[Piedmont Rebel]

Charlotte's not bad if your a techy. That market's weird all over, so North Carolina's basically the same as everywhere else.

Most of the smaller communities like Hickory have volatile economies, so I wouldn't immediately relocate to a place like that.

As far as being conservative, NC is weird. Any town with a college (Winston, Greensboro, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham, Charlotte, Wilmington, Asheville) are all extremely liberal places. Very artsy...very pro-homosexual. The rest of the state is fine.

[El Gran Salseron]

Austin?

Commie pigs if you ask me.

[Prospero]

Definitely weird, divided and polarized everywhich way but loose. Few unifying principals. Rural / Urban 50 - 50. West v. Charlotte v. Piedmont v. Raleigh v. East. Democrats dominate state government, but GOP achieving parity by way of immigration (Intrastate). Spectacular beauty, humble people, beautiful beaches, concealed carry, stupid Death Penalty Moratorium should expire soon. I work in Raleigh, and live about as far East as you can go and still keep your feet dry, near the undiscovered inner coast. Since 1990, population up 16 percent to 8,400,000 last year. State spending up 120 percent in same period. I like the state motto: To Be Rather Than Seem. Come help restore the vision...

[Mark in the Old South]

I lived in NC for 8 years and 1/2 of the family are Tar-heals so for what it is worth.

NC is an interesting mix of country values - conservative and liberals who are ashamed of their state. The churches fit that description as well. They like their guns but have stricter laws than - say Virginia. The politics are equally split, after all this is the state that replaced Helms with Edwards, not what I would call a conservative trend. In Presidential elections they voted for Clinton at least once and Jimmy Carter both times he ran. While most of the South has been going Republican NC has been dragging up the rear with Georgia. In Georgia's defense I will point out they remained Democrat with the likes of Zell Miller.

In short the cities are liberal so are the universities (like everywhere else) The countryside is nice with the suburbs falling somewhere in between. I think a case can be made it is a liberal valley between two mountains of conservatism. Of course everything is relative, it ain't Mass-ass-achooches.

[George Smiley]

How long does it take to get a gun license in NC?

Depends upon what you mean.

For long guns, there is no such thing.

For handguns, you have to go and get a pistol purchase permit from the Sheriff of the county in which you reside.

This is a remnant of the old Jim Crow laws which were enacted to keep blacks from having concealable weapons.

You have to take proof of residence (a utility bill), a government-issued ID, and a character reference (you bring somebody with you.), you fill out the form stating that you aren't in any of the categories of folk that are prohibited from having handguns, you pay for your permits, and you come back in about a week [during which they run the requisite background checks] to pick them up.

Permits are $5 apiece, you can get up to 5 at a time, and they're good for five years.

You give them to the seller of the handgun (this even applies to private sales and inheritance, although the law doesn't say what a seller is supposed to do with them.)

The waiting period incorporated in the permitting process also takes the place of the Brady waiting period.

Concealed handgun permits are also obtainable-- NC is a shall-issue state. I'd suggest you check packing.org or grnc.org for details.

[mykdsmom]

I've lived in Raleigh for the past 9 years so I can't speak to the area of the state you are interested in. As far as taxes go I would say that NC is VERY high tax wise. Last I heard we had the highest tax burden in the SE.

Job wise, like the previous poster posted, kind of weird. Tech area here is RTP (Research Triangle Park). We were hit pretty hard with downsizing with the .com bust. Things are coming back but fairly slowly in some areas. Guess it depends on what you're looking for.

Politics here is pretty liberal. I hear that the Charlotte area is more conservative than Raleigh though. NC goes R for Prez but D everywhere else pretty much.

I'll post a link to your thread on the NC board. We have a lot of members in the area you're inquiring about, they can probably give you better info than I can.

I would pick a state w/o state taxes if I were you. TX has no state taxes but is overrun with illegals, well NC is pretty much getting overrun with them too.

MKM

[Malesherbes]

I've lived in N.C. and agree it's a weird mix. A simple way to check the political complection of a region of the state is to look up the party affiliation of the politicians elected from that area. The old split, roughly, was that the west was Republican and the east Dixiecrat and Chapel Hill forever liberal. Everything is more complicated now.

[Malesherbes]

I've lived in N.C. and agree it's a weird mix. A simple way to check the political complection of a region of the state is to look up the party affiliation of the politicians elected from that area. The old split, roughly, was that the west was Republican and the east Dixiecrat and Chapel Hill forever liberal. Everything is more complicated now.

