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I lived downtown on 5th Ave (at Orange) for 2 years in the mid 90's...
I never saw a gang...ever. And I drove down Castle St to Wrightsville Ave to get to work every day.
I shared an apartment with two female UNCW students, who rode the bus to school, worked downtown and walked around downtown (they didn't have cars). They never once complained...but they didn't walk down to 10th or 14th St at midnight either. During the day in those places, the kids play in the streets, they walk to and from school and for the most part it is safe. There are 3 schools in those areas, which keep a good police presence.
When someone refers to downtown, I consider that the Historic District, and the downtown business district...both for the most part are safe. I don't consider 10th St downtown or Carolina Heights or Castle St (past 5th) or Carolina Place.
And in reference to living in either Carolina Heights and Carolina Place...they are also buffered by a huge green space in the Creek property, a beautiful new Elementary School in Snipes, and the Forest Hills neighborhood. And you can walk to Carolina Farmin' and Port City Java without a problem. Are you going to walk 15 blocks to get downtown...not likely.
The City has done a good job with cleanup over the years, but the task in some of these neighborhoods was daunting. It takes awhile, but progress continues to be made.
I lived downtown on 5th Ave (at Orange) for 2 years in the mid 90's...
I never saw a gang...ever. And I drove down Castle St to Wrightsville Ave to get to work every day.
I shared an apartment with two female UNCW students, who rode the bus to school, worked downtown and walked around downtown (they didn't have cars). They never once complained...but they didn't walk down to 10th or 14th St at midnight either. During the day in those places, the kids play in the streets, they walk to and from school and for the most part it is safe. There are 3 schools in those areas, which keep a good police presence.
When someone refers to downtown, I consider that the Historic District, and the downtown business district...both for the most part are safe. I don't consider 10th St downtown or Carolina Heights or Castle St (past 5th) or Carolina Place.
And in reference to living in either Carolina Heights and Carolina Place...they are also buffered by a huge green space in the Creek property, a beautiful new Elementary School in Snipes, and the Forest Hills neighborhood. And you can walk to Carolina Farmin' and Port City Java without a problem. Are you going to walk 15 blocks to get downtown...not likely.
The City has done a good job with cleanup over the years, but the task in some of these neighborhoods was daunting. It takes awhile, but progress continues to be made.
I'm sorry,I don't want to sound like a negative downer here,but a lot has changed from the 90's and it's not for the best. We all need to face the reality of this and take the needed precautions. No,they're not going to walk around(especially during the daytime during school hours and when police presence is there) and say "Hey,look at me,I'm a gang member!!",but they are there and causing havoc and grief.
I'm sorry,I don't want to sound like a negative downer here,but a lot has changed from the 90's and it's not for the best. We all need to face the reality of this and take the needed precautions. No,they're not going to walk around(especially during the daytime during school hours and when police presence is there) and say "Hey,look at me,I'm a gang member!!",but they are there and causing havoc and grief.
Well there is a lot of history revisionists out there regarding things getting worse...there is no way things are worse downtown now then before.
The Northside housing projects are an amazing transformation from the 40's era public housing the existed when I lived there. The 5th and 6th St bridges have added connectivity to the Historic District and Market Street from the Northside, which was as bad as you could get and has spurned some private development. The 3rd St corridor is undergoing huge public and private investments, originally spurred on by the 4th St Redevelopment project. A former underutilized port is being transformed into the PPD headquarters, convention center, community college expansion, marina, hotels, etc...
Castle St has people walking down it. It has shops. Two restaurants/bars have located in the south area of downtown next to a huge redeveloped public housing project turned into private rentals...numerous houses have been fixed. And houses have been constructed in the Historic District, churches expanded....I recall the firehouse on 4th St, relocated to Market.
Not to mention the Riverwalk, which is close to being completed end to end.
There are problems, yes. But the investment that has taken place in the last 15-20 years downtown is enormous. Some neighborhoods near downtown are never going to be great neighborhoods, but that doesn't mean they can't be better neighborhoods. I believe they are drastically better, but you would have had to see them before and after to understand. Carolina Place is most definitely better than when Wrightsville Ave was 2 lane. Major renovations are New Hanover High, Williston Middle and Snipes Elementary....
Well, we had a great time this weekend in your fine city. We did not get to see that much due to schedule but we are coming down again soon in the off season to check it out. I did not get downtown like I wanted but I got some perspective from the wife's relatives that live there.
Funny things they mentioned (or at least funny to me) were the traffic. They all complained about how bad the traffic was this weekend and how there were way too many people there. I did not think it was bad at all, nothing compared to your average day in Charlotte.
The wife's family said there was not much downtown except a few bars, they had never heard of Carolina Heights neighborhood. They mentioned Forest Hills but said it was kind of expensive. The water was browner than usual but I was told it was because the cape fear river flows north this time of year.
thanks for everyone's input, we are coming out again soon in a few months.
Well, we had a great time this weekend in your fine city. We did not get to see that much due to schedule but we are coming down again soon in the off season to check it out. I did not get downtown like I wanted but I got some perspective from the wife's relatives that live there.
Funny things they mentioned (or at least funny to me) were the traffic. They all complained about how bad the traffic was this weekend and how there were way too many people there. I did not think it was bad at all, nothing compared to your average day in Charlotte.
The wife's family said there was not much downtown except a few bars, they had never heard of Carolina Heights neighborhood. They mentioned Forest Hills but said it was kind of expensive. The water was browner than usual but I was told it was because the cape fear river flows north this time of year.
thanks for everyone's input, we are coming out again soon in a few months.
Wilmington is certainly a busy place on Labor Day weekend as well as much of the summer.
And you will get more info here sometimes than many folks that live in Wilmington ever know...reason being is that many folks live in a strip mall mentality...and there are plenty of those in Wilmington as well.
When I first moved to Wilmington, I lived right off of College Rd....and hated it. It was just a bunch of strip centers with traffic and nothing "different" than anywhere else. I moved downtown and loved it....a real gem compared to the NC sprawl. Find the local spots...there are a ton of them.
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