Is Wilmington, NC that bad? (Charlotte, Raleigh: fit in, apartments, foreclosures)

[Crazy_Daisy]

Originally Posted by sportbikerider

Southerners love to blame 'yanks' for the high cost of everything. Yet, i'd be willing to bet they also shop at the high end malls, eat at the high end resturants and are more than willing to sell real estate to the 'yanks'. They also don't mind selling their homes for double what they paid 10 yrs ago.

Hypocrites.

When i lived there i had no problem with the realistic southerners even though i'm from upstate NY. Most of the girls where loving the fact that i wasn't a local. Since most of the locals where total losers w/o jobs or aspirations of more than surf boards and bud 6-packs.

Well, it is true. Get over yourself. They are the ones that are taking over this place. They even took over Carolina Beach and Hampstead too. Burgaw and Rocky Point are also having more New Yorkers move there too. Over population and higher taxes. " Wow! I want to move to Wilmington. New York is too expensive, so I am moving here now!" You are coming here in droves. It is like you took a bow and arrow and automatically shot for Wilmington. No economy and no jobs. You complain about not finding jobs. Guess what? There have never been tons of jobs here anyway! Service jobs people unless you are trained in the medical field. Or maybe a professor at UNCW? Not many choices.

[Crazy_Daisy]

Originally Posted by Caseybeam

After reading everything everyone posted, would you reccomend someone to move there? I am married and we have a child and plan to have a few more but I dont want to move across the country (from Minnesota) and then move again. Any advice? Btw our careers are Therapist and Animation Artist. Both plan on private practice/freelancing

As a therapist, you will do fine here. The economy has never been big here. It is mostly made up of retirees from up North now. I have lived here on and off for 30 years. I went to UNCW, and I have seen the big surge of people move here from the late 80s to now. Too many people and not enough jobs. Wilmington was the fast food capital of the U.S. at one time.

[Ram o sea's]

Resident for 57 years ! This place sucks! Got a bunch of uneducated jerks and communist running
the government without a clue ! These buffoons think they have a totalitarian dictatorship going on
and can stuff any project they can profit from on the population. Its very prophetic when they hire a
person named Cheatem to manage affairs.

[quesoanejo]

Originally Posted by suedonym

its a great area, we are getting ready to move there from the raleigh area.

all cities have their 'iffier' areas. and families arent generally out perusing the bar scene at night LOL

traffic is the biggest (overall) complaint, but even then, its not that bad compared to parts of raleigh at rush hour LOL

if you come, have an open mind, accept it for what it is ... youll be just fine, and will enjoy it.thers plenty of things to do near by and heck- the beach is right here!

...traffic...seriously, if you can walk across a town like wilmington in less than an hour, i doubt there traffic is too bad. even been to dc?

[Richard Martin]

Originally Posted by quesoanejo

...traffic...seriously, if you can walk across a town like wilmington in less than an hour, i doubt there traffic is too bad. even been to dc?

I hear as many complaints about traffic in Eastern Carolina as anything else. I lived by DC too. In this area it rare to have to sit at a traffic light for more than one or two cycles. And I've never seen 5 or 10 mile rolling backups here either.

What's that? An accident on 95 in Fredricksburg? And it's backed up to the Mixing Bowl? Damn.

[elmen523]

I'm thinking of moving to Wilmington from NY but in the 28403 zip code..anyone knows about this area. Any info would be of great help.

[mzfroggez]

Originally Posted by Caseybeam

After reading everything everyone posted, would you reccomend someone to move there? I am married and we have a child and plan to have a few more but I dont want to move across the country (from Minnesota) and then move again. Any advice? Btw our careers are Therapist and Animation Artist. Both plan on private practice/freelancing

In my second year of reflecting on Wilmington so I'll share my thoughts. I, like others, spent many years in northern Virginia so the traffic issue here is comical. Rush hour is maybe an hour if that.....the traffic report in the morning leaves one careening to see where the traffic is that they are referring to. My biggest complaint about road issues is drivers who drive too fast and aggressively. Many of them are yahoos who give the south a bad name by showing how fast their truck can roar down the highway. But that is not the norm. And most of them are males of a certain age.

I like Wilmington - there is a nice mix of people and I find it, like most of North Carolina, to be friendly, welcoming and non-pretentious. I am presently sitting at my computer, preparing to walk across the street and be on an uncrowded beach on a beautiful day where the humidity has lifted and the breezes are delightful.

Tomorrow, I can jump in the car and be downtown in the historic area in about 30 minutes max. The architecture downtown is gorgeous/and as someone said, spring comes early and abundantly.

It is hot here - hot /humid/ and in the winter, it was often wickedly cold (not Minnesota I'm sure but cold for me). But there was respite - warm days would jump back at you and properly dressed, even the cold was bearable. I don't think anywhere in the South is not going to have extremes by our standards annually. But in time, the season changes and like childbirth, one forgets how bad the departed season was.

I can see myself staying here -like anywhere, there is the sweet with the sour.

