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Old 01-22-2010, 06:41 PM
 
Location: Purgatory (A.K.A. Dallas, Texas)
5,007 posts, read 15,377,336 times
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My wife and I might be moving to Winston-Salem this summer, so that I can go back to school. We'll be moving from the Dallas area, and I just wanted to try and get a general idea of life in W-S.

Can we rent a house that is pet-friendly (we've got 2 dogs and a cat) with a fenced backyard? About how much? I'd like to stay under $1500 if possible.

I'll be at Wake Forest, so what are some good areas around there?

My wife is a teacher, elementary / middle school math and science, few years experience. Any thoughts on her job prospects?

What's life like in W-S? I'm looking forward to somewhere with real seasons (it was 77 degrees here today, utterly ridiculous!), and a lot less than 6.5 million people.

Is it pretty much like any bigger city with chain restaurants and strip malls, or is it a little more unique? Dallas has to be the king city of strip malls and chain restaurants and Walmarts, so somewhere with local business and shops and restaurants would be cool.

Educate me please!
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Old 01-22-2010, 07:45 PM
 
Location: Charlotte
322 posts, read 664,310 times
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I live in Charlotte, but have lived here as well as in Winston-Salem twice, and I think you will like the change. Winston-Salem is a very affluent small mid-sized city with alot to offer as far as history, recreation, arts, and culture. The areas around Wake are desirable in which to live, especially Reynolda Park, Buena Vista, and older neighborhoods closer to downtown such as West Highlands, the West End, and Ardmore, and all should be in your price range. The city abounds with arts events, theatre and museums from Wake Forest to UNC School of the Arts to Twin City Stage and Theatre Alliance. Old Salem is great for touring as well as just strolling, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and the Toy Museum are well worth seeing. Other museums and galleries are in the Arts District downtown, or at Reynolda, SECCA (closed for renovation), and the Museum of Anthropology at Wake, and Diggs Gallery at WSSU. The public or private schools should have openings for teachers. I know the public schools in Winston-Salem/forsyth have a better reputation than the public system in Charlotte/Mecklenburg, which are poorly graded.
Good luck! The seasons are a great selling point to NC Peidmont. And the city of Winston-Salem has a website which has links to alot of things that will help you.
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Old 01-22-2010, 10:03 PM
 
Location: Greensboro, NC
69 posts, read 164,611 times
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I'm not as familiar with Winston-Salem as Greensboro, but for $1,500 a month I would think you would have a lot of rental properties to choose from that would fit your description. The Triad does have 4 distinguishable seasons. Not everybody likes that, but I love that we have 4 distinct seasons. My only complaint is that Fall never lasts long enough. I would think your wife would do okay finding work as a teacher - hopefully some teachers will write with better advice. We need all the good teachers we can get!
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Old 01-23-2010, 08:30 AM
 
Location: High Cotton
6,125 posts, read 7,455,528 times
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Hopefully you'll find Winston-Salem a nice place to live. It's a good place to raise a family, but lacks a lot for most young adults. Winston-Salem has always been a city that caters mostly to its older citizens. Beyond some nice golf courses in the area and Wake Forest basketball and football there's really not a lot for young adults to do. You'll find that most of the children who grow up in Winston-Salem and leave the area to attend college rarely make Winston-Salem their home after graduating. You could say the sidewalks roll up at sunset. The mayor and city government is a joke. The police department doesn't tolerate any infractions - if you have a habit of not coming to a complete stop at stop signs or driving more than 5mph over the limit - you better change your habits. Also, don't visit any of the [very few] [nice] places to have some drinks because the police like to wait for people leaving and pull them over. You know - like a little town does things. I'm sure you know about Wake Forest University since you'll be going to school there. It's a very small school with a small, but nice little campus.

