Apartments in Wilmington

[coffeebean330]

Originally Posted by basketlady

I too am considering the big move from Columbus, OH to Wilmington. Can't transfer with a job, so how is the job market there? Any advise/suggestions would be great. Thanks.

I'm looking into moving as well, but from NYS. From what I've read, the job market is pretty bad in Wilmington. So I'd say start looking now.

[ccurran07]

Anyone had experience with Apartments on Red Cross street?? I saw a few online and they look nice enough..


good area/bad area?

[robma44541]

FYI, There was a shooting last night in the vicinity of 8th St and Red Cross St, a 17 year old died.
By no means an innocent victim, by the news account, but it was the first murder of the year.
I would stay away from renting downtown the houses are very close together, and unless you were born and reared here you just wouldn't know the good neighborhoods from the bad ones, look to rent outside the city and be safe.

[HomeSweetHomeNY]

Just passed by the Red Cross apartments the other day, I would say they almost border where the bad area is .. but they are very close to the riverwalk.

Red Cross St at 8th street is further down.. that's probably why there was a shooting there, diff part of Red Cross St.

[le roi]

Red Cross @ Front
Red Cross @ Second
Maybe..

Red Cross @ 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th+
No


The North End is a peculiar area. It has always been poor. There has been industrial land along the northern part of the river, as well as along Smith Creek to the north, which still contaminates parts of the northern downtown, and brings down values. Combine this with a railroad line and lots of low land/flooding, and you have land that was historically "intended" to be "for blacks," as seen by the construction of housing projects toward the north. Nobody with any money wanted to live there.

Sometime.. I don't know when, I didn't live here at the time, I'd guess in the 1990's - Wilmington started to grow, big time. The North End, with its proximity to downtown, its wealth of little historic homes and brick streets, began to look appealing as an investment. People began to see "future potential", and bought up land as investments, even though crime was high and schools were bad. People from Raleigh and Charlotte bought up these little rickety houses, rented them out. More recently, developers have begun to build mid-range and high-end residential structures, within a block or two of the ghetto.

So today, you have a large amount of people with a financial interest in seeing that area grow. Some of them are real estate agents and developers. Some of them are politicians. Some of them are independent landowners. But regardless, I bet none of them actually live there; in reality it is still a rough area. People with an interest in selling the area will use the code-language "In transition," implying that they're in the process of running out all the poor people. The people who are being pushed out seem to be aware of this, by the way. I suspect that it will be a long and difficult transition for all involved.

[robma44541]

Thanks for the information, its good to know this sort of information about the down town area, do you think the convention center will move even more of the poor out of the area when it is completed?

[le roi]

Rob,
No, I don't think it will impact much directly.

I think it will provide a slight boost to downtown tourism at minimal cost to the city taxpayer. I think its biggest impact is that it might speed up the construction of some HUGE projects planned north of the convention center.