Moving to NE Nebraska, What are some good cities to look into? (Grand Island: crime rate)

[lilwhite18]

My husband and I are looking to relocate to the North-Eastern part of Nebraska (it is closer to our families in Iowa and South Dakota). We have lived in the Midwest our entire lives, but recently moved to Seattle, WA. We don't like how urban it is, so we need something a little less "big city". We want:

Old school charm/history
smaller city/town 1,000-40,000 max
Somewhere were there is a need for a Chiropractor
safe for kids/us
stuff to do (we like to hike, bike, wineries, scenery, etc)

My husband is a chiropractor and would be opening an office wherever we call home. Any help would be appreciated!

[ehenningsen]

Originally Posted by lilwhite18

My husband and I are looking to relocate to the North-Eastern part of Nebraska (it is closer to our families in Iowa and South Dakota). We have lived in the Midwest our entire lives, but recently moved to Seattle, WA. We don't like how urban it is, so we need something a little less "big city". We want:

Old school charm/history
smaller city/town 1,000-40,000 max
Somewhere were there is a need for a Chiropractor
safe for kids/us
stuff to do (we like to hike, bike, wineries, scenery, etc)

My husband is a chiropractor and would be opening an office wherever we call home. Any help would be appreciated!

I would say Kearney fits much of what you are looking for. It isn't very far from the Sandhills which is a very scenic area.. The population of Kearney just surpassed 30,000 people and is in an area with amendities normally seen in cities much bigger due to the amount of people nearby (Grand Island, Hastings, Lexington, Gothenburg, Cozad etc.)..

This is Nebraska's second progressive market region

[Raphael07]

Kearney is in West Central though........ I always thought Plainview, NE was nice, but my grandparents live there so I'm biased, other wise you could try the region center of Norfolk (pronounced Norfork)

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by lilwhite18

My husband and I are looking to relocate to the North-Eastern part of Nebraska (it is closer to our families in Iowa and South Dakota). We have lived in the Midwest our entire lives, but recently moved to Seattle, WA. We don't like how urban it is, so we need something a little less "big city". We want:

Old school charm/history
smaller city/town 1,000-40,000 max
Somewhere were there is a need for a Chiropractor
safe for kids/us
stuff to do (we like to hike, bike, wineries, scenery, etc)

My husband is a chiropractor and would be opening an office wherever we call home. Any help would be appreciated!

I think that's your main consideration.

There may be one of those smaller NE Nebraska towns where the chiropractor is retiring and would love to sell the business to a newcomer.

Other than that, I really don't know. Every smaller town has both good and bad points.

Good luck!

[itsMeFred]

I would highly recommend Wayne.
It's in the Northeast corner, near both SD and IA. It's a college town, so despite the smallness (5,000 or so) it has a more "cosmopolitan" feel to it with the college contributing a lot of social, arts and athletic events to the community.

Wayne is still a small enough town kids are allowed to run loose and pedal their bikes all over town. Crime is really basic stuff like CDs stolen out of cars, the occasional assault (ie, fight) and so on.

There are already a couple of chiropractors set up in town, but you're going to find that in pretty much any town that is large enough to support one anyway...

Norfolk is indeed another good option. Thirty miles from Wayne, it's more like 20,000 and is the trade center for the area so it has a lot of good shopping, dining, etc. Because it's quite a bit bigger, the crime rate is also much higher. I would not be willing to let my kids pedal their bikes all over Norfolk. Select neighborhoods, maybe, but the town in general is entirely too big for my comfort level.

And then there are the plethora of small bedroom communities in in the area...

[lilwhite18]

Thank you everyone, I have been going over these ideas with my husband, and we are both really excited to finally make a decision! Your thoughts have helped tremendously!!

[madpie]

I would suggest looking at two small communities close to Norfolk. Stanton is about 12 miles east of Norfolk. It is a bedroom community of Norfolk, 23,500, so it would be close enough to commute into Norfolk and still provide quiet country or small town living. I don't think it could support a chiropractor by itself though. The other town is Pierce. Pierce is about 12 miles northwest of Norfolk and the housing base is growing. Again you can enjoy country living just outside of town or small town living with a short commute. Pierce might be able to sustain a practice.

The nice thing about both Stanton and Pierce is they are close to lakes with recreation areas. Pierce has Willow Lake that has water skiing, jet skiing, fishing, hiking, hunting, camping, etc. Muskantine is just outside of Stanton. It has mountain biking, frisbee golf, some winter activities, fishing and camping. The lake there is no wake, so no skiing.

Another place not mentioned here is Neligh. Neligh is about 35 miles west of Norfolk. It has a hospital as does neighbor Tilden. They both have large retirement populations (don't know if that is a market for you or not) and offer great small town living.

A couple other places to look into could be Madison (south of Norfolk), Columbus, Blair (not northeast Nebraska, but across river from Iowa and close to I-29 to get you to SoDak in an hour) or Tekamah in Burt County. One other suggestion is Yankton just across the river from Nebraska in SoDak. It's not too far from Souix City, Iowa (about an hour-fifteen minutes or so). SoDak doesn't have income tax.

Good luck and hopefully welcome to Northeast Nebraska.