North Carolina

Anyone in eastern NC ever? I'm spending a lot of time all by myself in Greenville, and Greenville's kind of prone to making one feel even more alone than usual.

Like, they're starting to recognize me at the breweries, and I can't tell if it's in a good way or a bad way, and I don't even live there.
 
haydee said:
Anyone in eastern NC ever? I'm spending a lot of time all by myself in Greenville, and Greenville's kind of prone to making one feel even more alone than usual.

Like, they're starting to recognize me at the breweries, and I can't tell if it's in a good way or a bad way, and I don't even live there.
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It's always a good way. Don't you worry about that.
 
Hey NC folks-- my family and I are considering moving to Asheville at least temporarily for the next year. We are now working remotely and have been in NC for a couple of months visiting family. I'm originally from Raleigh but we live in LA right now. My brother and his wife are starting new jobs there next summer and we've always loved it there, even got married there a few years back. We are fairly familiar with the city, but curious if anyone had recommendations about what neighborhoods to look at. Home prices seem to have gone up a lot the last few years, but at least not LA $$. Also curious for those who live there-- the crime rate shows very high all around the city, higher than my neighborhood in LA which has gang activity. I'm not sure how accurate that is, I've never felt remotely unsafe there. Any thoughts?
 
McGlam said:
Hey NC folks-- my family and I are considering moving to Asheville at least temporarily for the next year. We are now working remotely and have been in NC for a couple of months visiting family. I'm originally from Raleigh but we live in LA right now. My brother and his wife are starting new jobs there next summer and we've always loved it there, even got married there a few years back. We are fairly familiar with the city, but curious if anyone had recommendations about what neighborhoods to look at. Home prices seem to have gone up a lot the last few years, but at least not LA $$. Also curious for those who live there-- the crime rate shows very high all around the city, higher than my neighborhood in LA which has gang activity. I'm not sure how accurate that is, I've never felt remotely unsafe there. Any thoughts?
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Why Asheville? I will try to address some of your other points once I have a bit of context.
 
debianlinux said:
Why Asheville? I will try to address some of your other points once I have a bit of context.
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Because it’s the city that my wife and I both really like. I’ve always wanted to live in the mountains. And my brother and his wife are moving there next year. It has a lot of opportunities to go see live music as well.
 
McGlam said:
Because it’s the city that my wife and I both really like. I’ve always wanted to live in the mountains. And my brother and his wife are moving there next year. It has a lot of opportunities to go see live music as well.
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Asheville is a high tourism city in an otherwise economically depressed area. There's no gangs to speak of but there's plenty of domestic violence and low level nuisance crime such as car break-ins. Most violent crimes are likely drug related. Property and property taxes are astronomical. If both you and the wife have at or near 6 figure incomes you'll probably be perfectly happy in Asheville. It is a beautiful area with decent access to other cities such as Greenville, Charlotte, Atlanta, Knoxville, and Johnson City. While mountainous and next to the French Broad I'd give it a 5/10 of what's actually available in the state for geographical land features. The mindset of Asheville, the city as an island, is very liberal and progressive. When live music existed you are correct the city is pretty high up there and was my preference over traveling to Charlotte or Raleigh.

In summary, if you have better than median income and have good job prospects and are smart with your location choice Asheville is fine but you can do better with your money. It works best as an attraction. Having your family in the same area is a pretty good justification. Be prepared for more severe weather than the majority of the state.
 
debianlinux said:
Asheville is a high tourism city in an otherwise economically depressed area. There's no gangs to speak of but there's plenty of domestic violence and low level nuisance crime such as car break-ins. Most violent crimes are likely drug related. Property and property taxes are astronomical. If both you and the wife have at or near 6 figure incomes you'll probably be perfectly happy in Asheville. It is a beautiful area with decent access to other cities such as Greenville, Charlotte, Atlanta, Knoxville, and Johnson City. While mountainous and next to the French Broad I'd give it a 5/10 of what's actually available in the state for geographical land features. The mindset of Asheville, the city as an island, is very liberal and progressive. When live music existed you are correct the city is pretty high up there and was my preference over traveling to Charlotte or Raleigh.

In summary, if you have better than median income and have good job prospects and are smart with your location choice Asheville is fine but you can do better with your money. It works best as an attraction. Having your family in the same area is a pretty good justification. Be prepared for more severe weather than the majority of the state.
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Thanks for this! Where are you in NC?

