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First post here, but I've lurked these boards for years. To start with, I'm a damn Yankee, from the equally-damned Long Island, but I lived in the Northern enclave of Cary from when I was three until I left for college. I liked it as a kid, until it became less and less Southern and more overcrowded, like trying to fit a stamp on the end of a pin. I've got family in Apex and Fuquay-Varina that I visit frequently, and soon-to-be in-laws in Clayton and Garner. The thing that gets me is the explosive growth. The areas that I used to consider are much too crowded now and the areas that I like now are most likely going to be swallowed up by the sprawl. It's like Cary/Raleigh is Pac Man and every small town nearby is a little dot waiting to be gobbled up.
I've been in Wilmington for going on five years and when my lease is up, I'm gone. Wilmington isn't my slice of Heaven. I have to stay in NC (fiancee needs to teach for three years in-state), not that I'd leave if I had the choice. Afraid to settle down too close around Raleigh (it'll gobble me up), I'm looking a little farther west. I've travelled over much (most?) of the state visiting relatives, taking vacations, and performing my job, but I haven't done much more than pass through Hickory. From what I've seen, I'm cautiously optimistic. I've read everything about it I could find, but I have a few questions, things that were either discussed many years ago and might have changed and things that weren't elaborated on. I'm less familiar with Western NC than the Piedmont and the Eastern third. I'll fire away:
I heard mention that WNC has a drug problem, sometimes directly specifying Hickory, as in a larger problem than most similar-sized towns. I've had one resident tell me meth labs are a big problem, but I took it with a few grains of salt.
How are the elementary schools? This one is for my fiancee; she's got to teach somewhere.
The same ones that speak of drug problems also speak of a declining town with a depressed economy. They also mention that the area is very poor, and has no middle class. Again, a few grains of salt. I thought the town was attempting to reinvent itself and was doing better.
I've heard it's trying to attract retired folks. I don't know a better way to ask, but are retirees overrepresented in Hickory?
I bet I'll think of future questions, but that's all I've got for now. If you want to add anything about the area, please do. I'm just trying to hear as much as I can from people with firsthand experience.
There's more stuff in Hickory than Boone, but not as much as Asheville. Yeah it got hit hard by the furniture industry leaving, but not as bad as Lenoir or Wilkesboro so it's not nearly as depressing a place as those two are. It reminds me of a lot of large rust belt towns like Mansfield, OH that have dwindled to their core population who can't or won't leave. Hickory's always struck me as the kind of place where if you didn't have any particular business in town, there wasn't any real reason to be hanging around there.
My wife and I visited there this past summer - we were in the group looking to retire there. I was not impressed. There appears to be a lot of random sprawl, not at all well plannned. I got the feeling of a Charlotte suburb. We dropped Hickory from our list and are now looking further west and further east.
My wife and I visited there this past summer - we were in the group looking to retire there. I was not impressed. There appears to be a lot of random sprawl, not at all well plannned. I got the feeling of a Charlotte suburb. We dropped Hickory from our list and are now looking further west and further east.
Suggestion if you have not already done so: Hendersonville (nice over 55 retirement communitites) and quiet subdivisions, Fletcher, Arden, great access to I26 if you like vibrant small towns, and better weather (cooler in summer, warmer in winter) low county taxes. Great access to Asheville to the north (25 miles), and Greenville/Spartanburg in SC 35 mi. to the south, nd the small towns in between Saluda, Landrum, Tryon. AVL Airport is close by for flights to PA also.
Fletcher, Arden and Hendersonville are all mountain towns and are cold and windy. They are cooler in summer but freezing in winter. (a longer winter than foothills). Hickory is ok, I've been here 20 years, org. from greensboro. It has all the shops and crap every other mid sized town has except for the larger expensive shop Macys, etc. But charlotte is 45 min. if you need that.
Hickory schools are ok and the elementary schools are really ok, but some do have more aliens than others. yeah we've got plenty of mexicans, koreans and any one else in this freakin melting pot.
What you are saying about Hickory in your last paragraph is certainly not relative to anything in the mountains. Maybe we could interest you in going west young man, going west. It is NOT cold and windy here, don't know where you got that idea from. Were you standing on top of Grandfather mountain or Mt. Mitchell?
We can honestly say that in the winter, (the past two were anomalies) .... by noon it's usually 45 degrees or so, high teens low 20's at night. In the summer, most days don't get warmer than 85 or so, and we actually shut off our a/c on nice summer nights in the high 50's low 60's, very comfortable ... unless the air is damp from a rainy day etc. A HOT summer day over here would be low 90's, and not many of those. Lowe's and HDepot etc. start selling flowers and shrubbery late March which may be a bit too early, we can plant some things starting in April depending on the weather. Why do you think so many people love the weather here? Most of WNC, Hendersonville and Flat Rock in particular, was settled by folks from the Charleston SC area, and Floridians come here for 2nd homes by the scores to escape the oppressive heat of the south coasts. Huge retirement area here. True story
Not to disagree with such an agreeable poster, , but Hickory is NOT in the piedmont.
Hickory and Morganton are in the "foothills".
The order is: coastal plains, sandhills, piedmont, foothills then mountains
Thank you for the compliment. I think Hickory and Morganton have somewhat of a geographical identity problem. Hickory is so full of businesses with "Piedmont" in the name, and Western Piedmont Community College is in Morganton.
Hickory definitely has more of a Piedmont feel. Driving west on I-40 from Raleigh, you won't notice a big change in the land until Morganton.
I have learned in a dm that this area is both mountain and piedmont. I haven't looked at the link yet.
I did just learn how the coastal/Piedmont line is determined: it's the fall line - where streams and rivers have waterfalls.
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, but Hickory is NOT in the piedmont. 
