Totally Freaked About Moving to Raleigh! (Garner, Clayton: travel, house, construction)

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by saturnfan

Raleigh has been the nicest state we've tried.

"Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." -George W. Bush, Gothenburg, Sweden, 14 Jun 2001

Are you a relative? But yeah...all that taxation and the residents of NOLA still got screwed by every aspect and level of government

Now....having actually read this entire thread for the first time, and reading it again because it was moving quickly....

-Year-round school has been in Texas and still exists in a few districts notably a very small one near Houston that consistently fails academically and financially. This one is actually undercrowded because anyone who can afford an alternative does so. Very property-poor district. Elsewhere, it was not due to overcrowding, at least never that I heard, but more of some kind of educational fad in the 1990s in which some school administrators were going "oh, we can't have summer vacation anymore or the kids forget everything they learned...." Anyway, some schools went to it, there was a lot of grumbling, most decided it wasn't worth it and scrapped it in a few years. When our schools get crowded they build new ones. It's the least you can expect when most of your taxes go to schools.

-Texas is not a utopia and if you come here thinking that, it's not. We do have stodgy, cookie-cutter suburbs that are indistinguishable from much of the Triangle, and if you're in a Wal-Mart shopping center in Porter, Texas or in Clayton or Garner on a hot, humid July afternoon you'd hardly know the difference if you didn't look at anything in the background too closely. But there are more cities with a distinct city identity more to do for young people who are not children or college students. What do you do for fun on the weekends in Raleigh? You leave Raleigh. You go to the beach or to the mountains. I even knew of people who drove all the way down to Charlotte to hit the clubs and such. When you have people doing that, establishing a nightlife at home is even harder. It's also expensive to do that on a regular basis given the distances. Almost every dude I met who was under 30 and not married wanted out of the Triangle in the worst way. But, I think the new downtown in Raleigh will help out tremendously much in the way efforts to boost nighttime activity in downtown Houston did wonders for this city.

Rather than getting into everything that's wrong in Texas, if you can read this, you can read the Texas and the city forums. I don't dip my posts in honey over there either.

[saturnfan]

When we find perfection, it won't be on this planet.

[carolinadreamin']

But there are more cities with a distinct city identity more to do for young people who are not children or college students. What do you do for fun on the weekends in Raleigh? You leave Raleigh. You go to the beach or to the mountains. I even knew of people who drove all the way down to Charlotte to hit the clubs and such. When you have people doing that, establishing a nightlife at home is even harder. It's also expensive to do that on a regular basis given the distances. Almost every dude I met who was under 30 and not married wanted out of the Triangle in the worst way. But, I think the new downtown in Raleigh will help out tremendously much in the way efforts to boost nighttime activity in downtown Houston did wonders for this city.

When did you live in Raleigh? The "Glenwood South" and "Warehouse District"
have lots of clubs and restaurants and they are packed every weekend. Anybody that would drive to Charlotte for nightlife beyond what Raleigh has
to offer is going to be highly disappointed. As for local young people, my job
inquires me to deal with hundreds of people in the twenty-something crowd
(by choice, I like young people). The majority of them are very positive about
the Raleigh area with many of them seeking out Raleigh by it's great rep.
Raleigh is full of recent college grads and has more and more places that cater
to them. As for the weekends trips to the beaches and mountains, that's just
the bonus of living in NC,I've never noticed people in Raleigh utilizing the mountains or beaches any more than folks living in other areas with close proximity to both.

[jello212]

Be careful, that glare traveling west on I-10 on a clear evening in Pensacola can be hell.

Don't worry, that glare was the back of my car getting out of pensacola. It's been taken care of.

I can't find the link but I saw something the other day that showed amt of taxes paid per 1000/income in sate/local taxes (factoring in property tax, sales tax, income tax, etc). NC residents paid $99 per 1000 and Texas paid 94 per 1000. Not too much difference.

[jfre81]

Don't worry, that glare was the back of my car getting out of pensacola.

It is dangerous to travel east in on westbound I-10. You might even get a ticket. Pensacola....I have never seen more trucker hats with cheesy one-liners in a single gas station.


Like I said...it is there in some form. I've been down Glenwood. There is a nightlife that is growing. However, it's not anywhere near the level of just about any city Raleigh's size or bigger. When you don't have kids and you don't need a big house or yard and you don't care about the schools, your options go are very numerous. For those people, moving to the center of Charlotte or Atlanta or Houston is a better bet. Most of the clubs in Raleigh seem to be country-oriented. Once again, limited crowd that will draw. With all the people coming from places like NYC, it sounds like Raleigh is a retirement home for single partiers once they settle down and have kids. That's awesome for them.

It could be compared to Houston's nightlife scene circa 1980. If you have ever seen "Urban Cowboy" with John Travolta, it's basically the oil-boom-era Texas honky tonk version of Saturday Night Fever. That was pretty much what was here back then. That was also almost 30 years ago, and nothing stays the same that long. Maybe Raleigh will be the most happening spot on the East Coast south of Manhattan come 2025. But it's all just potential right now.

Maybe in 2025, Raleigh will also have a transit system, giving people an alternative to designated drivers or driving drunk. That will also help.

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Most of the clubs in Raleigh seem to be country-oriented.

I would have to say my experience here does not support that take. How long ago was it that you lived here?

I work downtown and, and I hit downtwon Raleigh almost weekly with Friends, but we usually hit the wine bars, martini bars, Tapas Bars ect.... Great beer selection at the FLying Saucer! I have been over to the City Limit saloon closer to the NCSU campus. While it is true that they have a mechanical bull, most of the music was not country. However, I tend to hangout in the Glenwood Avenue, Moore Square, and Cameron Village areas of Raleigh. I see lots or rock, jazz and blues ..... not much country though.

[lamishra]

I would have to say it's been quite a while since you've been here. I can only think of a single country oriented club in the whole city (The Longbranch, which has been here since the beginning of time!). Most are totally NON country night clubs, very geared to the hipper artsy crowd or younger professional crowd, on scale with anything you'd find in any other major metropolitan area: Charlotte, Atlanta, even DC. There are some REALLY awesome clubs down there, and quite a lot now.

[Waterboy526]

I totally agree with both of you. I don't even know of a country bar anywhere downtown? Most of Glenwood south is pretty upscale and there are great bars/clubs throughout downtown that are very upscale. I'll have to lookup the country joint, just because I haven't heard of it. I've been here only 1 year and love downtown Raleigh and I'm sure it's only going to get better.

[jfre81]

City Limits Saloon (though it seems toward the end they were going more towards rock)...Long Branch....these aren't technically downtown I guess, but this is what I am talking about. The traffic and construction and signage that did not really let you know what roads were closed served to repel me from downtown, but that's over now. Warehouse District seemed like it was all a college hangout. Students are a pretty insular bunch. Their world is their campus and wherever they hang out.

I don't disagree that it's going to get better, but still not something I can see single young people who aren't in school going to Raleigh for. If work takes them there, then I suppose they may have something to do after all. All said, it didn't help on my end that I lived out in the sticks of Johnston County and ended up having to be a designated driver for my mother-in-law, and this chore took me on the honky tonk tour of the Garner/Clayton area.

Glenwood is definitely "upscale" in comparison to that scene.

[saturnfan]

I don't like downtown either. Hate the one-way streets.