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Good analysis. Although I will say Raleigh is featured prominently in one notable song-- Wagon Wheel. Everything else, Memphis takes the easy cake.
It looks like Raleigh is mentioned twice in "Wagon Wheel". Not much compared to Memphis which shows up in multiple titles and chorus verses, but I'm sure infinitely more than Cary!
But also I loved “Walking in Memphis” as a kid. Between that and the Pyramid hosting tournament games, I thought Memphis was the coolest town in America circa 1995.
What I like about Memphis
There is something charming about the insular "Memphis against the world" nature of the local culture. Memphis is everything to Memphians, the start and end, the trendsetter, and most Memphians in my experience aren't greatly concerned about events and issues that don't really effect Memphis. That attitude can be detrimental but there is some charm to it...
If you are the type of person who is well travelled, who values diversity, and we likes to keep up with the times and you grow up in Memphis or spend a lot of years living in Memphis, then all the things about Memphis that make the city and the local population feel so insular and behind the times will straight up drive you CRAZY!!!! It can make you feel like you are stuck in some sort of depressing time warp, where you're the only one who knows that we are now in the 21st Century and that there is a whole big, beautiful, diverse world out there beyond Memphis. But once you spend significant time living in one of these bigger/trendier Southern cities---or New South cities---where everything looks new, pastic, bland, and cookie cutter, where they all have the exact same "popular" chain stories and resturants, where they are so full of transplants from the Northeast and the West Coast that they don't even feel Southern or charming anymore...then THAT'S when you start to appreciate how unique Memphis still looks and feels, and how much it has managed to retain its own unique culture and style, albeit insular and more akin to a big town these days than the major/important city it used to be in years past.
Quote:
Originally Posted by murksiderock
But why I prefer Raleigh
Raleigh is "only" ~26% black in comparison but that is still well over 100,000 black people and we have heavy representation here too. No, not quite as heavy as Memphis, bit its here and black people here are more mobile and life is easier for us here (less crime, more wealth, better wages, better schools, etc)...
To me that is a HUGE distinction: if you are Black, educated/upperwardly mobile, and ESPECIALLY if you are raising a family, it's better to live somewhere with a smaller but more educated and upwardly mobile Black population than in a place that has a MAJORITY Black population and most of that Black population is noticebly undereducated, unskilled, overwhelmingly poor, etc. Basically, quality over quantity.
Last edited by NoClueWho; 05-11-2022 at 09:44 AM..
If you are the type of person who is well travelled, who values diversity, and we likes to keep up with the times and you grow up in Memphis or spend a lot of years living in Memphis, then all the things about Memphis that make the city and the local population feel so insular and behind the times will straight up drive you CRAZY!!!! It can make you feel like you are stuck in some sort of depressing time warp, where you're the only one who knows that we are now in the 21st Century and that there is a whole big, beautiful, diverse world out there beyond Memphis. But once you spend significant time living in one of these bigger/trendier Southern cities---or New South cities---where everything looks new, pastic, bland, and cookie cutter, where they all have the exact same "popular" chain stories and resturants, where they are so full of transplants from the Northeast and the West Coast that they don't even feel Southern or charming anymore...then THAT'S when you start to appreciate how unique Memphis still looks and feels, and how much it has managed to retain its own unique culture and style, albeit insular and more akin to a big town these days than the major/important city it used to be in years past.
To me that is a HUGE distinction: if you are Black, educated/upperwardly mobile, and ESPECIALLY if you are raising a family, it's better to live somewhere with a smaller but more educated and upwardly mobile Black population than in a place that has a MAJORITY Black population and most of that Black population is noticebly undereducated, unskilled, overwhelmingly poor, etc. Basically, quality over quantity.
I definitely have grown to appreciate Memphis over the years. My only real contentions with what some on this board say are that it is still a major tourist destination and that it's a particularly urban city...
It's certainly a very unique place and twice in recent days I've heard people try to compare Durham to Memphis. Not at all, for many, many reasons, and the only reason people throw that generic comp out there is because Durham is a chocolate city with some well known social issues----->if that's all it takes to be like Memphis there are a lot of Memphises in the United States......and there just aren't...
Who I am and what I value in mine and my family's lives means I'd never choose to live in Memphis again, but there isn't another Memphis. And it'll always, always be a place that holds near to my heart, I have many good memories of the city, it has a ton of personal sentimental value...
I will say, after living in Raleigh for three years now, it has more of a uniqueness and personality than people give it credit for. And the misperception is understandable because of the oft-stated late bloomer status of this city, it's been rising in profile for 20-odd years but it'll take some time to cement Rgh for what it is today rather than the image people have of it when it wasn't what it is now. I get it, I was one of those people...
And some of the perceptions about Rgh are more accurate. But there definitely is a unique local culture, maybe not as public or well known as other places, but it's not a city devoid of soul or spirit or character. As I've said for years on this forum about other cities as well, some places you have to actually live to get a real grasp on the pulse of a city, and when people move somewhere, they assimilate into the local culture, not the other way around. People bring some of the characteristics of where they are from, to where they are at, and it diversifies the culture, bit people assimilate into the city that is already here...
Raleigh is no different than anywhere else in this regard, many of us are from elsewhere but there's definitively things that are "Raleigh" things, speech, customs, etc!
So objectively, you can't see how Raleigh having other cities within close proximity like Durham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro (which you didn't mention specifically but is worth mentioning) confers a huge advantage? Durham and Orange counties pack quite a punch for their sizes and in their own right. Raleigh wouldn't be where it is today if it weren't for the assets they bring to the table.
This is very true (and it goes the other way too; the vibrancy of Durham/CH can largely be attributed to being in close proximity to Raleigh/Wake County)...yet incidentally many a "Raleigh-centric" residents; especially those with an ITB pedigree....turn up their noses at such a notion.
Raleigh is objectively a better place to live with a brighter future. But I much prefer Memphis for tourism and as a city. It just has more character (Beale Street, Graceland, Sun Studio, Peabody Hotel, Lorraine Motel) whereas Raleigh feels very sterile and corporate.
Raleigh is one of these cities you have to live in to better understand the culture. Memphis does have a louder and more vibrant pulse of culture, but I wouldn't characterize Raleigh's culture as sterile or generic. It's not as known because it's lower key and more welcoming of outside influence but there definitely is a "Raleigh" culture...
Raleigh is one of these cities you have to live in to better understand the culture. Memphis does have a louder and more vibrant pulse of culture, but I wouldn't characterize Raleigh's culture as sterile or generic. It's not as known because it's lower key and more welcoming of outside influence but there definitely is a "Raleigh" culture...
How would you define Raleigh's culture?
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