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View submission: New Bern Vs. Wilmington
Hello, welcome to Eastern, NC. With your youthful ages, Wilmington will certainly have far more activities to enjoy. I lived in Wilmington for a few years while at UNCW. I currently live in New Bern. New Bern is a high percentage of retirees and a town of only 30k. I am 42 and I get bored quickly here. Things close early, selection of food and activities is small, and good medical care is hard to find. We do have some places that are steady with live music and a few bars have really started pulling the younger crowd out at night, so there's some hope for the nightlife. New Bern is very MAGA focused if that matters to you. You didn't mention your gender identity or your partner's but if you're in the LGBTQ+ group, Wilmington is the far better choice. New Bern has a small pride organization with a couple events here and there, but you'd be hard pressed to see a rainbow flag downtown. New Bern seems tolerant overall, but not super accepting. Wilmington will have far more traffic and more crime, but those generally come when an area has more people and more things to do. Wilmington is in the 120k population range and is a bit closer to the beach (wrightsville or carolina) where New Bern is about an hour from the beach. Both places are tourist-based economies, but New Bern is nicely located between Camp Lejune and Cherry Point with lots of civilian federal jobs (for now). Wilmington has the university, the state port, the hospital system, and some industrial as their largest employers. For seasonal work, Wilmington will have more opportunities be it service industry, parks, tourism, etc. Lastly, Wilmington has some public transit (buses) where New Bern has none. If you have specific questions, feel free to let me know!
There's nothing here!