Crime affects 2016 economic scorecard for Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — An increase in crime is affecting Wilmington’s quality of life according the 2016 Scorecard released by the Chamber of Commerce today.

The report compares the Wilmington area to itself in previous years and to other cities that are similar. This is the second year the Chamber of Commerce has released this report. They unveiled it to a room full of city, county, and state leaders along with the business community.

Regional Economist Adam Jones said the area made the most promising improvement this year in the traded sector. He said that is businesses that sell product to areas outside of Wilmington. Jones said the scorecard also shows some negative effects from crime.

“One of the biggest changes we saw is in quality of life and that some of the crime issues in town are starting to filter through into the metrics, yet we still remain near the top when it comes to quality of life,” Jones said. “Wilmington is a great place to live. Don’t get me wrong.”

Jones said they started doing this last year, because they want to have a consistent, repeatable set of measures to compare each year to see how the city is doing.