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Lmfaoo don't repeat the bolded in here, my good friend and fellow Northern Virginian NovaGuy and a horde of Maryland suburbanites from the DC area will explode...
I was just recalling yesterday, that a year ago I spent a month in Vermont (Burlington) on work assignment. I did know a girl who previously lived in Fayetteville, NC, and said she was in love with NC, but other than that, I never heard Charlotte or Raleigh mentioned. DC and Florida were the areas that most often came up, but this was in Burlington only...
Oh, right. Lol. I just meant that it is considered to be in the South geographically. DC was perceived to be the dividing line between North and South so NoVA is Southern. However, it's not considered as very culturally Southern.
Florida I heard plenty of, of course, but mostly just Miami and South Florida in general. Everyone is related to or knows someone in Miami.
My sister and her family have been living in Cary and Apex for about 10 years. I understood the attraction for them, good paying jobs for my BIL, good schools for her kids, and at the time it was exceptionally affordable.
As a visitor to the Raleigh-Durham, I get seriously underwhelmed. There really isn't much to do there that I find interesting. I always wish they lived closer to the NC coast of Asheville where there is so much more to do. Raleigh feels like a workaday government town and becomes suburban very quickly away from the unremarkable downtown core. Chapel Hill and Carrboro are nice with a quality college town feel, but not very exciting, Durham has opportunity to develop into something interesting but the whole area after repeated visits becomes very meh..
I've been on a brief visit to Charlotte. I find the area visually more interesting (slightly), but still after a while it becomes the same hum drum of New South surburbia one could find anywhere else. The whole Piedmont area is just an in between place for me with not much to offer in the way of fun. The NC Coast and Mountains are where I want to be if I'm visiting, love both of those parts in the Tar Heel State.
This is about right. Raleigh and Charlotte have museums, and sports, and year-round festivals, and theatres, and galleries, and restaurants, and farmer’s markets, and flea markets, and all the things you kind of expect from a place you live in. But they aren’t necessarily things you’d want to travel to see. Raleighites and Charlatans don’t travel to each other’s cities unless visiting family or attending a sporting event. We vacation in the same spots you’d want to, namely the beach and the mountains.
Raleigh and Charlotte are the Toyota Camry/Honda Accord of east coast cities, including the southeast. Nice and practical with an array of choices, but very predictable, nothing that's really exceptional, with a few surprises here and there, but certainly not trendsetters in any regard, even though the Triangle is above average for a southern metro in terms of education. Each city lacks that signature landmark and park that makes them iconic, and there's a dearth of historic and/or great architecture. Most of the culture is very mainstream with cities dominated by chain stores/restaurants, museums that focus more on traveling exhibitions rather than unique styles, concerts that focus on radio-friendly acts, and festivals that are close clones of those found elsewhere. If each of those cities had something on the order of a Charleston historic district and/or Old Town Alexandria (or even something as small as Old Salem/New Bern), I'd be attracted to them a lot more.
People just move there because they prefer a more conservative lifestyle such as nuclear families, basic conveniences, a relatively low cost of living, and a temperately mild climate.
I won’t quibble on the edges, but I will say the Triangle’s education-level is not simply above average for a Southern metro but probably top 3 or so in the nation.
People just move there because they prefer a more conservative lifestyle such as nuclear families, basic conveniences, a relatively low cost of living, and a temperately mild climate.
I agree with this and this is a HUGE deal for a lot of people and one of the reasons why this area has grown and continues to grow rapidly. I love living where I do for the very things you mentioned. Would I retire here?...no not really. I will say living here now with my wife and 2 kids makes perfect sense for us though.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutiny77
Asheville is in the mountains.
Yes I'm aware.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heel82
I think it’s meant to be “or”.
Wup, typo, my bad. I think my point was understood. NC's bright spots are at the eastern and western ends along the coast and in the mountains with a lot more to do than hanging around in the Triangle or Charlotte. All the in between in the Piedmont, to me it's just thick forests and a smattering of pretty average cities that are very suburban and ordinary in nature. Just not an area I particularly enjoy visiting.
Wup, typo, my bad. I think my point was understood. NC's bright spots are at the eastern and western ends along the coast and in the mountains with a lot more to do than hanging around in the Triangle or Charlotte. All the in between in the Piedmont, to me it's just thick forests and a smattering of pretty average cities that are very suburban and ordinary in nature. Just not an area I particularly enjoy visiting.
Well, there is much more to do in the Triangle and Charlotte than there is to do in Boone or Wilmington or Asheville or Manteo. But it is fair to say those places have touristy niches that make them much more desirable to vacation.
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