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Chapel Hill and Carrboro are small enough that you can easily get from one end of one town to the other end of the other town. Cary is more than twice the size of Chapel Hill and Carrboro put together. Raleigh and Cary together are almost 10 times the size of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Chapel Hill is 19.69 sq miles according to the all-knowing Google. Carrboro is 6.487 sq miles. Raleigh is 144.8 sq miles. Cary is 55.44 sq miles. Apex is 15.37 sq miles.
My point is when two towns like Chapel Hill and Carrboro have such a small land area and they are joined at the heart with their downtowns merging into each other, it's very artificial to look at the criteria that this kind of "best of" list does and not include the other town.
Although Durham and Chapel Hill are close together they are more separate. The borders where they touch are not the heart of the towns and are shopping centers, Walmart, etc, on the outskirts of town. It would be easy for someone to live in Durham and almost never go to Chapel Hill, but it would be harder to live in Carrboro and never go to Chapel Hill and vice-versa.
It might make sense to include Cary and Apex in a ranking of Raleigh, depending on the criteria.
It would be easy for someone to live in Durham and almost never go to Chapel Hill, but it would be harder to live in Carrboro and never go to Chapel Hill and vice-versa.
In fact, I frequently go to Durham (and Hillsborough), but rarely go to Carrboro (apart from the northern end around Lake Hogan Farms) or even "downtown" Chapel Hill. (I live in NW Chapel Hill.)
My point is, it's artificial to separate the towns when analyzing the quality of life in silly lists like these when the hearts of each town are joined together. The dang Holiday Parade goes right through both downtowns! It's ridiculous to talk about the music venues in Chapel Hill, but not mention the internationally known Cat's Cradle (which for most of its life was over the border in Chapel Hill and now is just over the border in Carrboro) which brings in more shows (often booking shows at Local 506 and the ArtsCenter, too, as well as locations in Raleigh and elsewhere) than any of the other venues.
I didn't say anything about whether people in Chapel Hill go to Durham. But if you lived in Durham would you frequently come to Chapel Hill?
And if NW Chapel Hill counts as Chapel Hill (which I think it does), then NW Carrboro counts as Carrboro. Just because you don't go to the downtowns doesn't mean you don't go to Carrboro. For myself, I live very close to downtown and go to both downtown Chapel Hill and downtown Carrboro frequently. I spend more time in Carrboro because my kid goes to school there, but I go to downtown Chapel Hill frequently, too, for shopping and eating and errands. My spouse works in downtown Chapel Hill and traverses the border all the time. I think most people who live in Chapel Hill frequently go to restaurants, schools, classes, shops, the farmer's market, etc in Carrboro. It's really Chapelboro and to pretend like it's not is just disingenuous. The little blurb on this best of list didn't even mention Carrboro and I think that paints a very incomplete picture.
Poppydog, I'm in agreement with you that in my mind it's one town. I like Chapelboro and go there somewhat frequently for music or food --- not as much as Durham, but still, frequently enough.
Anyway, as I mentioned before the combined population of Chapelboro would put it in a different category altogether than what this article is about (towns with 50 - 60k population), which is why I imagine it was just CH in the article. If they were to consider Chapelboro as one then the other 49 towns in the article, that is was "competing" against, would all be different (towns with population between 70 - 80k).
Yeah, I'm sure you're right j-mart about population numbers being the reason that CH only was included, but it's inaccurate to not even mention Carrboro as a sister-town. I think they should have just bumped Chapelboro up to the next category.
And if NW Chapel Hill counts as Chapel Hill (which I think it does), then NW Carrboro counts as Carrboro. Just because you don't go to the downtowns doesn't mean you don't go to Carrboro.
Sorry, didn't mean to kick up a fuss.
I have to admit I really don't personally feel that much a part of Chapel Hill. I don't work there (I work in Raleigh), I have no ties to the University, and I don't spend much time going to places in Chapel Hill or Carrboro - as mentioned I tend to go elsewhere, in large part because of where I live. That's not a knock against Chapel Hill - just a little statement on my life.
Truthfully, a major reason why CH made the list is because of everything the Triangle provides. Three major universities and RTP. CH is definitely a cute part of the Triangle with good public schools, but I doubt anyone would notice nationwide if there were no Durham or Raleigh. In fact, without the rest CH would just be a tiny, overpriced college town rather than a great Triangle suburb. CH and Carrboro always felt like one place to me when I was at UNC.
Carrboro has had several different names, "West End" was definitely one and I think it was the first. It was also "Venable" for a time. My 4th grader told me this. They study the history of Carrboro in 3rd grade at Carrboro Elementary. Did you know that Town Hall also used to be "Carrboro Graded School"?
I disagree west seattle gal. Did you see the other cities/towns on the list? Many were small college towns also. I don't think they looked at Raleigh or Durham when making this list.
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