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Please forgive me if this has been discussed previously, as I was unable to find a recent thread on point.
My wife, a government scientist, has been applying to jobs in the Triangle. Neither of us has been there--at least not recently--and information on the web about the area seems to be confusing and possibly out of date. Even though this is WAY premature (any move wouldn't happen for months), I'd love to get some general thoughts that would help show me where to investigate further.
We currently live in the Tampa metro area, in a small city (really, a large town) with a traditional Main Street lined with non-chain shops and pubs. There is a large community of artists and writers here, and there's at least one street festival a month. There are parks with green space, but at the same time the downtown area is relatively condensed and walkable (about two miles from my home, easy to get to), as well as safe. Many of the pubs have live music in the evening, and there are several open mic nights each month, for poets and storytellers as much as for musicians. We have an Arts and Music center, an annual music festival, a number of community centers. But our city retains a quaint small-town feel: there are no traffic lights and I can't go anywhere without running into someone I know. I feel there is a genuine community. We are close to a hospital and a community college, and to a performance hall that draws classic rock bands and touring B'way shows. The town also has a legit history, and people are genuinely interested in that history.
Where in the region would I best recreate this experience?
Things I hate: Shopping malls. Bedroom communities. house farms in the middle of a field, which used to be woods before the developers tore everything down. Heck, let's add ANY new construction.
Things I like: Old trees. Being greeted by name at my favorite pubs. That the staff at the library knows us. Jogging in a park just a mile away. But being close to the main roads to Tampa, St. Pete, and the beach.
Optimally, my wife would prefer to have a daily commute no more than, let's say, 35 minutes each way in rush hour.
Home size/price: I'm not into McMansions, but since I work from home we need room for a home office. My sweet spot is probably around the 3500 square foot range. Much bigger than that becomes a waste of space, IMO. I don't need or want a large yard--I'd rather be in a neighborhood than off by myself. I'm not worried about affordability for a home that size. My wife needs a modern, large kitchen, but you can find that in homes twenty or thirty years old--or older, if they've been updated. But I'll describe ourselves as upper middle class, if that helps.
We will have one child entering college, and another entering HS. Losing one kid is another reason why we don't need or want a ginormous home. Normally I'd say that we'd want to be in a good school district, but I suspect that pretty much all the schools will be superior to what exists in Tampa Bay. We would probably seek to place our younger daughter in an academic magnet school, such as an IB program, if one is available.
Cary, Morrisville, and Apex pop up a lot in articles on "livability" in the area, but I don't know what the downtowns look like--are they rundown? Are they safe? Are they lined with mom and pop shops? Are the homes close to the centers relatively upscale, run down, or a mixture? The homes available in those places, as shown on realtor web sites, look like they are probably in house farms and not in established neighborhoods. What about specific neighborhoods in Raleigh or Durham, which would still be within a reasonable commute for my wife?
Any thoughts would be greatly, greatly appreciated.
Downtown Cary might actually be a good fit. You can probably find an older home nearby. There are plenty of independent non-chain shops, bars/pubs/breweries (that I assume sometimes have live music but don't know for sure) a focus on the arts, park space, occasional festivals, etc. And if your wife ends up working in the RTP area, the commute wouldn't be too bad.
There are traffic lights and a fair amount of traffic. But it's still nice.
Morrisville doesn't have what you're looking for, and Apex's Main Street is nice, but if you blink you'll miss it.
A place with no stoplights, everyone knows your name, there are poets and storytellers AND it draws national acts and Broadway musicals? Why are you leaving?
You have virtually no chance of getting your high schooler into a magnet school, unless you move to the base zone of one.
Agree DT Cary might be a good fit, housing stock nearby is probably what you're looking for.
@twingles: Unfortunately, my wife's job is a term appointment which is expiring without chance of renewal, and there simply aren't very many job opportunities for microbiologists here. It's not all perfect, though--there's a pretty significant clash between the arts community and what I'll call "old Florida"--which hopefully I won't have to describe. And there's also "new Florida," which is a euphemism for the developers who are knocking down all the trees and putting up eyesore homes and condos with zero lot lines, and the elected officials who have empowered them. But the arts community is pretty cool and supportive of each other.
May I ask why you think my younger child has no chance of getting into a magnet school? She's in a gifted middle school program that is a feeder for our county IB program, and she is currently attending a Duke TIP session, which she qualified for through her SAT score as a seventh grader. Her older sister will graduate from the IB program next year, so we've gone through it as a family and know what the work load is like. She'll be in the middle of 8th grade or a rising HS freshman when we move, so she wouldn't be a transfer student. We still need to figure out what HS environment would be best for her, but it would be one where she is challenged.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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I want to live where you are! ;-) Are you in Lakeland? Besides downtown Cary, which is still developing, you should check out Hillsborough which has, by far, the quaintest downtown in this area. It won’t have everything you want, but it’s pretty close. Another option is Carrboro. It’s not the quaintest downtown and has mostly smaller homes surrounding it. The Cameron Village area of Raleigh is nice. Not sure of your price range, though. Good luck!
Right. It wouldn't be until the 2020-21 school year, and we'd know far enough in advance to pre-register and meet the application deadline. Depending on how things work out, I could foresee my wife moving first, and my kids and I staying here until the end of the school year--at least for my older daughter, since it's really not possible to switch IB schools in the middle.
A place with no stoplights, everyone knows your name, there are poets and storytellers AND it draws national acts and Broadway musicals? Why are you leaving?
It didn't sound to me like the small town draws the national acts and Broadway musicals, just that they're close to these things (Tampa). Much like Cary is close to DPAC in Durham.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RayManta
Thanks @michgc. I will check them out.
We live in Safety Harbor, which is west of Tampa, on the north-eastern shore of Tampa Bay. Come visit!
I will! We are checking out potential retirement locations. And I am a huge fan of walkable downtown towns. So far, we've checked out Venice, Sarasota, St. Pete, Tampa and Dunedin in that part of Florida.
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