How does it compare? Hospitalist moving to Charlotte in a few months from Cleveland :) (Huntersville: house, unemployment rate)

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by soooma

Does any body know where in Charlotte you find houses like those currently in Westlake ohio? and is southpark area more expensive than westlake,,,
and is southpark a bad daily commute from Monroe?

South Park to Monroe would not be a bad daily commute if you worked 8-5 because you would be traveling AGAINST traffic to get to work. It's about 20-25 miles depending on where exactly in South Park you chose to live. Figure on a 35 minute commute or so.

[soooma]

Originally Posted by lovesMountains

South Park to Monroe would not be a bad daily commute if you worked 8-5 because you would be traveling AGAINST traffic to get to work. It's about 20-25 miles depending on where exactly in South Park you chose to live. Figure on a 35 minute commute or so.

Thank you for your reply,
Well I think that is too long for me as a commute

What about Ballantyne or Matthews? From CMC-union hospital?

And by the way any idea about the reputation of this hospital?

thanks

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by soooma

Thank you for your reply,
Well I think that is too long for me as a commute

What about Ballantyne or Matthews? From CMC-union hospital?

And by the way any idea about the reputation of this hospital?

thanks

The reputation of the hospital has improved dramatically since it became part of Carolinas Healthcare Systems a few years ago. It is a very popular place for woman to deliver their babies, whereas in the past many pregnant women would come to Charlotte.

Matthews would give you a better commute than Ballantyne.

[soooma]

Originally Posted by lovesMountains

The reputation of the hospital has improved dramatically since it became part of Carolinas Healthcare Systems a few years ago. It is a very popular place for woman to deliver their babies, whereas in the past many pregnant women would come to Charlotte.

Matthews would give you a better commute than Ballantyne.

I appreciate your input, because I was really interested to know how the CMC-union is received by people their!
I appreciate your post, It was one of the most important to me.

thanks
have a nice day

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by soooma

And here are the things that I am looking at

1. Weather: winter , summer, fall, spring
2. Houses and prices.
3. Cleanliness
4. Liability for physicians and how litigating are the people
5. Does any body know about CMC-union and any feedback about it
6. Is traffic really something I should worry about if my commut is from Matthews to Monoroe CMC-union and should be there around 8:00 am , and coming back 4:00 pm ?
7. Safety wise,,, is Charlotte riskier than Cleveland? and here I am talking about both DOWNTOWN and Burbs ?
8. Are there places like Legacy village and Crocker park? or same style and as stylish and nice in Charlotte?
9. Hurricanes and tornados,,, I understand that Charlotte gets them every couple of years, what happens after that? I mean if you get to leave the city and come few days later, will you find you house ruined or completely soaked in flooding waters! and is it routine to insure against this in Charlotte?
10. I love Lake Erie and Put In Bay ? and I was really interested to know know Do lake activities of Charlotte compare? and you have 3 lakes? which one offers the best? and are they really different?

Thanks,
We are moving to Charlotte this June 2009 from Cleveland, just because of the weather, becasue people here are really nice and it has this hometown feel, but weather is not for us

SOOMA, take a breath man! You are wearing me out just trying to keep up, LOL!!

I cannot answer all your questions, but I have to address your obvious misunderstanding about our tornado activity or risks!

Even when we have had tornadoe's fly over they don't often touch down and when they do MAYBE 50 people might be affected - but certainly NOT the whole city and no one evacuates much less leaves the city for days. Maybe you are thinking of HURRICANES?

[soooma]

Originally Posted by lovesMountains

SOOMA, take a breath man! You are wearing me out just trying to keep up, LOL!!

I cannot answer all your questions, but I have to address your obvious misunderstanding about our tornado activity or risks!

Even when we have had tornadoe's fly over they don't often touch down and when they do MAYBE 50 people might be affected - but certainly NOT the whole city and no one evacuates much less leaves the city for days. Maybe you are thinking of HURRICANES?