Winston-Salem has lost a lot of its decent salaried businesses over the years. Wachovia Bank used to be headquartered there before being acquired by First Union and moving to Charlotte. Reynolds Tobacco is not what it used to be. Now, there's little to offer from major corporations to help keep salaries reasonable in the area, therefore many of the educated and experienced employees the city had has moved away. If you are in the medical field the city has two very nice hospitals and plenty of speciality doctor offices. Winston-Salem has always had trouble bringing major companies or corporate headquarters into the area. They find Winston-Salem lacks too much that is available elsewhere. Don't expect anything like the Dallas or Ft. Worth zoos, because Winston-Salem doesn't have a zoo. Don't expect anything like the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. Don't expect professional sports like the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Stars or the Texas Rangers. There is no professional sports.

Winston-Salem falls well short of Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area in terms of night-life, shopping, high quality restaurants and fine-dining, sports, entertainment, etc. If you enjoyed any of those things in Dallas you'll feel like you are living in a very bucolic town. Downtown Winston-Salem is really tiny and traffic congestion is nothing more than a slight inconvenience at the worse of times. For the most part downtown Winston-Salem is really just two streets (4th St. & 5th St.) between Broad and Main streets. There are only a handful of storefront businesses in downtown because most have closed years ago and you'll find practically no one frequents downtown after normal work hours. The city has invested a lot of taxpayer money trying to get people to open various businesses and restaurants downtown, but it's been a miserable failure.

Winston-Salem definitely has four seasons. During the late spring and and summer the humidity is quite high compared to Dallas. You'll find that 93 degrees in Winston-Salem feels much like 103 degrees in Dallas as far as being comfortable because of the higher humidity. If you can find shade in Dallas the heat is tolerable, but you can't get away from the humidity in Winston-Salem unless you go inside with A/C. You'll probably like all the trees in Winston-Salem - it's called the tree city. Many oak trees are well over 100 feet tall...and produce a zillion leaves on the ground in the fall. The lay of the land gently rolls and has hills, much more than the Hill Country part of Texas you're probably familiar with.

Don't expect any glitz in Winston-Salem. In Winston-Salem you won't see, hear about, or read about celebrities, sports figures, major corporations' executives, high-profile political figures, etc. None live there - they don't find Winston-Salem to be a desirable place for them...because there's nothing to do. Likewise, you won't see the Bentleys, Ferraris, Bugattis, McLarens, Lamborghinis, Porsche Carrera GTs, etc. that you are probably used to seeing in certain areas of the Dallas Metro area. A few miles outside of the city limits is countryside with the typical rundown areas. The small towns around Winston-Salem (e.g. Clemmons, Lewisville, Kernersville) are 8-10 miles away with countryside between them. It's not like the DFW Metro area where you leave one suburb and enter the next without even knowing it.

Winston-Salem has no Park Cities, M-Streets or Lakewood neighborhoods. Winston-Salem has no suburbs like West Plano or Frisco. There is no such thing as The Shops at Legacy for instance, no special events like happens practically all the time in the DFW area. Winston-Salem does have some nice neighborhoods nearby WFU. For the rent figure you're looking to spend I would suggest looking in what is called Old Sherwood Forest (east of Peacehaven Rd) in zip code 27104, or somewhere slightly south, west or north of WFU within a few miles of the campus. The west side of Winston-Salem is considered the most desirable part of the city, with pockets of other desirable areas elsewhere. But, for your needs I would look somewhere in 27104, which is just a few miles from WFU...or even closer to the campus. I'd stay away from the east side of the campus...

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the change.

Last edited by highcotton; 01-23-2010 at 08:51 AM..
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Old 01-23-2010, 09:02 AM
 
Location: Purgatory (A.K.A. Dallas, Texas)
5,007 posts, read 15,377,336 times
Reputation: 2463
Thanks for all the info!

I should clarify, we aren't as young as we once were!

I'll be 30, her close to me. So a happening night-life isn't that important. We don't live in Dallas proper anyway, we live about 30 miles north. As long as there is a movie theater and some decent restaurants around, we'll be fine.

