Quote:
Originally Posted by artistic.maze
Hi NorasMom...did you visit Wilmington before you moved and thought you would like it there but have decided you don't? What are the things you don't like about it? What do you see about it now that didn't stand out to you when you were just visiting? I would love to hear your view of things. I have never been to Durham but have heard alot of great things about it, however I do really want to be close to the ocean.
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I kind of knew it wasn't going to be forever, but I was postponing buying a house and wanted to rent at the beach for a while. So I love the historic downtown - really love it - the history of the town is fascinating. There's a great quote from a Civil War Colonel (William Lamb) said about the city at the time, in 1864: "I'd much rather be in battle than in Wilmington, for at least in battle I have a chance of not being killed."
It's exciting with all of the filming going on; there are many opportunities to be movie and tv extras. A lot of very good restaurants, a film festival, etc, good theatre.
And the ocean is terrific and my main draw.
BUT - the negatives for me are it's just a little more conservative than I want (politically) - except for the downtown area - it's pretty racially polarized (unsurprising given the city's very troubled history there) - and I admit to being really annoying about food, meaning, I want good Szechuan Chinese food and it doesn't exist here; yes there's good Thai - that's not Chinese. Hard to explain but I want to live somewhere that doesn't confuse Thai for Chinese.
I'm a former NYer and NJeyan so take me with a grain of salt - a yankee by birth, though I love love love Casey's Buffet and it's southern food. I have a real appreciation now for southern culture though I prefer the Durham/Triangle version.
Durham is very diverse, progressive, great ethnic cuisine, it's very cerebral there (not just there but the Triangle as a whole). Great arts scene, hipsters in Durham are craft beer brewers/farm to fork chefs/food truck enthusiasts. I'd like downtown Raleigh as well. The ONLY drawback for me of Durham is that it takes me 2.5 hours to get to the beach. So I'd rather live there and come back here on weekends.
I love Asheville and considered moving there as well at one point but that's even further from the ocean so it's a no go!