Help!!! We're Looking for a Friendly, Inexpensive, Safe, and Diverse Rocky Mount Neighborhood (Greenville: for sale, real estate)

[Dan_in_DC]

We are a middle-aged semi-retired couple presently living in Northern VA, but have gotten tired of traffic jams, high crime, urban sprawl, an exorbitant cost-of-living, air pollution, excessive humidity in Summer, and excessive snow in Winter. Since our work is now 100% Internet-based, we can now live and work anywhere, and don't have to be tied to the DC area anymore.

We have been planning a move Southward for several years, and have been researching different communities to find someplace more suitable, and more affordable. Weather is a consideration: Eastern NC generally has better air and water quality than is found in the DC area (or many other areas of NC); the winters in ENC are significantly milder and the summers generally not as humid as in NoVA.

We need a community with a well-established infrastructure, including readily available health care, convenient shopping, and reliable high-speed Internet services. Consequently, small towns and very rural areas would not be practical for us. Ideally, we would like to be in a small-to-medium city that is not too crowded. Additionally, we would prefer to live in an ethnically diverse community, since many of our friends and business associates are ethnically and sometimes culturally diverse.

We have made brief "field trips" and have checked out several cities in that region in person and by phone with the various municipal and law enforcement agencies. And so far, Rocky Mount seems to be the most suitable for our needs.

We have also seen that RM has a number of inexpensive, older, one-story houses for sale, which is what we would like. Every month or so, my wife spends several hours searching the listings on Realtor.com and Zillow, etc., looking for affordable one-story "antique" Victorian cottages in Rocky Mount, and duly bookmarking each of them that looked remotely suitable, for me to check out later.

Only problem is, we don't have much practical insight as to the nature of the neighborhoods where each of those homes for sale are located. And it's almost impossible to get "accurate" information from the real estate agents we've talked with, because they are either "ethically constrained" from telling us what we need to know, or they are so anxious to make that sale they are reluctant to tell us about anything they may know that might be less than "perfect" ...

,,, and we don't want to inadvertently end up living in the middle of an open-air drug market or getting caught in the crossfire between warring gangs. Since a fall about 15 years ago put me permanently on crutches, I'm not that good at dodging bullets anymore.

Having already lived through the threats of [a] riots in DC (on several occasions); [b] Anthrax spores poisoning DC-area mail; [c] the hijacked plane on "9/11" that hit the Pentagon right next to my sister's office (fortunately my sister was on special assignment at a different office that day, but several of our friends and neighbors did get killed there); and [d] the havoc caused by the two-week killing spree of the "Beltway Snipers" ... we already know that life in and around our Nation's Capital does get pretty "exciting" sometimes.

And we don't need any more of that kind of excitement -- ever again in this lifetime.

At this stage of life we're definitely not interested in being commandos or survivalists, and don't want to have to spend the rest of our lives carrying guns or wearing Kevlar when going to the grocery store, mowing the lawn, working in the garden, taking out the garbage, or sitting on the front porch.

So now we would really appreciate a little honest expert guidance from current (or recent) RM residents in choosing a suitable neighborhood in which to find our ideal home in the City of Rocky Mount.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Dan and Marjie

[goldenage1]

Originally Posted by Dan_in_DC

Eastern NC generally has better air and water quality than is found in the DC area (or many other areas of NC); the winters in ENC are significantly milder and the summers generally not as humid as in NoVA.

I am also a refugee from the DC area. The impression that ENC is less humid is unrealistic. In addition, the mosquitoes are significantly worse on the coast, though I don't know inland.

Given the impression on this board that Rocky Mount has a significant drug and crime problem, why on earth would you even consider it? I would suggest Greenville is overall better.

RM may work for you. Look for posts by "Tenne" who seems to live there, and you might send a Direct Message to get "off-the-record" opinions.

[Ann in Oriental]

Greenville also has a huge drug and crime rate. Having lived in Rocky Mount I can however attest to the drug and gang violence there. Kinston is also famous for this. The big, older homes in Rky Mt are mostly in the Edgecome Co. side which is where the worst problems are(thus the lower prices) the violence however is also moving west making much of Nash co. dangerous as well. Red Oak is safe but no cool old houses. You might look into Nashville or Spring Hope. Safe so far as I know.

[J. Pederman]

If you're looking to get away from humidity in the summer, why are you moving further south?

[Dan_in_DC]

Originally Posted by goldenage1

I am also a refugee from the DC area. The impression that ENC is less humid is unrealistic. In addition, the mosquitoes are significantly worse on the coast, though I don't know inland.

Given the impression on this board that Rocky Mount has a significant drug and crime problem, why on earth would you even consider it? I would suggest Greenville is overall better.

RM may work for you. Look for posts by "Tenne" who seems to live there, and you might send a Direct Message to get "off-the-record" opinions.

We have a friend who works in health care, used to live in RM when was working at both hospital in RM and hospital in Greenville, he and wife and kids moved to Greenville to be close to hospital there. He recommended we NOT move to Greenville because of crime probs which he said were much higher than RM (which we were also considering at the time, and still are).

We've been talking to RM police about drugs and crime for year or so now, gathering stats. Compared to most of the DC area though, RM's street crime is minimal. But we still don't want to unknowingly get stuck in the middle of a "hotspot".

