Is Wilmington, NC that bad? (Charlotte, Raleigh: where to stay, home builders, purchasing)
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To some of the previous posters, my neighborhood has been the one place that has been a positive, but just a handful of neighbors will even wave hello. Good grief!
Crime, read the paper daily? Yes, every city has crime but the ratio of crime to population is off the charts. I grew up on the beach, does that matter? Just wait for the winter months when Wilmington shuts down like its under several feet of snow and see what there is to do. Even the locals will tell you there is nothing to do from late October until April when their "big" Azalea Festival starts. Hope you already have lots of friends. Enjoy!
Yes, it all matters. Everyone moves to different places for different reasons.
Why do you live there if you hate it so much?
And if you think there is nothing to down there for 7 months...you definitely need to be more creative. I've been down there in the winter several times for extended periods of time. Lots of stuff to do. Try living in the Northeast for a winter and get back to me.
For the crime part, I do not read the paper down there every day. Again, just basing it off my trips down there and those I know who live down there. Also general crime rate statistics. For a larger city it is low. I live in a somewhat smaller city up north that is considered safe and the crime rate here is higher according to numbers.
Unwelcome to outsiders, good ole boy network, horribly bad service industry, and very aloof young people between the ages of 20 and 30. Unfortunately those young people are the ones manning the service industry, and they have no desire for you to come back to their establishment. If you want someone to service your home, or deliver you something, expect they either won't be on time or show up at all. The locals don't really seem to care, and they accept that fact as being the way it is. Just about everything in this town seems to be about halfway done, downtown, the beaches, road signage, culture, and commerce. 80% of the people here I am just not compatible with, the other 20% awesome. Those 20% are usually from up north like New York or New Jersey. Never thought that would be that way. If you want to live in a place where you may or may not get good service, people will look at you funny if you don't have a southern accent, and you're willing to accept an aloof young population, then this is your place. On top of all that, there really isn't much here to do. The beaches are really not all that great. I am in my 40s and have a family of four, active, athletic, and actually very friendly. That is probably why I really don't fit in. Thank goodness we are leaving, you can have it.
Unwelcome to outsiders, good ole boy network, horribly bad service industry, and very aloof young people between the ages of 20 and 30. Unfortunately those young people are the ones manning the service industry, and they have no desire for you to come back to their establishment. If you want someone to service your home, or deliver you something, expect they either won't be on time or show up at all. The locals don't really seem to care, and they accept that fact as being the way it is. Just about everything in this town seems to be about halfway done, downtown, the beaches, road signage, culture, and commerce. 80% of the people here I am just not compatible with, the other 20% awesome. Those 20% are usually from up north like New York or New Jersey. Never thought that would be that way. If you want to live in a place where you may or may not get good service, people will look at you funny if you don't have a southern accent, and you're willing to accept an aloof young population, then this is your place. On top of all that, there really isn't much here to do. The beaches are really not all that great. I am in my 40s and have a family of four, active, athletic, and actually very friendly. That is probably why I really don't fit in. Thank goodness we are leaving, you can have it.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out, say hello to New Joisey for me.
Unwelcome to outsiders, good ole boy network, horribly bad service industry, and very aloof young people between the ages of 20 and 30. Unfortunately those young people are the ones manning the service industry, and they have no desire for you to come back to their establishment. If you want someone to service your home, or deliver you something, expect they either won't be on time or show up at all. The locals don't really seem to care, and they accept that fact as being the way it is. Just about everything in this town seems to be about halfway done, downtown, the beaches, road signage, culture, and commerce. 80% of the people here I am just not compatible with, the other 20% awesome. Those 20% are usually from up north like New York or New Jersey. Never thought that would be that way. If you want to live in a place where you may or may not get good service, people will look at you funny if you don't have a southern accent, and you're willing to accept an aloof young population, then this is your place. On top of all that, there really isn't much here to do. The beaches are really not all that great. I am in my 40s and have a family of four, active, athletic, and actually very friendly. That is probably why I really don't fit in. Thank goodness we are leaving, you can have it.
I always ask this...where specifically did you live?
