West of GR Michigan - where to settle down?

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Mvl

Being from Rochester, NY and having lived here in the Rockford area for a year now I just thought I would add my .01 worth here. (If I had school aged children I could add my .02 but my sons are out of college and still live in NY.) This area is naturally beautiful. The lake, Traverse City wine region and Mackinaw are beautiful. The lake beats the ocean due to no salt nor creatures. It's amazing. And I was an East Coast shore girl. Having spoken w neighbors tho, I have found out that MI is a "school of choice" state. You can choose where your children attend school. So foreign to me as in NY you pd dearly for a home in a choice school district. In my small subdivision kids attend 3 different HS's! Weird. You will loooove the taxes tho. Or better, the lack thereof. My house here is worth $100k more than my NY home and the taxes here are over $5k less a year! This is a very very conservative area tho. Your first question upon mtg ppl will be "what church do u attend?" The areas in GR that remind me most of my former village in NY are E Gr and areas around Cascade, etc. Rockford is considered a nicer burn as it has a cute village feel, but the homes are not larger older or grand. But it's nice. I've been to Muskegon and my initial reaction was not good. Very seedy, rundown, not nice. Perhaps I didnt see it all but that's what I think of when I hear that area. Feel free to PM me if I can help at all. Would love to get together w a former upstate NYer. Oh, and get a Wegmans fix before u get here. You're going to dislike our grocery store here. A lot. Think Walmart w less customer service and selection....

Seriously, you think Meijer is worse than Walmart? I'm perplexed by that. I won't step foot in the dirty smelly Walmart stores around here.

You might try D&W or Family Fare maybe if you're not a fan of Meijer.

[abjohnson]

Originally Posted by Mvl

Having spoken w neighbors tho, I have found out that MI is a "school of choice" state. You can choose where your children attend school. So foreign to me as in NY you pd dearly for a home in a choice school district. In my small subdivision kids attend 3 different HS's! Weird. You will loooove the taxes tho. Or better, the lack thereof. My house here is worth $100k more than my NY home and the taxes here are over $5k less a year!....

That is weird but a interesting idea. So you do not have to live right in the let say Spring Lake School District to send your children to that school ... HMM. It must work out for the state as many of the Districts ranked highly nationally.

Originally Posted by Mvl

This is a very very conservative area tho. Your first question upon mtg ppl will be "what church do u attend?"....

I am a little worried about that as we are more liberal individuals and we do not attend church. My hope is that people ask, find out you do not attend church, and then that is it. As this in no way defines the quality of the individual. We hope to meet people through boating, our children's activities, community activities, work, and my DH is extremely excited about GR Makers Community. I guess this is a big deal for him as there is a huge Makers Community in GR. I am personally a big scrapper so I will make some friends that way too

Originally Posted by Mvl

The areas in GR that remind me most of my former village in NY are E Gr and areas around Cascade, etc. ....

That was the impression I got too but my DH does not want to have any more than a 20-30 min drive to the boat.

Originally Posted by Mvl

Oh, and get a Wegmans fix before u get here. You're going to dislike our grocery store here. A lot. Think Walmart w less customer service and selection.... ....

Oh Wegmans ... I seriously have a love affair with this store. It really should be the design model that all other grocery store are based off of. I will definitely miss Wegmans

[Mvl]

