Does anyone regret moving to Charlotte?/ what makes charlotte so great?

[1WVULAWGRAD]

Make sure whatever you are looking for is located in Charlotte (culture, jobs, diversity, etc...) before you move there. It can be an overrated and bland experience for most young people from real city environments, but if you have some money and free time you can find something that interests you almost anywhere you go in the world. It is definitely not a city to move to if you are looking to get ahead, but there are some positives (blandness is not always a bad thing for people moving from hectic, urban places or true rural environments). Good luck with whatever you decide.

[vindaloo]

[quote=1WVULAWGRAD;11048891]Make sure whatever you are looking for is located in Charlotte (culture, jobs, diversity, etc...)

This is always a wise thing to do.

before you move there. It can be an overrated and bland experience for most young people from real city environments,

- Any place can be overrated. It solely depends on the expectations of the newcomer. Are you an authority that can actually speak for "most young people from 'real' city environments? What is a "real" city? Is Charlotte a make believe place? Most young people I meet love it here. I suppose they can make friends and get dates.

but if you have some money and free time you can find something that interests you almost anywhere you go in the world.

- So if you have money, it isn't neccessarily bland?

It is definitely not a city to move to if you are looking to get ahead

- There are still opportunities for some have have certain professions. I don't really know if you realize that we are in some dire economic times. Things in Charlotte are no different than in most other larger cities Charlotte's size.


but there are some positives (blandness is not always a bad thing for people moving from hectic, urban places or true rural environments).

-There are people from 123 foreign nations living in Charlotte. One out of eight families speak other than English. Charlotte has vibrant entertainment uptown including performing arts. Restaurants are internationally represented and the county has numerous gorgious parks for biking, running, walking, and even camping. Three brand new museums are in the final process of being built downtown. Charlotte is the home to professional football, basketball, NASCAR, hockey, and the home to the U.S. Whitewater Rafting Association. Additionally, Charlotte is two hours from the mountains and three hours from the beach. Finally, our international airport offers trips to London, Munich, Frankfort, Paris, as well as major destinations to Central and South America. One would assuredly be remiss not to become involved in activities this city has to offer. It may not be better than some places, but to say it is "bland" would have to come from one that never gets out.

[Sean_CLT]

I wouldn't worry too much about the "bland" comments. To someone that wants to live in a place full of single family housing of large lots with trees, Charlotte offers a lot of "choice". We also have plenty of retail "choice" along our commercial avenues, (even if they may seem cluttered and sprawl-y.)

Charlotte has at least a little of just about anything an "urban" person could want. Maybe not every day, or without necessitating a drive across town ... but that's part of the compromize of living in a mid size city, versus a megacity.

[1WVULAWGRAD]

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[md to nc]

Originally Posted by luvstrawberries

Im moving from MD, and I have heard and kind of expect a lower pay cut, but paying lower property will over weigh that

If it puts your mind at ease, which it may, I moved from MD as well. I am making the same salary and actually paying the same in taxes. I don't see a difference at all.

[Tober138]

Originally Posted by md to nc

If it puts your mind at ease, which it may, I moved from MD as well. I am making the same salary and actually paying the same in taxes. I don't see a difference at all.

I also moved from MD. It seems to me that the cost of living is significantly less here. You can find more house for less money. My combined, monthly bills from Duke and Piedmont are consistently about half (or less) than what I paid to BGE every month. I have the same salary I had in MD and it seems like I have more disposable income than I did up there.

[bs13690]

Originally Posted by Tober138

I also moved from MD. It seems to me that the cost of living is significantly less here. You can find more house for less money. My combined, monthly bills from Duke and Piedmont are consistently about half (or less) than what I paid to BGE every month. I have the same salary I had in MD and it seems like I have more disposable income than I did up there.

This was my experience too. My wife and I kept our same salaries but pay less in bills.

[Tober138]

Originally Posted by sanna

I am college educated, professional, and have many places to compare this to - in and out of country. Unfortunately, sometimes a person has to live some where, not because they want to. It's not Lame..it's life. I can't imagine why Charlotte is the most desired location for people to locate to. It's a strange mix of Southern and Northern and it just doesn't seem to work. It's a very odd place and I can't quite seem to find the pulse here. The schools are awful. The people are not friendly. If you like boring, suburban, unsporty, bad food, Walmart shopping , and crazy church people then most certainly one would attain to try to live here. New people should be aware..it's not all it's cracked up to be and have verbally encountered many who feel the same.

I also a professional with an advanced degree and can also compare Charlotte to lots of other places in both the U.S. and abroad. More to the point, we were able to keep our jobs and relocate to pretty much anywhere we wanted to when we chose to come here (we didn't even have to relocate, we just wanted a change of scenery from the MD/DC area). So we came here because we wanted to.

We have had no problem finding the "pulse" here as it were. We've met a ton of great people and made a lot of friends in the 15 or so months since we moved down here. Charlotte is a little more "laid back" than the northeast, but I would not call it boring. We have no lack of social activities or things to do; yes we prefer to live in a more suburban community, but do spend a lot of time uptown. I don't know what you mean by "unsporty" - a lot of people here like their local NFL/NBA teams, and we go to a lot of Checkers games. We have also been to a number of very good restuarants in the area as well - although every city has its share of restaurants whose food is somewhat blah. And, yup, they have a WalMart here, just like pretty much every place else in the country, but there is also a lot of upscale shopping as well. And the only "crazy church people" I have encountered were a couple of folks the other week who kept trying to hand me pamphlets and talk to me about Jesus...but that was in the Milwaukee airport, not here.

So what made it desireable for us? A lower cost of living, more bang for our buck in terms of housing, and a slightly more relaxed pace than up north. But then, maybe that's because we're in our late 30's and our priorities aren't the same as when we were, say, 24 or 25. We like it here, and although we have the freedom to put our house on the market, pack up and go pretty much whenever we feel like it...we're not leaving any time soon.