Thank you lovesMountains,
You really relieved me,,, what about the Hugo? how many of those even happened to Charlotte in History

I really would appreciate if you just answer some of the questions in my previous post.

soooma

[brokensky]

Hugo was a big deal b/c it was a once-in-our-history occurrence. Hurricanes rarely affect inland portions of our state other than right along the coast. The worst damage they typically do inland would be lots of rain or right at the coast - inland water surge.

Houses are very reasonably priced and you won't have any problem finding a nice home in a good area.

Lake activities here are mostly centered on boating, skiing and fishing.

There are only certain areas of CLT that have random crime and you won't be going to those areas. Otherwise, CLT is like all other cities its size - there are always gonna be thugs who will steal cars and break into houses.

I have no idea how litigious people are here . . . but I would think the AMA could provide stats.

Charlotte is known as the "city of trees," and is also a very clean city.

[soooma]

thank you so much, the type of posts looking for
I appreciate this input,
and i am still waiting on others replying to my questions, because some are still unanswered,
come on people of the south, I heard about your being very friendly to new comers,,, especially if they have jobs before coming already ,,, just kidding.


soooma

[christebo]

I wanted to add about San Antonio as I lived there for 18 years. I have also visited North Carolina and loved it too.

I know people think of heavy Mexican influence on the culture in SA and this is certainly true but I can tell you that there are a multitude of cultural influences there. They include German and Czech as well. Also, since there are so many military bases there, you get an influx of people from all over the country. There seems be a fairly vibrant Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai influence in certain areas of the city as well. Some of the best Vietnamese and Thai food I have had as been in SA and I have West and East coast visits to compare to as well.

You mentioned liking and missing eating fish. I believe that you would do fine with either SA or CLT as they are similar distances from the sea. I lived about 155 miles to Corpus Christi when I was in SA. Fresh seafood wasn't a problem. You will not get the mountains close to SA. Nor will you get the larger trees you see in Charlotte. SA does have the Hill Country and there are some nice areas to drive through north of town but I would have to give the nod to Charlotte on overall beauty.

Quality of life has lots of measures. I believe SA to have an excellent quality of life. I think the only thing it gives up to Charlotte here is that SA has high property taxes but they should be going down with Texas's attempt at lowering these overall. Texas has no income tax. Granted, sales tax is 8.25% in SA (part of this goes to the bus system) but in Texas, many items are not taxed such as groceries, medicine, etc. I live in Louisiana currently and I am shocked by how much I am taxed here and that sales tax is charged on more items than in Texas.

The metro area in SA is probably smaller than CLT based on what another posted. It is probably in the 2MM range. But the city itself is much larger at 1.4MM and I would bet it geographically quite larger as well. SA is either the 7th or 8th largest city based on in city limits population.

The suburbs for the most part are quite nice. Working in the medical field, you would most likely work at the medical center and based on your posts, you probably would want to live about 10 - 15 minutes away. This would limit your choices but you would have some nice ones near the area.

So, in short, SA offers a little more cultural diversity, lower cost of living and no snow. However, SA is hotter, property taxes are still higher which effects your house payment even though you pay less taxes overall and if you have allergies of any kind, this probably isn't the city for you. Schools can be quite good to not so good as most areas. SA does have some very good private schools if you are willing to travel 20 - 30 minutes to take your kids there. You are also a little more than an hour away from the Austin area, 3 hours to Houston and about 4 hours to Dallas so you can take advantage of these areas without too much trouble.

Charlotte, offers the mountains, a prettier landscape in my opinion, an almost equal quality of life and access to the Atlantic (which I prefer to most of the Texas coast with the exception of South Padre Island [about 4.5 hours from SA]) I also like the fact that you are close to the Mid-Atlantic areas such as Virginia and Maryland. Charlotte does get colder but you are still in a southern state and the winters are much milder than Cleveland as you have mentioned.

I don't think you can go wrong with either one.

Chris

[soooma]

Originally Posted by christebo

I wanted to add about San Antonio as I lived there for 18 years. I have also visited North Carolina and loved it too.

