Distance to live from work?

[Jweishaar]

My husband works at a university in a small town. Right now, we rent about a 12-15 minute mostly highway drive away and spend about $60-70 a month on gas total. There are places he could live and be walking distance to work, but there is terrible pollution (steel mill and some sort of chemical plant) and there are high crime areas with dilapidated houses literally blocks away. The pollution is better where we're at now, but still pretty bad. To escape the pollution, he'd be looking at a 20-30 minute highway drive each way. We're really not sure what to do if he ends up staying at this job long term. We have young children and don't want to compromise their health or safety, but we'd also love to be closer to my husband's job, grocery store, etc. Also, houses near his job are more expensive with less land and we'd like to be able to grow as much of our own food as possible. What would you do?

[tobitonic]

Longer commute for less pollution and crime and more homesteading potential. However, unless the pollution is equally distributed (like a circle around his job), you might want to keep looking to make sure you're not missing any good living spots.

I currently commute half an hour of mixed driving to my job. Sometimes I wish I lived closer, but I also appreciate being in a small town with very little crime relative to the city in which I work. We definitely feel safer here and have the backyard for the kids to play in and the plants to grow in.

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

Is the area actually in violation for air contaminant levels?

[GrowingTheGreen]

Also a half-hour-commuter.  It's about the max that I can handle, but it's totally worth the fun and central location.

[Kenbo]

After high school my first part time job was about 2-3 miles away.  It was great.  Admittedly I hadn't found my way to the finer ways of life yet but i remember occasionally walking or biking to work.  My grown up job I upgraded to and currently still have is approximately 20 minutes all highway.  I absolutely hated the transition but haven't thought about it in a long time.  Anything much further I feel like would suck the life out of me though.  I've thought about moving closer but the higher cost of housing and such keeps me in my home town.   

[Dicey]

It's situations like this that make me so damn grateful that DH walks to work...but it wasn't always that way.

Since living that close to your husband's work doesn't seem like a good option, I'd look for ways to optimize your situation. Go farther out, but look for an easy route to work. Make do with one high-efficiency vehicle, if possible. Try to spend as little as you can for housing since the location is not ideal. If living nearby just isn't feasible, make the best choice you can and then just enjoy your life.