I was visiting Wilmington this past weekend and I made an observation, there is a huge wealth differential, and an astounding number of homeless and very poor. Raleigh has some vagrants but I've never seen anything like what Wilmington has. Do other cities have huge Salvation Army dormatories like that one in Wilmington? I'm just wondering if Wilmington is as poor as it looks or if they just don't hide it like other cities. I live in Asheville and there is the tent city, and a few shelters, but for the most part, I don't see the roaming homeless like I did in Wilmington.

12/8/2005 4:34:09 PM

I've spent plenty of time in Wilmington and never noticed a large homeless population. Maybe you were just hanging out in the ghetto. I prefer Figure 8 when I am in town.

Raleigh arrests there homeless people if they don't have a permit to panhandle (which ironically costs money). That may be why you don't see them here as much.

12/8/2005 4:36:54 PM

raleigh has poor people too

12/8/2005 4:38:18 PM

I am aware that Raleigh has poor people too, just when I was there, there seemed to be sort of trains of homeless people, and when we were in downtown, there seemed to be a panhandler every block or so, which I've never seen in Raleigh.

I didn't know that Raleigh arrested its panhandlers, that explains Raleigh, and I imagine that in Asheville the shelters and the tent city are hidden from view so I guess the only panhandlers I would see would be drifters so that explains it I guess, it was just really sad down there.

12/8/2005 4:41:47 PM

permit to panhandle?




say what????

12/8/2005 4:42:57 PM

they need a permit so the city can keep track of how many people are on the streets.

12/8/2005 4:45:29 PM

Most of the people you saw were probably NOT homeless. I've seen the panhandlers down here go and get in their really nice cars and drive off. I have seen one or two really homeless people, but most of the poor here live in government housing and are not homeless.

I've lived here since May, and I've been visiting Wilmington since I was little. There are some bad sections of town (between Front and 3rd near Greenfield Lake, north and east of downtown past 5th street), but overall it is not that bad.

12/8/2005 4:52:58 PM

I've lived in Wilmington for a good while.....

Raleigh has FAR more homeless. Take a walk down Hillsborough St.

12/8/2005 4:54:36 PM

^so true. What TV station do you work for?

[Edited on December 8, 2005 at 4:55 PM. Reason : ]

12/8/2005 4:55:01 PM

I've noticed that part of 17 when going to and from Wilmington on the Southside has a lot of poor people.

12/8/2005 6:12:37 PM

Wilmington is basically my second home and I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. I've seen a prostitute around there before though. I do agree that there's pretty much little to no middle class there though. You're either poor and live around the 17th street ghetto or you're loaded and live in Landfall.

12/8/2005 6:19:05 PM

Have any of you Wilmington people seen the crazy guy who walks up and down Market Street talking to the power lines?

12/8/2005 7:10:35 PM

Theres Santa and the other guy in Ogden.

12/8/2005 7:42:40 PM

i always see alot of homeless in wilmington too but then again i get asked for 75 cents on hillsbourough street EVERYDAY

12/8/2005 8:35:05 PM

i live in Wilmington now, and did from middle school through high school before i moved to raleigh for school and i never felt like Wilmington had more homeless people than Raleigh...

i mean i don't think i ever got asked to donate money until i went to college (granted i have lived in Durham before too, so maybe that made wilmington seem super nice)

Please tell us exaclty where you were marilynlov7 just so i get a better idea...maybe i just avoid those parts of town? ie castle, princess, wooster st.

12/8/2005 9:07:31 PM

hopefully they will do some urban redevelopment, Wilmington could be a really great city without those slums

12/8/2005 9:14:12 PM

near the battleship bridge. between there and downtown its all slums and all bums. even downtown

12/8/2005 9:17:39 PM

I was moving my friend from Monkey Junction to some place just north west of Wilmington, near I-40 and Market. The main places I saw the very poor was on that stretch of road between Monkey Junction and 421, and then there were a lot on the outskirts of town, near where the road to her new place is, I can't remember what the name of that road is but when I talk to her again I'll ask. I know it was in the area of the big salvation army dormitory because we were all amazed at the size of the place, though admitadly, I've seen what Raleigh has along those lines.

12/8/2005 9:22:42 PM

"Perhaps if we wouldnt spend all our money on rims, we might have some to invest!!!"

12/8/2005 9:30:19 PM

Quote :

"Do other cities have huge Salvation Army dormatories like that one in Wilmington?"

Maybe not Salvation Army, but there is a men's homeless shelter in Raleigh (South Wilmington Street) that has enough beds for either 100 or 200 men (not including white flag nights, when the temp is 32 or below, where anyone can come in).. it's always full.

[Edited on December 8, 2005 at 10:07 PM. Reason : hmm]

12/8/2005 10:04:18 PM

omfg homeless ppl

12/8/2005 10:25:05 PM

in wilmington there are two kinds of people, the rich and the poor

its unfortunate but its very segregated by social class

12/8/2005 10:30:35 PM

theres a quite sizeable middle class

12/8/2005 10:32:18 PM

Quote :

"but there is a men's homeless shelter in Raleigh (South Wilmington Street)"

I found it humorous people were comparing the bad areas in Raleigh to Wilmington, and then the homeless shelter in Raleigh is on Wilmington Street.

12/8/2005 10:57:54 PM

This is funny, Wilmington has a very small homeless population, its just a small town and you see most in the downtown area. The areas surrounding downtowns are old slums so yes they are bad but no worse than Raleigh. Raleigh has more area of slums than the entire size of Wilmington and Wilmington is predominately middle class.

12/8/2005 11:09:50 PM

I think a lot of people confuse Wilmington with the surrounding beaches which leads them to believe that there are more rich people there, bur in the actual city of Wilmington, I would say there was more middle class. And some parts of Wilmington are really sketchy, but aren't some parts of every city?

12/8/2005 11:44:54 PM

i used to live in wilmington. one morning i was driving to class and i was at a stop light... this bum comes hauling ass pushing a grill from behind a house and is running down the street... the utensils and potholders flapping behind him. it was one of those moments when you're just proud to be a motherfucking american.

12/9/2005 10:04:23 PM