Charlotte/Raleigh vs Kansas City/St.Louis (living, best, cost)
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Which of these two cities combined do you think would offer the best combination together?
Economy
Education
Crime
Infrustructure
transportation
Cost of living
Quality of Life
Future
Which of these two cities combined do you think would offer the best combination together?
Economy
Education
Crime
Infrustructure
transportation
Cost of living
Quality of Life
Future
Hmm. I've lived in Charlotte near Raleigh and St Louis.
Raleigh and Charlotte takes it for education and crime.
Cost of living and quality of life is a tie.
Infrastructure and transportation St Louis and Kansas City.
Future. Judging on 20 previous years Charlotte and Raleigh
Economy. St Louis has the largest economy and Raleigh has the lowest unemployment rate. St Louis has the most fortune 1000 companies. It probably depends on what you are looking for.
Last edited by mjtinmemphis; 06-30-2018 at 05:30 PM..
This is almost like a Missouri vs North Carolina topic. I've lived in both states.
In some ways the states are sort-of similar in that they've got two metro areas that dominate the state (although NC has a third in the Triad I guess), they've got some mountains at one end of the state and some flatter areas at the other end of the state. I'd say NC has the better economy, though the unemployment rate in MO is actually lower (3.6% in MO vs 4.3% in NC). Cities in MO are more interesting by far and have more sports teams, weather in NC is milder both in winter and summer. NC is considerably more populous (10.2 million in NC vs 6.1 million in MO). All in all I'd say it really depends on what your preferences are for certain things.
I challenge you over the next year to drive around all 4 cities. Spend some time on public transportation buses and trains and then tell me what you think.
This is an interesting comparison and contrasts what's happening in Missouri vs. North Carolina. Charlotte and Raleigh both anchor two of the fastest growing metros in the nation.
Today, St. Louis CSA is larger than Charlotte's CSA, and Kansas City's CSA is larger than Raleigh's CSA. I think it's worthwhile to note that, in land area, both Missouri CSAs cover way more land area than the two NC CSAs. Kansas City's is the largest land area by far and more than doubles Raleigh's and nearly doubles Charlotte's. Even so, if current growth rates sustain, Charlotte will pass St. Louis in 2023, and Raleigh will pass Kansas City in 2027. In fact, Raleigh would pass St. Louis in 2033. As of now, the future belongs to the NC metros.
By crime rate, the order from safest to most dangerous statistically is Raleigh<<Charlotte<<<<<Kansas City<<St. Louis
By educational attainment, the order from most educated (city) to least is Raleigh>>Charlotte>>>Kansas City/St. Louis
Similarly, NC's Triangle arguably has the strongest higher education credentials of the four areas.
Infrastructure is a much trickier topic to consider because there is so many aspects to it. Airports, Roads, Transit, Bridges, Water, Internet, Parks, etc. I'd suspect that infrastructure would follow population but there are some detractors from that logic including Charlotte having the busiest airport of the 4 and K.C. having the least busy.
I'd suspect that the two NC cities are the most expensive but they also have higher household incomes than the two MO cities.
The two MO metros are more centrally located east to west and north to south in the US, but the two NC metros are centrally located north to south along the highly populated East Coast. The two NC metros have reasonable access to both the Appalachian Mountains and the NC/SC coast. MO has access to the Ozarks.
Charlotte is closer to Atlanta & Raleigh is the closer to DC, than St. Louis is to Chicago. K.C. isn't reasonably close to any Top 10 US metro.
Quality of life is a highly subjective topic that's usually measured as a combination of affordability (salaries vs COL), safety, health/healthcare, education. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions but I think NC's metros win this as well.
On paper, the Carolina cities might look better to a majority.
In reality, I'd find the Missouri cities to be much more livable.
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