The Real Story on Mount Pleasant

[southbel]

Originally Posted by MINIcoopKJG

I have a friend that lives in Newburyport! She works at the Grog.

Mount Pleasant is definitely not as historic as Newburyport and has about 3 times the amount of people living here. Since I lived in the middle of MA, I didn't get out your way too often except to go to Salisbury Beach or fishing in Newburyport. The beaches are not as big here and there aren't as many things to do in the beach areas, at least not IOP or Sullivan's Island. I have not been to Folly yet, so I don't know about that area.

I am sure that the Newburyport area has a lot less crime than the Charleston area, but it's not like there is crime on every street corner here. I feel perfectly safe walking my dog late at night by myself. I live near Town Centre and there are sidewalks along many of the roads. The section I live in does not have sidewalks, but the roads are wide enough for walkers, joggers, people on bikes, and cars. I am perfectly fine walking along the roads in my area.

Since reading this thread, I have started to look at the different areas of Mount Pleasant to see if I think they are sketchy. Some people have mentioned that Rifle Range Road has some sketchy areas. I drive down that road quite a bit and I never see anyone outside. There are some rundown houses alongside nice houses. Someone also posted a link to a video of a party place that is bad. It is a blue building. I drive by that all the time, day and night, and again, I never see anyone around. Someone also mentioned the area around Harris Teeter (Six Mile Road?) is kind of sketchy. I am in that area late at night all the time to do my grocery shopping and never have a problem. Sometimes I even drive down that road to Rifle Range to get home. I honestly don't think you need to be so concerned about crime in Mount Pleasant.

In Massachusetts there are sketchy parts of town, or entire towns that most people would avoid because of the crime or just feeling unsafe because it looks like a bad area. I found it kind of odd here at first because you will be driving and there is a big beautiful house, and right next to it is a rundown trailer. In all the parts of Mount Pleasant that I have driven through, I have noticed this. There doesn't seem to be sections of rundown houses, but just mixed in with nice houses, at least in the areas I have driven in.

I don't know if you have ever lived in the south, but there are many differences. The big noticeable difference is the people. No offense, but I find people in Massachusetts to be rude, obnoxious, and everything is "me, me, me." I lived my entire life there up until last year, so I can give an honest view. The people here are nice and they have manners. Everyone says ma'am and sir, and when a woman is called ma'am here, it is not an insult like in MA. It is a sign of respect and having manners. Having conversations with strangers at a grocery store or restaurant might take some getting used to. I found it odd at first, but now I like it.

People in MA have the "rush, rush, rush, to go nowhere" mentality. It's not like that here. People rarely tailgate, never clog up an intersection so when the light turns green no one can go, drivers stay at the lines while waiting to take a left, and if the light turns red, you just wait until it is green again. It's not a big deal. Oh, people don't honk their horns at every little thing around here. I am always surprised when I hear a horn honk and always think that it must be a northerner. Just the other week I was sitting at a red light waiting to turn left to go to Walmart. There was a car in front of me and a car in back of me. The light was red forever. I was starting to think there might be something wrong with it. A couple of cars that were in the other lanes to go straight went through the red light. The car behind me decided to honk even though the light was still red. Maybe 3 seconds later the left turn light turned green. As I was turning left I looked in my rear view mirror, and guess what. It was a Massachusetts plate. Didn't surprise me.

It is a more relaxed atmosphere here. I was always completely stressed when I worked in MA. I'm not anymore. My line of work has very strict deadlines and in MA, we always did everything at the last minute. That doesn't happen as much here, and even when it does, people just work hard to get done what needs to get done instead of stressing and getting the snippy attitudes.

You can't beat winter around here. I wore flip flops and a sweater all winter. I'm sure as the years go by I will think 40 and 50 degree weather is cold, but I don't yet. It costs a lot less to heat here and I found that my a/c bill was not as high as my highest heating bill.

If you are looking to get away from the Massachusetts lifestyle, this is the place to be.

I thought your perspective is an interesting one. By the way, I may have been one of those people that strike up a conversation in the grocery store or in line. I SO do that! I figure it's just polite to say a small hello to those people around you. Besides, you're not going to meet interesting people unless you talk to them.

