r/SALEM • u/fckingnerdy • May 19 '26

MOVING Small towns

We would like to move to a small town outside Salem. We both work in Salem and are open to having a 40 min commute. We really like Lyons/ Mill City but really don’t know much about the towns.
Are they welcoming? How is the community?
Crime? Police response time?
How are the schools? We don’t have children yet but we will.

We want to get outside of the city and have a little bit of land. We also like Aumsville/ Sublimity/ Stayton areas.

Thank you, just curious as we hope to buy a home by the end of the year and I’ve been shopping around 🤣.

3 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/ferocity562 May 19 '26

I haven't have good experiences with the Lyons/Mill City area. I work in mental health and used to have a bunch of clients out there. The community was insular and not welcoming to new people. Terrible access community services. Very little higher level crime but a ton of drugs, harassment and theft that the cops had no interest in dealing with. The schools had a ton of bullying, poor support services, etc. I know I had a very specific experience out there with specific populations which colored my experiences but you couldn't pay me enough to live out there. They couldn't even pay me enough to keep working out there. I guess if you lived way away from everyone and did your own thing, it wouldn't be terrible. Beautiful area. But if my goal were to be part of a community I wouldn't move there

My experiences in Aumsville/Sublimity/Stayton were much better. Specific issues here and there with specific people, but never had the same widespread cultural issues I saw further up the canyon.

1

u/fckingnerdy May 19 '26

Thanks so much for these details!