Thanks for the tip on "Tenne" ... and the prompt reply. I will follow up with Tenne.

[Dan_in_DC]

Originally Posted by Ann in Oriental

Greenville also has a huge drug and crime rate. Having lived in Rocky Mount I can however attest to the drug and gang violence there. Kinston is also famous for this. The big, older homes in Rky Mt are mostly in the Edgecome Co. side which is where the worst problems are(thus the lower prices) the violence however is also moving west making much of Nash co. dangerous as well. Red Oak is safe but no cool old houses. You might look into Nashville or Spring Hope. Safe so far as I know.

Not looking in Edgecombe, we already know crime is significantly higher on that side. Some parts of Nash side seem OK though. Nothing suitable in Nashville in our price range, maybe a few in Spring Hope, but need to check out Spring Hope's infrastructure. Thanks for the leads.

How long ago did you leave RM? Cops we've talked to there seem to be making heroic efforts lately to clean up some of the mess, at this point. Sometimes they just need a little encouragement.

About 30 years ago, when we were living in Arlington VA, just across the river from DC, Arlington was being plagued with a series of armed robberies (maybe 5 or 10 a week). The robberies were mostly committed by folks who lived in DC who escaped quickly and rarely got caught. So Arlington's Police Chief developed a new plan and put out a press release that henceforth people committing armed robberies would be shot on sight.

A few days later, one of Arlington's SWAT Team officers was called to a grocery store robbery. From the parking lot, the officer could see the perp holding a pistol on a grocery clerk through the plate glass store window. As the clerk handed him the money, the robber was momentarily distracted. And at that moment, the SWAT officer dropped him with a clean head shot. Store workers and customers were safe, the store was not robbed, and the would-be robber died instantly. Although there was some public outcry from the other side of the river, Arlington's robbery rate dropped to zero for a long time.

That's a very effective way to fight crime ... but we just don't want to have to do it ourselves.

My understanding lately though, from some of what I've read in these forums, and also talking to local law enforcement, RM's crime is dropping, and apparently much of the criminal element is relocating to Wilson and other areas.

Thanks for the tips. We'll be checking them out.
Dan and Marjie

[Dan_in_DC]

Originally Posted by J. Pederman

If you're looking to get away from humidity in the summer, why are you moving further south?

Glad you asked. The immediate DC area is a big river basin, where hot, stagnant, polluted, and very humid air tends to linger under certain atmospheric conditions on some of the hotter summer days. It's what meteorologists call an "inversion" -- more or less like what happens in Los Angeles (only nowhere nearly as severe, thank God).

When DC-area temperature hits about 90° F, things can get damnably sticky and uncomfortable here, and some days it's even hard to breathe. Funny thing is that we have many folks living in this area from Viet Nam who complain about DC summers, although in Saigon it can get to as high as maybe 130° F -- but LOW humidity, and they say they're not uncomfortable over there at all. I think most of the problem here may actually be the pollution rather than the humidity. Air is much cleaner in ENC.

I think if we really wanted super-low humidity, we might consider somewhere like Arizona or Nevada. But out in that there desert, the sun is so hot and the humidity is so low that your skin looks like leather in a few years if you go outside. Many who live in such areas will inevitably end up looking like lizard-people eventually. Do a Google search for late life photos of Barry Goldwater and you'll see what I mean.

We've been tracking weather in RM and several other ENC locations for the last 2 or 3 years, and comparing it to where we live now. Wouldn't plan on moving to any of those areas otherwise. Most of the hot part of summer days we would probably plan on being inside in the A/C anyway, and that would hold true wherever we might spend our summers (except maybe Anchorage or Antarctica).

[J. Pederman]

Originally Posted by Dan_in_DC

Glad you asked. The immediate DC area is a big river basin, where hot, stagnant, polluted, and very humid air tends to linger under certain atmospheric conditions on some of the hotter summer days. It's what meteorologists call an "inversion" -- more or less like what happens in Los Angeles (only nowhere nearly as severe, thank God).

The reason I ask is I've been to DC in July, and it's downright comfortable compared to Eastern NC.

[Lithuania]

Go to each cities' respective page here on City-data. The crime statistics on this site show Rocky Mount with a slightly higher crime rate than Greenville (although I must admit I didn't calculate an average).

Be careful when referring to one person's general opinion to base your opinion. Both cities suffer from higher than average crime rate, but Greenville is experiencing more growth.

[Dan_in_DC]

Originally Posted by J. Pederman

The reason I ask is I've been to DC in July, and it's downright comfortable compared to Eastern NC.

Some summer days in DC area are very comfortable, some are horrible. I think DC area has actually gotten better since the environmentalists have been stricter about anti-pollution laws and such as that. Then again, we moved about 30 miles farther away from DC a few years back. Some who commute from where we live now into Arlington or DC tell me it sometimes still gets pretty nasty inside the Beltway, and I think it may be mostly from automotive exhausts during rush hour.

We have also driven around ENC several times on hot summer days and evenings, spending substantial time in Robersonville and Wilson, but also spent time in Nash, Rocky Mount, Tarboro, Conetoe, Everetts, Williamston, Plymouth, and probably a few other places in that area on various occasions, and to us that whole area where we were seemed significantly more comfortable than the DC area climate every time we were there.