Interesting article on leaving Greenwich by Greenwich Time columnist Claire Tisne Haft
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Fleeing California (photo credit, Babylon Bee)
It’s behind a paywall, but disabling Java Script on your browser solves that. I don’t know Ms.Tisne Haft, but she writes thoughtful commentary, very well. Here’s an excerpt:
“I think it’s more: We live in an Alpha community — all of us are constantly trying to figure out how to ‘live our best lives,’ ” a Greenwich mom offered. “And COVID has taught us that we can live differently, that we don’t all have to live by ice hockey or lacrosse schedules, and so we’re sort of redefining what happiness looks like right now.
“As a result, people have had these epiphanies and acted on them, without the usual debate they’d normally have with all their friends,” she said. “And then, all of the sudden, you get this email from Colorado, where they’re meditating with their kids on a mountain top with eagles — and it kind of leaves you here, feeling … less evolved.”
Totally. No eagles here — at least not on my road.
“It looks like this,” another Greenwich mom told me. “Everybody in our family has been struggling through this pandemic. Can’t see friends, no camp — or if you can, it’s muffled — and let’s face it: It’s highly likely school will shut down this winter. So moving everyone to a ski mountain is like giving ourselves a treat for enduring all of this … and why not do it now, when we can?”
There was a parent on a Board of Education meeting on Zoom this summer, who asked how GPS could “accommodate” their family with their remote-learning platform, given that they were moving to Hawaii for the winter, and were facing a significant time difference.
Suddenly Tod’s Point doesn’t look so special anymore. The irony is, of course, that Greenwich already feels like Hawaii for many of us who relocated here from New York City.
“Forget eagles,” my transplanted neighbor from Brooklyn told me. “We’re just happy to go for a jog outside with no face mask.”
They, too, had surprised friends, and moved on sudden epiphanies.
“We fled,” Rebecca Stevens-Walker told CNN in a report on relocations. “Our apartment looked like the rapture had come. ... And we definitely had the conversation, ‘What if we don’t go back?’ ”
In July, Pew Research Center found that one-fifth of all U.S. adults had either moved or knew someone who did.
And then there’s the money.
“Typical Greenwich,” a friend from the city snarked. “How about, ‘We’re running out of money, my job’s on the line, things are going to get worse so we need to relocate to a place where life is cheaper and sell this house while we can?’ Does that even happen out by you?”
Truth be told, I know a lot of Greenwich families who relocated to less expensive areas. (They just don’t like to tell anyone.)
Typical Greenwich, right?
“Private schools are literally half the price, the kids ski for gym class, and pan for gold while learning about the Gold Rush,” my Tahoe friend went on.
She had me at “half the price.”
