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I am from the Tri-Cities in northeast TN and am looking to get out. The area is just too small
The Triad seems to tick a lot of boxes, from being fairly close to this area for family purposes, to a larger population for dating and jobs. I don't want to go as large as Charlotte or Raleigh, but being from a "triple area," it kind of concerns me if the three cities are feuding and not cooperating.
I think its more of a friendly fued. The Triad doesn't corporate as well as the Triangle. Whie the Triad is a three city region, the cities tend to do whats going to benefit their own city. Greensboro and High Point have a better working relationship than Greensboro and Winston-Salem. I do think the Triad would be in better position economically if there had been more joint endeavors over the past few decades. The Triad cities need to understand that in order to become large economic centers like Raleigh and Charlotte, the Triad is going to have to work together as one unit. Thats the only way to compete with the Atlantas and the Charlottes. Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point alone are too small to be elevated on the same level as Charlotte or Atlanta. Burlington is also a primary city in the Triad and is geographically very close to Greensboro. Burlington is Greensboro's Concord (Charlotte/Concord). Its kind of become the forgotten Triad city and it too needs to be working with the rest of the Triad. Greensboro and High Point are like one big city. When you leave Greensboro you enter High Point. Greensboro and Winston-Salem have grown closer and closer together over the years. While the downtowns of those cities are over 20 miles apart, Greensboro's western edge is like five miles from Winston-Salem's eastern edge and Kernersville is sandwiched in between. If Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point were one big city, it would have a population of over 650,000. Imagine if the Triad worked together like they were one municipality. Greensboro and Winston-Salem need to stop fighting over which city is top dog in the Triad. If the two cities work together they will both reap economic benefits the cities have never seen trying to go it alone. Just look at areas like Dallas/Fort Worth which have worked together as one unit.
I don't want to go as large as Charlotte or Raleigh, but being from a "triple area," it kind of concerns me if the three cities are feuding and not cooperating.
The notion that the cities don't cooperate is exaggerated on this board. There has been a fair amount of Triad-centered cooperation through the years. When it all boils down, I think the reason there isn't more is that people would rather focus on their own city centers than build up arbitrary midpoints in Kernersville or Colfax.
If anything, there's more a sense of healthy competition, and even that won't affect your daily life one bit. If you live in Winston or Greensboro, especially, you'll probably spend most of your time in your own city, and if you ever do get an itch for something you can't find at home, you can usually find it 30 minutes away in the other city. And if you can't find it there, you can probably find it in RDU or Charlotte.
Don't let bickering between a handful of anonymous people on the internet color your impression of the area. It's not accurate or relevant.
The notion that the cities don't cooperate is exaggerated on this board. There has been a fair amount of Triad-centered cooperation through the years. When it all boils down, I think the reason there isn't more is that people would rather focus on their own city centers than build up arbitrary midpoints in Kernersville or Colfax.
If anything, there's more a sense of healthy competition, and even that won't affect your daily life one bit. If you live in Winston or Greensboro, especially, you'll probably spend most of your time in your own city, and if you ever do get an itch for something you can't find at home, you can usually find it 30 minutes away in the other city. And if you can't find it there, you can probably find it in RDU or Charlotte.
Don't let bickering between a handful of anonymous people on the internet color your impression of the area. It's not accurate or relevant.
The notion that the cities don't cooperate is exaggerated on this board. There has been a fair amount of Triad-centered cooperation through the years. When it all boils down, I think the reason there isn't more is that people would rather focus on their own city centers than build up arbitrary midpoints in Kernersville or Colfax.
If anything, there's more a sense of healthy competition, and even that won't affect your daily life one bit. If you live in Winston or Greensboro, especially, you'll probably spend most of your time in your own city, and if you ever do get an itch for something you can't find at home, you can usually find it 30 minutes away in the other city. And if you can't find it there, you can probably find it in RDU or Charlotte.
Don't let bickering between a handful of anonymous people on the internet color your impression of the area. It's not accurate or relevant.
That's good to hear. Where I am, Johnson City has largely taken the development lead, as it has a large university and is the most progressive town in the area, but the other two cities in the Tri-Cities are still trying to outcompete Johnson City. What this ends up doing is having three different cities that have a lot of redundant services and amenities, and the sum of the whole ends up being less than the sum of the parts.
What I'm looking for is an area that has more amenities than where I am now (Costco, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, maybe a Macy's (we have Belk in each city and one decent Penney's), etc. Friendly Center looks like a good place for me to start.
Someone in a thread I posted on the General US forums referred me to The Triad and what I've seen is very promising thus far.
I am from the Tri-Cities in northeast TN and am looking to get out. The area is just too small
The Triad seems to tick a lot of boxes, from being fairly close to this area for family purposes, to a larger population for dating and jobs. I don't want to go as large as Charlotte or Raleigh, but being from a "triple area," it kind of concerns me if the three cities are feuding and not cooperating.