Yes, from what I've been told, you can choose the school district. Again, I don't live in a lg subdivision but I know for a fact that kids in here attend 3 different districts. Met a MS Principal at a party the other nt and he confirmed it. Weird. And yes, VERY conservative, VERY church based area. VERY. You WILL be recruited to attend church. Trust me. Being a little liberal and personable, my Dutch husband has told me to be careful abt what I say on this topic and to whom. At work I got pulled aside by a fun coworker and asked my religious views and when my views, or lack thereof concurred w hers she jokingly told me to not let our bible study owners know. It's weird. The private school (Christian, not high end prep schools) is equal to the public school enrollment. Again, got that from the MS Principal. I joke that at the YMCA (which has a chapel and scriptures hanging in lobby) you can work out pretty much alone on Sunday mornings. And yes, I know that the "C" is for Christian, but I've gone to 3 other YMCAs in NY /PA and never saw scripture or chapels. My husband is in the grocery biz and sells to the local chain and he knew that would be one of my biggest transition in moving here wld be lvg Weggies and learning to like the local store. When his coworkers and grocery co reps learned where I was from they say, " oh, she's from Wegmans?" And just pity me knowing what I left. I walk into this chain here and I just want to cry. It's bad. We go back to rochester and he still shakes his head in amazement at Wegmans. He knew the owner of this local chain and the sons who run it wanted to copy Weggies but they were told that this area wouldn't "get it". Sighing. Terrible to non existent customer service. I've lived here for 13 months now, I've gone thru a cashiers lane 3 times. You scan your own items and bag your own. And I have NEVER gotten thru without problems. And prices are the same at Wegmans as my hubby has done price checks. But overall, the cost of living is MUCH lower here. Gas is always around .30 gallon cheaper and like I've said, taxes are ridiculously low. My $280k house? Taxes $2900. Love that! Pm me w any ?

[Mvl]

I've been to a nice D&W on cascade, it's nice but think this store x100. It is funny when my husbands clients upon hearing where I'm from just sigh and ask how I'm coping w The local chain. And this local chain was the prototype for Walmart and now apparently they "strive to emulate walmart". Direct quote from one of their buyers. Hmmmm. Wouldn't you want to dream bigger? Nicer? And this chain is very familiar w Weggies as they are in a buying conglomerate. So they get the same pricing. This store claims to pass on savings to their customers by not hiring employees. You will be hard pressed to find a store employee to help u find something in an aisle. And once while ringing up my own groceries I questioned pricing. The one woman at the scanning station offered to give me the flyer. I had to look thru it myself, see the price, pay for my groceries, go to customer service, the customer service girl tried calling 3 diff ppl from the grocery dept. no one answered so she gave me the sale pricing. Really? This wld never happen at Wegmans! I have more terrible experiences here!
Here is a link to my old home store...sniffling.

25 Reasons Wegmans Is The Greatest Supermarket The World Will Ever Know

[RegalTDP]

Originally Posted by abjohnson

I am a little worried about that as we are more liberal individuals and we do not attend church. My hope is that people ask, find out you do not attend church, and then that is it. As this in no way defines the quality of the individual. We hope to meet people through boating, our children's activities, community activities, work, and my DH is extremely excited about GR Makers Community. I guess this is a big deal for him as there is a huge Makers Community in GR. I am personally a big scrapper so I will make some friends that way too

Don't worry too much about it, overall I think people like to exaggerate GR's reputed conservatism. Just a personal opinion. Liberals and non-religious people do exist in GR and they even lead happy and healthy lives there . Venture into GR city proper and you'll find some the most progressive neighborhoods anywhere.

Besides, remember that communities are not monoliths. When a liberal moves into a new town, that town just got less conservative.

THAT BEING SAID: Be advised, west of GR is very conservative. Ottawa is the most lopsidedly Republican county in the state.

Originally Posted by Mvl

The private school (Christian, not high end prep schools) is equal to the public school enrollment. Again, got that from the MS Principal.

That's not even close to a true statement. Public enrollment accounts for over 80% of K-12 (check the census). The largest private school in the area is GR Christian HS, which doesn't even have 1000 students. Perhaps your source was just referring to enrollment in one particular neighborhood?

