the rutland i know [and have learned to love]

I realize I'm technically an outsider and am certainly not a "Vermonter" by local standards so my point of view is vastly different from those who were born and raised here.

So often I hear locals complaining about how Rutland was once this great small city with no drug problems or crime. Honestly, I think every town and city, big and small, says the same thing. Our populations have grown and changed drastically over the past few decades. We have access to information at our fingertips and even the smallest happenings are posted all over the internet - something that was impossible a few decades ago since you can only fit so much into an hour of news or in a newspaper. I do believe that drugs are a national issue and unfortunately Rutland has seen this epidemic first hand.

However, I will say that as an "outsider" [ who has lived in cities such as Syracuse, Utica and Rochester, NY ], Rutland is an extremely safe city. As a runner I feel safe running any street in the city and often run through the "gut." There were streets in Syracuse and Rochester where I knew I shouldn't go and never did because my life would actually be in real danger. Tom went for a run in Syracuse while I was living there and got extremely lost. He was yelled at and mocked while running down streets he could tell were not safe and he was actually scared. He came back having run 5:30minute miles and when he told people the streets he had run on they were scared for him.

The streets in Rutland are fairly well maintained and yes there are some boarded up houses but for the most part the lawns are mowed and people wave. An older runner once told me that you can tell if a street is safe or not based on how many lawns are mowed - not sure if any other runner follows this standard but I do and I've never been down a Rutland street where a majority of the houses have hay fields out front. Actually, the only time I have ever not felt 100% safe while running in Rutland [ on a lonely back country road, not in the city ] was because I had watched too many Criminal Minds episodes and thought "a farmer could feed me to his pigs right now and no one would hear me scream." Trust me, your mind would go there too if you were running 10 miles on a single back country road in rural Vermont!

Every city and town has their problems but it's how we deal with them that defines us. Rutland is by far the most supportive place I have ever lived. We all want to see it continue to improve and everyone is there to help. Most people live near their families so they have help when and if they need it which was a huge concern of mine when we started our own family 3 hours away from our hometown. But ya know what, Rutland has been there for us through every up and down - Rutland has become our family when we've needed them the most. Rutland has made us feel like we are in fact Vermonters through and through. We moved here for jobs and have stayed for the Vermont lifestyle which Rutland embodies perfectly.

Running through Downtown Rutland.

Running down Grove St from McKinley Ave is by far my favorite stretch of Rutland to run.