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Well for starters, the Raleigh metro is twice as large as Omaha's.
I don't know what you mean by "cost of life", but I'm assuming you meant cost of living. Raleigh is continuously ranked as one of the best places to live in America, and you can get a lot for your money.
Raleigh, and the Triangle all together have a very strong job market. It's mostly centered around technology/medicine. The area is very sophisticated and has some of the highest ranked universities in America as well.
As for safety, IMO most parts are fairly safe. Never really had a problem with safety in Raleigh. Omaha's crime rate is lower than the average rates for cities it's size.
From my experience, Raleigh and the surrounding area is always a little more warmer than the rest of the state. While in Omaha, you'll be in the dead center of Tornado Alley, which is something that'd take the city off of my list very fast.
The decision is obviously yours, but I think Raleigh is the best choice for your criteria.
Like KC, Omaha has basements and tornadoes are actually rare, especially those that do damage. Tornadoes are pretty much a non issue in KC and I'm sure it's the same in Omaha.
Also, Omaha might be a smaller metro, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Omaha actually feels considerably larger than Raleigh to me.
I would probably choose Raleigh over Omaha purely based on location though.
A city that has 18 tornadoes in the same month obviously are an issue. Having stayed in both Kansas City for a year and Omaha for about 7 months, every thunderstorm made me very alarmed. If the OP is use to tornadoes, then it isn't really a problem.
The Raleigh metro is over twice as large as Omaha's and I'm pretty sure Omaha has more land.
Although I know Raleigh isn't very well know for having much entertainment and such, it definitely beats out Omaha. You feel too isolated from the rest of the world, so yes, Raleigh's location gives another reason for a better choice.
Raleigh has a better economy without a doubt and most of the jobs are very high paying.
For the criteria, Raleigh without a doubt. Not even sure why Omaha out of all cities was choose.
Rate of growth does not necessarily equate to city greatness, and it never will be a strong indicator by itself. Rate of growth has the most to do with taking advantage of an opportunity (usually weather and income/COL -- just two of many important factors for choosing where to live). The BEST kind of growth is sustainable growth, which would indicate that resources and supply can keep up with demand with little/no interruption.
That being said, I'm not sure which city I'd prefer.
A city that has 18 tornadoes in the same month obviously are an issue. Having stayed in both Kansas City for a year and Omaha for about 7 months, every thunderstorm made me very alarmed. If the OP is use to tornadoes, then it isn't really a problem.
The Raleigh metro is over twice as large as Omaha's and I'm pretty sure Omaha has more land.
Although I know Raleigh isn't very well know for having much entertainment and such, it definitely beats out Omaha. You feel too isolated from the rest of the world, so yes, Raleigh's location gives another reason for a better choice.
Raleigh has a better economy without a doubt and most of the jobs are very high paying.
For the criteria, Raleigh without a doubt. Not even sure why Omaha out of all cities was choose.
For your first point (I don't consider the tornado discussion as a point, since it's ridiculous and subjective), there is no way this is true, and I'd venture to guess that Raleigh sprawls more than Omaha.
Secondly, Raleigh does not have a clear and obvious locational advantage that I can see, as it's at least as far if not further to an Alpha World City (New York for Raleigh vs. Chicago for Omaha), and although Raleigh is close to Charlotte, Richmond, D.C. and Atlanta; Omaha is close enough to Kansas City, Minneapolis, Chicago, and St. Louis -- not exactly a "slam dunk" for Raleigh at all!
Finally, your last point about Raleigh's economy makes no sense to me. Not only does Raleigh have a higher unemployment rate, but Omaha has this Global HQ of -- you may have heard of it -- Berkshire Hathaway.............and yet Raleigh has the better economy? Omaha is also a major railroad hub and home to Union Pacific's HQ, as well as Mutual of Omaha and ConAgra Foods. Raleigh has Process Energy and Pantry (who??). As a businessman myself, I can clearly see that the potential for high paying jobs is more prevalent in Omaha, at least at the surface level.
So in spite of all this, I'm not willing to go out on a limb and say Omaha blows Raleigh out of the water in this competition, even though I can come up with (objective) reasons why it should. You should probably consider toning down the homerism for Raleigh though!
Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill hands down. Omaha isn't even in the same league. When push comes to shove. Plus the mountains and beach are 2-3 hours either side of Raleigh.
Raleigh sprawls way more than Omaha. The Raleigh metro absolutely does not feel like a metro over 1.5 million. As I mentioned earlier, it actually feels smaller than Omaha to me on the ground.
When you look up the urbanized population, they are nearly the same with Omaha at 725k and Raleigh at 885k. I still find Omaha is be more compact and dense than Raleigh.
But Raleigh and Omaha are quite comparable, much more than I think people in Raleigh would like to admit.
Both are nice metros, but I wouldn't want to live in either though. Both are too small and far from larger metros for my tastes.
Last edited by JMT; 11-06-2012 at 03:28 PM..
Reason: Removed off topic comments
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