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I am trying to decide whether to move my family to Williamsburg, VA or Clayton, NC. Please provide any positive and negative information you can about either location. Please be honest because it seems as mosts folks on the forum leave positive posts about their experience, then people move and find the negatives the hard way.
Please include any info about crimes, gangs, minority make up, minority and majority behavior (attitudes/tolerance/segregation, etc.), and schools.
Do you think there is a significant population of people on this board that has lived in both places?
I have owned six different homes in six different cities in various states. So yes, there may be someone that may have lived in both towns. Military folks move around a lot. Williamsburg is a big retirement town and from what I have read, quite a few older folks move to the counties outside of Raleigh to retire. So ther maybe someone that has also contemplated the same choices. Thanks
Do you have job options in both? It is indeed a curious pairing...
Williamsburg is of course a Historical town, with William and Mary, Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens, etc.
Clayton until a few years ago was a typical "small town" where Friday Night Football was probably the big excitement. In recent years is has exploded with sprawl from the hugh population growth in this area, so there are a lot of new (some might say cookie-cutter) suburbs. But it's not a "Historic" place at all like Williamsburg, and while you can say Williamsburg and people know where you mean, nobody outside this area will know what Clayton is, and with good reason, as ultimately it's one more exurb of a booming metro.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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I think if you give us a bit of your background, we might be better able to assist you. Are you looking for good schools, jobs, an historical setting, etc. I have never lived in either place, but lived in Northern Virginia for 12 years and now live in Chapel Hill. I have only been to Williamsburg as a tourist, admittedly several times. Clayton is a rural suburb really an "exurb" of Raleigh that has been getting built up over the last few years. People seem to be moving out that way for cheaper land/housing and for stable school assignments. I think it is only going to keep growing and become a nondescript suburb (that is, it will look like it can be an Anywhere, USA type of place) with dozens of subdivisions and big box stores.
I don't know anything about living in Williamsburg, but what that area has in spades over this area is the feeling of history. Of course every place has history, but the important events in history are so pronounced in the Williamsburg area that are just not evident in the Triangle. With Williamburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown nearby you can visit any time you want. Plus you are close to Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Richmond with even more history and attractions, and with DC just 2 1/2 hours away, you have access to dozens of world-class museums. So, if that type of stuff is important to you, you might prefer Williamsburg. Clayton would be more "generic" for lack of a better term, although I am guessing the cost of living is lower.
As for the state overall, I prefer Virginia to North Carolina - a bit more progressive and cheaper taxes.
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