Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Las Vegas. Nice weather, it's still very affordable for a big city and has entertainment for every crowd. You don't even need to drink or be a gambler. If I couldn't be near a beach, Vegas would be my next choice.
I would choose Raleigh due to it being a much more normal city and you’re close to other cities and the warmer water of the Atlantic Ocean when you want a beach weekend. The job market and economy is also more diverse in the triangle. Raleigh as a city is just ok though. My dad lives in the Vegas area not far from Mt Charleston and he hardly ever goes to the strip. Most locals don’t deal with the strip. Vegas is very suburban and bland outside the strip not to mention ugly and brown. It’s literally just cooker cutter houses and strip malls for miles. Living in Vegas and visiting Vegas are totally different. I just don’t see the appeal of living in Vegas but that’s just my 2 cents. Vegas is only fun for a weekend then I’m ready to head back home to Atlanta.
I would choose Raleigh due to it being a much more normal city and you’re close to other cities and the warmer water of the Atlantic Ocean when you want a beach weekend. The job market and economy is also more diverse in the triangle. Raleigh as a city is just ok though. My dad lives in the Vegas area not far from Mt Charleston and he hardly ever goes to the strip. Most locals don’t deal with the strip. Vegas is very suburban and bland outside the strip not to mention ugly and brown. It’s literally just cooker cutter houses and strip malls for miles. Living in Vegas and visiting Vegas are totally different. I just don’t see the appeal of living in Vegas but that’s just my 2 cents. Vegas is only fun for a weekend then I’m ready to head back home to Atlanta.
I've heard for years, both in person and in online communities like this, that Vegas is a generic and suburban city, many times. BostonBorn gave his reasons he appreciates Vegas and I can respect it. I definitely think it's kinda humorous to knock one city as bland and suburban for another one with a similar reputation...
I think for many, if not most, people, Vegas' overwhelming advantage as a national entertainment mecca will give it an edge. And my guess is that that weight in entertainment factor probably conveys a much larger "feel" of a city than Raleigh. I'm not sure which I'd prefer. I'm a native Californian so I'm sure Vegas would appeal to me on some level...
I also can't help but notice that many of these larger cities that specialize in tourism and entertainment, have similar profiles as generic, sterile, soulless, cookie cutter suburban wastelands away from the core of where everything happens. New Orleans would be the exception, as people it isn't characterized as soulless or suburban, but it's also a fairly small city compared to the other cities who are under that stereotype--->Vegas, Orlando, Tampa, Austin, Nashville, etc. Large cities pretty renowned for excelling in tourism and entertainment that many people characterize as void of spirit and charm away from the tourist zones...
I've heard for years, both in person and in online communities like this, that Vegas is a generic and suburban city, many times. BostonBorn gave his reasons he appreciates Vegas and I can respect it. I definitely think it's kinda humorous to knock one city as bland and suburban for another one with a similar reputation...
I think for many, if not most, people, Vegas' overwhelming advantage as a national entertainment mecca will give it an edge. And my guess is that that weight in entertainment factor probably conveys a much larger "feel" of a city than Raleigh. I'm not sure which I'd prefer. I'm a native Californian so I'm sure Vegas would appeal to me on some level...
I also can't help but notice that many of these larger cities that specialize in tourism and entertainment, have similar profiles as generic, sterile, soulless, cookie cutter suburban wastelands away from the core of where everything happens. New Orleans would be the exception, as people it isn't characterized as soulless or suburban, but it's also a fairly small city compared to the other cities who are under that stereotype--->Vegas, Orlando, Tampa, Austin, Nashville, etc. Large cities pretty renowned for excelling in tourism and entertainment that many people characterize as void of spirit and charm away from the tourist zones...
Anyone who says Austin and Nashville are void of spirit and charm are out of their minds.
As for the thread, I really haven’t spent any time outside of the strip in Vegas. A little googling here and there has lead me to believe it’s a small Pheonixesque metro but without a real Scottsdale or Tempe comp. I love Scottsdale and Tempe. The architecture, palm trees, outdoor bars and restaurants, the regional influence. It’s just such a distant world as someone who has lived most of their years in Massachusetts and Illinois. It’s exciting. So, I’d be interested to see if I could find that in or near Vegas.
All of that said - If I’m moving somewhere between the two, you can find me in Raleigh somewhere just south of 440. Though a bit boring, that area is gorgeous, and gives me that older residential feel that I love about many of the large northern metros, but with more moderate winters and longer springs/falls.
I will say, Cary and Apex are a bit of a snooze. As many have already said, a bit of a cookie cutter situation without a lot of draw. I’ve lived in further out suburbs in Massachusetts, and at least there you had the old colonials and churches and farms and town commons. Something to look at, something unique to the area.. I’d be interested in exploring more areas towards Wake Forest.
This is funny, I'm in Vegas area for work for 30 days, flew in yesterday...
My initial impressions are positive. Vegas feels larger than Raleigh but I'm a little surprised that it doesn't feel as if it dwarfs Raleigh in size. The tourism aspect obviously lends to the larger feeling, there's an insane amount of people on the streets here than there are in Raleigh. And the airport is pretty massive compared to RDU...
The main avenues (aside from The Strip area) and interstates don't feel busier or tougher to navigate than it's parallels in Raleigh, so my initial impression here is that Raleigh is definitely smaller, but in my mind's eye I assumed Vegas would feel multiple-times larger.......and as of yet they feel closer in size than I would've assumed. Similar to my experience with Cleveland. It feels larger than Raleigh. My prior perception of Cleveland were that it would dwarf Raleigh in scale...
