A family member is moving there and I don’t know anything about that area. I know all about New England fall foliage but other than that what does that area have going for and against it? Thanks in advance for the input.
Burlington VT is high up on my list of places I would live if I could live anywhere in the US. It is a college town (University of Vermont) with a small manageable downtown area, low housing costs (by my standards) and abundant outdoor recreation opportunities in all seasons. On the downside I don’t think they have a very diverse employer base…I think most people either work for the University, IBM (which has recently been laying people off in Burlington) or in a service job. The winters would probably seem long if you weren’t into any kind of snow sports.
The main reason I don’t live there is there is little biotech industry anywhere in Vermont.
I don’t think there are any Wal-marts allowed in Vermont. The drive on Route 2 from the Adirondacks to New Hampshire is one of the prettiest in the States. Good skiing in Vermont. The entire state looks so clean and safe and picturesque.
Burlington VT is a great place!
I’ve lived in VT all my life, and Burlington for the past 5 years and change (I was within a half hour from Burlington before that).
First, some population and demographics info:
Burlington’s got about 40,000 residents, as well as about 10,000 college students (I’m not sure how many of them count as residents as well). It’s a town in Chittenden county, which has a total population of about 150,000, and that is just one of 14 counties in the state. The entire state has less than 700,000 people, so you can see a large portion of the population is concentrated in the Burlington area. The 2000 census info says that we’re 96.8% white, but in Chittenden county that number is quite a bit smaller (couldn’t tell you what it is). But, it is true that it’s a relatively racially undiverse place, though that’s changing rather quickly. Burlington has become home to many Vietnamese refugees, Bosnian refugees (from a number of years ago), and more recently Sudanese refugees.
I can’t find the info right now, but the Winooski school system (town bordering Burlington) has an incrediably high number of languages spoken by students in the public schools, mainly because the area is very friendly to those from other countries/races/cultures, and Winooski is a lot more affordable than Burlington.
A bit about the arts:
Burlington has a thriving arts and music scene for the size of the town. We get many many excellent acts coming through (no big stadium shows 'cause we don’t have a venue that big). Some examples of folks that have been here in the last, oh, say five years, of all different genres (this is just off the top of my head):
Tori Amos, Primus, Willie Nelson, Allison Krauss, Meatloaf, Styx, N*SYNC (not necessarially proud of that one), Bela Fleck, Bill Cosby, Barryshnikov, Van Kleiburn piano medalists, Joe Jackson, Bruce Hornsby, and bunches of others.
There’s an immense amount of local talent as well, and on any given weekend there are many many groups playing out.
There’s a lot of local theatre as well. There are musicals, straight plays, one man/person shows, children’s plays of all varieties most of the year.
We’ve got a huge jazz festival every summer with talent coming in from all over; this year the headliner was Sonny Rollins, last year it was Dave Brubeck.
Visual arts are also happenin’, but I’m not quite as involved or interested, so I can’t speak about it.
A bit about the outdoors:
Burlington is on Lake Champlain, the largest freshwater non-great lake in the States. It’s 110 miles long, and 12 miles wide at its widest. There’s fishing, ice fishing, sailing, swimming, and all sorts of other water stuff on it.
We’ve got many many mountains, Mt. Mansfield, the highest peak in the state, is just about 4,400 ft tall. Doesn’t compare to the Rockies, certainly, but is still a fairly imposing mark on the horizon, as well as the numerous other mountains and hills in the area. There are many many hiking and cross country skiing trails (the Long Trail runs over Mt. Mansfield).
As far as weather goes, we’ve got four distinct seasons. As everyone knows, autumn is gorgeous, with all the leaves changing and turning colors. There’s also a huge apple cider industry that gets hoppin’ in the fall, and fresh local cider abounds. Winters get fairly cold (with lows at night sometimes hitting -20 on the coldest nights of the year… this last year there were a few very cold nights almost to -40), but typically your daytime temperature sits in the teens and single digits for most of the winter. Skiing is very big, with a different kind of mountain and environment than skiing out west, but certainly the best in the East is in Vermont.
Er, that’s it for now, I guess, 'cause I’m getting tired of writing this. If you have any other or specific questions, just ask, and feel free to e-mail me.
According to my best friend, who works at a biotech place in Andover, there’s just about no biotech places outside of MA or CA, so it’s not surprising, is it? 
I like VT, it’s pretty. It reminds me of New Hampshire and Maine, but with more cows (got to get the milk for ice cream somehow you know) and even more hills. If I didn’t live in NH, I’d probably consider living there.
The only strange draw-back that I know of is that it’s at a high sea level (at least compared to MA). When I was small I had trouble with my ears every single time we went there, and the trip home, at least according to my dad, always capped off with a visit to the e.r. OTOH, a slight deformity to my ear drums caused me to get fluid build-up more easily than “normal” kids, so maybe it’s not really an issue for most kids. It is, however, the only bad thing I’ve ever heard about the state, lol.
