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Hi everyone! So I am 18, along with my gay partner who is 20, and we haver been residing in Florida for quite a while. Our plans are to continue onto college & maybe have children in the future.
I, myself, am originally from Alabama & I'd like to say I'm a big familiar with the countryside, haha.
In the future, we maybe are thinking about moving up to the Carolinas due to the way of life there. The thing is, we just wish to find a town that would fit our every wants/needs and the best way for that to start would to ask some residents who are actually from the place where we might be heading to!
ALL ADVICE IS GREATLY APPRECIATED AND WELCOMED!
So we would like to find a town in either North Carolina or South Carolina. The reasoning for that is because, well, we like so far everything it seems to offer & the locations in which the states are located.
We are looking for a city that can give us the following:
- Fall foliage
- Great temperatures
- LOW crime rate (want a place where drugs & gangs aren't a big problem & we don't have to worry about wandering off into a scary neighborhood).
- Beautiful downtown
- Friendly, nice people & that feeling of Southern hospitality and comfort.
- City that is family-oriented
We have been looking at both Greenville, SC and Asheville, NC. I feel like although Greenville may those things, the crime surprisingly will be a problem. Seems whenever you read more about the city, it's crime rate is pretty bad. Asheville, NC, I wish to find more out about it. I've read on here that drugs is a big problem in that city & the homeless population is high.
Thank you all so much in advance for the feedback and we can't wait to read y'alls responses!
We have been looking at both Greenville, SC and Asheville, NC. I feel like although Greenville may those things, the crime surprisingly will be a problem.
Please also read some of the comments on this forum with respect to tolerance for gay people. Greenville SC has much more of the Bible-belt mentality. I had read of gays getting lectures on their sinfulness while they were in a supermarket line. Asheville, NC is a much more liberal place.
I wonder how Asheville compares to Greenville on the topic of crime, however... That's what worries me!
If you look at the City-data profiles for their crime index, there is not much difference. Both cities are a little above the US national average, and the index in both has been dropping over the last 10 years.
Asheville's crime index is 397 and Greenville's is 374, compared to the national average of 301. I personally don't think that is a significant difference. However, you might find some more detailed crime maps on a tool like Spotcrime.com . Check the areas you might want to live in in both cities. I would not be especially worried about the crime rates in either place since they are real cities. The average includes all of the little burgs in Kansas and Minnesota, so of course a real city is above average in crime.
If you use some other internet tools, you could find the safest areas around Asheville to be: Biltmore Forest, Montreat, Fairview and Laurel Park.
"North Carolina or South Carolina?" is really a way too general topic, considering the vastness of both states. Find a university you want to go to and can get in (note you'd pay out of state tuition for at least the first year) and spend that time getting to know the states. Nobody can possibly tell you where in a 2-state region is best for you, especially with the college angle into play and needing to be accepted.
BTW I am gay, and no college town is going to have a problem with that, wherever you end up. It would depend on what field you want to study and of course where you could get in. Chapel Hill has a great university and is the most liberal place in NC/SC probably, but difficult to get into and out-of-state tuition is steep.
Short version: please narrow it down more than "NC or SC?"
Quote:
We are looking for a city that can give us the following:
- Fall foliage
- Great temperatures
- LOW crime rate (want a place where drugs & gangs aren't a big problem & we don't have to worry about wandering off into a scary neighborhood).
- Beautiful downtown
- Friendly, nice people & that feeling of Southern hospitality and comfort.
- City that is family-oriented
Raleigh fits that bill, though like every city, there is a "sketchy part of town", but you need never go near it. You're never going to find a city that doesn't have SOME element of crime, but nowhere in NC or SC is going to be like Detroit or Newark or Baltimore or New Orleans. We do have NC State University here as well as a couple of private colleges such as William Peace.
Have you visited anywhere in these states? That should be the first thing anyone considering moving anywhere should do, but look towards the things a resident, not a tourist, cares about, such as traffic, grocery stores, etc.
Asheville is certainly a great (small) city, but I hear the job market is really hard for anything not tourism-related. Can't speak for Greenville SC, but it's "up and coming" in the job market due to expansion in the Atlanta-to-Charlotte corridor. Charlotte itself is another possibility.
But you need to come see for yourselves.
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