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No judgement sometimes i wonder why im not more like that. Raleigh isnt bad. Most of western wake county plus wake forest are decent suburbs and safe places to live. But i have to say i think about downtown charlotte at night when making my rounds in downtown raleigh and theres no comparison. Raleigh is a large college town with some decent suburbs.
Raleigh is a large college town with some decent suburbs.
More or less.
You could say the same about Austin or Columbus (Ohio) - just that they're larger college towns with suburbs.
The Triangle is what it is largely because of all the people who moved there. It was about 750,000 people combined in 1990. Now we're well over two million. They plopped a bunch of subdivisions over tobacco and soybean fields with scarcely updating the infrastructure around it. Too much of the area where I grew up is like that, and so I wasn't all that thrilled to see the same thing somewhere else and have to drive around in it every day. But it has a lot to offer, if you happen to go to college, or you are from the northeast and you want a cheap(er) place to live.
I'm quite familiar with both cities and don't really see much difference between them. Charlotte is bigger, of course, but the Triangle has 3 big universities which adds some liveliness Charlotte doesn't have, so it's pretty much a wash.
I do like how Charlotte has nice likes, closer to the mountains, better downtown, auto racing, and great golf. Raleigh being boring might not be the best term because im a pretty simple guy but for the few things i do like to do Charlotte fits the bill better. Boating, snow sports, golf, auto racing, fixing up the house etc.
I was going to say I've found Charlotte and the Triangle to be pretty comparable IMO, however based on the above statement the move to Charlotte might not be a bad idea. Boating and Auto Racing are two areas where Charlotte should have a considerable advantage (although I'm not too familiar with Falls or Jordan Lakes - are they not good for boating?). But of course in Charlotte you'd most likely need to be pretty close to Lake Norman or Wylie to enjoy it, and obviously boats aren't cheap.
Boats are cheap but the upkeep is what will get ya. And the whole thing about it being a wash b/w the two i can understand that. Both do have nice suburbs and also crappy suburbs. Lake norman is much nicer than both jordan and falls lake although you can do plenty of boating on jordan and falls as well. As for auto racing of course CLT wins. As for a nice downtown to get drinks or food at night or say a small business meeting CLT wins. More jobs in CLT and higher average pay too. Also CLT is a newer city so things tend to be more clean and appealing. Oh and GOLF CLT wins again.
Raleigh has no light rail. Charlotte is certainly ahead of the Triangle in this regard...not only with what we have but what is coming...tomorrow in fact!
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