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While the scene may be different on a weekend night after hours, the south side of the Square is lined with upscale restaurants and shopping that is not relient on college students for business.
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It is included in “The Best 100 Small Towns in America.” The “USA Today” named it one of the “Top
6 College Towns in America.”
Oxford, Miss certainly has taglines that would enhance a tourism
brochure or help any campaign to promote growth. But do the taglines match reality for couples with families
or single professionals? A common
complaint heard is that Oxford caters to college students first. One needs nothing more than to visit
the Square on a Friday night to see why Oxford would be appealing to a college
student, but is the community of Oxford biased towards college kids while
neglecting households with children and professional singles?
According to the 2010 Census data, Oxford has 7,357
households. Of those, 3,418
(46.5%) are family households, and 1, 636 (22.2%) have children under the age
of 18. 23.8% of those households
have more than one child under the age of 18 currently living in the home. When one considers that 5,900 (31.2%)
of the “official” residents of Oxford are between the ages of 20-24 and that
most of these residents are actually out-of-state students at The University of
Mississippi who have established residency in Oxford to gain lower tuition
rates, one can see that the adjusted percentage of households is much
higher. So, why is this community
very populated with households if Oxford just caters to college students?
Terrence Metcalf played 10 seasons of professional football
mostly in Chicago where he made his home.
But after his playing days ended, he decided to make a change for his
family.
“I didn’t want my kids to grow up in a city,” Metcalf said. “I wanted them to have a place to call
home. You travel to cities, but you should live at home. Oxford feels like home.”
Ronnie Thomas moved his family to Oxford this past fall, but
the reason was not because of an emotional attachment to the city of Oxford
itself.
“My mother has Alzheimer’s, and it got to the point where
there was no other choice [but to move to Oxford],” Thomas said. “My family was happy in
Germantown. The kids loved [their
school] and friends.”
Another major impact for families is the school system. Oxford City Schools have earned a
“Star” rating, the highest ranking for Mississippi public schools.
Metcalf said, “A huge factor was having schools that we
could send our kids to, and not have to worry about something bad happening to
them. And, it was really nice to
not have to pay for private school [knowing the system provided a good
education].”
Obviously school systems and education would be an important
factor to a family with children look for a place to settle, but what about a
single professional? Andrew Wood
was working for Merrill Lynch in New York City. He was living in Manhattan and was making a salary that was
more than double the average for someone his age.
“I wanted to own a house,” said Wood. “Sure, I was making money and doing
what I thought was my dream [working in Finance in New York City], but I didn’t
own anything.” When an opportunity
to live and work in Oxford presented itself to him, he took the offer and has
not looked back. He now owns a
house.
But the one pressing issue that still remained to be
addressed. Does someone older feel
neglected by Oxford because they believe the town caters to college students
only? All three answered
negatively.
“Sure college bars are going to focus more attention on
college kids, but that is only a small portion of the community,” Metcalf
said. “Plus, those aren’t the
places that I am going to be in.
The restaurants and places I go aren’t looking for college kids. And there are more of those places.”
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