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Wilmington has an escalating gang problem. As does Leland and Brunswick County. There is a lot of tension on the streets of downtown Wilmington. Fights broke out after the MLK parade for crying out loud. Wilmington has a pretty high poverty ratio too. Even in the areas where I lived (Ogden) which we considered safe we had the occasional car break-ins or you would hear about a house getting broke into. There was even a lady murdered on Middle Sound Loop Road in her own home not more than a mile from where I lived and I thought my area was as safe as it could get. Never caught who did it either. Just goes to show you never know where it can strike.
If you go to the Star News website you can pull up a map that will show you where all the crime happens and what the offenses and arrests were within the last 30 days. Wait for all the red dots to load. You can see for yourself that the crime is not isolated to one area, it is pretty spread out. Keep in mind that it is for the New Hanover Police Department only, so any areas that are covered by the Sheriff's Department will not show up, like the Ogden area for example.
Oyster07 as I recall it happened right before we moved from Emerald Forest to Middle Point because I remember being concerned that the house it happened at wasn't that far away from the new one we were buying. So that would have been around the summer of 2000. She was brutally beaten and it was said the house was a mess. The house sat for a long time with caution tape around it and was eventually torn down. I have no idea if anything was ever built in it's place. I know the property went up for sale. There was a guy that was doing maintenance work for her that was a suspect at one time but as I recall they never had the evidence to charge him and it became a cold case.
[SIZE=3]I’ve been reading this forum lately as I may be moving to the Wilmington area shortly. I was just offered a job down there, so am planning on coming done this coming week to look around and get an idea on housing costs and is this a place we’d want to live. Excluding either of those being a negative, most likely we will be moving there. Therefore I read this thread with interest as I don’t know a lot about the area so far just been looking at house prices online and that’s one thing I don’t have a is a good perspective on is locations. I’m kind of leaning towards either Hampstead/Ogden area, or maybe in the city more towards Myrtle Grove.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]With regards to the crime, I do agree that there are both good and bad sections and you just have to investigate some before agreeing on an area. As to why it appears there may be a crime problem here besides what has already been pointed out, I’d suggest the following; I originally live in the New York City area, then moved to Rochester NY where I’ve lived for over 30 years Rochester is about 1/20 the size of NYC, and Wilmington is about ¼ the size of Rochester. There is however one thing they all have in common, they and every other city around has a ½ hour news show at 6 and 11. So they need something to fill a half hour, therefore every crime gets reported. In Rochester we usually have somewhere between 35 to 50 murders a year to which everyone of them is reported on TV and in the papers. That’s about equal to a bad couple of weeks in NYC so many don’t get reported. Wilmington being smaller there probably is even less to report, so you have to come up with something to say for ½ hour, so everything gets reported.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]I’m not very familiar with the Wilmington area, but I’d guess you could drive from the most expensive exclusive sections of Wilmington to the worst sections in about 10 to 15 minutes. In Rochester, that would take about 20 to 30 minutes, so again it becomes easy for the crime to appear to be right next door. In NYC that same trip would take over an hour, with traffic, the criminals would likely run out of gas before they ever get there, so easier to keep their crime close to home so to speak. Even in some of the expensive areas in NYC, you might find some small crime ridden towns surrounded by wealthy areas, (kind of a reverse oasis) but for the most part to go to the really bad areas, you’d have a long drive.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Just another thought on why it might appear to be a larger problem than it really is. Hopefully I’ll find a good location and something I can afford.[/SIZE]
I grew up in New Bern, Trentwoods actually, and my parents still live there. I live in Greenville now, and I wish I was back in New Bern. It is safe there, trust me. Downtown has its sketch areas, but the only reason you would go in to one is if you lived there. My parents did not even have a key to our house when I was growing up. We only locked the knob lock on the front door at night. You can shop there or get gas at night w/o having to worry. I do not have that luxury 50 mins away. I also lived in Wilmington when I went to UNCW. I lived in the college and Wrightsville Beach area until 2001, and always felt safe there. But Wilmington is definetly bigger than New Bern. I totally recommend Trentwoods. The houses are slightly pricey, but it is SAFE and peaceful.
There has been a lot of answers here about crime in certain area's and I think that if you take a look at the big picture , you can draw pretty much the same conclusions .... When you have larger groups of people, and cites large enough that they build housing projects, in comes WELFARE !!!..... Living in NY , I am very well educated to the Welfare process ... There are families that have had generation after generation living on welfare .. These projects, and the area's that these projects are in , price their housing so that welfare pays for said housing ...Next thing you know , the area is flooded with welfare recipients ...Now you have people who need money besides welfare money ....Drugs are a way to bring in quick money , and a lot of it .... So now we have some of the people making money selling drugs....But now you also have the people who need to buy the drugs ...They are strung out , and need money so they rob innocent bystanders to get drug money ... The drug industry is like any other business, so now you have gangs to control the drug trade .... The same goes for ANY city , not just N.C. .....
The drug problem is growing faster and faster EVERYWHERE , and the police cannot contain it ... N.C. is a sought after place to live because of climate and low taxes ... Low taxes means that there is not a very big police force ...While the cats away the mice will play !!!....
Living 30 miles or so from NYC in an area with pretty low crime is easy to figure out .... We have levels of police ....Village police , Town Police , County Police , Sherriffs dept, State Police , and even Park Police !!....Yes , we have more police cars than citizens !!... We also pay through the nose for this in our taxes ... Most of the revenue for these agencies are now being raised by police all over the place writing tickets !!.....Red lights are flashing and road blocks are set up checking for inproperly registered vehicles and seat belts are another big ticket item ...It's really out of hand here in NY ...With all the "hand out " programs that the taxpayer is constantly paying for , we choose to move ....We are not just paying for ourselves, but everybody else too !!...
There is no simple solution .... Just realize that the bigger the city, the bigger the problem ... N.C. is not alone in this .....The entire country is the same way !!!..... Bigger cities , easy welfare , drugs , crime .......Simple !!...
It stems from poverty! The same guy many of these people voted for hasn't come through for them. He won't PERIOD! Get over it, move on dot org! Many have parents who behaved the same way. Why is this so hard? The judicial system in this country is fractured. After reading all the posts I could stand on the N.B. crime , I found the ' New Bern inmate site'..LOL Now I've heard the words ghetto, slums, projects, etc.,used in some other posts and if you're trying to make it a racial issue, check out the inmate roster & pics. More whites than any other. The woman who has had all the trouble near her home and constantly shares her woes, and won't leave New Bern, needs to be ignored, or married. Like someone else said..."mind your own business, and you'll be just fine". New bern is a beautiful town. I have a concealed permit...Get one! If someone threatens you with bodily harm and produces a deadly weapon, aerate them. You have the right to protect your family and your self. All I know is it must be pure hell to walk in fear. Don't blame the cops..All they can do is 'bring them' to the Judge...The rest is up to our 'justice system'..Have a safe night..LOL
I agree with the last poster who stated that crime stems from poverty. Eastern NC is impoverished. I live in New Bern and there is alot of "small crime" here. Even if you live in a nicer neighborhood your vehicles WILL get broken into at night. We forgot to close our garage door one night and the following morning two of the door handles on our SUV were broken! People are desperate for money and will steal your radar detectors, nav systems, or anything of value. Use caution and common sense!
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