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.
my husband and i went to hickory and while it does look nice, the mall is pretty good, and the walmart is huge and kinda new, if you ask for directions..forget it. you would be better off just driving around and learning the city in a couple of days.
even mapquest had a hard time. we went to the big state park...beautiful, big picinic area nice. we had to ask a libaryian how to ge there, mapquest told us...east on 6th street and turn on east 6th street...
the park isnt on 6th street...but we did enjoy the park.
we live in charlotte. love it. a lot of people tell me charlotte is being ruined by transplants...but thats what makes citys great.
if you would like to live in a city that dosent change. and i mean never. a city that has the same points of views as your parent and grandparents. a place where no new people move in and old hardly move out. a place where every store is exactly the way you remember...move to DETROIT.
nothing changes there. there is no traffic, because there is no grocery [major chain] store, no mall within the city limits. no starbucks, no clubs, no jobs, no bus service[ok there is, they just make up their own schedules], basically anything you need to live isnt in the city limits.
nothing has changed in over 50 years, and there is no shortage of city council people tio make sure nothing ever changes.
with out change there is no progression. no learning. how can you teach the kids, if you dont know.
i love charlotte, its clean, and there are lots of people here, and to me i hear jobs, and long term jobs. not after a year..oh well, we didnt do so good, and we will let 5 of you go..
i see apt bildgs and i think i can live all over the city.
Try Dunn NC... I think the tornados missed thier marks last week and hit the wrong two towns . They should have hit Dunn and Fayetteville and wiped them both off the face of the map. It wouldn't hurt my feeling one little bit .
I really like the Cary/Raleigh region. You'll get great schools, hospitals, restaurants, shopping, gyms, theater, shows, etc. If you enjoy watersports you can go boating at nearby lakes. Yes, the cost of living is higher than other "cheaper" areas of NC. However, you get what you pay for. There are affordable places is any region. For example, if you cannot afford a $400k plus home in Cary/Chapel Hill you can move to Clayton, Apex, etc. which are all within an arms reach.
I've been told by many that if you choose to live in NC you need to live in the Traingle area or Charlotte and if you choose to live in eastern NC you need to live in Wilmington.
Let me chime in: born and raised in Durham, and I have lived in several cities in NC. I would have to say I cannot STAND the eastern part of the state. Sorry. I lived in New Bern, NC for ten months, and it felt like ten YEARS. I was 23, and folks were calling me an old maid and feeling sorry for me because I didn't have kids. Since there is no major--really ANYTHING there (college, companies, anything at all) folks just seemed so small-minded. Those who wanted more left and never came back. One of the "department stores" attached to the mall was a K-MART. No movie theatre, bowling alley, NOTHING to do. No decent restaurants. And you just saw the SAME people all the time everywhere. It was hard for me to find like-minded people. And toss in all the other towns down there: Kinston, Washington, Havelock, etc. for pretty much the same reasons.
I'd have to agree with Rocky Mount/Tarboro area. And I hear that not only is Wilson horrible, but the people there are not friendly. A woman told me over the holidays that it is not a "sweet southern town", they are very suspicious of outsiders. And I'd agree with Fayetteville. It always looked grungy to me. And a civilian living in a military town (New Bern was pretty military, with Cherry Point being so close by) you often feel sort of like a misfit, like there is a whole different world everyone knows about except you.
Wilmington--this was a SHOCKER. I thought I was going to love it so much more than I did, and I STILL love it as a place to visit--you can barely keep me away from the place on weekends during the summer, I still have friends there. But the cost of living is about what it is in Raleigh--I paid the same amount for my apartments in both cities--but the pay was extraordinarily anemic. I never understood how this was. Most places if the cost of living his higher, the pay is higher. I was always broke and trying to make extra money, so I didn't have time to hang at the beach or anything fun. And there was still a lot of that small-minded thinking, even though the city appeared to be growing.
I do NOT agree with the folks who said Winston-Salem. I love that city. Maybe I'm biased because I went to school there, but I always found it artsy, with a lot of little neighborhoods with older, but well-kept homes. Plenty of plays and concerts. Lots of history. Also it's a former tobacco town, and they have redone some of the factories. Good shopping--the mall at one time was the largest in the state. When I was there, there were still plenty of jobs (Sara Lee/Hanes, RJR, Wachovia), but that has changed now, as it has everywhere.
The more I think about it, I think the only parts of NC I'd want to live in are the Triangle, Triad, and Charlotte area. I don't do rural settings well.
I have to completely agree with your post. I grew up in Kinston and have family in other parts of Eastern NC and it's probably the most miserable area I've ever lived in. Except for Greenville and Wilmington, most towns over there have changed very little or not at all since 1990. No decent paying jobs, no amenities for young people, and low education rates all around. Most people who grew up there and went on to college never moved back. The only demographic that seems content in most of those cities are seniors who desire quiet/slow areas to retire in.
