Considering moving to Greenville (Charlotte, Raleigh: transplants, crime, houses)

[budgetwise5]

So I've read several threads here already, but I'm looking for some perspective from those who may have lived other places/come from bigger cities. My spouse and I are considering moving to Greenville. We are both in the medical profession, and we have offers from several places, and Eastern Carolina Medical Center is one of them (Charleston is another). We are originally from NY, and have lived in both the city (Manhattan) and on Long Island, and we have friends and parents that have moved to Charlotte (Ballentyne and Lake Norman areas). I know that Charlotte is a bigger city and different than Greenville, but how does Greenville compare? We are certainly expecting it to be different from NY, but my concern from reading several of the threads here is that there isn't much to do in the area outside of the college and a few chain stores. Is there any nice dining/restaurants, shops, activities, etc? What do people do on the weekends? If you want good schools, do you have to send your kids to private school? We are not snobs (at least not by NY standards), but we are also accustomed to nice middle-income neighborhoods with great restaurants, shops, activities, etc. If we do decide to move here, what neighborhoods should we look to move to? I have worked in Brooklyn and am very familiar with crime and bad areas, but I don't want to live too close to those areas, especially with young children. Being from suburban/urban areas, I also don't want to live in the middle of nowhere. We are pretty active and we travel a lot, so we need to have plenty to do in our free time. Money is not a huge concern (compared to NY cost of living, with the average home costing $450,000 and taxes of $10,000-15,000 per year, Greenville will be much more affordable). Also, when working at the hospital, what is the general patient population and hospital climate like? Would it be similar to a city hospital, or suburban hospital in NY? Thanks so much for your help.

[miller448]

I don't come from a bigger city, but I will attempt answer your questions anyway.

If you're in the medical profession, this isn't a bad area for jobs. Places like Vidant and and East Carolina Medical Center have some pretty good opportunities, but I have no idea about the status of open positions there.

Alright. I'll be bluntly honest about Greenville. It isn't at all comparable to Charlotte or New York City. Most people either love it or hate it. There is no "big city" feel at all. Greenville truly isn't that bad, but once you have done everything here (it doesn't take too long) then you'll have a pretty difficult time in trying to find something new to do.*Yeah, we have generally every chain restaurant and shopping center you can imagine. But that makes the majority of things to do here. There are quite a few little unique local shops all over the city. As for nice restaurants, we do have a few of those, such as University Chophouse (and of course the "nice" restaurant chains like Longhorn and Olive Garden). On the weekend, people go to a restaurant, shop, or go to the movies. Essentially like any other day. There are dozens of small towns and communities within a 30 minute drive. Most of them can give you a small new area to explore and shop until you've seen it all. Something some people do during the weekend is take the one hour drive to Raleigh, which has much more diversity in shops and activities... but it's not Washington or New York.

If you want your children to attend a good school, public schools here might not be quite up to your standards. The public school system here isn't too bad, but I won't elaborate on that now. We have quite a decent few private schools in the area such as The Oakwood School and Parrott Academy, and many private religious schools such as Greenville Christian Academy and Christ Covenant School. You mentioned "nice middle-income neighborhoods". There are plenty of neighborhoods here, but many of them kinda have "zones", if you know what I mean (nicer areas of the subdivisions). If you're looking for something like that, try Lynndale or Brook Valley. Then there are nice neighborhoods as a whole, such as Ironwood or Rock Springs, but they are around 5-15 miles from the main areas of the city, which is sometimes called the "middle of nowhere" by locals, though I personally see it as simply adding less than 10 minutes to get into the city. All of the subdivisions I mentioned here are relatively crime-clean and great places to have children.

I don't exactly know the general patient population of the hospital(s) around here. With Vidant being the biggest and one of the best in the state, the patient population is generally somewhat sizable, and not nearly all local.

Overall, Greenville has the feel of "good, but can do a lot better". There have been many recent improvements in different ways, like the South Memorial Dr area really developing into a nice place. I have lived here for too long, so I may be a little biased in my opinion of this place. My main complaint is the people and traffic. The traffic here is NEVER as bad as people say it is, but everyone moves so darn slowly all the time, driving far under the limit, which creates a big problem during rush hour. Also, a majority of people here often seem to be so closed-minded and preachy. If you are socially conservative, you will make many friends. The medical field is an exception to my last two sentences.

Finding a job here can be a big problem, but I'm sure you'll be able to find one being in the medical field.

I hope this answered at least a few of your questions. I apologize if my post brings you disappointing feelings toward this place. I just know that I'm done with this city, and I'd rather live somewhere like Brooklyn or Long Island. Who knows, you may love it here. The only way to know is to come see for yourself. Feel free to reply with any other questions.

[Richard Martin]

miller 448 really hit the nail pretty much on the head. What I've found is that you must be careful which neighborhood you end up in. It's really hard to figure out which one is the right one though. If you're a neighborly, outgoing type of person then it's really critical. The locals tend to be close minded and they keep to themselves. They are very resistive to change and believe that their way is the right way and they don't even want to hear a suggestion about perhaps a better way to do something.

When my wife and I first moved here we ended up in a community where we were the only non native. Despite my best attempts, I couldn't get my neighbors to hardly talk to us. I fortunately found a neighborhood that is mostly transplants from other states. We sold our other house (at a significant loss) and bought another one in this other neighborhood. We are significantly happier now. The people in this neighborhood come out of their houses on nice days and you can actually engage them in conversations. We have cookouts together and the whole place is more of a community without biases against someone just because they don't attend the "right" church.

[budgetwise5]

Thanks for the advice!