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Old 01-29-2007, 11:53 AM
 
Location: Vermont
3,457 posts, read 10,225,864 times
Reputation: 2450

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I am a native Vermonter as is my DH and we're lucky to have good jobs. We plan on staying here. I can't imagine living anywhere else (except maybe in FL for a few months during winter!). We were able to build a great home that was affordable to us.
I did leave Vermont after college to live in Boston but came back after 6 years.
I can see how it's hard for lots of folks, especially my age, who are looking to buy a home. It's very expensive to live here and the salaries don't keep up.
We definately need some sort of education funding reform though. I'm all for consolodating school district too if it'll help. We'll just have to wait and see I guess.
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Old 02-02-2007, 03:40 PM
 
Location: Vermont
1,442 posts, read 6,480,308 times
Reputation: 457
These are the common themes in people's choices to leave Vermont. The weather and the economy. Too cold, too expensive and salaries that are too low.

I'm seriously thinking of moving there, specifically to Brattleboro, and these thoughts are daunting.

I'm wondering how daunting they should be, though.
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Old 02-03-2007, 12:37 AM
 
154 posts, read 686,562 times
Reputation: 53
Default middlebury and brattleboro

Hi, someone asked why I mentioned Middlebury and Brattleboro as having high violent crime.

My info for Middlebury came from Sperling's website which listed it's violent crime rate as a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10, 3 being the national average. (they list property crime as a separate figure but that's always higher in college towns and I more concerned with violent crime.) It seemed odd to me that such a small town would have such a high rate so I'm not sure if that's was misinformation or what...

The Brattleboro info came from City Data. It lists the crimes over the past 5-6years and it had a pretty high number of rapes each year for such a small population (in my opinion). I can't know from that what may have been domestic situations but it was again a little surprising.

Finally, Burlington had a fairly large number of sex offenders. I know I'mnot going to find a crime-free area but I guess I was surprised given Vermont's reputation for being lower in crime.

Thanks to everyone who gave info and suggestions!
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Old 02-04-2007, 10:21 PM
 
Location: hinesburg, vt
1,574 posts, read 4,842,482 times
Reputation: 406
The reporting methods of statistics can be misleading. Vt still enjoys a very low crime rate, but what is disturbing is the lack of prosecution of sex offenders which is being now reported nationally. This will not open the door and overnight invite countless offenders to come here and thrive, but in time it will develop into a more serious issue. We already see this with drug dealers from out-of-state who receive minimal sentances. There have been two high profile arrests of groups lately in Barre and St Albans. Arrests are meaningless if the DA and courts do not follow through, just a game of catch and release.
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Old 02-05-2007, 08:37 AM
 
23,534 posts, read 69,978,132 times
Reputation: 48962
I am so tired of hearing all the fears about sex offenders. The rational part of the argument has, like Elvis, "left the building." There are some offenders who have done some pretty heinous things. Those people need to be kept away from the general population for life, and generally are. That is a no-brainer, and it has been quietly going on for years, with the offenders in the past often charged with assault (often an appropriate charge if there is non-consentual sex involved). However, there are also 16 year old kids that have had relations with hot young 14 year olds, that get swabbed by the courts with the same broad red paintbrush, and have that follow them the rest of their lives. The courts lump it all under "sex offender," and that magically turns anyone accused into a second-class citizen even before trial, and allows every smarmy church-going member, including priests and ministers doing "a little" of their own on the side, to jump on the bandwagon of publicly castigating the offender. The witch-hunt mentality sometimes goes so far that I sometimes expect to read of stonings.

When I was a boy growing up in Vermont, every kid in our school knew there were certain people that were best avoided. There were also "offers" that came from unexpected sources, and we had the God-given common sense to say no (at least I did). If there was pressure, I was taught to explain exactly what physical retribution would be extracted by the family.

Under the current witch-hunt, I know of a couple of prominent philanthropic citizens that would be classified as offenders, a fantasticly brilliant college professor who had "favorites" who would no longer be allowed to teach, a teacher who had a consentual affair with a student that would make the headlines, and so on. Those people are all dead now, but their overall contribution to society was far greater than any damage caused by their sexual predilictions. While they were rightly regarded with some distrust, their lives and problems were not turned into national gossip feeding an even more deviant news media, nor were their names and addresses plastered in public places of shame, like the ***** did to the Jews in the years before they shipped them off to death camps.

Back then, the public outrage over sexual matters was all focused on those homosexual "perverts," and people who married out of their race, and people who married foreigners, and people who didn't fit the standards of eugenics.

If you want to wallow in perversion, do a web search of how Vermont was deeply involved in the eugenics movement, which denied any sexuality to those deemed mentally or physically unfit.

To hammer on the point, I know of a number of people who are more outraged to have a "sex offender" living nearby, than they are to share an apartment building with someone who was convicted of murder. Hello!??? Anyone in there, McFly?? The balance of fears has gone crazy.
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Old 02-05-2007, 09:47 AM
 
Location: hinesburg, vt
1,574 posts, read 4,842,482 times
Reputation: 406
I can see the point about a witch hunt mentality and agree that this problem has existed forever in different categories. My point and concern rests with the worst of the worst offenders and lack of action. I worked in law enforcement for twenty years and had ample opportunity to deal with victims and offenders alike, though not here in Vt. I do however know a probation and parole officer here and what I have heard concerns me from a standpoint of experience.
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Old 02-05-2007, 11:16 AM
 
3,049 posts, read 8,884,551 times
Reputation: 1174
Wardsboro and Jamaica are my favorite towns, nice people and just lovely settings
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