Thinking of moving to GTO in December, expat family from Atlanta

[DonJuane]

1. Is life generally safe for a family? We have lived in LA and Atlanta, I don't know if anything could be worse than what we have seen here in the states.
(Safe is a relative term, and as my wildest guess as long as you are not in the pipeline tapping trade, you are likely as safe as anywhere in GTO, just the occasionally late night stick up but unless you look like you have a lot of money, are known to have a lot of money, or pretend like you have a significant to a lot of money, then you are likely not going to be that great of a target. I always wear ragged jeans, a polo shirt without the pony, cheap tennis shoes and no one has bothered me in the past 12 years I have traveled extensively from border to border in Mexico. I call GTO home but that's only because it used to be a quiet respite for Gringos. Those days have ended but I still have roots here so while I'm not on the road, I hang around. I keep my car trashed and my hair uncombed and in fact most locals give me wide berth and my snarky sense of humor also keeps most expats away as well. Actually now that I think of it there is not such thing as safety. There are more criminals in the US than Mexico but they usually are white collar. And can you die of boredom? If so then there's probably more danger in the US)
2. What is the best way to find a rental property in the city center? We will be selling our cars and will need to be walking distance to markets, food, and general areas to explore. I have seen the same five or six houses on Vivanuncios, is it hard to find rental properties?
(If you want to find a good one, you may have to keep renting for a while until you form a base of Mexican friends because they will give you the going rate if they like you and your family and you treat them kindly but otherwise you get to shop for Gringo (or North American I should say) infrastructure of which some people here are in the business and the gentrification can provide some offerings in the "same as US price" arena and you end up with that if you don't invest quite a lot of time in getting to know the people who have lived in the city for ages and hearing what they have to offer you.
3. Are the nearby towns safe? i.e Leon, Irapuato.
(Again, relative. Never been bothered in Leon, walk all streets and ride all city buses. Irapuato is sort of a dud of a cultural experience so I seldom go there unless I am in the area and need something from Home Depot)
4. What would be the recommended amount of money to have per month to live comfortably?
(For one person I generally spend about $900 per month on food, lodging, entertainment and a good meal out every couple of weeks. I cook almost every meal (as will you will too once you start longing for quality and don't want to overdo your budget at the local high-end restaurants)
5. What are some American luxuries you wish you had in GTO? I have read that having a dryer is pretty expensive?
(Pho and Tex-Mex, that's about it - well maybe an H-Mart but that's a luxury even in the US. There's now a Pho place in town and while they make a great effort with it, there's no mistaking it with the worst Vietnamese back home. And sometimes I would just die for a good Tex-Mex plate but just like pizza (which you will find a good one occasionally) the cheese just pardon my French but it really sucks here in Mexico. You just can't seem to recreate Tex-Mex without the longhorn and sharp and flavorful offerings from the US. Honorable mention also goes to burgers, fries, real fried chicken, sushi without cream cheese, chicken fried steaks, real southern BBQ, meat in general that can be cut with something less than a chain saw, and every day those blasted lost russet potatoes you keep looking for and after scraping off the mud find you're simply stuck with another bunch of round ones. If I was honest I would also say the bad cheese is the thing that I dislike most about Mexico - well maybe not so much bad as completely flavorless. Now you can forget a dryer or a deep fry or a score of electrical appliances because even if you and your entire neighborhood was not all running off the same 10 gauge wire looped up and down the street and if eveyone's lights didn't dim when you turn on something like an electric heating element in anything, and if we imagine you had the 500A feed into your home like those of the US have come to expect, you are not going to be able to afford the electric bill anyway because Mexico is on an exponential pricing system, the more you use the more you pay exponentially - seriously. I also miss taking a bath. The cost of heating water or managing a source of enough water to frequently take a bath is normally prohibitive. Otherwise, everything else I left in the US is best if it just stayed there and if there was anything I could do at all to stop the never ending movement of Dominoes, KFC, Burger King, Starbucks, Walmart, Popeyes, Little Caesars, etc. etc. well I'd lie out in the street and let a truck run over me if it would do any good - but it won't. In 10 or 20 years Mexico will be too close the US to notice much of a difference. Price will be part of that as the Mexico middle class continues to grow by Mom & Pop businesses are folding before you eyes like Dominoes and the same priced super markets move in with a very similar fare to what you "enjoyed" or "over spent for" in the US)
6. Is there a veteran expat community in GTO?
(Not that I know of. Most everyone I have met in GTO usually abandons efforts to unify expats. Most of them from my perspective integrate or try to, into the local Spanish speaking community and many have been known to duck down an alley if they see another expat coming their direction.)
7. I have read that GTO and San Miguel are being gentrified, is that true? And how do expats feel about that.
(Yes they are. We love it. Not really. If most of us had wanted the infiltration of the fast food restaurants I spoke of and all the US-cultural things that people bring down with them, we would have stayed in the US. Of course there is that stray person who claims they just came here to save money and the culture and new way of life is simply an unwanted side-effect they are forced to deal with, but then again most of them typically end up in a San Miguel or an Ajijic bar, as Jimmy Buffet sings (Expatriated American) trying to sell their "second hand American dreams").
8.How long did it take you to get settled in? i.e find a home, setting up utilities, knowing where to shop and where to ask for information
(Still not settled in. I moved here, got restless and started traveling a lot again while still returning and still calling GTO my new home. "There's just too much to see waiting in front of me" ... another Buffet tune.)
9. Do you miss living in your home country? i.e Americ
(Ha, ha, ha, ho, ho, ho, he, he) Like a dog misses fleas, like someone who likes to breath loves to smother, like someone misses a sharp stick in the eye. There is nothing to be gained in the US unless you can adopt an near impoverished lifestyle and sock away every bit of money until you can escape the very fabric of a system that is designed to drain you of every penny you make and add to that - double that amount. The relentless competition of who can accumulate the most debt, the aura of phoniness, beating yourself over the head to pay financial companies to finance some overpriced hunk of steel that you drive only for it to get beat to hell on the highway or overpaying for some cheap wood and plastered home, driving every day to a job that you hate, the taxes for schools that look like ancient Greek coliseums while near bankrupting the community with major-league-like football stadiums and million dollar sports centers and all the while not providing even an elementary level education received by other western nations to our own high school students. Yea, all that was a big boost to walk away from. Still - moving to Mexico will not begin to change the common US-centric frame of mind. You have to go through a major revelation or re-invention process to get to where you need to be here while forming your new life goals and that's assuming you go along with the typical "integration into the community" that most strive for here. Otherwise it's too easy to hit the top notch restaurants each night, fill your fridge with all the Serrano from Spain, prime Costco US rib-eyes and Australian racks of lamb, and Commercial gourmet cheeses from all over the world. You have to not only leave the US physically but you have to leave your US desires and demands for things you cannot afford (or be wasting your money on) mentally as well.)