[emmavine]

QUESTION
Which are the best towns in Southern VT for raising kids between Springfield and Brattleboro? We are currently looking at Chester and Saxtons River. Chester appears to have great schools, but I am worried that it is not a year-round community as in people just bunk up there to ski in the winter. We have also considered Saxtons River, but my concerns there are that (1) it feeds into BF schools, which are notoriously terrible, and (2) that there may be too much of a haves and have-nots divide due to Vermont Academy being there. Also, what in the world is going on with Bellows Falls? Every time I drive through there I see a vibrant downtown and people who appear to take care of nice houses, but it has a terrible reputation for drugs and crime and bad schools. What gives?

BACKGROUND
My spouse and I relocated to Southern VT from Central Vermont last summer for a new job. We are currently renting in Brattleboro, but we are hoping to find a place to settle down in and start a family. While there are aspects of the Southern VT area that we like well enough, we are really discouraged by the drug influence, the crime, and the busyness that just wasn't as present in Central VT, even in the larger cities. If the town is going to feel this busy (everyone drives like they are in a hurry, etc -- I can't think of how else to explain it), then I feel as though we might as well be in Massachusetts where at least there are more resources and the area is more accessible to the outside world.

We are currently at an impasse as my spouse has been offered a job in Springfield, VT that completely feeds her passion. It doesn't pay great, but it pays a living wage. She would consider this job a dream job but for the fact that it is in Springfield and that we are thinking of having kids soon.

I work in Brattleboro, but that is negotiable. I have a job I like well enough, but I also recently applied for a position in Montpelier, which we are waiting to hear back on. If I do not get that position or decide not to take it, then we are trying to choose between both of us keeping our jobs in Brattleboro and potentially moving to Shelburne Falls, MA (which we love) or my wife taking the job in Springfield and trying to find a place between Bratt and Springfield that we would feel comfortable making our home (as Shelburne Falls would be an outrageous commute to Springfield, VT).

OUR IDEAL LOCATION...

• Small to medium town (1,000 to 6,000 residents - we are fairly flexible here)
  • Ideal = a town that is walkable and where the main street is not a through-way (i.e., off the main road. This is not a dealbreaker, but I used to live on Route 100 south of Waitsfield and people barreled through town -- drove me crazy!)
• Things to do in town such as pubs, restaurants, and grocery.
  • It doesn't have to be a ton of stuff as we are not people who need to be entertained, but we do like to go out for an occasional meal and/or drink, and we would prefer to do this in our town rather than commute to the nearest bigger city (e.g., it seems like towns such as Townshend, Marlboro, Dummerston, etc. really rely on Brattlboro to carry them as far as dining/drinking options go)
  • Okay, I'll be honest -- mostly we just want a good place to grab a beer on occasion
• Sense of community
• Kid-friendly
  • Good public schools
  • Not rampant with drug use (I understand some drug use is everywhere, but some places are better than others)
• Safe
  • Low crime rate
  • Less drugs
• LGBT friendly
  • We are a young (30s) same-sex couple and a town with a decent lesbian community would be just great
• Accessible
  • Trying to keep the commute 45 minutes tops

Thank you in advance for your help, City-Data forum!

[cgregor]

D*mn! But Springfield could use you. We are in the stage of "pioneer town," where people come in to shape the community they want. The primary grades are VERY decent, and right now a small group is pushing to get candidates for the school board to move them toward a massive "bottom up" reform to show Mark Zuckerman (he of Facebook, who blew $100 million in a huge failed attempt for top-down reform in Newark) how to do it right. There's other stuff going on as well, but you'll have to drop by to chat about all of it. And you will find we're a very accepting community. You can be sure you've come to the right state.

Best of luck!

[emmavine]

Thanks for the reply, cgregor. I love your enthusiasm for Springfield. Perhaps we should give it another look.

[CatwomanofV]

Have you looked at Putney?


Cat

[OhBeeHave]

Chester is a year round community. While I'm only a part time resident, I'm not a skier nor do bunk up strictly in winter. I have made plenty of full time, year round friends in Chester -- some native, some transplants. The schools are decent, but not as good as my district in NY, hence my part time status. LGBT won't be an issue.

If you want an inexpensive home with close proximity to 91 for commuting, Springfield is a good place to look, but schools will be an issue until everything which cgregor mentioned finally bears fruit.

[jackmccullough]

I live in Montpelier and I don't really know what it's like to live in Southern Vermont, but from driving through it Chester is the first place that occurred to me.

[cgregor]

Don't think of just scenery; I drool every time I go through Athens and Brookline, but what really counted for me was the parents of the other kids my kid went to school with: were they nurturers? Did they balance kids' need to explore and learn by trial and error with kids' need for protection? Did they have a sense of humor? Were they free of tribalism? Did we share a common educational/spiritual/philosophical background? Would they accept and offer opportunities for socialization? And were we there for each others' kid?

[ansible90]

Suggest you do a search for "lgbt" on the VT and NH forums. There have been a number of threads asking about that. I don't know what kind of answers they got.