I know people think of heavy Mexican influence on the culture in SA and this is certainly true but I can tell you that there are a multitude of cultural influences there. They include German and Czech as well. Also, since there are so many military bases there, you get an influx of people from all over the country. There seems be a fairly vibrant Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai influence in certain areas of the city as well. Some of the best Vietnamese and Thai food I have had as been in SA and I have West and East coast visits to compare to as well.

You mentioned liking and missing eating fish. I believe that you would do fine with either SA or CLT as they are similar distances from the sea. I lived about 155 miles to Corpus Christi when I was in SA. Fresh seafood wasn't a problem. You will not get the mountains close to SA. Nor will you get the larger trees you see in Charlotte. SA does have the Hill Country and there are some nice areas to drive through north of town but I would have to give the nod to Charlotte on overall beauty.

Quality of life has lots of measures. I believe SA to have an excellent quality of life. I think the only thing it gives up to Charlotte here is that SA has high property taxes but they should be going down with Texas's attempt at lowering these overall. Texas has no income tax. Granted, sales tax is 8.25% in SA (part of this goes to the bus system) but in Texas, many items are not taxed such as groceries, medicine, etc. I live in Louisiana currently and I am shocked by how much I am taxed here and that sales tax is charged on more items than in Texas.

The metro area in SA is probably smaller than CLT based on what another posted. It is probably in the 2MM range. But the city itself is much larger at 1.4MM and I would bet it geographically quite larger as well. SA is either the 7th or 8th largest city based on in city limits population.

The suburbs for the most part are quite nice. Working in the medical field, you would most likely work at the medical center and based on your posts, you probably would want to live about 10 - 15 minutes away. This would limit your choices but you would have some nice ones near the area.

So, in short, SA offers a little more cultural diversity, lower cost of living and no snow. However, SA is hotter, property taxes are still higher which effects your house payment even though you pay less taxes overall and if you have allergies of any kind, this probably isn't the city for you. Schools can be quite good to not so good as most areas. SA does have some very good private schools if you are willing to travel 20 - 30 minutes to take your kids there. You are also a little more than an hour away from the Austin area, 3 hours to Houston and about 4 hours to Dallas so you can take advantage of these areas without too much trouble.

Charlotte, offers the mountains, a prettier landscape in my opinion, an almost equal quality of life and access to the Atlantic (which I prefer to most of the Texas coast with the exception of South Padre Island [about 4.5 hours from SA]) I also like the fact that you are close to the Mid-Atlantic areas such as Virginia and Maryland. Charlotte does get colder but you are still in a southern state and the winters are much milder than Cleveland as you have mentioned.

I don't think you can go wrong with either one.

Chris

I have to admit that this is the best post I ever had posted in reply to any of my questions by far,,,

because you didn't spare anything, and you spent all that time trying to answer my questions abuot SA and Charlotte in a very tailored way to my questions.

I am very thankful for all this post

Well I have to admit it that for a while I felt unsure about whether SA or Charlotte would give me the quality of life I was looking for, but all in all, I have to be honest with you that the Job I signed for in Charlotte is really appealing, not money wise, becasue I had more lucrative offers but I am talking life style wise, and closeness to a major city Charlotte.

And up above all, though I know that SA is a very nice popular region, but I noticed that Charlotte and the Carolinas region seem to be the booming en vogue thing, and of course that will come at a price, of more congestion as wells as more problems, but I am sure that , from what I read at least, that the city planner at Charlotte are really really smart and they know very well what they are doing, for instance if you look at the Charlotte area that got the light rail when nobody saw this coming so easily like that,,,, when in SA they don't have till this moment, though I know that the free ways in SA are much wider and better in general.

By the way you may also need to know that Texas in general is more competitive and hard to get the medical license for and the visa's like H1 and J1 are not that easily handled or welcome, unless you are willing to work in the middle of nowhere.

soooma
thank you again