Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'd say parts of Orvilton/DeWittshire can work (there's a conservative Jewish synagogue over there and many of their congregants live nearby so as not to have to drive on Saturdays) depending on what you're looking for walkability-wise. It's high traffic volume but they have good pedestrian controls except at Erie Blvd. Caz is pretty good too.
And that's why it's not good for the OP: note the qualifiers he made, which I've bolded? They have a child. This thread is to offer suggestions to the OP, not provide general musings about some possibilities for some people. It's about THESE people. Think of where parents might want to go, with or without their child. It needs to be easy. Bonus points for it being relaxing and easy to take in. Double bonus points for being able to get to the library for storytime without having to wonder if you'll make it there alive. (Not to mention the fact that you'll spend at least three times longer, each way, than storytime/activity of the day even is.) Triple bonus points if there's a park (there isn't one in Dewittshire/Orvilton unless you consider cemeteries a good playground.)
They're not trying to widen the search area; they're looking to narrow it down. What CAN work in the most desperate of circumstances is not what they're looking for. They want to know what the best choices are. If they didn't want that, they'd live anywhere with a good price, good schools, safe neighborhood and not even mention walkability. Living in a place where it doesn't feel safe to cross the streets with a child means that they'll take the car all the time, which isn't what they want.
I keep stressing that it needs to be narrowed down, not expanded, because their time up here will be valuable. They don't need to waste time trying to walk around places that aren't what they want in the first place... especially when they already have choices that will best meet all of their criteria.
It'd be like going to the store and asking which cuts of steak are the best today and being told that the ground beef is fresh also. It doesn't make any sense.
And that's why it's not good for the OP: note the qualifiers he made, which I've bolded? They have a child. This thread is to offer suggestions to the OP, not provide general musings about some possibilities for some people. It's about THESE people. Think of where parents might want to go, with or without their child. It needs to be easy. Bonus points for it being relaxing and easy to take in. Double bonus points for being able to get to the library for storytime without having to wonder if you'll make it there alive. (Not to mention the fact that you'll spend at least three times longer, each way, than storytime/activity of the day even is.) Triple bonus points if there's a park (there isn't one in Dewittshire/Orvilton unless you consider cemeteries a good playground.)
They're not trying to widen the search area; they're looking to narrow it down. What CAN work in the most desperate of circumstances is not what they're looking for. They want to know what the best choices are. If they didn't want that, they'd live anywhere with a good price, good schools, safe neighborhood and not even mention walkability. Living in a place where it doesn't feel safe to cross the streets with a child means that they'll take the car all the time, which isn't what they want.
I keep stressing that it needs to be narrowed down, not expanded, because their time up here will be valuable. They don't need to waste time trying to walk around places that aren't what they want in the first place... especially when they already have choices that will best meet all of their criteria.
It'd be like going to the store and asking which cuts of steak are the best today and being told that the ground beef is fresh also. It doesn't make any sense.
Proulxfamily - when we were looking for housing in Manlius, there was nothing on the market that was actually walkable to all of the things in the village. They were all sort of a trek. Same thing seems to be the case now. Do houses ever actually come on the market there? Same thing was true with Fayetteville. The only place we would have lived there was near the strip on Brooklea Drive. There was nothing available in our desired price range (200-250K) in either of these places, which is another reason we had to throw them out of contention.
They tend to go quickly, when they go up at all. And I've OFTEN seen the listings lag on realtor sites... we see a sign go up and get nosy (lots of older couples who keep to themselves lol) but can't find it. Usually, it's because they've gotten an offer that day and are just leaving up the sign to see if anyone else local calls, from driving or walking past the house. Typically, the people selling are just moving to another house in the neighborhood that better fits them. A starter house>bigger house or a bigger house>retirement/downsize house. A LOT of my neighbors grew up here. Their parents and grandparents live here and look out for homes up for sale, so their children can buy it and move back. OR, the children tell their parents (who are retiring or retired) that such-and-such little house is up for sale. There are a lot of friends too- they want to be near-neighbors and raise their children together. My own husband's parents moved down here, across the street, from New Hampshire. A sign never went up because we're friends with the owners and helped them reno the house for the market, then his parents visited and loved it. They moved down the next month.