I'll be going to grad school, so it's not like I will have much free time anyway.
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Old 01-23-2010, 09:23 AM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
881 posts, read 2,247,974 times
Reputation: 943
Quote:
Originally Posted by highcotton View Post
Hopefully you'll find Winston-Salem a nice place to live. It's a good place to raise a family, but lacks a lot for most young adults. Winston-Salem has always been a city that caters mostly to its older citizens. Beyond some nice golf courses in the area and Wake Forest basketball and football there's really not a lot for young adults to do. You'll find that most of the children who grow up in Winston-Salem and leave the area to attend college rarely make Winston-Salem their home after graduating. You could say the sidewalks roll up at sunset. The mayor and city government is a joke. The police department doesn't tolerate any infractions - if you have a habit of not coming to a complete stop at stop signs or driving more than 5mph over the limit - you better change your habits. Also, don't visit any of the [very few] [nice] places to have some drinks because the police like to wait for people leaving and pull them over. You know - like a little town does things. I'm sure you know about Wake Forest University since you'll be going to school there. It's a very small school with a small, but nice little campus.

Winston-Salem has lost a lot of its decent salaried businesses over the years. Wachovia Bank used to be headquartered there before being acquired by First Union and moving to Charlotte. Reynolds Tobacco is not what it used to be. Now, there's little to offer from major corporations to help keep salaries reasonable in the area, therefore many of the educated and experienced employees the city had has moved away. If you are in the medical field the city has two very nice hospitals and plenty of speciality doctor offices. Winston-Salem has always had trouble bringing major companies or corporate headquarters into the area. They find Winston-Salem lacks too much that is available elsewhere. Don't expect anything like the Dallas or Ft. Worth zoos, because Winston-Salem doesn't have a zoo. Don't expect anything like the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. Don't expect professional sports like the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Stars or the Texas Rangers. There is no professional sports.

Winston-Salem falls well short of Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area in terms of night-life, shopping, high quality restaurants and fine-dining, sports, entertainment, etc. If you enjoyed any of those things in Dallas you'll feel like you are living in a very bucolic town. Downtown Winston-Salem is really tiny and traffic congestion is nothing more than a slight inconvenience at the worse of times. For the most part downtown Winston-Salem is really just two streets (4th St. & 5th St.) between Broad and Main streets. There are only a handful of storefront businesses in downtown because most have closed years ago and you'll find practically no one frequents downtown after normal work hours. The city has invested a lot of taxpayer money trying to get people to open various businesses and restaurants downtown, but it's been a miserable failure.

Winston-Salem definitely has four seasons. During the late spring and and summer the humidity is quite high compared to Dallas. You'll find that 93 degrees in Winston-Salem feels much like 103 degrees in Dallas as far as being comfortable because of the higher humidity. If you can find shade in Dallas the heat is tolerable, but you can't get away from the humidity in Winston-Salem unless you go inside with A/C. You'll probably like all the trees in Winston-Salem - it's called the tree city. Many oak trees are well over 100 feet tall...and produce a zillion leaves on the ground in the fall. The lay of the land gently rolls and has hills, much more than the Hill Country part of Texas you're probably familiar with.

Don't expect any glitz in Winston-Salem. In Winston-Salem you won't see, hear about, or read about celebrities, sports figures, major corporations' executives, high-profile political figures, etc. None live there - they don't find Winston-Salem to be a desirable place for them...because there's nothing to do. Likewise, you won't see the Bentleys, Ferraris, Bugattis, McLarens, Lamborghinis, Porsche Carrera GTs, etc. that you are probably used to seeing in certain areas of the Dallas Metro area. A few miles outside of the city limits is countryside with the typical rundown areas. The small towns around Winston-Salem (e.g. Clemmons, Lewisville, Kernersville) are 8-10 miles away with countryside between them. It's not like the DFW Metro area where you leave one suburb and enter the next without even knowing it.

Winston-Salem has no Park Cities, M-Streets or Lakewood neighborhoods. Winston-Salem has no suburbs like West Plano or Frisco. There is no such thing as The Shops at Legacy for instance, no special events like happens practically all the time in the DFW area. Winston-Salem does have some nice neighborhoods nearby WFU. For the rent figure you're looking to spend I would suggest looking in what is called Old Sherwood Forest (east of Peacehaven Rd) in zip code 27104, or somewhere slightly south, west or north of WFU within a few miles of the campus. The west side of Winston-Salem is considered the most desirable part of the city, with pockets of other desirable areas elsewhere. But, for your needs I would look somewhere in 27104, which is just a few miles from WFU...or even closer to the campus. I'd stay away from the east side of the campus...

