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I know when I say this people will say "but there are drug problems everywhere".......but Granite Falls is in an area hit hard, little money, little hope for upward movement, and a LOT of drug problems (albeit relatively peaceful drug problems)for such a small town. Due to my job I am in a few different cities a week in WNC and out of all the ones I do business with Granite Falls might be dead last in where I would move my family. I'm sure there are a lot of fine people there......but in agreement with the above post on it being an area with a different mentality.
You need to look for areas with great (well in WNC just good) high schools, which are hard to find in WNC. Good elementary schools are plentiful. However, once they get to high school (a lot of dropouts) there aren't many choices left. The mentality of 'we can just get a job at the 'x factory' still is in many places, despite the fact that all the factories are gone. Combine that with no money in the area, and schools just aren't a priority. Granite falls also gives you some of the worst of's in the area.....hotter, more humid, less scenery, even fewer jobs than almost anything west of it. There are also better options just a little farther east. Usually when looking for places away from larger cities you want nice, clean, safe, good schools.....just more private. However, Granite Falls is none of those. You aren't going to get clipped going to the store, or carjacked....but it's just a crummy area. I moved from Illinois and there is a lot to love about the difference in the areas from there to here. But unless you are comparing Granite Falls to like Gary Indiana...east Chicago, or Cabrini green.....you are probably going to wish you moved elsewhere. It's just not a place people move to. A lot of the folks I speak with feel like they are just stuck there. I just think you could do a LOT better in the general area.
If you want to move to the area, I wish you luck. Life is what you make it so with some positive attitude you may be able to polish that turd! :-)
I don't know of anyone that lives in Granite Falls that also works in Granite Falls. There are no jobs in this town, but Hickory is a few minutes away. Basically, everyone here works in Hickory, and lives in Caldwell due to lower population density, lower taxes, etc. I live just across the river in Caldwell County, and still have a Hickory address. No city taxes. I have a bigger house here than I did in Lenoir, and we pay far less tax than living in Lenoir city limits. Plus we're 10 minutes closer to Hickory.
I'm sure there are bad areas of town like there are anywhere else, so just find those areas and stay away. We live in a subdevelopment with only a handful of houses, and no streetlights. I feel safer here than I did when I lived in Lenoir or Hickory. The only issue I've had is that we've encountered a couple of skunks in the middle of the night while walking the dog!
Thank you. Yes, I went to a very good high school in an awesome district here in Il as well. I have looked at the schools in GF as my daughter is going into 2nd grade. It seems there is one (or 2) exceeds standard grade schools in the area.
All of these opinions, good or bad, helps. My DH is expecting an offer this week so hopefully we will be traveling to the area very soon. I waiver back and forth between "I'll be fine driving 10-20 minutes to the grocery store and if DD needs/wants to take a volleyball class, or other sport I'm willing to drive" to "I think Mooresville is more of what we need" to "holy cra* I think this is really happening!" LOL.
I know that once we get out there we will figure things out, it's of course just the "I'm going to research it to death online because I swear the answer is here buried somewhere!"��
I catch myself having to take a step back when we look at the GF area and ask myself is this really an area to raise my daughter who is HIGHLY social, involved in sports, Girl Scouts, 2 belts away from her Taekwondo black belt; and loves to get home from school,hop on her bike, and go to a friend's house. I keep wondering if it looks more like an area that would be great to retire in...
I catch myself having to take a step back when we look at the GF area and ask myself is this really an area to raise my daughter who is HIGHLY social, involved in sports, Girl Scouts, 2 belts away from her Taekwondo black belt; and loves to get home from school,hop on her bike, and go to a friend's house. I keep wondering if it looks more like an area that would be great to retire in...
This sounds more like Granite Falls (to me) than some bigger city like Hickory or Mooresville.
Maybe it's just me - I have a bias against long commutes when they can be avoided (been there/done that) - but I just don't see a compelling reason to live in Mooresville if working in Hickory.
I waiver back and forth between "I'll be fine driving 10-20 minutes to the grocery store and if DD needs/wants to take a volleyball class, or other sport I'm willing to drive" to "I think Mooresville is more of what we need"....
