Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Can someone please tell me the names of any surrounding areas in Wilminton that are close to the beach with decent schools?
We don't have children in school so haven't dealt with it directly,but friends and neighbors are happy with the schools on the north side of Wilmington as well.
If your definition of "decent schools" includes ones with average, but not bad ratings, then Leland and Carolina Beach are on the list. Agree with the reccs of Hampstead, Surf City, North side of Wilmington.
I ran across this forum on google while searching for work. So let me first say, Wilmington isnt too bad. Little bit about me now. I have lived all over the United States, from MD, PA, WV, CO, CA, WA and few other places while in the military for schools, bases ect... I have lived in Wilmington for 5 years now, and the only thing keeping me here is finishing my degree, I met my wife here and wanting to keep her son in high school till he graduates.
PROS:
Wilmington is a "on the water" area.
Night clubs, great food, history, weather is decent(although it gets HOT well I mean humid!) UNCW is a good school, and Cape Fear Community College is a great Tech school too. I live near carolina beach and the public schools arent bad at all. Slower pace than some places ive lived.
CONS:
Traffic SUCKS!!! No one uses the newly built highway around the city, well I wouldnt actually call Wilmington a city, its a over populated town. The roads are not engineered for this traffic. Everytime it rains, everything gets flooded. I see atleast 2 accidents daily. But I drive 40miles a day.
Most things are too expensive.
Crime is getting worse due to the economy of this area, some areas of wilmington are rough with gangs now, jobs are hard to come by unless you want to work fast food for an example.
Housing market is terrible. Again, over priced.
But all in all, ive been in worse places. My honest opinion, try to find some place outside of the "city" of wilmington, like burgaw, castle hayne, wallace, ect....
And please people, try not to take those top 10 greatest places to live articles to seriously, they do that for advertisement. If your retired or college student you will probably enjoy this place. If your young trying to start life off, start a business, find a career, well you would probably be better off somewhere else.
I hope this helps.
I see we're still sleeping on Wilmington! Wilmington IS a great place to raise a family. Public schools are like public schools all across the country. So that can be a toss up. The best thing about Wilmington lately is it's thriving MOVIE/TV market. Hollywood is coming to Wilmington by the droves. Iron Man 3 was made in there, along with Sleepy Hollow, the new TV series! It's a city surrounded by beach communities. Wrightsville Beach and Caroline Beach are very nice areas. Kure Beach is home to the NC Aquarium. Follow one of the other posts, come for a visit.
I have said this about Wilmington many times. It is unlike suburban cities. It can't spread out. The good thing about this is its core is good. Folks from other areas are always looking for some suburb. You don't have to in Wilmington.
If you do, you will spend your time dealing with traffic...and not interstate type traffic, its local traffic. So, if you move to Carolina Beach, the only roads in and out are local. If you go to school at Cape Fear or UNCW, you will spend lots of time in traffic...unless you live closer. That's the answer to Wilmington traffic...live closer to work...because you can. Don't get a job at GE and then live near Carolina Beach. Live in Porters Neck instead....and then traffic won't be that bad.
Great list Sasha...I would like to add a few perspective items to the "Bads" list...
1) Traffic, I previously mentioned that Wilmington gives you the opportunity to deal with traffic by living close to work.
2) The Arts and Entertainment are actually GREAT for a community the size of Wilmington. Its not a pro sports town with national acts and big coliseums. Additionally, Cape Fear Community College is building a beautiful performing arts center downtown right now, which will add to the inventory.
3) Grocers...this has also changed dramatically in the past 2 years or so with Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. There are other local grocers, but not all in the area's that everyone is comfortable with. One interesting long time grocer is Eagle Island, and there are other local one's that have fresh seafood.
4) Public Transportation...Again, for a city the size of Wilmington, the public transport is not bad. And fwiw, cab rides are fairly affordable around Wilmington. I recall taking a cab from Wrightsville Beach to downtown Wilmington on New Years Eve and it was $10...there were 6 of us. Public transport would have been that much or more in most places. Additionally, public transportation is not great anywhere in NC (or even worse in SC).
