Patti

has written 2 SperlingViews. Currently, Patti is living in North Port, FL and has a little something to say:

BEST Public Elementary School In Asheville area? Posted On: 8/1/2010 11:42:42 AM

I am interested in obtaining some much needed relocation information. I am desperately trying to find out where the better suited areas are within a 20 mile/30 minute commute radius of Asheville for a young family with a Kindergartner. Our son's quality of education is our number one priority, followed by our safety from crime, both violent crime and property crime. Everything else, we feel we can pretty much flex with for the most part. We are both Ivy League educated medical professionals and would like to initially lease a 3 bedroom single family home with a yard in a nice community for under $2000/month. I am not sure if it matters in the Asheville area, (and I actually hope not), but we are white, agnostic and politically somewhere between Democrat and Independent. We enjoy the arts, volunteering in our community, maintaining our lawn and home appearance to very high standards, and believe in reusing and recycling. Without sounding "snooty", we'd prefer to live in a cultured, upscale and professional area. This means, no ATVs running up and down the street all hours of the night and early morning, keg parties in driveways while car engines are being swapped, and trash being left all over the neighborhoods. (Just some of the issues we're dealing with now).

Any and all advice would be GREATLY appreciated. We are tired of making mistakes when selecting areas of a new city and hope someone will be kind enough to help.

Thank you in advance.

All the best,

Patti

Have a self-sustaining or VERY secure job!! Posted On: 8/1/2010 11:08:14 AM

North Port is a nice, mostly quiet bedroom community for families but jobs are scare here. The heat in the summer is OPPRESSIVE and you better find a place with a pool or you will be imprisoned in your own home from about May through October. The beach is 30 minutes away, but the water temps are so warm, it's not even refreshing. There is a HUGE flying grasshopper problem here and there are billions of them. They destroy plants and bombard you as you mow your lawn as they fly up out of the grass. Oh, that's another thing... I highly recommend having a riding lawn mower if you have more than 1/8 of an acre to mow. Not bad in the cooler months, but in summer, mowing by hand can literally kill you. The city has a mall nearby, (not a great one, but they have Sears and a Macy's and a few others. It's called Town center at Port Charlotte, FL if you wish to Google and learn more about it). There is a lot of undeveloped lots here, so you may have only two or three homes on your whole street and the rest of the lots are HEAVILY wooded, so you better like bobcat, raccoons, possums, wild boars and various other wild animals. I'd probably like it here if there were more jobs and it wasn't SO HOT in the summer. I hear the elementary schools are pretty good here, but do not know much about them. The roads are horrible here too. DEFINITELY pay North Port a 3-4 day visit before showing up with a rental truck full of furniture!