Town of Salisbury, NC? -- any feedback? (Charlotte, Raleigh: house, job market)

[alane1770]

My boyfriend is considering a job in the town of Salisbury. He loves the job prospect, but we know nothing about the town, other than that MapQuest tells us it's about 45 minutes of Charlotte and about an equal distance from Greensboro. Any "insider" feedback would be appreciated. If we move to NC (from Philly) I'd also be looking for work -- HR. A recent thread on this board said that finding a job in Charlotte is VERY difficult; might it be easier to find work in Greensboro? In short, I'm looking for feedback on the town of Salisbury and whether it'd be more adventageous for me to look to work in Charlotte or Greensboro. We could always plan to live in between a city and Salisbury....

Thank you in advance for your comments!

[SunnyKayak]

Hi, also you can look for work in Winston Salem High Point Greensboro Concord with the Salisbury location
Salisbury is cute old style downtown If I was to look in the area stay south or east of the city avoid northern part close to Spencer. They finally finish expanding I 85 in that area so commuting into charlotte will be a breeze.
If heading towards Greensboro only problem you may face is the bridge on 85 between spencer and Lexington after that is smooth sailing again ( I would learn a back road that goes into lexington to get back on 85). The bridge is only 2 lanes each way narrow and only 55 mph speed limit

Lots of chain restaurants and stores and nice theaterr called Tinsel Town.
Some real cute restaurants in the downtown area I do not know the name of the one I went to but it appear to be a locals favorite it was on Innes ST.

There is one of the original Krispy Kreme Stores located there so definite a good place to stop when you see the HOt n Now sign lit.

Fun things to do is Dan Nicholas PaRK large size park. Lazy 5 ranch is within minutes it a drive thru zoo. High rock lake and on salisbury side of lake they have a wonderful fireworks show for 4th of july. Location is great due to you will be within 20 minutes of Concord Mills or Hanes Mall in Winston.

[kmway]

OK, first be prepared for small town living. Coming from Philly that will be very much a culture shock, but if you are looking for small town life, you will be fine.

Also, I agree with Sunny, there are other places you can find work other than Charlotte. Personally, I'd NEVER commute to Charlotte from Salisbury. I'd look for HR work in Salisbury or Concord for sure.

PS-- I want to set the record straight, there are plenty of jobs in Charlotte. I have found it is usually the search techniques that are lacking, not the availability of jobs.

[TerryMcDonald]

Yea KMWay--both points dead on. Culturally, Charlotte would be closer to Philly, Salisbury closer to something 1/10 that size in PA. Also- Charlotte has a strong economy, low unemployment, and many times the job opportunities of our smaller neighbors to the north. You could also live between Salisbury and Charlotte, in towns from Harrisburg to Concord, perhaps having the best choices yet for living and working. PM me for more.

[hueynvena]

I would seriously re-think your decision to move. We are fairly new to Salisbury, we moved from a large city also, and I'm not at all impressed. I wish we had visited the area more before moving here because I wouldn't have done it. If the job is that great, I would try to talk your husband into moving to Winston-Salem. It's got a lot more to offer, cute town, not too small, not too large, more cultural, more to do, better job market. It would be about a 30-40 min. commute to Salisbury for your husband to work, but you could work in W/S or Greensboro. One positive about Salisbury - housing is cheaper than surrounding cities - which should have also alerted us to the fact that people aren't coming here for a reason! Good luck with your decision!

[alane1770]

hueynvena,

Thanks for your response. Where were you from before? I'm originally from a small, not-even-town outside of Pgh, but after nearly 5 yrs in Philly, I've grown accustomed to a lot of perks of the large cities: food options, cultural events, WALKING everywhere. I'm ready for a slower pace, but not ready to come to a screeching halt. Currently I'm living in W Philly/University City, and I'd ADORE keeping that same vibe: lots of walkers and younger people, different neighborhood activities, all of the vitals (grocery stores, pharmacies, yoga classes, public transportation) nearby. I recognize that nearly anywhere I move will be different and smaller/less accessible...does Salisbury offer any of these things? Maybe W/S would be a better choice, especially considering it's a college town.

[aardvarks]

The NE corner of Charlotte is the University area, and that may be the ideal place for you, your husband can commute to Salisbury in about 30 minutes because he would be going against rush hour traffic and the majority of the jobs in the Charlotte area are in either the University area or in Uptown (10 miles from the University area).

Good Luck.

[kmway]

Originally Posted by alane1770

hueynvena,

Thanks for your response. Where were you from before? I'm originally from a small, not-even-town outside of Pgh, but after nearly 5 yrs in Philly, I've grown accustomed to a lot of perks of the large cities: food options, cultural events, WALKING everywhere. I'm ready for a slower pace, but not ready to come to a screeching halt. Currently I'm living in W Philly/University City, and I'd ADORE keeping that same vibe: lots of walkers and younger people, different neighborhood activities, all of the vitals (grocery stores, pharmacies, yoga classes, public transportation) nearby. I recognize that nearly anywhere I move will be different and smaller/less accessible...does Salisbury offer any of these things? Maybe W/S would be a better choice, especially considering it's a college town.

Ugh, in that case Salisbury will drive you to the breaking point. It would be like being in a speeding vehicle that comes to an abrupt stop, giving you whiplash. Lovely for small town living, but none of what you'd like is there I am sad to say.

[GaMe2005]

I recently moved back to my hometown of Salisbury after living in the Raleigh area for 10 years. I find some of the feedback you were given about Salisbury to be a bit off and I wanted to share another opinion about it.

Salisbury has about 35,000 people. Name any other town in the US with that population that has:

A Symphony - Salisbury Symphony Orchestra - Home Page
A Theatre - Piedmont Players Theatre
A Visual Arts Gallery - Waterworks Visual Arts Center
Two Colleges - Catawba College - Our Purpose: Your Promise Livingstone College - Home Page
A Hospital - Rowan Regional Medical Center - Salisbury, N.C.
YMCA <2yrs old - Index Page
A daily newspaper - Welcome to Salisbury Post Online Edition - Salisbury, NC - Serving Rowan County For Over 100 Years

Salisbury is a very historic town with 10 registered historic districts, I believe the most of any town in North Carolina. This means the town layout was setup much better than larger cities with urban sprawl. My commute from downtown to my house 2 miles away is 8 minutes, by bike, all on two lane roads with sidewalks on both sides of the street.

When looking at schools end of grade test are not great but advanced academic programs are offered at Salisbury High School. SHS has the most private college scholarships of any high school in NC (couldn't find the data online)

I'd ADORE keeping that same vibe: lots of walkers and younger people, different neighborhood activities, all of the vitals (grocery stores, pharmacies, yoga classes, public transportation) nearby.

All of the above but not in the quantity of Philly. I doubt you will need public transportation but there is a bus transit system in town. Salisbury also has an Amtrack station located in the restored ($3.1 million) 1908 train depot that you can take back to Philly
I personally find everything I NEED in this town. If I WANT to go to a rock concert or major event, Charlotte is just an hour away. We go to a unique restaurant in Charlotte, the event, and come home, no more big city headaches.

This is my opinion and yes, I'm biased. Salisbury is not perfect, no place is. It is a town that you can make a positive difference, feel like you are a part of a community and not just be a number living in a cheap made vinyl box.

[Stripes17]

My DW and I are exploring potential business sites, so I took her on a quick tour of Salisbury last weekend. The downtown area must have been grand in its heyday, but it appears quite tired these days. There was an area (near the hospital) with wonderful homes and a park setting. However, our combined opinion was that the rest of the city did not appeal to us.