I should mention I am native to Raleigh, so I have lots of family there and in Durham, as well as Charlotte. We will be keeping our jobs from California, although I am currently in grad school (online) and the licensure requirements in NC, as opposed to CA, are much laxer for my job prospects when I'm finished with my degree. My wife is from Los Angeles, so really wants to be in a super liberal city and she has always loved visiting Asheville, that's why we chose it as our wedding location. It has the right mixture of outdoor beauty and urban culture. I'm curious what areas in NC you think are the best for geographical land features.
 
McGlam said:
Thanks for this! Where are you in NC?

I should mention I am native to Raleigh, so I have lots of family there and in Durham, as well as Charlotte. We will be keeping our jobs from California, although I am currently in grad school (online) and the licensure requirements in NC, as opposed to CA, are much laxer for my job prospects when I'm finished with my degree. My wife is from Los Angeles, so really wants to be in a super liberal city and she has always loved visiting Asheville, that's why we chose it as our wedding location. It has the right mixture of outdoor beauty and urban culture. I'm curious what areas in NC you think are the best for geographical land features.
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I currently live in Winston-Salem. I used to live in the Tri-Cities area of East TN so Asheville has always been a go to place for us. That said, my wife's family is in the Boone and Blowing Rock area and the mountains there are substantially better in all respects; culturally, height, trails, biodiversity, etc. That said, there is no urban culture so if that's a key ingredient you may be on point. If I had to move there I'd probably drop back and pick something like Black Mountain or Hendersonville.
 
I’m in Wilmington for a couple of days and just checked out Gravity Records. Have to say that was a really disappointing visit! The place has plenty of space but not a lot of records, and what they did have wasn’t of much interest at all. Their ‘used’ section consisted of racks organized by genre, with maybe 40-50 records total per genre, but that’s kind of a generous estimate (many of the record-sized rack spaces had 1-2 records in them). It just really felt like there must be another part of the store they weren’t telling me about (well, actually they didn’t tell me about anything—not particularly responsive to my queries). I’m glad it was only a .6 mile walk from where I’m staying. If I’d paid for an Uber I’d have been really bummed!
 
Russ I said:
I’m in Wilmington for a couple of days and just checked out Gravity Records. Have to say that was a really disappointing visit! The place has plenty of space but not a lot of records, and what they did have wasn’t of much interest at all. Their ‘used’ section consisted of racks organized by genre, with maybe 40-50 records total per genre, but that’s kind of a generous estimate (many of the record-sized rack spaces had 1-2 records in them). It just really felt like there must be another part of the store they weren’t telling me about (well, actually they didn’t tell me about anything—not particularly responsive to my queries). I’m glad it was only a .6 mile walk from where I’m staying. If I’d paid for an Uber I’d have been really bummed!
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I've ordered quite a bit from Yellow Dog Discs in Wilmington. Never been in their store but online selection seems pretty good. They're a RSD participant.
 
Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
I've ordered quite a bit from Yellow Dog Discs in Wilmington. Never been in their store but online selection seems pretty good. They're a RSD participant.
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Yeah, I might have miscalculated by not going to Yellow Dog. Maybe I’ll still have a chance. Thanks for the suggestion!

EDIT: @Yer Ol' Uncle D - heading to yellow dog now! Haha. I blame you 😜
 
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Hey hey - I've got two to tomorrow night's sold out Courtney Barnett show at The Orange Peel in Asheville and I'm not going to be able to go. Anyone interested?
 
Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
Hey hey - I've got two to tomorrow night's sold out Courtney Barnett show at The Orange Peel in Asheville and I'm not going to be able to go. Anyone interested?
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Too far away in Charlotte to make that happen, but I hope that someone was able to enjoy it!
 
Back home in Western NC and checking in after years in St. Louis.

I haven't been any further east than Charlotte in probably a decade or more. 😳 That will change with a trip to Raleigh next week. Looking forward to seeing how the Triangle as grown.
 
DrainedPatience said:
Back home in Western NC and checking in after years in St. Louis.

I haven't been any further east than Charlotte in probably a decade or more. 😳 That will change with a trip to Raleigh next week. Looking forward to seeing how the Triangle as grown.
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Welcome back! You’ll be amazed at the changes in the Raleigh area. There are even parts of Uptown Charlotte that I hardly recognize after just three years!
 
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