Torn?

[leighland]

Originally Posted by Geork

Also I don't think HR is uniquely horrible, perhaps I spoke a bit strongly again. Out of the the 5-6 places I've lived in the US in the past 15 years, HR is the least desirable place we've lived to raise a family (for us, no knock for others, different strokes and all that), sufficiently so that we've moved heaven and earth to leave

To repeat myself.

There are 2 types of posters on CD, those who live in a place they hate, and those who want to live in the place the others hate.

I suspect you'd love DC Metro, despite its horrible doctors. To clarify I am handicapped and, as my slogan states under my name, I've live in 20 places in the us. I know healthcare better than most of you.

If you are willing to rent a 3 bed/2 bath for 2600/month, suffer in the worst traffic in the Country (yes, worse than LA, a study came out last year) and feel completely comfortable in NYC-like diversity, esp. in your schools, come on up-there's probably a 6 figure Fed job waiting for you (that you cannot be fired from).

Remember the ave. income in DC is 120K and since single family homes start at about 500k, what sounds like a huge paycheck is only worth the 35k you could make in Wichita KS where homes ave; 150K.

I wish I could trade with you, but you'd see my apt and run back to HR.

[TN Lily]

I agree that the healthcare rankings have to be taken with a grain of salt. UVA is ranked 4th and Martha Jefferson is ranked 14th. If you're in Charlottesville, UVA is the place to be if you need trauma care or certain specialties. But if you are needing "routine" surgery or care, Martha Jefferson is the better hospital in my opinion.

Good luck, Quakerchick!

[artistatheart]

Geork, I'd be interested to know what your job actually is. In another thread you seemed to be some sort of frustrated city planner (or possibly a civil engineer) until push came to shove and you were forced to admit that, really, you knew nothing about the subject and, despite your rants, had no real ideas about how to "fix" Newport News or the HR area, in general.

So, let's put our cards on the table (I'm a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom, by the way): What exactly IS your expertise in this matter?

[leighland]

Originally Posted by artistatheart

So, let's put our cards on the table (I'm a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom, by the way): What exactly IS your expertise in this matter?

Yay Homeschooling!! (tho I am not called to do it..) Do you attend St Bedes?

Geork:

Its fine that you hate where you live-Philly is a particularly bad subject for me-but don't try to weasely blame it on aspects you can't control/have zero to do with you-ie.. healthcare education (wait, what?!)

I'm assuming you have money and flexibility;a home to sell (no military housing), a job that is not tied to the area (Ft Eustis, etc)

Where would you wish to live? Why not go? If you can be somewhere happy, lose money/lose real estate investment/live in a tight Townhome/limit your entertainment spending-its worth the loss! Do it!

I'm from San Diego. It gorgeous there-costs about as much as DC Metro-few jobs tho'

[quakerchick]

If i moved to VA i would be earning 50k. If i lived in MD i would making 50k. My income will not change wherever i moved. Until i finish my degree. My mom is on the renal transplant list. I live in NYC now and even with my low income i still send my son to private school. I have my own issue with public school since both my parents are retired public school teachers and told me to never send my child to one. I need a 3bd/2ba apartment/town-home to live in. Healthcare is very important to me. Are there activities to do in the area. Any evidence is preferred to opinion.

[Geork]

I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to rile things up. I was trying to honestly answer the OP questions (re: healthcare).

I'm not a DC, Philly guy, although I think those places are likely nice (never lived there), and we are moving to Denver, soon.

I never said I had solutions, this is kind of letting steam off forum for me. I'm not a civil planner, but get the impression that city planning is done poorly in NN (in previous post), but I'm not qualified to offer something reasonable. That being said good ideas for fixing things come from places like this. We are all presumably activists in some small way and would push along something good. In a rust belt town I lived in they had horrible bridge problems, but no on tried to sugarcoat it and make it about taxes or kids, etc They just admitted that it sucked and started moving forward. Its been 10 years and not much to show, but give it time, let your investments grow. In HR we dont have that mentality, we presume if things suck its for an outside reason. We should be trying to break things down to see what the problems are, having frequent mover (like us) come in and offer opinions about how other towns dealt with these problems can be valuable (or trollish, you decide).

I really think to make a positive impact you have to tilt at windmills a bit to make an effect. So "try to weasely blame it on aspects you can't control" cause youre right, I cant meaningfully and long term many changes, it would take many many more like minded people (we've met some, and they are awesome), and you just gotta ****ing try!

As far as my interest in healthcare, again I only said it to respond to her specific questions. I work in the industry and have some insight on a low level. Not comprehensive, I'm just a random internet guy, could be the janitor, valet, or just a troll liar.

I'm just trying to offer my take to help others reading these forums with a similar situation to the OP. Healthcare? sub-par Healthcare education? poor. On average, there are amazing teams out there though that will provide you the best healthcare in the US, but comparing to other cities there are less of those folks, so if you find them hang on to them!

Sorry for the brewhaha, quarterchick, deciding where to move is tough!

[artistatheart]

Originally Posted by leighland

Yay Homeschooling!! (tho I am not called to do it..) Do you attend St Bedes?

We're more secular unschoolers--I've heard really nice things about St. Bedes, though!

[artistatheart]

Quakerchick, I'm originally from Albany. For me, there's--comparatively, a lot to do in HR. For someone coming from the city it might be a different story. (I do have to say that, despite all the negativity in this thread about the area and all the hoopla about how much better other places are, my husband is originally from Denver--apparently THE BEST PLACE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!--and lived there for over twenty years. His parents and one of his siblings (out of three) still live there. We visit there frequently and have had opportunities to settle there. And we prefer life in HR. So, please take the presumption that HR is "horrible" for everyone on earth except untraveled, unenlightened losers with no other choice with a grain of salt).

Anyway...We live in Newport News and find a lot to do. We have four kids ages 2-9. We take advantage of the awesome York County library system and have been seeing a lot of their (free) summer shows. We've also signed the older boys up for some (also free) summer workshops in Poquoson. The 7 and 9 year olds go to Water Country weekly with their father and love it (we've never been, but a lot of families around here also have season passes to Busch Gardens). There are quite a few beaches in the area (of course, Virginia Beach, but also smaller beaches like Yorktown Beach, Buckroe, and Huntington--to name a few). There are also various waterways, and we plan to get a (small) boat next year. If you're so inclined (which we are, but primarily in the off-season) it's about a ninety minute drive to the Outer Banks). There's the Mariner's Museum and the Virginia Living Museum (in Newport News). There's the Air and Space Museum in Hampton. There's the Virginia Zoo, the Botanical Gardens and the Chrysler Museum (all in Norfolk). There's Colonial W'burg, Jamestown, and the Yorktown Victory Center if you're into colonial history. There's the Virginia Beach Aquarium. We've gotten annual memberships (which, in a lot of cases are only a little more expensive than visiting once) to a lot of these places and visit frequently. There are lots of nature parks (the Noland Trail--NN, Sandy Bottom Nature Preserve and Bluebird Gap Farm--Hampton, York River State Park--W'burg, Newport News Park, etc.). There are also entertainment venues (the Ferguson Center for the Arts--NN, Hampton Coliseum--Hampton) and free concerts every Thursday at the Noland Trail in NN.

Are all these places THE BEST ONES IN THE ENTIRE WORLD? Nope. (You're probably getting a lot of the best places already in NYC.) But they're good places. We enjoy them. Our kids enjoy them. And, as far as I can see, the vast majority of the people who live here enjoy them. We like it here. We think Hampton Roads is a nice place to live. That's my subjective opinion.