We have decided to embark on a new chapter for our family. After living in this neighborhood for almost two years, we have decided to head out and find another more semi-permanent (for us) home. Our decision for doing so mainly has to do with the fact that our neighborhood, and in particular our street and a neighboring street, have experienced gun violence in the last six months, and it hasn't been just once. The mall a few miles from our house has had multiple incidents of gun violence these past six months, so much so that stores like Apple are pulling out of that area and are moving to a safer location. In the other direction, a few miles away near the University of North Carolina - Charlotte campus there have been multiple gun incidents as well. Some of them have been drug related, but at least one incident involved a mother of 4 being shot to death by an unknown assailant while getting money out of an atm. The perpetrator was not known by this woman according to video surveillance and police reports. Some random shmuck decided to rob and kill an innocent woman.
The gun violence on our street was a drug related/ gang incident in which a car was chasing an individual who lives on the street next to ours through the neighborhood. There were two different guns fired, one of which the police said was a high-caliber gun, three neighbors had random bullets sprayed through their homes. Two of them had a stray bullet go through their windows and into second story bedrooms. We all heard the gunshots that night - as we did the weekend or so before when a gun was discharged right in front of our home at the bottom of our driveway after a party a few houses down got out of hand. These are not the only incidents either. It is rare for us to not hear guns being fired on the weekends.
The police presence has been almost nil. They come after these incidents, but then leave and do not patrol our neighborhood until the next incident occurs. Then they come and take a police report, leave, and that is that.
It is crazy to me that I live somewhere where I feel partially unsafe. I have lived all over this country, and never once have I felt unsafe in my own home and walking the dog through my own neighborhood at certain times of the day/night. Yes, most of these incidents are drug related and only seem to affect those involved, but my new reality is that on any given night a random bullet could come into our home because a shot missed its mark. It is scary. I never in a million years thought I would live somewhere like that. We live in a nice neighborhood where I would never expect gun violence to occur. Maybe, that's my problem though. Maybe gun violence can happen anywhere? Or maybe I just shouldn't live within a city's zip code?
I don't know. What I do know is that I am very thankful that we have the means to move ourselves as it is not cheap to do so. I am excited (as is everyone in the house) to move to a house that better fits our family's needs and to go on the house hunting journey as a family. In all of our moves, this will be the first time the kids will be able to (most of them) join in on our search and put their two cents in. We plan on beginning our house hunt in earnest on April 1st, but have been scouting a few locations already.
What we do know is that we are looking for a five-bedroom house that also has an office. We would like it to back up into trees/woods so that we are not looking directly at our neighbors behind us. I would like a new build, but that isn't a must. I would also like a nice kitchen with wood floors on the main level, and carpets on the second floor. I would love to have all 5 bedrooms on the second floor. A deal breaker is if a neighborhood does not have a community pool. The summers get too damn hot here, and there are very few public access points to water such as lakes locally, so a pool is a must. Bobby would like to find a house with both a front porch and a deck. Another major plus for him would be if the house has a basement. (These seem to be rare here, but they can be found occasionally.)
I am excited to start a new chapter in a safer neighborhood. We are looking to stay at this location for the next 3+ years so that the kids can start/finish their college experiences. North Carolina, as I have mentioned before, offers amazing scholarships to kiddos who are residents to this state making college very affordable. We will most likely stay in this state until everyone has obtained his/her degrees. Then we will head out to somewhere more to our liking as we do not want to remain in North Carolina long term.
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