If you drive through though (if you turn left into the street by DD, you'll see neighborhoods you'd never know were even there), you'll see quite a few more homes for sale than what's listed on the sites. That's how it goes for rentals too... the signs are staked in the lawn, not posted on CL. That lasts for a day or two, then it's rented and the sign comes down. There's just a massive explosion of houses on the east side of Fayette, behind the short stretch of financial-type house/storefronts across from the Swan Pond. But people don't usually come back here unless they live here.
eta: I love your descriptions of B'ville, jon! If I was looking to move there, as the OP, I'd only wonder how close the nearest grocery store is (or if there's a fluffed-up convenience store where you can pick up butter, milk, eggs, or meat for dinner without paying double, on the way home) and, of course, how far away Target is. lol - otherwise, it sounds like it has more to offer than Manlius and would be the very best option for the OP!
You can't play on school grounds during school hours. That isn't helpful when you have a child who isn't in school and you're looking for ways to occupy them *during the day.* The old Manlius High School has a playground too... but there's a daycare/preschool/afterschool-care program there. With daylight hours being few in the evenings from mid-fall to mid-spring, that means we can use it for maybe half of the year, after 6:30, assuming they're not having dinner/taking a shower/getting ready for bed and that it's not just about pitch black at that time. Good thing we have two other playgrounds we can walk to while it's still daylight.
Last edited by proulxfamily; 08-28-2014 at 08:56 AM..
See how the homes open up? East of 92 and north of 173. That's where everything goes quickly, because it's ideal. But you wouldn't know that unless you knew someone there and felt it out for yourself. I lived in the village and knew there were a few streets in there but not the extent of it. I never had reason to go back into it all. Going anywhere is easy, from this huge, tucked-away part of the village.
It's good that only people who live here come through, too... because the skaters have somewhere safe to use and can bail into a safe patch of [hopefully] tall grass. That's what I tell myself anyway, so I don't have to mow so often. :P
You can't play on school grounds during school hours. That isn't helpful when you have a child who isn't in school and you're looking for ways to occupy them *during the day.* The old Manlius High School has a playground too... but there's a daycare/preschool/afterschool-care program there. With daylight hours being few in the evenings from mid-fall to mid-spring, that means we can use it for maybe half of the year, after 6:30, assuming they're not having dinner/taking a shower/getting ready for bed and that it's not just about pitch black at that time. Good thing we have two other playgrounds we can walk to while it's still daylight.
I'm not making a case for the area or against any area, but there is a playground in the neighborhood and I believe that the OP's child will be going into Kindergarten when they decide to move to the area.
And that's why it's not good for the OP: note the qualifiers he made, which I've bolded? They have a child. This thread is to offer suggestions to the OP, not provide general musings about some possibilities for some people. It's about THESE people. Think of where parents might want to go, with or without their child. It needs to be easy. Bonus points for it being relaxing and easy to take in. Double bonus points for being able to get to the library for storytime without having to wonder if you'll make it there alive. (Not to mention the fact that you'll spend at least three times longer, each way, than storytime/activity of the day even is.) Triple bonus points if there's a park (there isn't one in Dewittshire/Orvilton unless you consider cemeteries a good playground.)
They're not trying to widen the search area; they're looking to narrow it down. What CAN work in the most desperate of circumstances is not what they're looking for. They want to know what the best choices are. If they didn't want that, they'd live anywhere with a good price, good schools, safe neighborhood and not even mention walkability. Living in a place where it doesn't feel safe to cross the streets with a child means that they'll take the car all the time, which isn't what they want.
I keep stressing that it needs to be narrowed down, not expanded, because their time up here will be valuable. They don't need to waste time trying to walk around places that aren't what they want in the first place... especially when they already have choices that will best meet all of their criteria.
It'd be like going to the store and asking which cuts of steak are the best today and being told that the ground beef is fresh also. It doesn't make any sense.
Its more of a contest to show you what he knows, rather than actually recommending a feasible suggestion for people. He once recommended some small town in western NY to someone looking for a diverse black community based on a stat that showed the community was 15% black or so.
Turns out, the town was lily white, but there was a maximum security prison there, heavily skewing the results of the demographics on paper. This is what frustrates me the most about this. People RELY on this information, that person would have been going nuts living in this community and probably be miserable.
There is no full line grocery store within the village limits in Bville. There is a TOPs on Downer street, just outside of the village limits, which is about a 2 minute drive. There is a Kinneys and a Byrne Dairy on the North side of the village which are both walkable if you need something in a pinch. But let's be honest -- everyone around here shops at Wegmans anyway . To be honest, I'm not sure my wife would be walking to go grocery shopping anyway with how much we buy each week. She goes to Wegman's on Route 31, which, incidentally is right next to Target and any other big box store you can think of. That commercial strip is all an 8-10 minute drive from the village of Bville. Also, there's Route 57 in Liverpool, which is about the same distance away. That's what we love (and what I think the OP would love) because we have our walkable area, but are also so close to what you would think of as the traditional suburban retail areas (the same can be said of Manlius and its location to Towne Center in Fayetteville). I said in a previous post that Skaneateles and Caz, while definitely cooler villages, don't have that proximity and are a bit in the middle of nowhere.
