Relocating (Myrtle Beach, Conway, Georgetown: crime rate, home, job market)

[mommy39]

I'm a married mother of 3 boys. I live in upstate N.Y. My youngest son is in High School. Crime is so bad here and I worry about my children all the time. My husband & I have been thinking about relocating to the south (e.g. Georgetown, Myrtle Beach).
Besides crime being high, the cost of living in New York State is very high and the economy doesn't look to be getting better any time soon.
I know it's going to take a lot of adjusting not only for the kids, but for me & my husband as well to get use to living in the south.
My question is....am I making the right move.

The south is KNOWN for not taking kindly to people from the North especially people who are not white...is this an issue in the Conway/Myrtle Beach area? My son is use to a very diverse population of people & culture and I feel that this is VERY important.

[RoadBoss]

Crime stats say we have a high crime rate because they are based on year round population and do not include the millions who pass through the area each year. I disagree, I think crime is low for the total nunber of people. What part of upsate do you live that has such bad crime? I'm from upstate NY and never had that bad of an experience.

The thing that would concern me is the job market. Not much to offer outside of the tourist industry, which really doesn't pay well.

I think you will find the diversity issue for the most part a non-issue, most people are very accepting of others. There are still some who refuse to accept anyone who was not born here, but they are thankfully in the minority.

Hope this helps let me know if you have any more questions.

[mommy39]

Thank you. This does help. I live in Albany, NY and since June there have been several shooting amongst children in the Capital District (Albany, Troy, Schenectady) I have a son that's going into his 2nd year a UAlbany and a 15yr. old who goes to the public High School.
Every time I hear a siren and my kids are not home I call them on their cell phones and demand that they come home ASAP. They are both good kids, but I worry about them being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
My husband has been wanting to move to the south for years, up until now I have been totally against it.

[ASC]

The south is KNOWN for not taking kindly to people from the North especially people who are not white...is this an issue in the Conway/Myrtle Beach area? My son is use to a very diverse population of people & culture and I feel that this is VERY important.

I have to disagree with this quote. Actually, I would be careful about how you bounce that term around, because it's actually quite offensive the way you lumped us, in the south, into a group of people that are known for being racist bigots. It's kinda like me saying that because you are moving down from New York, that you're stuck up and arrogant. Racist bigots are found all across the U.S. and race relations are significantly better in most of the South, than in other areas of the U.S.

If people come down with the perception that you have, and constantly compare to the North, then you may not be making friends anytime soon, so when you're only invited over for dinner once, that's why, you thought you had us all figured out before you met us and got to know us as individuals and not stereotypes.

My main advice for moving to the South, especially Myrtle Beach:

1. Do you're homework, research and work out every last kink before moving.
2. Job Market is terrible in Myrtle Beach, unless you want a service industry job, you had better make sure that you have a job before you move.
3. Erase all those negative perceptions you have about the South, because you may need to reprogram your thoughts about the culture, because the movies and media often don't do that great of a job portraying the positives about the South.

[mommy39]

I'm sorry if you took offense to what I said, that was not my intention at all. However, I've visited the South many times over the course of my life (my parents are from the south) and I have been pulled over by the police there several times and I attributed it to the New York State plates on my car, but maybe it wasn't.
And for the record there are a lot (not all) of people who believe that people from New York are arrogant and I've had the pleasure of meeting a few of them. Your right there's good & bad everywhere which is obviouse since I'm moving there to get away from the crime that's here.
My husband was born & raised in Myrtle Beach and he agrees that there are still alot of people down there who are very set in thier ways and are not good with change. I'm a very friendly person and I don't think I will have a problem making friends.
The last thing I want to do is to offend anyone but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't concerned about those things.
Please accept my apology, I never meant to offend anyone.