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Vineland itself is a rural, generally low income area (in fact they are one of those areas that can charge only 3% sales tax in stores while most of the state must charge 7%). I don't think the schools are great, but you can probably find cheap housing. It's not awful, and there are some areas nicer than others especially if you like rural areas, but if you drive 15 miles north up 55, you'll be in the areas of Pitman, Mullica Hill, Sewell, which are nicer IMO and have better schools.
I live in Vineland, feel free to ask me questions. I went to 12 years of catholic school, so I can't say much on the school system. I do know that our Vineland High is a decent school, especially if your kid takes honors programs. The income for our town has a VERY large range from our downtrodden downtown to the mansions and million dollar homes of East Vineland. Crime is okay, for the most part you should be fine so long as you lock your doors at night. We have a great library and are working on improving our downtown (they're currently building a large farmers market) Personally I like it here, but honestly there isn't much.
The worst part about Vineland is it's lack of accessibility to pretty much anywhere. I know a lot of people there and they all commute about an hour to their jobs. For that reason, housing is cheap, and the schools are not great from what I've been told by people that live there.
I grew up a few towns over from Vineland. It was pretty much looked down upon (low income housing, illegal aliens, crime, lots of drugs)
I no longer live down in that area but visited it recently. The area for me seemed more depressed, people were generally less friendlier than I had remembered.
Landisville, Buena, Milmay area is not too bad, very rural. stay away from main street in Vineland.
generally there is absolutely nothing to do around there. if you like fishing, hunting, riding quads, things like that than you should be happy.
Vineland schools are a little rough. But as long as your kids have a good head on their shoulders and don't get mixed up with the drugs and gangs they will survive just fine.
jknic... thank you for the honest response. I was hoping Vineland would have a thriving downtown with resturants and shops. We like to walk on the weekends to eat and shop. Is it not like that in downtown area? Also, i will be there Friday... is there areas to look at on a Friday night to get an idea of the kind of "crowd" that hangs out ? I have a 16 and 14 year old so I need to check things out.
thanks
I work in downtown Vineland occasionally and they are desperately trying to revitalize it; however, the area is still shady. I take walks down the main street sometimes during lunch but it isn't very pleasant. I would not want to be there after dark.
As jknic said, East Vineland is nice but the schools are still pretty bad. I would take ocnjgirl's advice and look at towns such as Mullica Hill, Pitman, Sewell, etc. They are much nicer and closer to the amenities of the Philly metro area.
Vineland does not have that sort of chic downtown by any stretch. Are you going to be working in Vineland, or some reason you're attached to that town in particular rather than a wide choice of much nicer towns nearby?
jknic... thank you for the honest response. I was hoping Vineland would have a thriving downtown with resturants and shops. We like to walk on the weekends to eat and shop. Is it not like that in downtown area? Also, i will be there Friday... is there areas to look at on a Friday night to get an idea of the kind of "crowd" that hangs out ? I have a 16 and 14 year old so I need to check things out.
thanks
The general rule of thumb for Vineland is, avoid center city If a street is numbered, then it's probably unsafe. Also, remember at 69 square miles Vineland is the largest city in NJ by landsize, (Newark is the largest by population), so it varies greatly.
If I saw this earlier, I would have suggested allowing your kids to maybe go to Hanger 84 if the bands were playing their kind of music that night. I'd also check out Bain's Deli and the Crepe Maker. Martini Shoes has an art show almost every second Friday. All of these places are located on our main street, Landis Ave. The Ave itself is safe, but I would not recommend walking away from it while downtown, nor would I recommend living near that part (unless you want a real fixer upper, crime, and a crappy neighborhood). I will admit though, the houses downtown do have the potential for a lot of character. Maybe if the right sort of people started moving in again it would imporve.
As for our main street (Landis Ave), it's not quaint, but we are doing what we can to fix it. It's okay for walking on, but it's not something people will go out of their way for (at least not yet) What people do go out of their way for is Millville's 3rd Friday. I have a feeling change is going to happen soon. What Landis really needs right now (IMO) are businesses that cater to the young people going to concerts at Hanger 84. I think there's some real business in that. Now if we can just get a train station downtown, I think there would be some real possibility for serious change. I think that change is in the air for Landis Ave. With the opening of the Landis Theater, and the soon to be opening of the farmers market, I think people will start coming back and that this will attract more businesses.
As for our schools VHS is pretty good, there's just a decent number of students who are, for lack of a better term, "ghetto" and don't care. It's easy to NOT fall into this crowd, as none of my public school friends did. Also Sacred Heart High School was affordable when I went there, although I hear it's gone up since then.
Where are you working? Although Vineland isn't near anything particular, it's not too bad. It's an hour to Philly, 1/2 an hour to A.C. if I'm driving (45 min for most), and 1/2 from a decent mall.
If you're looking for a town where people do volunteer, do try and fix things up, well... you are and you aren't in the right place. There's people like me, devoted and passionate about fixing their hometown. Then there's the Daily Journal (our local paper that kinda sucks) trolls, who do nothing but say how awful it is and that we should just give up on "little Camden" and let it all go to heck. If you want to get involved in fixing up the Ave or start a business, again, feel free to ask me. I'm do the first and am going to attempt the latter.
P.S.
To the person who said is was looked down upon, you clearly did NOT grow up in my parents generation (I'm away at college to give you an idea) when going to Vineland was a big deal. I've never heard that we're looked down upon.
P.P.S. I still occasionally work on the Ave. and have had very few problems. The worst things that have happened were we saw some kids from Hanger digging through the dumpster, had some homeless (?) man think me and my friend were his sons, and 15+ years ago some kid hit my friend's parents car with a baseball bat. My friend's mom and several people from the Ave. chased the kid halfway down the Ave. The business owners are very united and stick up for each other. The two "competing" shoe stores usually recommend the other for shoes they don't carry.
Well my trip was delayed 1 week and I got back Sunday night from Vineland/ Millville. The towns were definatly differant than I had imagined. I talked to some people from town about the school system and I dont want to say I have "sheltered" my kids but I do not think they are ready for that size school system. I did however enjoy my stay at the Hampton Inn and Suites. The job in Millville wasnt what I thought it was going to be either so I guess we'll just stay put. Thank you to all for the info you provided.
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