What life like in Greenfield, IN?? (Indianapolis, Marion: section 8, sales, crime)

[noduleman]

Hi,

I am wondering what life is like in Greenfield? Is this considered a very nice town with safe neighborhoods? Are property taxes low? What is the quality
of life like in Greenfield?
How is the economy in and around Greenfield??

I am asking these questions because as a life long New Jersey resident feed up with the obscene property taxes, overpopulation, too many cars and miserable people, I am considering a change in life and a move to IN.

I do hope to be visiting Greenfield, and the surrounding communities and spending about 5 days there to get a feel for the area.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Michael

Robbinsville NJ

[Ravekid]

I would avoid Greenfield. From what I read in the paper, it sounds like they have an "any growth is good" city council. On the far west side of the city, they are building at least two developments that will contain Section 8 occupants, and I don't think it will be old people on Medicaid type occupants. I am pretty sure it will be the younger single mother with three or four kids occupants. Their police department has had some issues for years and a small number of officers have filed lawsuits against the city.

As far as moving out this way towards Indy, Indy could easily be everything you are trying to avoid in the next 20 years (most will depend on the economy). While our property taxes are capped at 1% for owner occupied home, assessments are not capped. I am giving my assessment one more year to go down, then I am filing an appeal given my home likely wouldn't sell for $105K, but still assessed at $124Kish. Many groups want to expand Marion County/Indianapolis taxation to the surrounding counties. If you eat out in Greenfield, .5% of what you are paying goes to Marion County for the various sports stadiums. There have been calls to raise this even more for: Poor inner city schools, more professional sports bailouts, Indy police/fire (an inner city, poor neighborhood bailout), and mass/rapid transit (which won't benefit Hancock Co./Greenfield at all--oh, we get an extra lane on I-70, but you have to pay to use it).

Overall, crime isn't that bad. Mostly white "trailer trash" types who don't care about education and can't/won't work an honest job just making $8-$10/hour. These folks used to get the $20-$30/hour union jobs, much like their older relatives, but those jobs are gone, and their greed means they don't want some petty job. So you are mostly looking at burglaries as the biggest issue. I don't hear much about armed robberies or purse snatches. If you leave your purse or wallet laying around, it will likely be taken if you don't get back too it quick.

Hancock County is broken up into six townships, much like a tic-tac-toe board. I would suggest living in either Sugar Creek Township or Brandywine. Brandywine is more rural. Sugar Creek is rural on the east side, more suburban on the west. Both are in the New Palestine (Community School Corporation of Southern Hancock County) schools district. Sugar Creek township residents have blocked most of the cheap, vinyl village subdivisions (some call them cheap McMansions).

If you need anything else, let me know...lived in the area all my life.

[agioe]

I have lived in both Greenfield (and all around Hancock County) and Indianapolis. I am a born and raised Hoosier and love both areas. Property taxes in our area will seem extremely low compared to where you are coming from. Greenfield still has that rural feel to it's look and people - even though it is growing due to it's proximity to Indianapolis. I"ve never been anywhere in Greenfield where I haven't felt totally safe and comfortable. New Palestine is also a nice area - I agree - and that puts you in between Indy and Greenfield with reputable schools. My mom taught in Greenfield until she retired. We still go to church in Greenfield and have lots of family and friends in the area - and they all love it. We recently moved back to Indianapolis due to elderly parents - and I can give you a great sales pitch on Indy also - but that is another topic. You can find the negative in any city - I have always chosen to see the good and tried to contribute to making it an even better area.