Woman who moved to quaint Northern California town reveals why she couldn’t get away fast enough

A woman who moved to a picturesque Northern California town talks about how she was eager to get away after living among white supremacists and hippies — and having to commute an hour to get almost everywhere.

Jaime Alexis Stathis moved to Grass Valley, California, about 60 miles outside of Sacramento, in 2017 with her husband Martin.

She had long dreamed of moving there, but soon realized that life in this quaint, picturesque town was actually a nightmare.

“We both loved the architecture, the artistic, progressive community, the great restaurants, and the access to cities, the ocean, and the mountains,” wrote Stathis, who moved from Missoula, Montana, for Business insider.

“But once we lived in the small town in Northern California, we realized we might have been better off just visiting.”

They moved to the city after her husband got a job that required him to live within 60 miles of Sacramento. Stathis was thrilled to discover that the place of her dreams was 60 miles outside of the big city.

After a reconnaissance trip, Martin agreed and they enthusiastically started their new life in a town with less than 20,000 inhabitants.

However, Stathis discovered that the city’s demographics were wildly diverse, ranging from white supremacists to hippies, wealthy conservatives and Bay Area liberals.

“Big cities can have such differences, but in small towns they are superficial and the discord has been palpable,” she said, particularly during the 2018 midterm elections and the 2020 pandemic.

The massage therapist was confronted with hate crimes, violence and protests, which disrupted the picturesque atmosphere of the town.

Stathis found the city was made up of a vastly different demographic, from white supremacists to hippies, wealthy conservatives and Bay Area liberals.

It was also expensive, with the cost of living in Grass Valley being about 38.2 percent higher than the national average.

She discovered that it was also very expensive to live there, with the According to Stathis, the cost of living in Grass Valley is about 38.2 percent higher than the national average.

Grass Valley is also not located on a major highway, making it “difficult” to live there.

“There’s only one main road in any direction, and it’s a 45-minute drive into Sacramento to get to the sprawling suburbs and the amenities that come with them,” she said.

To get to a doctor, they had to drive an hour. And Grass Valley doesn’t have stores like Walmart and Target, meaning residents had to travel to buy necessities.

“Forget buying basics like bras and underwear in Grass Valley,” she wrote.

After two and a half years, Stathis gave up and left the city where she had once spent all her time trying to figure out a way to live.

She now lives in New England, closer to where she’s from, and says it “feels a lot more like home.”

Food, already a drain on most Americans’ wallets, is even more expensive in this picturesque town, especially compared to Missoula.

“I also found our local supermarkets small, expensive and poorly stocked,” she wrote.

The couple also had to buy a house because rent was too expensive, which put an end to Stathis’s dream of exploring Berkeley, Lake Tahoe and wine country, as she now wanted to spend her money on a fixer-upper.

She told Business Insider that rent in Grass Valley would be twice as high as in Missoula.

In addition, Montanans were not used to California wildfires. When the Camp Fire came close, Stathis became upset. She started keeping tote bags by her front door and in her car for easy access.

After two and a half years, Stathis finally called it quits and left the small town where she had spent her life trying to figure out how to live.

She now lives in New England, closer to her birthplace, and says it “feels much more like home.”

DailyMail.com has contacted Stathis for comment.