I would largely agree with how you have viewed this area and it's really the South in general. If you ever really want to see a true cross-section of people and how they interact with one another, spend some time in a Krispy Kreme. You'll see a lawyer driving a Mercedes talking it up with a farmer driving an old beater pick-up truck. Of course, that's what I love about living in the South, so there's that.

[macalan]

Sorry if this posts twice, don't know what happened...

Minicoop - thanks so much for the info and what a coincidence about your friend living here and working at the Grog!

Since you have been here a few times, how do you think that MP compares to Newburyport other than in size? I know that there is no "downtown main street" and we are on a river here, not the ocean, although it's not far.

I'm more talking about "looks" I guess or "ambience". I guess I get about the nice houses next to ones with chain link fences. We saw that in Charlottesville, VA and thought it was very strange. But we wouldn't get that in a subdivision with a strict HOA, right?

I'm curious where you live - you said it's near Town Center. Are you south of IOP Connector? We think that's the area we'd like to be.

I wish that someone would do sticky posts of photos of MP, Johns Island, James Island and Summerville. All that's there is Charleston pictures.

We would really enjoy the slower pace and nicer people, and yes, MA people are very rude. They also think someone is strange if they say hi to them on the street. We certainly won't miss the 6 months of winter, although the heat and humidity will be a big adjustment. But that's what air conditioning is for. We also will welcome the lower home prices - in Newburyport you can't buy a house anymore for less than 550K. Not to mention the taxes. We pay almost 5K a year now....

I really appreciate your feedback.

[MINIcoopKJG]

I am in the Wando East/Wando Lakes area, which is south of the IOP connector. There are a lot of townhouses in this area and then a big section of single family homes. It is perfect for me. It takes me 20 minutes to get to where I work in Charleston, 10 minutes to get to the beach, 3 minutes to Town Centre, and 4 minutes (in 6:30 pm weekday traffic) to get to the Wando Crossing Plaza where Walmart, Michael's TJ Maxx, and Petco are. I have timed it all.

The look in Mp P. is nothing like New England, and I really can't think of a New England town that it is like. Along rte 17 is a lot of stores and restaurants. There are trees along 17, so it hides a lot of the plazas. There is every convenience you could ever want in Mt. P. It is very pretty on certain roads with the trees that have hanging moss that create a canopy over the roads, the waterfront park is pretty and I like to watch the cargo ships go by from there, Shem Creek is pretty too, but most of Mt. P is just regular with businesses. I will take some pictures around town of just every day things so you can see, and post them in a separate post. I will also send you a private message with a link to some of the places in Mt. P I like to go that are on my facebook page.

The heat and humidity isn't as bad as I thought it would be. August is definitely the worst month, but there is a/c everywhere, so it's not a big deal. It seems like it has only been the past couple of days that the humidity has kicked in for the summer.

[Mach2004]

Thank you to the people who finally gave an actual and good answer instead of just pointing out all the "technicalities" of the question or accusing Macalan of just "trying to dig stuff up." I saw that and was thinking "Really? Well that's just rude and non informative."
There are bad areas of every area I think. My husband and I just moved here finally in July and haven't had any issues yet. However, right before we moved, we lived in a small and "safe" town in Missouri and our truck was broken into and had some things stolen. A month after we moved, our old house was broken into! So point is, crime can happen anywhere, unfortunately. Anyways Macalan, if I stubble upon any areas here that seem sketchy, I will be glad to let you know. So far it's very nice here and we love living here (other dealing with the occasional snob, which you probably already got a taste of from some of the arrogant posts on this thread :P).

And personally, I don't think there is any need to be a jackass to someone over a simple answer. ESPECIALLY if the person responding doesn't actually live here. If you don't know, just move on. Couldn't believe some of the ridiculous posts on this. So happy I didn't have to deal with this when I originally posted about moving here. Not sure why this irritated me as bad as it did but I felt the need to say something regardless.

Anyway, lots of luck and I hope you enjoy living here if you do in fact decide to make the move!

[Mach2004]

Originally Posted by Chromekitty

Again, these questions have been answered time and time again. *insert the definition of insanity here*

I think MustangEater was just pointing out the "insanity" of some of the answers given on here. And also providing a decent opinion.