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Mvl

Yes, from what I've been told, you can choose the school district. Again, I don't live in a lg subdivision but I know for a fact that kids in here attend 3 different districts. Met a MS Principal at a party the other nt and he confirmed it. Weird. And yes, VERY conservative, VERY church based area. VERY. You WILL be recruited to attend church. Trust me. Being a little liberal and personable, my Dutch husband has told me to be careful abt what I say on this topic and to whom. At work I got pulled aside by a fun coworker and asked my religious views and when my views, or lack thereof concurred w hers she jokingly told me to not let our bible study owners know. It's weird. The private school (Christian, not high end prep schools) is equal to the public school enrollment. Again, got that from the MS Principal. I joke that at the YMCA (which has a chapel and scriptures hanging in lobby) you can work out pretty much alone on Sunday mornings. And yes, I know that the "C" is for Christian, but I've gone to 3 other YMCAs in NY /PA and never saw scripture or chapels. My husband is in the grocery biz and sells to the local chain and he knew that would be one of my biggest transition in moving here wld be lvg Weggies and learning to like the local store. When his coworkers and grocery co reps learned where I was from they say, " oh, she's from Wegmans?" And just pity me knowing what I left. I walk into this chain here and I just want to cry. It's bad. We go back to rochester and he still shakes his head in amazement at Wegmans. He knew the owner of this local chain and the sons who run it wanted to copy Weggies but they were told that this area wouldn't "get it". Sighing. Terrible to non existent customer service. I've lived here for 13 months now, I've gone thru a cashiers lane 3 times. You scan your own items and bag your own. And I have NEVER gotten thru without problems. And prices are the same at Wegmans as my hubby has done price checks. But overall, the cost of living is MUCH lower here. Gas is always around .30 gallon cheaper and like I've said, taxes are ridiculously low. My $280k house? Taxes $2900. Love that! Pm me w any ?

I would say that's definitely a Rockford churchy thing. It seems to be the one area on the Northeast side like that. I have to agree with RegalTDP though about the Christian school enrollment. It can't possibly be anywhere near the public school enrollment in the area. I know a few years after they opened the new Rockford Christian on Belding Road, it was in dire financial straits because it was not anywhere near the enrollment they expected. Rockford Public Schools is pretty large.

It's a friendly community though. My wife works with a bunch of people that live in Rockford and they've invited her to zumba classes at the Y. And although the Y is actually a Christian organization, I find the one in Belmont to be pretty laid back. You'll hear Rihanna and Justin Timberlake blasting over the speaker system, and there are more signs showcasing the corporate financial backers that supported the project than bible verses on the (one) wall. We love the place! (and it's a lot less expensive for families than MVP).

Schools of Choice in Michigan means you can "apply" to send your kid to any public school. It's on a first-come-first-served basis, and you have to provide transportation if they don't serve your area with buses. The majority of people just move to the district where they want their kids to go, unless it's financially impossible.

I think the best grocery store in West Michigan is Forest Hills Foods, but it's pretty impractical (for us anyway) to drive to it every week.

[Mvl]

Like I've said, I've heard the term "school of choice" from neighbors. I also heard that term and the private school enrollment statement from a MS Principal. Having no children in this area I found it so different. Kids in my neighborhood go to Rockford, Cedar and Sparta. Some parents choose a school for the athletics, some avoid a school for the same reason.
I've heard Forest Hills Foods is great, but it is not that close, so I can't see driving that far.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Mvl

Like I've said, I've heard the term "school of choice" from neighbors. I also heard that term and the private school enrollment statement from a MS Principal. Having no children in this area I found it so different. Kids in my neighborhood go to Rockford, Cedar and Sparta. Some parents choose a school for the athletics, some avoid a school for the same reason.
I've heard Forest Hills Foods is great, but it is not that close, so I can't see driving that far.

Sorry, I'm not trying to beat you up. I agree, Forest Hills Foods is too far for us and we live in Forest Hills (it's about 8 miles away). And that MS Principal is wrong, or at least maybe he was talking about something else. Rockford Public Schools has about 8500 students enrolled. Rockford Christian has about 1200.

[Fripper]

Some additional info on Schools of Choice...schools will only take students if they have room. Then if there is limited space and a greater number of students applying, students will be chosen by a lottery. Check with school districts you are interested in to see if they take school of choice students.