My thing with these "Raleigh vs" threads, is for years this board has historically touted Raleigh as belonging of the class of cities in that 2-million+ range, based almost solely on the size of the Raleigh-Durham metro region. For years, I've argued in contrast, that the way to most accurately view Raleigh is by its MSA figure, because even if one views Rgh-Durm as one metropolis--->because it is---->the scale of the metropolis is still on a lower tier of "big city" than the metropolises that are defined as 2m by MSA...
The scale of amenities and "big city isms" in Rgh, whether viewed as MSA Rgh or CSA Rgh-Durm, are on par with the cities in that 1.2 to short of 2m range, even as Rgh is possibly the highest ranked city in that tier. That's its proper range of cities still...
Now that I'm here in Vegas, I've now been to eight of the 14 cities between 2m and 2.7, the cities the board tells me Rgh fits with. Nashville, Cleveland, Indy, KC, LV, Pgh, Sac, Clt, these are all cities that you can see and feel a size differential from Rgh...
I'm heading to Fort Worth after this for two months and I plan on exploring both Austin and SA at some point over those 60 days, but my expectation is that those cities clearly look and feel larger than Raleigh...
Looking forward to this trip though, I'm actually working outside the city of Las Vegas but I plan on several excursions in the city to explore it more in the next 29 days...
The scale thing will be off if you are comparing only walkable downtowns visited by tourists. Raleigh’s historical footprint is smaller because its growth happened postwar. Nashville reached 100,000 several generations before Raleigh did for instance.
But if you go 25 miles from Nashville, the largest town you’ll find is Franklin (80,000). Murfreesboro (150,000) is another 10 miles farther. 25 miles from the strip gets you into the desert. 25 miles from Raleigh gets you a second city (pop 290,000) with a skyline, downtown footprint, a big town amenities of it’s own. The urbanized area of Raleigh and Durham is approaching 1.5 million in 700 sq miles. Nashville and Murfreesboro is 1.3 million in 650 sq miles. That is where measuring a region’s scale by what you see going from the airport to the downtown can be misleading.
All that said, Vegas is big. Even factoring out the tourists. It’s not particularly pretty to me, but it feels on the higher end of it’s tier group.
Anyone who says Austin and Nashville are void of spirit and charm are out of their minds.
As for the thread, I really haven’t spent any time outside of the strip in Vegas. A little googling here and there has lead me to believe it’s a small Pheonixesque metro but without a real Scottsdale or Tempe comp. I love Scottsdale and Tempe. The architecture, palm trees, outdoor bars and restaurants, the regional influence. It’s just such a distant world as someone who has lived most of their years in Massachusetts and Illinois. It’s exciting. So, I’d be interested to see if I could find that in or near Vegas.
All of that said - If I’m moving somewhere between the two, you can find me in Raleigh somewhere just south of 440. Though a bit boring, that area is gorgeous, and gives me that older residential feel that I love about many of the large northern metros, but with more moderate winters and longer springs/falls.
I will say, Cary and Apex are a bit of a snooze. As many have already said, a bit of a cookie cutter situation without a lot of draw. I’ve lived in further out suburbs in Massachusetts, and at least there you had the old colonials and churches and farms and town commons. Something to look at, something unique to the area.. I’d be interested in exploring more areas towards Wake Forest.
Summerlin on the west side of Las Vegas, next to Red Rock Canyon, is Las Vegas’ Scottsdale. Beautiful resorts, golf clubs, and hiking.
If I moved to Las Vegas, I think I'd get tired of the casinos real quick. And it don't seem like there much else out there. I doubt I'd stay any longer than 2 months. Even now, 3 days in Vegas is about all I can take.
If I moved to Las Vegas, I think I'd get tired of the casinos real quick. And it don't seem like there much else out there. I doubt I'd stay any longer than 2 months. Even now, 3 days in Vegas is about all I can take.
Yeah I'm not a gambler abd the casinos are everywhere, it really is the city's reputation. Which makes it odd that it is such a large tourist draw because it's hardly the only place one can gamble...
To this point I'm failing to find the uniqueness here. Visually the residential and commercial architecture and physical landscape are typical Southwest. Not much different from El Paso...
The "West Coast vibe" here seems more in how people talk here than anything. I've only been here a few days so obviously I've yet to see everything here. But this isn't Los Angeles, a city I've often heard Vegas compared to. Maybe I'm only the most generic, broadest definition you could compare it to Los Angeles. But off the rip you can see its a less dynamic city than LA, you can see the obviously it's signicantly smaller, and it looks more like El Paso than LA (actually if you were gonna compare Vegas to any part of LA it would be the suburban SGV/SFV but even that isn't a 1:1 comp)...
This further underscores the hilarity of this board's interpretation of LA as "suburban" because LV isn't even close to the urbanity of LA. Not even close. Like most places this is a largely suburban city...
I'm sure I'll enjoy the experience but I've yet to find what's so unique here. I couldn't see any reality that I'd choose living here over Raleigh, other than I'd be closer to my California family. And I'm not characterizing Raleigh as this definitively unique place, either. But it looks better...
One seemed liveable and geared towards families and white collar workers (Raleigh), and Vegas geared towards tourists and the transient.
I was simply amazed at the amount of high paying white collar roles in RTP. It was one after the other. And of course the colleges shape the area as well. Good proximity to the ocean and mountains. Lacked a feeling of a central area where all the action is as it's spread out across the metro.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
