Diverse neighborhood that isn't upscale suggestion

[RuthL]

Thanks all! She's already here (which is why I haven't been hanging out on CD) and tomorrow we'll go to Duke Gardens and then explore some of your suggestions up that way.

Yes, she's the type that would chose a culturally, age, religious, sexual orientation diverse neighborhood over all others because she enjoys being immersed with all types of people.

[netbrad]

Why doesn't your friend find a house she likes and can afford, and then find social groups with "diverse" people. Much easier.

[orulz]

There are different kinds of diversity.

Try look near NC State University in Southwest Raleigh. I live in Avent West - the part outside the beltline. I can think of several first-generation immigrant families on my street, though there's clearly more representation of Black and White Americans than others.

Another type of diversity, which my neighborhood has in spades, is that there is everything from huge houses on 2+ acre lots, huge fancy brand new houses on small lots, to modest houses single family homes, to duplexes, to townhomes, to apartments all on the same street. There's also good representation of housing stock from every decade since the 1920s. There's a good mix of rentals and owner occupants as well, both for the SFHs and the townhomes. Manicured and spotless it is not. $140,000 is reasonable for one of the more modest SFHs on the street.

But if you want neighborhoods where half the people are foreign born, you might have a hard time here in the triangle. Look in some of the new neighborhoods in Cary, but you might even have trouble finding a townhome in that range.

[hula]

Parkwood in Durham (near Hwys. 54 & 55 just off the I-40 exit) is very diverse. It's a 50 year old subdivision with single family homes and townhomes and very mature trees. It was built around the time RTP was and was not part of the city then. It had (and still has) an elementary school, fire department, ballfield, two swimming pools, several churches, parkland and a lake. There's a strip mall that used to have a gas station and a Winn Dixie grocery store. The gas station is now a mini mart (no more gas pumps) and the rest of the strip mall was recently purchased by a mosque, which rents out the space for now. There's a Bahi center and Methodist church across the street from it. We're very diverse!

Parkwood Durham NC

[douknownam]

if diversity means safe, I'm all for it... being a minority, I tend to look past that part of the equation and lean more towards a neighborhood with respectful neighbors instead