I have read a lot of posts going back to the beginning of this thread to the end in order to find out as much info as possible about Wilmington and the areas around it before doing an actual visit. My husband and I are interested in the area for retirement and for a slower pace of life than what we have now. We live in the suburbs of DC in Fairfax County, VA - there are over a million people who live in Fairfax County and of course DC is about 25 miles away and then there is the MD suburbs as well. My husband is a retired police officer and I am a retired admin worker. We have lived in our townhouse here for 27 years and we have no children. We vacation often in the Outer Banks and in Williamsburg, VA. Believe me when I say that planners here haven't done a great job with traffic either - the DC area has the 2nd worst traffic jams in the country. If you travel anywhere on the east coast you will experience horrid traffic, especially in coastal areas or metro areas. While I understand people on this board who live in Wilmington get frustrated with the traffic situation and crime, I think it all has to be put in perspective. ANY town or city that is located near the ocean has traffic - and lots of it. When a city experiences a rise in population, traffic and crime follow. How it is handled definitely makes a huge difference but even here where we live government tends to be like 20 years behind the times especially with traffic issues. I would invite anyone to come here and drive around the beltway, I-95 or 66 every day - take a trip to Boston or any smaller town in New England and see how awful it is to drive there. I understand that moving to a city near beaches is going to have traffic and a city that may not have handled it's growth really well will also have issues whether it be crime or traffic. Unless you go live in a 1 stoplight town, there will be cars, people and crime. The important thing is to have common sense and be aware of your surroundings at all times wherever you are. As far as all the comments about unfriendly people, etc. I find some of the posters to be very condescending with their attitudes - I am originally from New York State (not NY City) and moved to VA back in 1978. My husband grew up in NOVA and has been here all his life. I firmly believe that it is MY attitude and MY willingness to be friendly and adapt to my surroundings that allows me to have friends wherever we are. We are not looking to move somewhere just to be with "people like us" (transplants) - we want to live where the locals live and be a part of their community. We love the beach, we want a slower life and I would love to be a part of the "big" azalea festival (rather than making fun of it as the poster did). A balanced look at Wilmington is what we are looking for and we are adults, we know there are always pros and cons to anywhere you go - it is a matter of knowing your priorities and what is important in your life. The "good ole boy" system is everywhere if you look hard enough for it - it has nothing to do with being in the south and we are all from someplace aren't we - and talking about "southern accents" is demeaning and ridiculous. No wonder people don't like you - you aren't very likable to me either, but then again I'm not from NY City or Jersey.
Dcsuburbs, I think you would like it here. I lived in the Maryland suburbs of dc most of my life, and now in wilmington 5 years. I love it here, and have found most people, from lifelong wilmingtonians and other transplants, to be friendly.
Now this is just my opinion, but I wouldn't choose any gated community or "plantations" that are all transplants from other places. Live in a regular neighborhood and be friendly, get involved in activities, it's great! I love the beach, the thriving arts community, the opportunity to take adult education classes, the wonderful little city.
Dcsuburbs, I think you would like it here. I lived in the Maryland suburbs of dc most of my life, and now in wilmington 5 years. I love it here, and have found most people, from lifelong wilmingtonians and other transplants, to be friendly.
Now this is just my opinion, but I wouldn't choose any gated community or "plantations" that are all transplants from other places. Live in a regular neighborhood and be friendly, get involved in activities, it's great! I love the beach, the thriving arts community, the opportunity to take adult education classes, the wonderful little city.
Thank you both of the above posters! You are right - we don't want gated communities or places where only "transplants" are - the reasons we are looking at Wilmington for our retirement is because it does have a reputation for being a place where the arts thrive, where there are activities to get involved in and be a part of and because it has the close by beaches which we love also. Wilmington seems like a big enough place where we will still have plenty to do but not soooo big like where we live now outside of DC. Do either of you have any suggestions as to where we might want to rent for a month or two? We think that the best thing for us to do is to come and stay for at least a month or more so we get the feel of the area and can decide if it is right for us. We might even do a month in the summer and then a month in the winter to get the feel of both seasons. Sundaze I am really happy to hear that you love being in Wilmington after living in the MD burbs - it is so great to see a positive outlook on the city!
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Not a really good place to live