I catch myself having to take a step back when we look at the GF area and ask myself is this really an area to raise my daughter who is HIGHLY social, involved in sports, Girl Scouts, 2 belts away from her Taekwondo black belt; and loves to get home from school,hop on her bike, and go to a friend's house. I keep wondering if it looks more like an area that would be great to retire in...
Keep in mind that when we say "in the country" and "small town" on the east coast it typically means something different than in the midwest. The population density is much higher here overall. Although Illinois has a higher average population density than NC, the majority is in Chicagoland, leaving the rest of the state with much fewer people per square mile. In NC, especially this part, you just don't get the miles and miles from grocery stores or social activities except in a very few places. You will most likely be within 10 minutes to a grocery store and find a plethora of youth sports and activities.
What you will deal with, especially coming from a highly urban area, is that there will not be the same amount of grocery store options or highly competitive sports options, etc. Those are the things that may prompt you to drive further. But in this area, it is basically town that melds into the next town that melds into the next town, without lots of sparseness in between. There will be plenty of things at your fingertips but they may not be exactly what you want. When you visit in person you will get a better feel for it and begin to figure out what works best for you.
Keep in mind that when we say "in the country" and "small town" on the east coast it typically means something different than in the midwest. The population density is much higher here overall. Although Illinois has a higher average population density than NC, the majority is in Chicagoland, leaving the rest of the state with much fewer people per square mile. In NC, especially this part, you just don't get the miles and miles from grocery stores or social activities except in a very few places. You will most likely be within 10 minutes to a grocery store and find a plethora of youth sports and activities.
This. Even living "in the sticks" in Caldwell, Alexander & Catawba Counties, you're usually no more than 15 minutes to the nearest grocery store, and usually less to a gas station/convenience store. You don't have vast swaths of land with nothing on them here. In fact, I can't think of anywhere around here where you can drive for 1 mile and not see a structure of some sort. Maybe Hwy 321 heading up to Blowing Rock.
Granite Falls is a small down, but it's not desolate. There are a couple of grocery stores (if you count Walmart), and a handful of places to eat in the town proper. The area is basically an extension of Hickory however. Nobody in this part of the county thinks anything about going to Hickory for food or entertainment. Even people in Lenoir travel to Hickory without thinking much about it. You should see the traffic on 321 late Friday evenings heading out of Catawba County and into Caldwell. Everyone in Caldwell goes to Hickory.
Keep in mind that when we say "in the country" and "small town" on the east coast it typically means something different than in the midwest. The population density is much higher here overall. Although Illinois has a higher average population density than NC, the majority is in Chicagoland, leaving the rest of the state with much fewer people per square mile. In NC, especially this part, you just don't get the miles and miles from grocery stores or social activities except in a very few places. You will most likely be within 10 minutes to a grocery store and find a plethora of youth sports and activities.
What you will deal with, especially coming from a highly urban area, is that there will not be the same amount of grocery store options or highly competitive sports options, etc. Those are the things that may prompt you to drive further. But in this area, it is basically town that melds into the next town that melds into the next town, without lots of sparseness in between. There will be plenty of things at your fingertips but they may not be exactly what you want. When you visit in person you will get a better feel for it and begin to figure out what works best for you.
I have actually found the population here to much more spread out here (WNC) than back home in the Midwest. Here, because of the natural limitations of the land city centers (of similar size) are smaller and the neighborhoods are much smaller and more spread out and the city limits are much more spread out. There just isn't enough room because of the way the land is. Now in general the population density numbers per land may be small in the midwest because of the farmland. However, the population there lives in a smaller area.
Most of the midwest is flat flat flat. Much of is is farmland. So you get a lot towns where you have 5-15,000 people crammed in cookie cutter neighborhoods in a grid format in small area. Then you have thousands of square miles of farmland, then the next town.
The twin cities I grew up by have 140,000 permanent residents plus 50K plus students. You can fit 4 of those cities (at least) into the land area of Asheville. I just moved from N Asheville to S Asheville, and it is 16 miles away.
To the OP, I saw this post on city-data inquiring about Granite Falls. Did you ever move there? I am currently considering moving from PA to there.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Last edited by trekcarbonboy; 03-26-2018 at 01:39 PM..
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