I also have to say that as someone who goes to the gym regularly, I absolutely LOVE being able to walk to my gym (especially in the winter!!!!!), which is Riverside Fitness (Fitness Center, Fitness Coaches | Baldwinsville, NY) on E. Genesee. Not sure of any other villages that have a walkable gym? There is also a new Yoga Studio (Home - Eastern Arts Yoga) and a new Pilates Studio (threeanchorsstudio.com) that both opened up recently, both right in the village.
I also wanted to respond to the OPs question about how to meet other people. When we moved here, we knew very few people, and my wife was transitioning from a professional career into being a stay at home mom. Her biggest concern was meeting people. She signed up for story time at the Bville public library (which is awesome, BTW, the whole library, not just the story time). The group of moms from her story time all got each others' contact information at the end of the season and they all hang out once a week (park, zoo, others' houses, etc.). She has made some good friends in the short time we have been here (which has been less than a year). I noticed that proulxfamily mentioned storytime as well. Most of the public libraries around here have them (I know Liverpool does as well) and its a great way to meet other moms (not to be sexist, but it's usually moms and not dads).
Quote:
Originally Posted by proulxfamily
They tend to go quickly, when they go up at all. And I've OFTEN seen the listings lag on realtor sites... we see a sign go up and get nosy (lots of older couples who keep to themselves lol) but can't find it. Usually, it's because they've gotten an offer that day and are just leaving up the sign to see if anyone else local calls, from driving or walking past the house. Typically, the people selling are just moving to another house in the neighborhood that better fits them. A starter house>bigger house or a bigger house>retirement/downsize house. A LOT of my neighbors grew up here. Their parents and grandparents live here and look out for homes up for sale, so their children can buy it and move back. OR, the children tell their parents (who are retiring or retired) that such-and-such little house is up for sale. There are a lot of friends too- they want to be near-neighbors and raise their children together. My own husband's parents moved down here, across the street, from New Hampshire. A sign never went up because we're friends with the owners and helped them reno the house for the market, then his parents visited and loved it. They moved down the next month.
If you drive through though (if you turn left into the street by DD, you'll see neighborhoods you'd never know were even there), you'll see quite a few more homes for sale than what's listed on the sites. That's how it goes for rentals too... the signs are staked in the lawn, not posted on CL. That lasts for a day or two, then it's rented and the sign comes down. There's just a massive explosion of houses on the east side of Fayette, behind the short stretch of financial-type house/storefronts across from the Swan Pond. But people don't usually come back here unless they live here.
eta: I love your descriptions of B'ville, jon! If I was looking to move there, as the OP, I'd only wonder how close the nearest grocery store is (or if there's a fluffed-up convenience store where you can pick up butter, milk, eggs, or meat for dinner without paying double, on the way home) and, of course, how far away Target is. lol - otherwise, it sounds like it has more to offer than Manlius and would be the very best option for the OP!
Its more of a contest to show you what he knows, rather than actually recommending a feasible suggestion for people. He once recommended some small town in western NY to someone looking for a diverse black community based on a stat that showed the community was 15% black or so.
Turns out, the town was lily white, but there was a maximum security prison there, heavily skewing the results of the demographics on paper. This is what frustrates me the most about this. People RELY on this information, that person would have been going nuts living in this community and probably be miserable.
When was this? Is this like the High Acres suggestion?
It isn't a contest. I was just stating that the neighborhood had a playground. It is all love here.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. To be honest, I'm not sure my wife would be walking to go grocery shopping anyway with how much we buy each week. She goes to Wegman's on Route 31, which, incidentally is right next to Target and any other big box store you can think of. That commercial strip is all an 8-10 minute drive from the village of Bville. Also, there's Route 57 in Liverpool, which is about the same distance away. That's what we love (and what I think the OP would love) because we have our walkable area, but are also so close to what you would think of as the traditional suburban retail areas (the same can be said of Manlius and its location to Towne Center in Fayetteville). I said in a previous post that Skaneateles and Caz, while definitely cooler villages, don't have that proximity and are a bit in the middle of nowhere.
