Morrisville ranked as the best place to live in NC (Raleigh: homes, neighborhoods)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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The methodology is all on Niche's site. Based on their profiles Morrisville edges out Cary A+ vs. A in public schools, jobs, and diversity. Morrisville is certainly served by some highly ranked schools, while Cary has more of a mix of great and merely good ones.
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Morrisville is home to two public schools - Morrisville Elementary and Cedar Fork Elementary. No middle schools and no high schools. Ridiculous.
I find the school ranking stuff, and especially all the people overly relying on them to make life decisions, pretty absurd to begin with, but then using that as a main criteria in ranking towns and coming up with Morrisville as the best place to live in the state is absolutely ridiculous.
Terrible roads, terrible traffic, blah neighborhoods, airplane and train noise, limited shopping and restaurants. And where is this great greenway system? It is a patchwork that doesn't connect to the incredible greenway system in the county right now (this will change in a few years when a greenway runs parallel to Aviation/Morrisville-Carpenter).
The road design around the railroad is horrendous. The got rid of access to Church Street from 54 on the RTP side. The other side of Church St, the one that should have been closed, dumps out into the worst intersection in the county and has no traffic light as it backs up with people trying to turn left.
Crabtree Creek cuts off the southern portion of the town, such that you can't access the town's community park or Morrisville Elementary from the north without traveling out to busy Davis Drive or 54. McCrimmon ends at 54 on the one side, instead of going straight and hooking up with Airport Rd somehow. On the other end, McCrimmon just ends, at a dangerous 3-way stop that driver's often refuse to stop for, instead of continuing on across 55. Louis Stephens, too, doesn't connect from RTP on the north to the Breckenridge neighborhood to the south. The whole area seems like an afterthought.
I find the school ranking stuff, and especially all the people overly relying on them to make life decisions, pretty absurd to begin with, but then using that as a main criteria in ranking towns and coming up with Morrisville as the best place to live in the state is absolutely ridiculous.
Terrible roads, terrible traffic, blah neighborhoods, airplane and train noise, limited shopping and restaurants. And where is this great greenway system? It is a patchwork that doesn't connect to the incredible greenway system in the county right now (this will change in a few years when a greenway runs parallel to Aviation/Morrisville-Carpenter).
The road design around the railroad is horrendous. The got rid of access to Church Street from 54 on the RTP side. The other side of Church St, the one that should have been closed, dumps out into the worst intersection in the county and has no traffic light as it backs up with people trying to turn left.
Crabtree Creek cuts off the southern portion of the town, such that you can't access the town's community park or Morrisville Elementary from the north without traveling out to busy Davis Drive or 54. McCrimmon ends at 54 on the one side, instead of going straight and hooking up with Airport Rd somehow. On the other end, McCrimmon just ends, at a dangerous 3-way stop that driver's often refuse to stop for, instead of continuing on across 55. Louis Stephens, too, doesn't connect from RTP on the north to the Breckenridge neighborhood to the south. The whole area seems like an afterthought.
Morrisville is...in many ways....an afterthought of thr Triangle.
I'm curious about what plans are in place to fix traffic in the problem areas. I know they are talking about extending McCrimmon to Evans St. It will surely help some but will also take years to complete. I am not doubting you on this but I am wondering what else is in the works. I've not see anything that looks like it will make a significant impact.
DOT has finally gotten off their rear and will be widening 54 from 540 to Airport Blvd and Aviation parkway from 40 to 54 in the next few years. They are working on widening the rest of 54 toward Cary, though they have a way to go on that last I checked.
As far as greenways, they are starting on the project to connect everything in a week or so (they have actually kind of started some utility work, but the groundbreaking is next week) Also, you can quite easily access the park without going on Davis or McCrimmon if you check maps and realize there's a back entrance. My wife and I walk from our house on the other side of M-C with our dogs all the time.
The closure of Church at the north end was a requirement of the railroad. Things would definitely be better if it wasn't here, for sure.
But, even living here, I do find it curious, not knowing their exact methodology. Take, nightlife. Obviously, there is little nightlife in Morrisville itself, yet they rank it somewhat high in that. Maybe because we are close to both Raleigh and Durham? Could say the same for the current state of greenways or shopping other than the typical stuff. But honestly, that's why we moved here. Not specifically because of what's in Morrisville, but the proximity to the overal area. And airplane noise is not the problem most people think it will be. Plus, don't discount the utility of being close by as well. Early or late flights aren't nearly as bad when it's only a 7 minute drive and my wife can land, call me, I then leave and sometimes have to make a lap or two before she gets to the pick up zone.
Last edited by Sherifftruman; 04-20-2017 at 08:49 AM..
I don't see it. I mean, I like Morrisville... but best?
It's not very big. It has no downtown. It is right in the flight path and near the train tracks so you have airplane noise AND train noise.
I have always thought the town didn't do anything remotely thoughtful in planning out Morrisville.
Parks? How many are there? Greenways? I guess?
Sidewalks? Yes. But, most places that aren't rural here have those.
Traffic? Yes. It does suck. They do very little to nothing about that.
When the developer built ParkWest Village, they built it based on Cary demographics to encourage people to rent space there because it is right on the border between Morrisville and Cary and Morrisville by itself could never support a place like that.
So, aside from being close to RTP, Durham and Cary, I don't see much about Morrisville that would make me choose it over Cary, Apex, or Raleigh.
Interesting! There was a time when no one wanted to live in Morrisville. After all, it was just a small area with an airport, farms and some industry.
It wasn't until Cary became so expensive that developers pushed out into Morrisville and used a Cary address.
The first time I went to Twin Lakes, I was surprised when the onsite agent told me "this is Cary". Ummm, no. You may have a Cary address but this is Morrisville.
I look at Morrisville as a "bedroom community" to Cary, much like Cary was to Raleigh back in the '70s and '80s.
Morrisville is a nice place to live. I have tons of clients that love living there. I just don't agree that it is the BEST place to live but...I live in North Raleigh NOW and I think it is the BEST place to live!!!
Interesting! There was a time when no one wanted to live in Morrisville. After all, it was just a small area with an airport, farms and some industry.
It wasn't until Cary became so expensive that developers pushed out into Morrisville and used a Cary address.
The first time I went to Twin Lakes, I was surprised when the onsite agent told me "this is Cary". Ummm, no. You may have a Cary address but this is Morrisville.
I look at Morrisville as a "bedroom community" to Cary, much like Cary was to Raleigh back in the '70s and '80s.
Morrisville is a nice place to live. I have tons of clients that love living there. I just don't agree that it is the BEST place to live but...I live in North Raleigh NOW and I think it is the BEST place to live!!!
I think Morrisville should have allowed Cary to annex it.
It's not very large and the taxes are higher than the taxes in Cary. I feel like I should read up on the history, but most people THINK they're in Cary when they are in Morrisville... or they THINK they're already in Durham by the time they hit the area of Morrisville that's in RTP (over around Kit Creek).
Odd place, as a separate entity, anyway.
North Raleigh is a nice area. I don't care for now it personally, because so much of what I need regular access to is on this side of town.
But, I have lived there more than once and it's quite nice.
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