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I have a couple of observations after reading all the pages.
It seems as though a lot of the feelings about this area are a little bit of sour grapes. There seems to be resentment towards the haves, which is very unfortunate.
What I find very amusing is that the OP has a dislike for transplants and the change they bring to an area, yet he himself is looking to relocate, which actually will put him in the same boat as the rest of us that are transplants. Unless you live in the same place you did when you were born, you are a transplant. It's unfortunate that people like to slam the door shut after they move somewhere.
FWIW (and coming from me, it is worth a lot), the Triangle is a great place that is nothing like the northeast. Cary in particular is a wonderland of joy and has tons of character and charm. I will surely miss living there. The OP does not like this area and I support his right to his opinions 100%. However, they are just opinions which if you add his up with all the other people on the forum that don't like the area you get a grand total of maybe 10. On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the real world that are loving this area. So no matter how upset some people are that others have moved here and think the area has been destroyed, there are many more of us that love the changes that have occurred and find it the land of milk and honey for us.
To add more to the general direction of this post, its worth looking at this report, which in great detail talks about domestic migration. It supports many of the points I made, which is that there has been a domestic out-migration bubble and raleigh Durham got the brunt of it.
I think some of you are misreading me here. I'll repeat: I'm not naming specific groups of people. I use the terms "Yankee", "Northerners", and "Carpetbaggers" loosely to describe the general shift of population from one area to another. The real monster was the housing bubble and the long-term effects of a dwindling middle class and the widening disparity it brings. That and the US economy is now almost entirely based on real estate and mortgage debt. Why do you think the US government is blowing untold trillions on the banking, lending, and housing industries and not the auto industry? Its because we no longer make money building things. We only work economically in buying increasingly expensive houses. This is a broader subject, but the indication is that all cities will eventually become overpriced and there is a sort of domino effect in the works.
Perhaps there should be more effort in learning how to reverse this trend so that some degree of social stability will be possible.
You got it, brother!
Wealth can only be created by making stuff, not by shuffling paper.
Rent stabilized project with 6,000+ apartments in lower Manhattan.
Not a housing authority project - owned by Met Life under a tax abatement plan.
So would this be SoHo or Lower East Side or somewhere else? It is difficult to understand where you are coming from if I don't have a specific reference point.
... But in my suburb, you can walk to town, shop at a 70 year old hardware store, buy shoes at an actual shoe store, paint your house whatever color you want, and live in any number of different styled houses. .
We do have that here- in Raleigh, in Wake Forest, and yes, even in Cary!
However, that type of area is surrounded by the "cookie cutter" development you go on to describe:
Quote:
Originally Posted by sliverbox
... Yet what I find when I either visit home or a lot of Southern cities is a sea of sameness and limited choices. Its like every exit near my parents is the same: Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, Mcdonalds, and so on. It doesn't HAVE to be like that. It seems like communities are now sold as commodities with community planning being determined totally by corportate interest. .
The builders build as cheap as they can while remaining palatable. People have been moving away from walkable communities. Now that ther eis interest, I know Raleigh & Wake Forest are doing more in fill development to meet that desire. This is dictated by the zoning boards and market forces.
RE: Walmart & Applebees, etc.... if you want quaint downtowns to remain, people, you must shop in them.
I remember when we got Pizza Hut on Long Island. This was way after the rest of the country had them. We all laughed- who would go there? Long Island is the home of mom & pop pizzarias- a great source of local pride.
So who went there? Someone must have, because they are all over!
Someone is shoppin gand eating at chain stores... lots of someones or they would nto be there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sliverbox
... What I'm saying here is that there is a choice and I think too many people have been looking with their blinders one: Home Prices and cost of living versus what I'd consider more important reasons, like what type of area is/was there before it got bulldozed for Mcmansions.
Sorry but most people Really Don't Care about history. I have posted here many times before that we chose Wake Forest specifically because it has a downtown that is undergoing revitalization. Many of my neighbors found that to be a strong reason to relocate here, too. Others do not even know where downtown is. The know where Capital Boulevard is, and they drive down that to chain stores & the mall. They are near work, or fell in love with a house, etc. Seriously.
BTW I appreciate your posts, they have provoked a wonderful discussion.
My guess is saturnfan is referencing either Stuyvesant Town or Peter Cooper Village. Met Life used to own one or both. They are between Avenue C and First Avenue from about 14th Street to about 23rd Street on the East Side.
They have always been rent stabilized offering very good deals on apartments if you can get in.
It seems as though a lot of the feelings about this area are a little bit of sour grapes. There seems to be resentment towards the haves, which is very unfortunate.
Wow, you've outdone yourself this time. This is so ridiculous, I don't even know where to begin. Some of us 'haves' are on the bandwagon.
My guess is saturnfan is referencing either Stuyvesant Town or Peter Cooper Village. Met Life used to own one or both. They are between Avenue C and First Avenue from about 14th Street to about 23rd Street on the East Side.
They have always been rent stabilized offering very good deals on apartments if you can get in.
I've lived in Raleigh since I was 6 years old and the one thing that has ALWAYS bothered me has been the cookie cutter homes.
I own a small older home in North Raleigh that I bought for less than 150k and LOVE where I live. We could have bought alot more home for our money but we could not STAND the idea of living in one of those neighborhoods where everyone's house looks the same and they all have 2.5 kids and a dog.
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