Except for Greenville and Wilmington, most towns over there have changed very little or not at all since 1990. No decent paying jobs, no amenities for young people, and low education rates all around.
This is a serious problem for the entire region. The mountains are facing some of the same issues to a lesser extent, but they have the Appalachian Regional Commission which has made some progress. There really isn't an equivalent multi-regional organization for the non-resort coastal areas of the South, other than a handful of state organizations which have far less resources than the ARC.
I lived in Roanoke Rapids for a little over 20 years, moved there from IL in 1985. Back then, it WAS a sort of culture shock...everybody waved to you when you're driving around (made us think "Hey, friendly people!") but it was hard making friends for the first few years. The north/south thing was real, & women thought I wanted to be their friend to get to their husbands. (keep reading, I'm not trashing NC!)
Then, over time, more and more "transplants" moved in, the town began to change. New businesses came in, shopping/restaurants, etc.
I got a pretty good job, worked 20 years at that job. Funny thing is, the BEST friends I made there, and still have today, are people born and raised there. I wouldn't trade them for anything!
You move to a place, you adjust if possible. It takes time. I'm so glad to have stayed, and was sad to have moved away 5 years ago. The Eastern counties that everyone has posted on, are economically depressed...some of them anyway. It's sad because there is so much potential in NC.
I've been to Raleigh, Atlantic Beach (fave!), had in-laws in Williamston - now THAT is a tiny town, with not much to do, but it was clean and if you're from there, it's probably a nice place to live. I've been through lots of towns in all the years I lived there, some not so great looking, some absolutely gorgeous.
All in all, I loved NC, and it only took a very few years for my friends to tell me I might be a Yankee, but I wasn't a Damn Yankee.
I do NOT agree with the folks who said Winston-Salem. I love that city.
The more I think about it, I think the only parts of NC I'd want to live in are the Triangle, Triad, and Charlotte area. I don't do rural settings well.
I just started reading this thread.
But I'm wondering if the observation I've made is just the semantics... or if there's more to it.
The title of the thread says "Towns"...
(and boy do the towns get it; and from almost all quarters too!)
but most of the positive reports are for the Cities.
Is it just the semantics or is my inner DY showing again?
Do natives not make this distinction?
Ya know????? My truck broke down in Spencer, a guy from a garage drove by as I was stranded, towed my truck to the garage, fixed the engine, charged me less than I thought the bill was gonna be and was friendly and polite at all times. Perhaps this guy was atypical, but, I have had no ill experiences in Spencer.
It's funny you mention this because as I was reading through these posts, I was thinking about the experience I had in Kinston (which has been mentioned in this thread) when I had a flat tire. After I got the spare on, the tire shop which was technically closed, sold me a good tire for a very reasonable price, and stayed late to make sure I got on my way safely. While it may speak more to that particular business,
I have noticed that just because an area in North Carolina looks economically depressed doesn't mean that it's one of the "worst" areas, at least as far as how civil and friendly people are (my perception is that this is more noticeable in some of the more rural areas, particularly in the western and interior coastal plain areas of the state).
Ironically, I've noticed the service and general civility of the population in some of the areas that are supposedly some of the "best", while not horrible, is sometimes just mediocre compared to some of these depressed areas. There are exceptions, though, I'm sure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dusty Rhodes
Ya know????? My truck broke down in Spencer, a guy from a garage drove by as I was stranded, towed my truck to the garage, fixed the engine, charged me less than I thought the bill was gonna be and was friendly and polite at all times. Perhaps this guy was atypical, but, I have had no ill experiences in Spencer.
Last edited by Jowel; 05-29-2011 at 10:08 PM..
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.
. They should have hit Dunn and Fayetteville and wiped them both off the face of the map. It wouldn't hurt my feeling one little bit 
.
I lived in New Bern, NC for ten months, and it felt like ten YEARS. I was 23, and folks were calling me an old maid and feeling sorry for me because I didn't have kids. Since there is no major--really ANYTHING there (college, companies, anything at all) folks just seemed so small-minded. Those who wanted more left and never came back. One of the "department stores" attached to the mall was a K-MART. No movie theatre, bowling alley, NOTHING to do. No decent restaurants. And you just saw the SAME people all the time everywhere. It was hard for me to find like-minded people. And toss in all the other towns down there: Kinston, Washington, Havelock, etc. for pretty much the same reasons.
Maybe I'm biased because I went to school there, but I always found it artsy, with a lot of little neighborhoods with older, but well-kept homes. Plenty of plays and concerts. Lots of history. Also it's a former tobacco town, and they have redone some of the factories. Good shopping--the mall at one time was the largest in the state. When I was there, there were still plenty of jobs (Sara Lee/Hanes, RJR, Wachovia), but that has changed now, as it has everywhere.