[clyde asbury]

Depending on your field, the best area of NC for tech work, by far, is RDU and the Research Triangle Park. Suburban/rural counties of RDU are growing rapidly and are still conservative.

[ncdrumr]

Compared to my homestate of IL, I've found that property taxes are very reasonable in NC. And the state is much more conservative, of course. Research Triangle Park, between Raleigh and Durham, is very tech- and biotech-centered with companies like IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, Cisco, etc.

On the weekends you can go to the mountains or the coast, the people are nice, lots of FReepers...We love it here. If you haven't visited already, you might do that before moving.

[clyde asbury]

In general, historically over the past couple of decades:

The Charlotte-Gastonia and the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro areas have consistently grown rapidly. The Greensboro-Winston-High Point-Burlington metro area has slower, but steadier, growth.

Of course, faster growth comes with housing, traffic and other problems. Slower growth doesn't, but many prefer it.

I'm not very familiar with the Asheville area, tho I like what I've seen.

[clyde asbury]

Here's an RTP website with company listings of job postings.

[azhenfud]

Lived in NC all my life. Can't help ya though - I'm too far to the right - over near the coast.

[bolobaby]

Thank y'all kindly for the input - it's been extremely helpful.

It's still not exactly decided where we'll be moving to yet, but it's nice to know that wherever my wife and I go, we'll still have THIS community (FR) to count on! :-)

[TaxRelief]

Does anyone have any advice for a potentially-new NC Resident/FReeper?

NC *Ping*

Let Constitution Day or Taxrelief know if you want on or off the NCPing list, or if you think you've been accidentally dropped, or ....

[krb]

We have the highest tax rates in the Southeast.

[91B]

I live in Morganton, so you can freepmail me if you like with questions. It is not too hard to get a concealed carry permit and NC has the death penalty. You can get by without too much interference from social services provided you put your foot down if they come snooping (they probably won't). I'm happy with the political situation locally. BTW Burke county has two new high schools planned and there is a big new development at the lake in the works if those are considerations for you.

[91B]

Lake James.

This is a good link to the development at the lake. Be more specific about what kind of job you are looking for and I might be able to tell you where to start looking.

[NCSteve]

Laws - liberal or no? How long does it take to get a gun license in NC? Does NC use the death penalty? Does social services inject themselves into everyone's life?

Big government is getting more prevalent every day. I'll let others answer the gun question. My shotgun sits pretty quietly most of the time, only occasionally going for some sporting clays or to rid the garden of a particularly pesky varmint. The General Assembly has passed a number of laws in the last ten years giving social services pretty egregious access to your personal business. Comparatively speaking, we are less liberal than Maine or New York, but also far less libertarian than either Virginia or South Carolina.

Values - as South Park put it, "tolerant" means you put up with something, not embrace it wholeheartedly. I'm looking for a place that values nuclear families, Christian values, neighborly attitudes, and personal responsibility. Being tolerant of other lifestyles shouldn't mean a gay pride festival every two weeks.

That basically comes down to whether you live in a city or a rural area. We are still part of the bible belt, but Charlotte, Durham, and Raleigh all have seen gay pride parades. I think Durham has several every year. In rural areas, you will be disaffected pretty quickly if you have a tendency to drink a lot, work on Sunday, or engage in loose sexual habits. Quite a dichotomy.

Economy - I'm a tech guy: do you think I will be able to find computer work out that way? Does the place feel abandoned or like it is growing?

I'm a thirty-year IT veteran myself. Tech is thriving in NC. Unfortunately it happens to be doing so around the most liberal areas of the state. IBM, Sun, AT&T, and Lucent all have major presence in NC. And of course, NC is the home of Red Hat Linux. You may have to be willing to commute long distances to live a conservative life-style but still enjoy the fruits of a tech salary. I drive 50 miles one way every day.

Kids - How are the schools? Recreation? (Readers Digest names Morganton as one of the second best places to raise a kid - still think this is true?)

The public schools are atrocious and getting worse all the time. Do not even consider putting your children in NC public schools. They are nothing more than socialist indoctrination centers and they graduate crops of functional illiterates every year. On the other hand, NC is very friendly to school choice. There are a lot of church-based private schools as well as many of a secular nature. And NC has a strong Home-Schooling community.