I just got back from a nine-day trip to Wilmington after a few years away, and I can say without too much uncertainty that this will probably be my last time back there, ever again. It's just not the same place I grew up in, in every way that matters to me.
I lived in Wilmington through the late 70's and early 80's, and apparently the Reaganization process changed the area irreversibly into a very impersonal and corporate type of place. Maybe it's the influx of all the soulless and two-dimensional Californians from the movie industry into the area, but the people are just very implacable now -- no sense of humor, no charming awkwardness, nothing. The people are all plastic and perfect now, and the area is just way too oversophisticated and uptight now.
The town I remember was very much cut off from the rest of the world in the much more simple and down-home times of the pre-computer age. The river port being right there meant that you were never completely cut off from what the outside world had to offer, but that alongside the pre-computer, pre-internet age, meant that you had to use your imagination a whole lot more, and the people around you were also a lot more important in your life.
But nowadays, the people just don't matter like that. There isn't any more natural calm and healthy boredom that makes you want to seek out other people for connection and richness in your life. And the fact that this is what Wilmington has also turned into, is just beyond depressing.
My experience in Wilmington this last time, was EXACTLY like the recent movie "The World's End" with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. If you haven't seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to give it a view. The gist of the film is that childhood friends reunite in their old town, only to find that everyone's been replaced by impersonal and humorless, but ultra-efficient, robots in human form, as unsettling as that is.
I'm a NC native. I lived in Wilmington for about a year with a job. Hated it. Got out as quick as I could.
Traffic. As other people have said, the traffic is horrible. I think it's the worst in North Carolina, and I include all the major urban areas in this. The only thing that compares is southeastern 485 in Charlotte. The roads are poorly laid out, and almost all traffic has to channel along a few local roads. College Road is a nightmare early in the school year. I have driven in other cities, by the way: the Bay Area, New York, Washington. They have worse traffic, in the aggregate, but Wilmington offers no escape because of the road layout. Need to go to the store on a Friday evening in August? You're going to be sitting on College for half an hour while drunk people try to figure out where the gas pedal is. Need to go to work on Oleander in December? Better start early.
Climate. It is hot and utterly sweltering. Combine this with the poor, sandy soil that means no worthwhile trees can grow, and you have heat and no shade. Of course, if you do have trees, they'll probably blow over in a hurricane at some point.
Politics. The place is, to put it bluntly, backward. There are conservative and liberal parts of North Carolina; it's a pretty weird state. It wasn't until I lived in Wilmington that I saw a relatively large (in population) city governed like a backwoods mill town. Bizarre.
Dining. I hope you like fast food, and I hope you don't like anything ethnic. There is literally no (good) example of almost any ethnic food in Wilmington.
Shopping. Because it's so isolated from other cities, Wilmington has a respectable number of retailers and shopping options for a city its size; but understand that you will not leave the city often, because Charlotte is 3 hours away, and Raleigh is 2. Tanger Outlets in Myrtle Beach is the only thing anywhere nearby.
Culture. There are rich olds who will not like you, because you were not born there. There are rich transplants who spend all their time on their boats. There are poor, tatted-up locals with no education, no prospects, and no culture. Combine this with a very hateful racial history and you have a tense, unfriendly feeling.
Economy. I had a job, my wife didn't. She couldn't find anything worthwhile (office-based) the entire time we were there; she ended up working retail. There are very, very few local employers, and few prospects for more. This means, also, that the social environment is very stratified; there are "old money" areas that are clean and beautiful, there are "outsider" suburbs that are clean and new, and then there is the vast bulk of the area which is poor and run-down. Usually just a block off the main thoroughfares. My personal favorite is the area of western Wilmington where there are three pawn shops on one block.
Last edited by completely_narml; 01-14-2014 at 06:31 AM..
Would appreciate hearing REAL perspective on racism in Wilmington, I have read a lot of negative things online elsewhere.
Though your post is 3 months old, you might want to start a separate thread on this topic since it has gotten "lost" in a very long "general info" thread that originally dates back to 2007! A separate topic would draw people who wish to comment on racism specifically and not be all mixed in with every other item in this one.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Wilmington Pros and Cons
