About those towns outside of Charlotte. . . (Winston-Salem, Asheville: transplants, real estate market, power lines)

[southbound_295]

We get threads asking about towns outside of Charlotte. I've seen all kinds of responses, some from people who obviously don't know the area in question.

Tell us about your town, whether it's classified as a city or a town. You don't have to do it all in one post. This is not a "sell your town" thread. Tell us the good & tell us the warts. Include county information, if appropriate. (Most school districts are county wide.)

This thread is for the usual suspects, but we do get questions about Rutherford & Catawba Counties. If it's reasonable to assume that we'll get questions, include it here. If you're a native or transplant & have family in surrounding towns & have good knowledge, please include it, regardless of where you live. It's all fair game, but if you don't live in a town, please identify where your knowledge is coming from.

Oh, & be reasonable & realistic if you mention commute times.

[southbound_295]

I waited for someone else to start, but I'll start this.

Kings Mountain is 30 miles west of Charlotte. US 74 & I 85 both go through town.There is City of Kings Mountain & it's surrounded by an unincorporated area called Kings Mountain. Kings Mountain straddles Gaston & Cleveland counties. 11,174 people live in the incorporated town.

Kings Mountain was hit very hard by the mill closures & is reinventing itself. The downtown is being revived. Most people go to Gastonia for most of their shopping, but it's also 40 miles to Spartanburg & Hickory. Gaffney is 20 miles away. Within the city limits, the city is the utility provider. Moss Lake is the reservoir, but it's also available for fishing & boating.

[lacey3eb]

Great idea! We live in Indian Land, SC just outside of the NC border. We live in the Arlington neighborhood and we've been in our home for a year and a half now. My boyfriend (homeowner) is a Charlotte native and I relocated to the area about 5 years ago. We LOVE our location. The house price and taxes are great and we are so close to many amenities in the Ballantyne/South Charlotte area. We live and work in SC, but we play in Charlotte. We haven't frequented many local restaurants and shops because we live so close to all the shops and restaurants we're used to in South Charlotte. We really do need to expand our horizons and support more businesses Indian Land. I commute about 40 minutes to work in York, SC and my boyfriend communtes about 15 minutes to Rock Hill, SC. It takes us about 30 minutes to get downtown, but we often take the light rail for convenience. About 30 minutes to NODA. About 45 minutes to Concord Mills/Ikea. About 5-10 minutes to 485 depending on how many lights we hit. We do not have kids and don't plan to anytime soon, so we don't know a lot about the schools. So technically we live in Indian Land, but we live so close the NC that I'm not sure my post really reflects Indiand land so much as South Charlotte

[alise007]

I live in Hickory (5 yrs now) but my parents were born and raised here so I have been visiting since I was born. I spent a year at CVCC in between colleges back in the early 90's. The hubby and I lived in South Charlotte and Gastonia for several years around 97-00. I also did 2 yrs of home healthcare and traveled most of I-77 West and North to the TN/VA borders and down to the SC border in the Shelby area. Hubby works in Morganton. So I have a good perspective on a lot of these places at least from what is available, the terrain, shopping/dining, businesses etc...

I used to be heavily involved in 2 mommy groups in this area so I know a lot of mom's that live in Statesville, Lenoir, Morganton, Lincolnton, South Charlotte etc...so I hear about schools and places they like for their kids.

The good about Hickory-
size- easy and fast to get around, rarely any traffic unless there is an accident or construction on I40.
amenities-Patrick Beaver Library, (SALT BLOCK), Art Museum, Science Center, several good theater options (Green Room in Newton, HCT), 2 hospitals, Hickory Crawdads, 1 big stadium movie theater, 2 smaller cheaper theaters with older showings, 2 bowling alleys, 2 putt putt places (1 small indoor), Hickory Dickory Dock-arcade, climbing play area, laser tag, bumper cars

shopping--all the basic big box stores, sMall, 3 SuperWalmarts (2 brand new within 4 yrs)

proximity--within 1-1 1/2 hours of Charlotte, Boone, Asheville, Winston-Salem

Lenoir Rhyne University-has a great small campus that offers a community band, chorus, Suzuki music lessons for children

Negatives--these are MY personal issues!
No Indian or Greek restaurants
No specialty kitchen stores like a Williams-Sonoma
wishin we had a MACY's
Have to drive over an hour to attend professional sporting events, concerts, circus, high end shopping. We have some nicer things but LIMITED choices in them.
SO if things are on WEEKNIGHTS or Sunday nights it is difficult to attend esp. with kids because we are so late getting home.

AND probably my biggest downer--limited educational opportunities. No charters or magnet programs. There is an ARTS High School now I think in Newton Conover and a Health/Sciences High School in Newton Conover. There are 3 sets of schools-- Catawba County, City of Hickory and Newton Conover. They have a new alternative high school in Hickory that is supposed to eventually offer things like culinary, digital/photography and not sure what else.

I wish they had programs like IB, foreign lang, and talent development at an early age.

[JanuaryGirl]

I've lived in Kannapolis for three years after relocating from up north. I don't have kids so can't comment much on school systems, but other than that I've gotten to know the town pretty well.

