Quote:
Originally Posted by LadeeLoo
Can anyone tell me about Beaufort? Looks great online. Employment? Crime? Fishing? Political climate?
Thanks!
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Beaufort has a wonderful historic district and attracts a number of tourists.
There is a great Maritime Museum and lots of other stuff to do that you can see in my
Beaufort Travel Guide.
We looked for three years for a place that we could afford on the water in the Beaufort area. We ended up finding a spot on
the White Oak River on the western side of Carteret County near the beaches of
Emerald Isle.
We are only 35 minutes from Beaufort and are much closer to the beaches than if we lived in Beaufort. We also can have a boat behind our home here so that is a big deal for me.
We have a skiff and a kayak both of which I really enjoy.
If you search for dsobotta on the forums, you will find a lot of posts that I have done about the
general area.
My only complaints about Beaufort are that the most desirable homes are now owned by out of town people who can afford the expensive homes in the historic district. That means a lot of the homes are empty when you walk around in the evening.
The other minor gripe is that all the services are really on the other side of Morehead City. If there is any kind of hitch with the drawbridge, it is a lot quicker to get to those services from our area than from Beaufort.
The drawbridge may look cute, but it is a huge traffic bottle neck.
You can find area info at my websites. A good place to start is the
Southern Outerbanks one.
There is not a lot of employment other than service industries in our whole area. You can check that out in the classified sections (broken link) of the Carteret County News.
Employment opportunities are little better in our end of the county because of the proximity to Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune.
Job opportunities are much better in Wilmington, but you get traffic and other big city challenges.
I have enjoyed almost all of NC's beach areas. We even evaluated everything from Virginia's Eastern Shore and Chincoteague down to Oak Island before we decided on the Cape Carteret area.
Moderator cut: links removed
In general, the area is low crime with a mature population, but it is a very active area where people have lots of fun in the out of doors.
The fishing in the whole area is fantastic. Here is a post about
one of my great fishing memories near Beaufort.
This post is about some fishing I did this summer near
Bogue Inlet for Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish.
We also just
got some Spots last weekend.
Here is
a link to our catch of spots and one interloper we caught in the
White Oak River about five minutes from our home.
This area is one of the great fisheries of North America. I often fly fish off my dock and have some great fun.
That also means we have access to some of the great seafood around from
Blue Crabs to fantastic grouper, tuna, and
wonderful local shrimp.
As to political climate, it doesn't take much to stir the pot in Beaufort. You will find ever stripe of politics in Carteret County though I think in general the county is pretty conservative.
People pretty well mind there own business here. One last thing, here's is
a post about the raising of one of Black Beard's cannons.
If you want more detailed answers to your questions, I would be glad to talk to you. I really like Beaufort and would be living there now had we found the right spot at the right price.
-David Sobotta