Tell me about it. My wife and I constantly discuss places we could REALLY live. That list is very short. When I got into this industry 14 years ago I really thought it would have spread out geographically more by now.
Burlington has a beautiful location, tucked between Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains.
It’s a surprisingly busy place for such a small city, lots of traffic, lot sf people on the sidewalks, etc. But nothing like New York or Boston of course. To compare it to two other small cities I know well, it’s only about two-thirds the size of Portland, Maine, and half the size of Duluth, Minnesota, but it seems much busier than either. I’ve only been to Burlington once, so maybe I just happened to be there on a particularly busy day. I do know that Burlington is the biggest city in the state, and that the second and third biggest cities are two of its suburbs. (Rutland has recently fallen to fourth place).
There is a Wal-Mart in Burlington now. I believe Vermont was the last state in the Union to have one, but it now has several.
Now don’t go spreadin’ lies, there is NO Wal-Mart in Burlington, it is at Taft Corners in WIlliston, the home of 99% of all the “box” stores in VT. A shame, really. They took this nice, pristine, farmland, and started with just a Wal-Mart and Home Depot, then a Petsmart, Toys R Us, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and a Circuit City. Them across the streea few years later, a Besyt Buy, Staples, and God knows what else is there. They started bulding those as soon as i left the state.
But seriously, VT is the best state to live in EVER. One of the lowest crime and unemployment rates, some of the best schools, very accepting culture (a lot of older vermonters grumble about the civil union, but most are actually OK with gay people, I have found.)
(and we are also the only state with NO McDonalds’s in our capital.)
What everyone else said. It’s a beautiful, safe and thriving city right on Lake Champlain. It’s one of the top places I would choose to live - I hope to go to school in the area next year. VT is a beautiful state, though it is admittedly a bit remote. AND, they have green license plates!
Nectar’s Gravy Fries.
Heaven:)
Burlington is a great city, but I can only say that from the point of view of a tourist, since i’ve never lived there. I used to head down there with my family at least twice a year, and I used to wish I lived there because there were mountains all around. I haven’t been there in a while, though. Wonder if Al’s French Fries is still around. That place was great.
What I love most about Vermont, though, is the cow-themed souvenirs. I have a cow-print pen with “Vermont cow-moo-flage” written on it from about 5 years ago and it still makes me giggle.
I lived in Burlington for 13 years before I moved to Seattle 2 years ago. To this day, there is a hole in my heart that is missing my home. Take all of the good stuff that people have posted, multiply it and you will have an idea.
Yes…yes, they are. And the bacon double cheeseburgers are to die for.
Baby, you couldn’t get rid of it if you tried! Nectar’s fries, while good, are no Al’s…for God’s sake, the place is famous for it’s fries! They kick so much ass, words cannot describe!
Ahh yes! Burlington Vermont. The Eastern Rose City - or should I say mountain thistle. 
Mikes Pizza anyone. Magic Hat # 9 right on tap…
To be quite honest my wife and I have thought long and hard about moving to Vermont. Espicially outside Burlington, somewhere like Winooski, or Shelborn.
We have seversl family member up in Vermont and we do own some property up there, but it is lake front property not in the city.
A few years back Burlington was voted into the top ten places to raise a family overall, and I believe it has stayed up there in the past few years.
I believe to live up there and to be able to fully enjoy it, one must be equally happy in the sun and snow. My wife and I are avid fisherpeople, we love to hike and snow board…we are an all weather couple for sure. However, we both have quite solid jobs and are not looking right now. But possibly (quite possibly) in the not too distant future.
Only visited once, but I loved it and could live there except for one thing (and it is a very BIG thing):
I hate cold weather and snow.
Take all the good things about Burlington, subtract the cold and snow, and you’ve got a good place to live (IMHO).
Burlington is the largest city in the state, with something like 36,000 people. The Greater Burlington area, which is most of Chittenden County, is about 120,000, approximately one-fifth of the state’s population. From the standpoint of the rest of the state, Chittenden County is almost totally urbanized.
The saying is that Burlington is a very nice place, “and so near Vermont”.
If you can swing it job-wise, it is much nicer living in one of the lesser-populated counties…
Hell yeah, Mr. Mike’s Pizza! What a great town. I lived there for about 5 years. Great fishing on the lake(s), winter and summer. Magic Hat beer on tap (or even in bottles. Can’t get it at all out here on the wrong coast). I would still be there now if I could find year round, good paying theatre work in the area.
[Cliff Claven]
It’s a little known fact that Lake Champlain was actually one of the great lakes for about a month. It happened around '96 or '97. VT wanted some of the “Great Lakes money,” so the congressmen/senators pushed it through without anyone noticing. Once people found out, Michigan got all mad and demanded that Champlain got removed from “the list.” A compromise was reached: Lake Champlain got some funds, but was no longer a Great Lake. Everybody went home happy. True story.
[/Claven]