I always had a deputy on shift with me at the hospital. I'd read the arrest reports basically every day, and usually it was stuff like public drunk, domestic violence, etc. Nothing too major, though if I remember correctly, there were a ton of burglaries as well, but getting a gun is very easy down there and it's legal to shoot somebody if they break into your house.

Good luck. I hope this helped.

[motonenterprises]

Just curious if there is any particular reason you picked Laurens. Simpsonville which is a Greenville suburb is much nicer than Laurens in my opinion. It has more options and is only about 10 minutes from Greenville for bigger and better amentities.

[momtorjm]

Laurens school districts were not even on the list when we researched SC before our move. The schools are terrible. Too bad because we like old houses and Laurens seemed to have all the houses and land we were interested in. We ended up in Honea Path. We have a great little town, great neighbors, great schools. We have been through Greenwood and that is very nice. I don't know about their schools. Check them at Greatschools.net.
Good Luck

[motonenterprises]

Originally Posted by momtorjm

Laurens school districts were not even on the list when we researched SC before our move. The schools are terrible. Too bad because we like old houses and Laurens seemed to have all the houses and land we were interested in. We ended up in Honea Path. We have a great little town, great neighbors, great schools. We have been through Greenwood and that is very nice. I don't know about their schools. Check them at Greatschools.net.
Good Luck

Not that great. Thats where I'm from. Didn't even teach my daughter how to write in cursive, shes in 6th grade now in Simpsonville and I'm teaching her to write in cursive to try and catch her up.