Think Twice Before Moving From Syracuse to the South
I moved to the metropolitan Charlotte, NC area from Syracuse a little over two years ago. Initially, I was really enthusiastic about the move, but after two years of trying to adapt, I am aching to get back to Syracuse.
I have found the people generally (with some exceptions) to be polite but cold and a bit arrogant. I'm not sure if this is a southern thing or a big-city thing, though. Also, in their defense, they are wayyyyyy tired of northerners - particularly those from NYC - moving here, negatively critiquing everything about the southern way of life, and then by sheer force of numbers, trying to change the stuff they don't like. I can't really blame them for that.
The weather is absolutely atrocious in the summer...heat, humidity, and blisteringly direct rays from the sun the likes of which I've never seen. I get a headache within about five minutes of stepping outside, and that is not an exaggeration. The native NCers tell me that the way they handle it is just to stay inside during July and August. What kind of sense does THAT make? If I want to stay inside for two months, I'll move back to Syracuse and stay inside for January and February, like all NORMAL people do, and then spend the lovely months of July and August outside, enjoying the beautiful Central New York countryside.
Surprisingly, although Charlotte is a big-ish city, the cultural life here is not great, and definitely is not as vibrant as tiny little Syracuse's. Isn't that odd? Their only homegrown theater (other than children's theater) closed the year I arrived, to the chagrin of many in the community. Apparently, this was due in part to some kind of controversial play or plays that were staged the year before...not sure about all of this, as I came in on the tail end of it.
Charlotte is also rather coarse in character. There is a crass overemphasis on accruing wealth, and it colors much of the growth and "progress" here. Charlotte itself keeps gobbling up every unincorporated part of Mecklenburg County that it can, which means there is a notable lack of a community feel to the suburbs. It's mostly just new-money urban sprawl, and it ain't pretty. Think McMansions on steroids, with tiny, tiny lawns and no community center. Couple this with the fact that the developers are pushing local government to put a ban on the construction of new starter homes in Mecklenburg and a couple of surrounding counties, and you begin to comprehend that it's ALL about how much wealth you have and how you can get more of it.
There is, however, a significant minority population, many of whom are underpaid immigrants, and my question to the uppercrust is, if you ban the construction of starter homes, just where on earth do you want the people you underpay to live? It's really annoying to see the chasm between the haves and have-nots here. There are also significant racist undertones - for example, just down the street from our house is a home (owned by a white man) with a statue on his front step of a black person in planter's garb waving a confederate flag. How the guy who owns this home sleeps at night is a mystery to me, and why someone hasn't toilet-papered (at the very least) his house is an absolute wonder. This would just never fly up north, at least not in the places I've lived. Here, however, this type of thing is not uncommon. I guess it's true that some in the South are still fighting the Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression, as they call it down here).
Unfortunately, my reality (for the time being) is that I have to stay in Charlotte. My husband (a Buffalo, NY native) has a wonderful job (not high-paying at all, but very rewarding) at a Christian mission organization...a job which is virtually irreplaceable. I have a reasonably well-paying job here, although nothing that I wouldn't gladly ditch for a chance to return to Syracuse (if my husband's job could be moved there, too!), but my prospects of finding a decent job in Syracuse are not great. At this point, the best I can hope for is that we'll retire in Syracuse.
So, anyhow, I hope CNYers come to appreciate all that they have...a lovely area to live, a reasonable cost of living, lovely communities, FOUR SEASONS (don't underestimate that!), blue/green water (here it's mostly reddish-brown, because of the red clay, I guess) Wegmans, Twin Trees Pizza (Italian food here is pretty awful), the Regional Market, etc...not to mention the excellent infrastructure, schools, and services (my acquaintances here are SO proud of low taxes; they tease me constantly about NYS taxes, but you get what you pay for - here the schools are so-so at best, the infrastructure is horrendous, and there are not a lot of services)...not to mention the warm, friendly natives. How I wish I were living there still!
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09-29-2006, 11:02 PM
goingbackhome :)
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