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One possibility as to why NC has not had a large port city is that the coastal cities in NC are far from I-95. When compared to other large coastal cities, the other cities appear to have relatively quick access to I95, and hence, the ability to move goods quickly.
Since I40 connected Wilmington to I-95, the Wilmington area has seen a growth spurt and there appears to be very little let up in the foreseeable future.
Wilmington is not an industrial town-it's all retirees, college kids and real estate driven.
We have been considering retirement to the Wilmington area, and have been on a couple of house hunting trips with a realtor. We have looked primarily at communities that have a large retired population (Magnolia Greens and Porter's Neck are our favorities), but we would hope that we could become involved in a vibrant community with a variety of activities suitable for our age group and outside of our home's immediate development. We wouldn't want to find ourselves in an isolated "oasis" of old folks, especially since we're transplanted Yankees. A lot of the comments don't leave a very favorable impression of the area regarding such factors as employment (for example, would a lack of better paying jobs lead to a higher crime rate?), shopping, crowded beaches with poor parking, and entertainment/dining options.
Any thoughts?
The crime rate really isn't as bad as it may seem. In fact, if you take the downtown 28401 zip out of the equation, the crime rate is far below the national average. I found a site somewhere googling wilmington crime that actually maps out where the crime reports came from. In the news here, the murders have almost all been downtown.
Lowest average income zip code? Downtown 28401 with $23,681
Highest Percentage of people living below the poverty level? Downtown 32.8%
I spoke to a police officer that was a customer of mine and he told me that he works the entire city but the majority of his calls are related to areas just south and north of downtown (still in the 28401 zip code).
Porters Neck is closest to the richest of the rich, which live on Figure Eight Island. On this island are houses owned by Michael Jordan and John Edwards.
The lack of jobs is more like a lack of middle range jobs. Plenty of minimum wage work in Wilmington and a decent amount of $8-$10 an hour jobs, but the $10-$18 an hour jobs are hard to come by. Most of those are with Verizon Wireless at their call center (near Shipyard and Indpendence Blvd). To give an example, if you worked at the biggest coffee chain in a bigger city you would likely make $2-3 more an hour then the minimum wage to start even. Here you make $6.55 and hour, that's it. There are enough people living near the beach that are willing to take lower paying jobs to do so, so jobs just don't pay.
.. I have often wondered why North Carolina did not have a mega coastal city like other states. In fact, until recently, NC did not have a big city at all. For SC, at least Charleston used to be one of the nation's largest cities, but NC didn't even have a major coastal city back in the day.
I will answer that for you. Think Graveyard of the Atlantic. Unlike Boston, New York, Charleston, etc, NC is blessed/cursed depends on your perspective, with a very difficult coastline to navigate -- pre Loran and GPS. Very shallow shoals run out from the coast many many miles into what one think was deep water. Wrong!
Think about it, to get to Wilmington from the North, one had to navigate CAPE FEAR!
The shoals off of Cape Fear as well as Morehead City/Beaufort were treacherous back in the day of sailing ships and imperfect navigation. Why would one want to risk a precious cargo to Wilmington, getting past Cape Fear, when one could ship to many other desitinations with much safer inlets and approaches? It also explains the rather sparse population of eastern/coastal NC. It was just too hard to get to by ship, when other places were much easier. As for land, look at the sounds and the wide coastal rivers. Those made land travel, both north and south, extremely difficult too (and still do).
I am from Wilmington (born and raised) and have to agree that there are absolutely no jobs for those who grew up there. The only way my family ever survived in the area is because my father owns his own business. I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and decided to work in Wilmington after I finished. The only job I could find was working at a coffee shop for $7.00 an hour. Needless to say, I moved.
I guess my question to you is WHY do you want it to explode?? That seems a little weird.. as a lifelong resident of the area, one of the things that I personally found charming is that is was NOT hugely populated, like everywhere else. A lot of natives agree with me that it is bad enough like it is.. property taxes are ridiculous now, and home ownership is a dream that only people who move here from out of state who sold their more expensive home can afford. I pray that there is NEVER an explosion.. explosions bring nothing but a mess to clean up; something that is happening here every day.
Am I the only one that thinks its wierd that there isn't a large city on the nc coast?
Maybe we LIKE it that way? If you are so in need of a "city" on the coast, head just to the north to Virginia Beach/Norfolk, or just to the south at Myrtle Beach. Frankly, I'm thrilled that NC doesn't have anything like those two.
It always trips me out, when somebody says they are glad a city inst big or there state doesnt have a big city or they are glad there state doesnt have a major costal city, because they know if there state was to have a big city then they would like it, maybe not to live in it though.... lol My state Maryland is a fortunate one because, we are basically a mini-America, we have mountain rage (so does NC), we have a coast line (so does NC), we are not northern or southern (so it's hard to get picked on), we have two major metropolitans (combined they equal the nations 4th largest metro), we have rural area's, we have casinos proposed, we are the nations richest state, we are the nation's 5th most dense state, and much much much more...
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