[Jeep Guy]

Traffic is subjective. If you came from Algiers you might describe Wilmington as having mild weather and laugh at the suggestion that it's hot here, even if it is hot to many people. I've been to D.C. too; the best I can say is that traffic in Wilmington is much worse than a city of this population should be. Better than D.C., sure, but it's much less population-dense than D.C. For a city of 120,000, Wilmington's traffic should be better.

[frogmanjake]

I usually don't take time to post to BBs but since nobody is offering up any kind of useful perspective I feel obligated to address your concerns. I grew up in the DC/MD area, with all that entails in terms of access to museums, parks, traffic that makes a 10 mile commute into an hour of mentally draining stop and crawl, crime, multiple languages spoken everywhere you go, etc. I lived in Wilmington from 1989-1994, and I moved to MD for 12 years, then back to Wilmington in 2006, which was a quick as I could make it happen. I have to assume those who say the traffic is bad are from Mayberry. There is no traffic unless one of the drawbridges are up, or maybe a little bit when crossing from the Leland/Southport side of the Cape Fear into town in the morning, as many do. In 1990 there was NO economy of any scale. The mall was half full and there was no real industry except Corning, a fiber optic plant that is still here and is as large as it has ever been. One thing you have to have clear in your head is that Wilmington is full of people who choose to be here in spite of the relative inability to climb any kind of corporate ladder. We're a small to medium size town in most ways. No way are you going to have the professional opportunities here you would get in Charlotte, or Raleigh, or DC, etc. If you open your own business, please don't make it a restaurant, we've got plenty and it won't work. But if you work in any health field, or for the university, or for PPD (PPDi) international, which just built a huge hi-rise on the river downtown a few years back, or for Corning, or you work in the financial services sector (broker, insurance, etc), or you are retired on pension and are looking for a place with practically no property tax compared to where you live now in NYor NJ, you gotta be loving it here, so that's basically what we have ended up with. We are geographically challenged, and we are a suburb of nothing with a larger economy, so there is no similar opportunity like living in NJ with the family and working in NY city, or on a farm in the suburbs of Philly and commuting in to work. We are self contained and the first "real city" is 2 hours up I40 west. I am self employed in the insurance business and we do pretty well. I know school teachers that moved here from NY who make a 70K pension and live very well here. You can get a lot more house here than you can in more metropolitan areas, or you can get the same size house and have a lot more to live on. The best things to do here are free. Go to the beach, but not in the summer time, leave it for the tourists. I had a friend come down on July 4 this year and the beach crowd was HUGE, and he thought this was a normal thing. In October on any weekday you will have Wrightsville Beach to yourself. As for crime, give me a break. Small town rules apply. I leave my keys in the car most places. There are some areas of concern, but if you have an internet connection you are already too affluent to live there. Just so you know, any area like that is likely to be the area over close to the Cape Fear river but not quite in the historic district downtown. But it's not the "hood". Cops here walk the beat in "bad" areas and do a pretty good job but it's not like they are up against big gangs or anything. Again, the crime rate might be lower in Mayberry but realistically it's nothing at all unless you hang out by the corner down by the river at 3am. I had my oldest kid in private school her first year, but then moved her and the other two to public because it's that good. All of them are in advanced programs doing very well, the public schools function as you would expect small town school to, that is, they are full of teachers who care about the kids in a way that is only possible or expected in the South. Speaking of hospitality, yes, we do speak a little slowly. Yes, if we ask you how you are, we want an answer. Yes, we think talking on a cell phone while talking to someone in person is rude but we'll wait for you to finish so go ahead. All around town at take out restaurants are signs reminding you to complete your call before you order. So if you come down from up North, we will expect you to use some manners, and slow down a bit, hold the door open for the elderly even if they take a while to get there, let people into the flow of traffic and basically behave like you would like to be treated. Most of our transplants get along well with these ideas like they have been waiting their whole lives for the clerk at the gas station to say "come back and see us". As for the south side of the river, there are some real quality golf courses and communities around them the sprang up in the last 15 years where before there were only trailiers and farms. We're talking about gated communities with over 1000 homes in them and there are several. Needless to say, mostly retirees and people who commute across the river to work. All of the things that were needed to service all of the needs of these people are now here as well, movie theaters, outdoor lifestyle malls, WalMart, you name it. But do not anticipate an experience anything like you are used to anywhere. Often I hear that you can't get a good bagel, or you can't go to a world class museum or show, (we do have a great historical theatre -Thalian Hall), and you can't find good soul food, or something equally obscure, and these transplants are correct. So live without, and embrace the concept of biscuits and gravy. Be a new southerner and be proud of it. Here in Wilmington we have managed to make the world a little slower and a little smaller and we don't want it faster or "better" if it means we can't get a seat on the grass with the kids at the outdoor movies at the beach. We don't mind the line at Kilwins Ice Cream downtown because we always see somebody we know. In business meetings or PTA meetings we say the pledge of allegiance and sometimes a prayer for a sick neighbor. We don't care how you did it up north, but we'll listen to you tell us because you were nice enough to come down and live among us and -bless your heart- you brought your money with you. So to answer your question, Wilmington is not that bad, not nearly that bad but we would appreciate if you would bring your open mind. And by the way, how is your family?

[escapenc]

I could not read that. I tried but gave up after several sentances. Could you break it up?