Location:
The City of Kannapolis runs along I85 to the north of Concord. Most of the town is in Cabarrus County, some parts are in Rowan, some feed into the the Concord schools.

History/General Info:
Kannapolis is a typical former mill town. The Cannon Mill & then Pillowtex were the main employer till they shut down in 2003, laying off thousands of people. After the mills closed, the owner (David Murdock of Dole Foods) opened up the NC Research Campus, which does nutritional & agricultural research, at the old mill site. Unless you are a specialist researcher/scientist, not many jobs there. Kannapolis is also the hometown of Dale Earnhardt & people here are pretty into NASCAR.

People/Demographics:
I don't have specific number, but here are some perceptions... Unlike many areas in/near Charlotte, it seems that most people here are "locals" and have lived here a long time (often going back generations). If you are looking for more of a "Southern" feel, you may find it here (depending on your definition of Southern). I'd describe it as a blue collar town, quiet, not pretentious, about once a week I see a straight-up tractor drive down the street, and there are plenty of pickups & Southern pride.... that being said, I'm a liberal Yankee atheist and haven't experienced anything negative so far as not fitting in or whathaveyou. There are slightly more minorities (Black, Hispanic) here, than some other towns and it's nice that Kannapolis isn't very segregated (such as in Chicago where every race seems to have its own neighborhood/street), so you get a good mix of ages/races/income levels.

Housing Stock:
If you are looking for very affordable houses and decent lot sizes you will be in luck! If you are looking for new, large housing developments with HOAs there are plenty of other towns to consider, lol... this town does NOT have a lot of HOAs and as such there are definitely your "junk cars in the driveway" and "old couches on the porch" areas/houses. You can find updated 3br 1-2bath houses for around 100-120K, and non-updated houses for less. Things that I find irritating include lack of sidewalks in many neighborhoods and above-ground power lines.

Shopping:
There is a small town area (known as Cannon Village) near the research campus/train station, however many of the storefronts are empty right now. There are a couple places worth going to, but honestly I'd give it another 5 years (if the economy improves) for it to be very worthwhile. Restaurant 46 is excellent though, and if you have kids there's a really cool 1-screen theater that shows kids movies. The nearest mall is just across I85 in Concord, and honestly it's one of the shabbier malls I've seen. Really, plan on driving to Concord Mills or Northlake for mall type stores. There's a Walmart nearby in Concord and most of your other big-box stores are a couple miles up 85 near the target or up by Concord Mills. One of the biggest downsides of this area is the lack of chain stores/restaurants outside of a few scattered around Concord.

Commute:
IF you live near I85 it takes 20 min. door-to-door to get to UNCC. I don't travel into Charlotte downtown during rush hour, but I find at non-rush-hour it's about 30-40 min. to get most anywhere I'd want to go (South Charlotte, Ballantyne, Northlake, etc.). Going past Concord Mills can be aggravating on the weekends when traffic gets heavy. If you are commuting via 85 I recommend living near it rather than inwards toward the research campus.

Overall Positives:
Housing prices, Laid-back feel, Peacefulness, Restaurant 46, Annual film fest at Gem Theater

Overall Negatives:
Some parts are shabby, Lack of stores in downtown area, Lack of pubs/bars, Some undesirables, Lack of cultural stuff, Negative stereotype of the town (see below)

One thing I'd like to mention-- Apparently, Kannapolis doesn't have a very good reputation among Charlotte's more genteel set. Didn't know that before we moved here. To be blunt, some people wonder why the hell we live here. It is for lack of a better term more "red neck" than other towns, but I've found it to be a friendly, safe, & affordable area even though it may not have a ton of amenities or any prestige factor.

[southbound_295]

Thanks for the posts so far.

I deliberately only posted a little about Kings Mountain because another poster lives here. I haven't seen him post anything at all recently, so I'll post more & if he has something to add he can do it at a later time.

I don't have kids in school, but I have yet to hear a complaint from anyone who does. The schools also place well in the state when test results are compared.

When I moved here, the economy had just collapsed. Downtown looked really bad, but there have been efforts to revive it & most store fronts are now occupied.& a lot have been rehabbed. However, Ingles had just opened a big "super center" type store that was drawing people from quite a distance & the location is very flexible. Officials are working hard to get businesses in.

The town has activities that are geared to everyone. The Southern Arts Society The Southern Arts Society was given the old train station, which they have just finished rehabbing. It has a gallery & a gift shop. Classes are offered. There is a photography club. There is a community theater. The Kings Mountain Library needs a new, bigger home, but it's a nice library. The annual reel to reel festival will be coming up this month (July).

While there is a mix of transplants & natives here, people are nice & friendly.

Most people go to Gastonia for most of their shopping. I suspect that there will be more shopping opportunities here in the future, though. Some of the housing is older & smaller, but there was rehabbing going on until the real estate market got so bad that it just wasn't worth it. I expect that that will turn around.

I've driven into Charlotte during rush hour & a good estimate for uptown would be 1 hour, door to door. People would probably be surprised to find out that quite a few of the nurses at the main CMC complex live in Kings Mountain and Gastonia.