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the change.
Well I will have to disagree with a lot of this post. I lived in Winston from age 22-27. While I am very happy to be back in Raleigh (just moved this past August) and will admit it offers more, Winston isn't that bad.

I met plently of young professionals and grad students from Wake and for the most part I did not lack for anything to do. I never experienced or observed any issues with the police. I went downtown frequently on the weekends and I know this past summer I wasn't the only one if you know what I mean

I know several teachers, a few this year didn't find out until a few days before school started if they were going to get their jobs back due to budget cuts. Not sure what the current status is, maybe things will be better organized for the up coming year.
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Old 01-23-2010, 10:20 AM
 
Location: High Cotton
6,125 posts, read 7,455,528 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ncsualum2004 View Post
Well I will have to disagree with a lot of this post. I lived in Winston from age 22-27. While I am very happy to be back in Raleigh (just moved this past August) and will admit it offers more, Winston isn't that bad.

I met plently of young professionals and grad students from Wake and for the most part I did not lack for anything to do. I never experienced or observed any issues with the police. I went downtown frequently on the weekends and I know this past summer I wasn't the only one if you know what I mean

I know several teachers, a few this year didn't find out until a few days before school started if they were going to get their jobs back due to budget cuts. Not sure what the current status is, maybe things will be better organized for the up coming year.
You didn't say where else you have lived, so I assume you've only lived in Raleigh, W-S and maybe another NC city. Have you ever lived in another state? Have you ever lived in a large city? It's hard to compare a rather small mid-size NC city with one of the country's largest cities unless you have experienced both.

Also for the OP, you will not find people in any other state in the U.S. that is as proud of their state as Texans are.
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Old 01-23-2010, 11:06 AM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
881 posts, read 2,247,974 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by highcotton View Post
You didn't say where else you have lived, so I assume you've only lived in Raleigh, W-S and maybe another NC city. Have you ever lived in another state? Have you ever lived in a large city? It's hard to compare a rather small mid-size NC city with one of the country's largest cities unless you have experienced both.

Also for the OP, you will not find people in any other state in the U.S. that is as proud of their state as Texans are.

Actually I have. Not trying to be snarky but no one is trying to paint Winston as some large city. Trust me... But honestly your post was exaggerated. Yes Winston is smaller but the city isn't "dead". Since he indicated in the OP he was looking forward somewhere smaller, I'm sure he won't mind the lack of "glitz" as you put it.
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Old 01-23-2010, 11:33 AM
 
Location: High Cotton
6,125 posts, read 7,455,528 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ncsualum2004 View Post
Actually I have. Not trying to be snarky but no one is trying to paint Winston as some large city. Trust me... But honestly your post was exaggerated. Yes Winston is smaller but the city isn't "dead". Since he indicated in the OP he was looking forward somewhere smaller, I'm sure he won't mind the lack of "glitz" as you put it.
I never suggested that Winston-Salem is a large city...because it certainly isn't. I was only offering my opinion about the vast difference there is between Dallas, which is where he lives now, to the somewhat small mid-size city of Winston-Salem. He's giving up a lot, but obviously that's what he wants...or needs to do by attending WFU. The OP "wanted to try and get a general idea of life in W-S". So, I offered it. Am I qualified about W-S? Yes, I lived in W-S for decades and still have family living there...so I most definitely know all about the city. Am I qualified about Dallas? My primary residence is Dallas. Not trying to be snarky, but you only lived in W-S for 5-6 years and have never lived in Dallas.
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Old 01-23-2010, 11:47 AM
 
Location: High Cotton
6,125 posts, read 7,455,528 times
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Moderator cut: copyright violation

Here's a good article about Winston-Salem, which comes from the WFU magazine: Wake Forest Magazine | Special Feature

Last edited by SunnyKayak; 01-24-2010 at 02:30 PM..
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