# Moving to PA or NY from Texas **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 18, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424 "2004-08-18T17:40:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/21 "2004-08-20T01:24:21Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > and best of all, a Wegmans, the greatest grocery store in the universe. Let me second that! Sure it’s a Rochester based chain, but that has nothing to do with why I love the store. (Or why I drag out of town guests to see the SUPERMARKET when the come visiting.) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/22 "2004-08-20T01:36:32Z")
Hey, any Central NYers who want to attempt a local DopeFest, check out [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5184201#post5184201) thread. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/23 "2004-08-20T01:48:40Z")
Southwestern NY native checking in…and one place in SW NY would fulfill your criteria that has not been mentioned yet…Fredonia. > [@](#): > > A relatively liberal progressive area, that has some diversity Not sure about this one, not having lived there for awhile. I’d bet a lot of the rural folks are pretty socially conservative, but I am sure that in Fredonia proper there are enough SUNY Fredonia folks to have that feel. > [@](#): > > Near a college town It IS a college town :). A nice place in classic small-town Fredonia, while not as cheap as its immediate environs, is still much cheaper than most of its kind. > [@](#): > > Lake nearby Chautauqua lake AND Lake Erie are both less than 20 miles away. > [@](#): > > Not too congested or urban Chautauqua County is very uncrowded. However, it can get congested and urban the closer you get along the coast to Buffalo but I THINK that’s outside of Chautauqua. > [@](#): > > Not scrawled out suburbia with identical house after house There is some of that, but far less than I have seen anywhere else. Like I said there are not too expensive houses available in a traditional neighborhood. > [@](#): > > We’d also like someplace that isn’t flat - mountains, even hills would be nice. Well, collegetown PA has collegetown NY beat there 🙂 …actually, while Fredonia is smack dab in the middle of glacial-action waterfalls, it is also smack dab in the middle of the coastal plain. So it has some low lying hills on the outskirts that are very pretty due to the glaciers that passed through, but they rise only a few hundred feet. Honest to God _hills_ are at least 30 miles away. [hijack]one exception is the [Shumla Area](http://www.terraserverusa.com/image.aspx?t=2&s=12&x=799&y=5867&z=17&w=2) right before Lilydale, where the coastal plain meets the glacial hills. While not a hill _per se_, more of a cut in a hill, the scene is breathtaking nonetheless and it looks much higher than its 200 feet rise. (Yes, I can visualize it from the map, can’t YOU 🆒 [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/24 "2004-08-20T01:56:12Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > …and best of all, a Wegmans, the greatest grocery store in the universe. State College has a Wegmans, too! And did I mention the College Diner? Home of the Mount Nittany? Oh, I did… 🙂 > [@](#): > > Can you tell how I feel about this town? Yeah, we know 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MysticMilt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@MysticMilt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysticMilt)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/25 "2004-08-20T12:17:49Z")
Not to hijack this thread or anything, but if y’all started up a We Love Wegman’s thread, I swear I’d be the first in line to post a reply. I love Wegman’s so, _so_ much, and I don’t know what I’d do if I ever moved out of reasonable driving distance of one. Phenomenal cheese counter, fantastic meats and seafood, a brick oven bakery that makes outstanding breads and rolls… I could go on forever. All that and their standard grocery section regularly beats the other big chains for prices. Love that place. LOVE. It. Here’s your thread back. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![marymargaret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@marymargaret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marymargaret)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/26 "2004-08-20T15:41:08Z")
> [@Kilt-wearin' man](#): > > So you’re looking for Austin, only somewhere in New England, right? Actually, that’s a pretty good analogy. Although I don’t live there, I love the feel of Austin. But, the hubby wants to be close to his family and is tired of Texas. ---
**Author:** ![marymargaret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@marymargaret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marymargaret)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/27 "2004-08-20T17:06:27Z")
Is housing **really** expensive in Ithaca? I have heard from a few people that it is quite expensive to live there. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/28 "2004-08-20T18:47:25Z")
Compared to the big cities on the East Coast? Not at all. Compared to the surrounding region further away from the two colleges, quite a bit. I still wouldn’t call it really expensive. Depends on what you’re looking for. Have a look at the [off-campus housing](http://housing.cornell.edu/och1/OCHMainPage.asp) list published by Cornell to get a feel for the price range. I recommend searching on graduate housing. [Undergraduate housing tends to be unliveable. 😉] ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/29 "2004-08-20T20:58:30Z")
I will second\*\* Duke\*\*: reading your criteria I thought “State College” right away. relatively liberal progressive area, that has some diversity _Check_ Near a college town _Check (it is a College Town)_ Lake nearby _Check_ Not scrawled out suburbia with identical house after house _Check_ We’d also like someplace that isn’t flat - mountains, even hills would be nice. _Check_--------- Not too congested or urban To call State College “urban” is silly – but a tiny Island “small city” in a rural sea? Maybe – it is really pretty far from everything else. Out of 67 Pennsylvania counties, Centre County (where State College is ) ranks 21st in gross receipts from agricultural products Some other CoC stats: - State College was ranked No. 1 as the lowest stress city in the United States by Psychology Today. - State College was rated by Places rated Almanac as the seventh safest city. - In Money magazine, State College was rated fifth as best place to live among northeast small cities. -"PSU"is sceond only to MIT in pulling in research $$$ (this is probably literally true somehow-- but I wonder what/how they are counting) for our purposes lets just say there are tons of very, very smart people locked in this really, really cool small city hours from everywhere with you Here is a great link if you are intrigued [http://www.statecollege.com/](http://www.statecollege.com/) ---
**Author:** ![kka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@kka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kka)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/30 "2004-08-23T04:43:52Z")
My brother-in-law is from Pa, and said that State College sounds like a good idea based upon your needs. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424/31 "2004-08-23T05:31:36Z")
My family moved to PA from Louisiana when I was ten, and came back to Louisiana when I was almost twenty-one. We lived in Montgomery County, about twenty-five miles or so north of Philadelphia. I loved growing up there. I fully intend to move back someday, as much as I like Louisiana. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-to-pa-or-ny-from-texas/260424.md?page=1)