I agree what was said in an early post, despite what you might read on the board, I think the cities all generally work together. Before I moved here, I always considered Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem as one place. I know they're technically different cities, but it's all the Triad to me and whatever we don't have in one city, it's a fairly quick trip to the neighboring city.
I do hope that each individual city continues to look for ways to grow, while having a good amount of inter-city development.
That's good to hear. Where I am, Johnson City has largely taken the development lead, as it has a large university and is the most progressive town in the area, but the other two cities in the Tri-Cities are still trying to outcompete Johnson City. What this ends up doing is having three different cities that have a lot of redundant services and amenities, and the sum of the whole ends up being less than the sum of the parts.
What I'm looking for is an area that has more amenities than where I am now (Costco, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, maybe a Macy's (we have Belk in each city and one decent Penney's), etc. Friendly Center looks like a good place for me to start.
Someone in a thread I posted on the General US forums referred me to The Triad and what I've seen is very promising thus far.
There's some redundancy between the two cities. While they're close, they're not close enough that each can't justify some of the amenities that the other has. It's not like Winston isn't going to get a Costco just because Greensboro has one. They're separate MSAs (though the same CSA) that each have populations over 700k.
Of that off-the-cuff list you named, both cities have Costco, WF, and Macy's. Winston has Trader Joe's, but Greensboro doesn't. Friendly Center has some things that you can't find in Winston, though, like an Apple Store, J. Crew, Anthropologie, and a few others.
The notion that the cities don't cooperate is exaggerated on this board. There has been a fair amount of Triad-centered cooperation through the years. When it all boils down, I think the reason there isn't more is that people would rather focus on their own city centers than build up arbitrary midpoints in Kernersville or Colfax.
If anything, there's more a sense of healthy competition, and even that won't affect your daily life one bit. If you live in Winston or Greensboro, especially, you'll probably spend most of your time in your own city, and if you ever do get an itch for something you can't find at home, you can usually find it 30 minutes away in the other city. And if you can't find it there, you can probably find it in RDU or Charlotte.
Don't let bickering between a handful of anonymous people on the internet color your impression of the area. It's not accurate or relevant.
Exactly. I don't get the sense around here that the competition between cities is all that bad. At worst, it might cause some delays on some projects. If you want to see an area where cities don't cooperate to the detriment of the region, take a look at Hampton Roads. Especially look at Norfolk and Virginia Beach. There's so much potential in that area... but Norfolk tries to develop (but lacks space) and Virginia Beach simply refuses to cooperate and will often try to one-up Norfolk. That isn't to say that Norfolk is innocent either.
I agree things seemed to be more inflamed on the message boards (mainly hatred towards Greensboro) but I have seen isolated situations where some Greensboro leaders have made remarks in the past basically saying if Greensboro didnt get its act together Winston-Salem was going to catch up. Make no mistake Greensboro covets its position being the largest city in the Triad and third largest in the state and is very protective of those positions. That's why about 10 years ago Greensboro did a mass annexation adding almost 30,000 people shortly after Winston-Salem did the same thing adding about the same number of people. So it ended up being a wash instead of Winston-Salem closing the population gap. Many in city hall thought Winston-Salem was getting too close to Greensboro in population and they feared this order was coming (Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point). Greensboro purposely did that before the 2010 census. This is why we have been seeing big jumps in population in Greensboro every 10 years. In 17 years since the 2000 census Greensboro has gained over 50,000 people. Between 1999 and 2000, Greensboro's population jumped from 199,000 to 228,000 again right before a census year. Because of recent changes in annexation laws we wont be seeing this happen again any time soon. But Greensboro is now in total fear that Durham will take its position being third largest in the state which is on track to happen over the next 10 to 15 years unless Greensboro's growth rate begins to grow faster.
Both cities are also guilty of copycatting to stay competitve with one another. For example, after Winston-Salem built a research park, Greensboro built its own instead of working with "Piedmont Triad Research Park" so Winston-Salem decided to distinguish itself by calling it an Innovation Quarter instead of a research park and dropped Piedmont Triad out of the name after it became clear that only Winston-Salem institutions were only going to take part. Then after Greensboro built its downtown ballpark, Winston-Salem turned around and did the same thing after taking a tour of Greensboro's ballpark. There are other examples of this more recently regarding performing arts venues. So yes there is competition, but things just seem to get nastier in tone on the message boards particularly on a one sided website forum which I will not name. But cooporation has still been limited on a number of fronts. I do think the cities could do a better job working together. The problem is that cities are reluctant in uses their resources that could help benefit the other city. However Greensboro and High Point have recently formed a group that would help bring jobs to Guilford County regardless of whether a certain company lands in Greensboro or High Point. City boundaries matter less these days to companies looking to move to metro regions.
I was a college student in greensboro and It was my father who went to the college before i did, thats really the only thing that brought me to Gboro and im sure alot of others go so this area becayse of the schools. with my experience though alot of the schools are in really bad areas and after i graduated i couldnt wait to leave Gboro, ive been in Charlotte ever since. I think at least on some small factor that may be why there is this small hate for Gboro , or ppl leave. My 2 cents
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