Moving to and living in the Lakes Region year round... whats the reality of....

[hazelnut]

Originally Posted by topwater

hazelnut
The reality is that the Lakes Region is a far far FAR better place to raise kids than some of the Boston area suburbs.

What are you baseing your opionion on? Is it that you live there and can tell us by your experience or are you making this judgement by what you see on television?

BOTH! I live here and there. I split time so I am basing it from personal experience. You have no idea how dramatic the difference is.

Originally Posted by topwater

hazelnut
Unless of course you are one of those that is trying to discourage "flatlanders" from moving to "your" New Hampshire???

It sounds like to me, that YOU might just have a attitude about flatlanders, and/or might be one yourself. Did you have a run in with (locals) that you would like to share with us?

Nope the locals I run into are primarily awesome folks. Unfortunately topwater the fact is that many people come off with that attitude on these anonymous forums. The response from songkrai had shades of that attitude.

Originally Posted by topwater

hazelnut
Bottom line is that it is better up there than it is down here

Yes it is. However it gets worse and worse every year. You can't dispute that, this area is nothing like it was 5-10-20 years ago. Drugs-there are plenty, Crime-there is plenty. Boston area suburbs have a hell of larger population then the entire Lakes regions. If you multiplied our population to that of Boston, the PERCENTAGE of crimes/drugs problems would be damn close. Don't believe we live in a Fairy tale up here, because we don't. Just because you don't think YOUR KIDS, or your neighbors kids aren't doing drugs, doesn't mean their not. Kids do not tell their parents everything, and they never will. Been like that for 55 years that I know of, and will be the same in 55 more.

It gets worse and worse everywhere. So the relative principal at work here is that it will always be better up there than it is down here.

[fatnoah]

than some of the Boston area suburbs

That statement is far too broad to make any decisions on. The areas around Boston change very dramatically in very short distances.

I grew up in Laconia and now live in one of the nicer suburbs of Boston that is similar to Laconia in many ways, such as feeder elementary schools, one middle school, 1 high school, a local K-8 Catholic school, etc. Due to the larger population of the town and generally high property values (and therefore taxes), the middle & high schools offer far more options in sports and extracurricular activities than were available in Laconia. (Of course, I endured a couple years of the "Straight Arrows" when I was at LHS)

All that said, if my chosen job field didn't generally require proximity to Boston, I would consider it a toss-up whether to live in my area or the Lakes Region. Both are great places and offer many opportunities for things. A person can be happy and thrive in either place.

[hazelnut]

Originally Posted by fatnoah

That statement is far too broad to make any decisions on. The areas around Boston change very dramatically in very short distances.

I grew up in Laconia and now live in one of the nicer suburbs of Boston that is similar to Laconia in many ways, such as feeder elementary schools, one middle school, 1 high school, a local K-8 Catholic school, etc. Due to the larger population of the town and generally high property values (and therefore taxes), the middle & high schools offer far more options in sports and extracurricular activities than were available in Laconia. (Of course, I endured a couple years of the "Straight Arrows" when I was at LHS)

All that said, if my chosen job field didn't generally require proximity to Boston, I would consider it a toss-up whether to live in my area or the Lakes Region. Both are great places and offer many opportunities for things. A person can be happy and thrive in either place.

True. That statement should have been "many" of the Boston Suburbs.

Seriously though the original point and post was a simple request for information from an individual that is thinking of relocating. Someone chose to turn this thread into their personal soap box in order to "educate" us on the area.