I am giving OP advice on how to succeed at moving out of a city, not attacking your lifestyle. You seem mostly ignorant about what city life is like, and therefore are unlikely to give OP good advice about the differences between urban and rural living. Having spent considerable amounts of my life in both environments, I can point out the things OP should think about.
> However, my kids and really most kids in my community safely ride and play alone in a manner that might get city parents arrested.
This is ignorant, tbh. Elementary and middle school students take the subway to school alone, all the time. In many cities schools even hand out free/subsidized transit tickets.
Kids getting arrested for walking or biking alone in a city is rare. Also, the stories that make it to HN's front page are almost always about rural communities or sparse suburbs not near a major metro. The last one happened in a town in rural Connecticut. In Reason's archive of free range parenting articles, I cannot find a single story about an arrest in a city. All of those arrests happen in either rural or suburban communities.
OP: you are more likely to be arrested for letting your child wander around alone in a suburb or rural area than in a dense city.
> Sure, our community relies on external energy that we take for granted, just like city folk rely on food and water they take for granted.
Again, I am giving OP advice.
If OP moving to a rural area so that he is not dependent on modern life, he's most likely in for a rude awakening.
Everyone understands that city dwellers are dependent on others. Many city folk move to the country thinking they will be independent, not realizing that they will still be dependent on others and on society.
> school funding
Very state dependent.
Again, I am giving OP advice.
If he's in a state where this is true -- and there are many where it's true -- his kid's school quality will depend on state funding formulas. Raising local taxes to pay for schools if that formula changes will be very difficult. State level politics may have pragmatic impacts on your life in a way that doesn't happen in a city that can insulate itself from statehouse politics. You're often trading city counsel politics for statehouse politics. Not always. Often. Something to be aware of -- if you're moving to a rural area to escape the effects that politics can have on your life, it aint gonna happen unless you go full off grid and home school. Where there are people and services, there is politics.
> As far as quality goes, I don't think there is any question that city schools are craptacular when compared to suburban and rural schools.
Another ignorant assumption about cities.
Most of the best best-ranked public schools in the country are located in cities [1].
If OP wants to provide a best-in-class education, that's possible in cities by getting into the right public magnets. And in every city there are excellent but not top-x-in-the-world public schools that are easier to get into.
It's also possible in rural areas, but usually requires out-of-school enrichment. Which can be easier and more accessible than getting into great magnets for many folks! Again, not digging rural areas, giving OP actionable advice.
Some rural schools are terrible and some are excellent. Similarly, some city schools are terrible, and some are truly excellent. OP: anyone who tells you otherwise about either rural or urban schools is ignorant.
I am not competing with you about urban vs rural. These posts are not directed at you. I am providing OP with accurate advice about how to manage a transition. That involves pointing out the things that can go wrong and how to address them, not fixating on the things that come easily.
[1] https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-...