Seymour Indiana & surrounding areas (Indianapolis, Columbus: appointed, transplants, violent crime)

[sonegirl]

Hi there....
We currently live in Colorado. My husband might be getting a new job in Seymour and we are trying to decide if we should take that position when it is offered. Can anyone tell me about the area? What is the community like? What are the schools like (We have two children that are 1 & 3)? What is the housing like? Any information would be appreciated that would help us make this decision. We were about to have a new home built here in Colorado just as this job offer came about - so we are trying to decide if we should stay here on the path we were on.... or if a move to Indiana would be better for our family!
Thanks in advance.

[rrah]

It would help if you described a bit about what you hope to find. Seymour is a relatively small town, but it has more to offer than many small towns nearby in terms of shopping. There are some newish houses built in the early 2000's, but much of the housing stock is older.

Schools tend to perform a bit lower than the state averages on test scores. I suspect much of this is do to the numbers of economically disadvantaged students: About 30% of the students receive free lunches and another 7-8% receive reduced price lunches.

You also might consider living in Columbus, Indiana. It's a larger town with better schools and is only about 30 minutes or so away.

[Dirtroadie]

I have lived in Columbus for more than eight years, and you can put me down as unimpressed with Columbus, Seymour and the south-central Indiana culture in general. Look at the crime statistics on this site. While violent crime is more or less average, property crime is surprisingly high for both Columbus and Seymour. Both Columbus and Seymour suffer from the small city syndrome--they are too small to have any significant attractions, yet too big to have a small town vibe.

But to be brutally honest, I haven't seen much small town friendliness anywhere in south-central Indiana. It has always seemed to me to be a surprisingly insular and cynical culture here. As bizarre as it may sound, I find Indianapolis to be noticeably more friendly. As a transplant, you will probably find that most of your friends are transplants as well. My advice is that if you are happy in Colorado, you should stay there. I don't think this area has anything that Colorado doesn't.

[VALover]

I lived in Seymour for 3 years, I moved from that area 6 years ago.

We moved to Seymour because my husbands job was there. Previously, we lived in Franklin Indiana, about 45 minutes north. He commuted for years from Franklin to Seymour but we decided it might be nice for him to live a bit closer to work.

We sold our house in Franklin and bought one in Seymour. We were so happy with the price of the house, it was such a nice home from the money. We got moved in and the welcome wagon showed up to welcome us, we thought we had found home. We were wrong.

While we loved our home we found that only very few of the neighbors wanted to interact with us. It was kind of like if their family didn't know our family we didn't count. It was a strange vibe. I am extremely extroverted and the entire time we lived in Seymour we only had one visit from a neighbor and I made no friends at all.

If you do decide to move to Indiana for your husbands job you may consider living in another area. Before my husband found new employment we had decided that we could not stay in Seymour for much longer and had started to look at moving back up to Franklin or Greenwood or possibly moving South to Louisville.

[sonegirl]

Thank you for the information. It is a tough decision for us to take this position or not. We are currently living in a much, much larger city in Colorado. It is in the Denver metropolitan area. So we are close to Denver and can get to the zoo, children's museum, aquarium, etc in about 30 minutes. We can also get to see a Bronco game, Rockies game or Aves game just as quickly. There is a rec center so close and can take the kids swimming or to the indoor play area there. We also have a ton of parks and outdoor play areas to take them to... and lots of running trails. So we are really wanting to find and area that has those things as well.
The housing looks to be much, much better than the Denver area. It seems like we can buy a larger house, on a bigger lot for about 50,000 to 100,00 less than Denver. So that is extremely appealing to us.
We do just worry about crime and also schools. The crime seems high and the schools don't seem as good in Seymour. I guess I was really hoping to get some great information about the city that would make us feel like this is a move we need to make.
The move to Seymour (or a surrounding area), seemed like a good idea for housing and because the job seems to be a better long term position for my husband.
(Hope that all made sense... I have my daughter hanging on me while I am trying to type. She wants to help.)

[VALover]

It makes perfect sense to me. I am really not trying to down Seymour, I just wanted to be honest about what happened to me there.

The truth is that from what you described about your current situation it sounds like moving to Seymour would be a huge culture shock for you and your kids. Where you are currently at sounds like a paradise to be honest.

Please take a trip out to Seymour and check it out before you obligate yourself. Something I read once said that if you want to know whether or not you are going to like living in a place you should spend time in the store where you will be buying your groceries. There are only 3 places to buy groceries there, Walmart, Jayc, and Aldi. Check them out and see what you think.

[domergurl]

Coming from Denver Metro, and expecting the same niceties … you'll be disappointed.

I've lived in Chicago (love), suburban Chicago (love), suburban Indianapolis (hated) and we've been in Columbus for 7 years and our family loves it. Our kids (3 of them) go to schools here. I'm active in the schools, our local swim club and our philharmonic. Apparently, my experience with friendly people is the opposite from Dirtroadie's. I found suburban Indianapolis to be incredibly snooty and standoffish, while I found Columbus to be incredibly friendly and welcoming. I have several friends who's spouses work in Seymour and live in Columbus. Seymour, while nice, seems very insulated and not as friendly to new people. Columbus cycles people in and out all the time due to our large manufacturing base (NTN, Toyota, Cummins, etc). Have I met snooty people here? Yes. But they tend to insulate themselves with like minded people. I find most of what I need here in town and I like the fact that I can bike anywhere using our people trail system. I'm 30 minutes from Greenwood and 45 from Indy. Had a great time watching Notre Dame beat IU yesterday at the Banker's Life Fieldhouse (or whatever it's called).

I'm glad we moved here.

[sonegirl]

Dumergurl - thank you for your comment. That is very helpful. I have started to look more in Columbus now. I really hate my husband having a drive to work. Right now his commute on a busy traffic day is 8 minutes. But a slight commute isn't bad. It seems like if we lived in the southern part of Columbus the commute would be about 30 minutes. Does that seem right to you? Is there an area that you think we should keep away from?
We are still not sure if we are going to make this move or not.. but I like to inform myself as much as possible before we do anything. Especially move from an area that we know and feel comfortable in - to a whole new area.
Any other information you may have for me is appreciated.
Thanks!!!!

[domergurl]

Most people who work in Seymour, live in the Tipton Lakes area (Southside Elementary).

I mainly go to Seymour High school when I travel there … I can get there from my place on the north side of columbus in about 40 minutes, so a 30 minute commute sounds about right.

[RUNAWAYFROM]

Stay away from Seymour. If you are new and do not know anybody you will be a target for petty theft scams. Stay away from locally owned restaurants especially. Do not bother calling the police about much of anything. They have better things to do. Like making money. I hope this offends because it is true. Try making friends and you might discover that they are also trying to fleece you. They like to spread their poison to surrounding communities as well. The people that sit in church each week are the worst of all.