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This thread is a spinoff based from larger discussions in the "Greensboro vs Greenville SC" thread on CvC board; and the "Greensboro vs Durham" thread from this board. This is a two part question, and feel free to answer in any way you feel. Personal experience, quality of l8fe, amenities and attractions, etc. The options for both questions is Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem, Wilmington, and Asheville...
First:
What, in YOUR opinion, is North Carolina's 3rd city, and what frames your opinion?
When I posted this question in the Greensboro vs durham thread, I only included those two cities, and these other three options came up repeatedly throughout the thread, so this gives a larger framework to answer this question...
As a former resident of both Fayetteville and South Charlotte, Greensboro always had the reputation of the third city. Among the first things I heard was the recognition of A&T. I'd also heard that somewhere along the way, Greensboro used to be more esteemed and larger than Raleigh. Black culture in general seems to gravitate to Greensboro more than any of these other cities, and 102 Jamz is the consensus best urban radio station in NC, among people I'd spoken to...
The club and nightlife scene in Greensboro, I'd always been led to believe it was the best of these 5 cities, and even comparable to Charlotte's and Raleigh's in some way. The notoriety of being the largest city in its region helped form my opinion, as well. My sister went to WSSU and loved it, but she said she's been to Greensboro often. I've met scores of people from both cities, and I people from Winston have generally has that "little brother" vibe, almost as if they look up to Greensboro. I can tell you for certain that outside of the Triad, outside of the state even, Greensboro seems to have "slightly" more name association than Winston and these other cities...
I haven't been to Winston or Wilmington. I was in Greensboro for the third time this year last weekend. I have a more favorable opinion of it than I earlier had. I still think that Durham is a very close trail, but on all other objective stats, I still feel Greensboro is the No. 3 NC city...
Second:
What is the hierarchy of the "Next Five"?
Admittedly, I haven't been to Winston or Wilmington. I was NOT impressed with Asheville when I visited, but that was in 2005. On criteria that can actually be measured, I'd number 1)Greensboro 2)Durham 3)Winston 4)Asheville 5)Wilmington...
As to the voting process, your vote is for the Third City of NC. Thanks all, and I welcome and appreciate all debate!
Purely in terms of population, Greensboro has third place. This ranking is from C-D:Charlotte, NC 809,958
Raleigh, NC 439,896
Greensboro, NC 282,586
Durham, NC 251,893
Winston-Salem, NC 239,269
Fayetteville, NC 203,948
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/North-...#ixzz4Fi9WGrCf
In addition, Greensboro is the largest city in the third region of NC: the Trad. Wilmington and Asheville are way below these numbers. Even Cary is larger than tose two.
Greensboro is Third and Durham is fourth. IMO, even though the population of the two aren't too much different, (I'm not talking metro area population, here) Greensboro feels much larger than Durham and has a few more amenities that I would expect from a large city.
[It's shallow to do, but] If we just had to go off of Skylines, Winston-Salem would be third. Durham and Greensboro have pretty underwhelming skylines for cities their size.
I like Wilmington, and it is a pretty decent size for a city in this state, but I don't feel it overtakes Durham, Greensboro, or Winston-Salem. I do however, feel like it has a bit more going on than Fayetteville.
Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, IMO is one metro area and if you live anywhere in that metro area everything is available to you. IMO, far better than the Triad and Charlotte.
Downtown Durham is easily livelier than downtown Greensboro.
Durham has a better performing arts scene, more award winning restaurants, better shopping options, a more educated populace, a higher per capita income, a lower unemployment rate, better medical center, a bigger economy, a faster growing economy and a faster growing population.
However, Greensboro is for now still a bigger city and more importantly it is the premiere city of the Triad region, which does mean something.
I live in Durham, I personally wouldn't want to live in Greensboro but it is a nice place and possibly still worthy of being NC's third city.
Downtown Durham is easily livelier than downtown Greensboro.
Durham has a better performing arts scene, more award winning restaurants, better shopping options, a more educated populace, a higher per capita income, a lower unemployment rate, better medical center, a bigger economy, a faster growing economy and a faster growing population.
However, Greensboro is for now still a bigger city and more importantly it is the premiere city of the Triad region, which does mean something.
I live in Durham, I personally wouldn't want to live in Greensboro but it is a nice place and possibly still worthy of being NC's third city.
I agree. I've been to both and I always find myself wanting to go back to visit Durham. Greensboro, not so much. I don't hate Greensboro, it just never really appealed to me all that much. The best advantage (for me, anyway) that Greensboro has over Durham is that it's a quicker drive on US-29 from Danville than NC-86 from Danville to I-85 in Hillsborough. Both cities kick Danville's ass (which doesn't take much), so either way, I'm happy no matter where I visit.
I say Durham over Greensboro, only because before I moved to NC I knew absolutely nothing about Greensboro, had no idea it was the 3rd largest city in NC. Many people don't know that. I had however heard of Durham and knew it was near Raleigh. Now that I've spent a lot of time in both Gboro and Durham, well I still say Durham. Yes Gboro is the premiere city of the Triad but it's still underwhelming. Elm St is like the one strip of cool downtown, the rest is just not attractive to me. Durham has more for sure, plus DPAC. I think more people who aren't from NC know of Durham than they do Greensboro, but obviously that's just a guess...I would not move to Greensboro.
I would list Greensboro, simply because the Triad needs some love. Durham is often lumped in with Raleigh (in that godawful misused term "Raleigh/Durham" to refer to the metro area) and many of the amenities of Durham are Triangle-wide. I'm not sure what the point of this thread actually is, but in terms of the 3 biggest metros, it's certainly Charlotte, The Triangle, and The Triad.
Greensboro is Third and Durham is fourth. IMO, even though the population of the two aren't too much different, (I'm not talking metro area population, here) Greensboro feels much larger than Durham and has a few more amenities that I would expect from a large city.
[It's shallow to do, but] If we just had to go off of Skylines, Winston-Salem would be third. Durham and Greensboro have pretty underwhelming skylines for cities their size.
I like Wilmington, and it is a pretty decent size for a city in this state, but I don't feel it overtakes Durham, Greensboro, or Winston-Salem. I do however, feel like it has a bit more going on than Fayetteville.
Back when I lived in Greensboro, I use to like how the skyline looked when heading to Downtown from Friendly Center.
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