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The answer is easy....It's the region we all "came from" post slavery. The South is our base from which we migrated to other places for whatever reason be it slavery with freedom in the North, jobs in Detroit, Chicago, NYC or aerospace in LA / SO Cal during the industrial boom years. I bet every Black person could trace thier roots to the South at some point so it's no "amazing" revelatioin when we move back from where we orignated.......
First time I have actually seen this. I must say simply because I was born here. I don't like the North, Northeast, West, Midwest, Southwest, Mid Atlantic, hawaii, Alaska, New England, none of that. There is a welcoming feeling and a warm emotion when I'm down south. As a black male I must say I do not think I would fit i anywhere else.
The answer is easy....It's the region we all "came from" post slavery. The South is our base from which we migrated to other places for whatever reason be it slavery with freedom in the North, jobs in Detroit, Chicago, NYC or aerospace in LA / SO Cal during the industrial boom years. I bet every Black person could trace thier roots to the South at some point so it's no "amazing" revelatioin when we move back from where we orignated.......
If its family roots, I understand. Odd thing is, for my father, it worked a bit differently. He did move South, but not back to his parents hometown. He went to wherever he could find work. First it was New Orleans. He would live in other parts of the nation after that. He did go to Atlanta for work. Now the economy there is bad.
First time I have actually seen this. I must say simply because I was born here. I don't like the North, Northeast, West, Midwest, Southwest, Mid Atlantic, hawaii, Alaska, New England, none of that. There is a welcoming feeling and a warm emotion when I'm down south. As a black male I must say I do not think I would fit i anywhere else.
First time I have actually seen this. I must say simply because I was born here. I don't like the North, Northeast, West, Midwest, Southwest, Mid Atlantic, hawaii, Alaska, New England, none of that. There is a welcoming feeling and a warm emotion when I'm down south. As a black male I must say I do not think I would fit i anywhere else.
It depends on who you run into in the South and where you are in the South.
But as least for North Carolina, the factories are being replaced by research centers/labs and high-tech facilities. Don't feel too bad for NC. The Rust-Belt North (with a few exceptions) on the other hand....
North Carolina is kinda becoming two states in one - I wonder if this is variably true across the South?
In that, I mean you have Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham-Cary-Chapel Hill, and maybe Greenville (the NC one!): R&D isn't as much of a presence in Charlotte, but the universities and RTP in the Triangle, and East Carolina in Greenville have sparked massive growth. And it's a specific kind - pulling in a talent pool that is multiethnic, and very, very, very highly educated. And notably - it hasn't arisen from incentive-based "reeling in a big plant" or HQ facility (or some big conceptual $ sink-hole like the Global TransPark), but rather from businesses that have local roots, and grew into what they have become. In the Triangle and Greenville, there's a lot of university spin-offs - health, tech, biotech, et. al.
Greenville also offers a window into the other NC, as it's in the East. This is the NC of declining one-industry towns (tobacco, furniture, textiles). There's a lot of places like Kinston, Hickory, Rockingham Morganton scattered around the state that are essentially rust belt-gone-to-the-South: low educational attainment, concentrated poverty, highly segregated, HIV/drug issues, declining populations. The boom towns in the state are sucking the brains out of those towns. Greenville - which is the smallest of the big 10 cities in the state, but the fastest growing after Raleigh, Cary and Charlotte, is completely sucking the best-and-brightest from the rest of eastern NC - which (excepting Wilmington) is in deeply dreadful economic shape. To some extent you see this in the mounatin counties to the west as well - wealthy tourist/service driven economies (with severe rich/poor divisions), versus the traditional Appalachian-type places, that seem stuck.
As this wild divide in urban/rural, rich/poor, highly educated/poorly educated deepens in the state, it throws a big question mark over the state's future. Spend a week in Cary, Carrboro or Chapel Hill (wealthy, arty, uber-brainy) - and then spend a week in Lenoir, Kinston or Hamlet (none of the above), and you'd think you were on two entirely different planets.
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And - regarding the OP: of 100 counties in North Carolina, I've spent time in or at least passed through around 90 of them. I love having - 6 hours apart - Wisconsin winters (Boone) and North Florida winters (Wilmington) about 6 hours drive apart. I have hiked and camped and driven my way up and down the Blue Ridge (and the Uwharrie Mountains at the center of the state); had family friends living on the Outer Banks when I was a kid - it's a great place. I love the fact that the state isn't dominated by one megacity, but rather has many midsized-to-biggish cities that have distinct personalities of their own - Wilmington, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem and the Triangle cities are all very interesting places, with very notable differences, and (in places at least) quite a bit of charm.
The South does still get stereotyped as whatever it gets stereotyped as, and many African-Americans (and many people of all ethnicities) may have some trepidation about how much of the area's past lingers in its' present.
But I'm a black Southerner, with a circle of friends that looks like the United Nations. I have - within the last year - gone to a film festival, seen classic Japanese and Italian films on a big screen, eaten in various international eateries, toured a local organic farm (there are dozens within a 20-mile radius of where I live), taken trains from city-to-city ... there's a lot of the South that has become as cosmopolitan (if not moreso) than any number of cities elsewhere in the countries.
North Carolina is kinda becoming two states in one - I wonder if this is variably true across the South?
In that, I mean you have Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham-Cary-Chapel Hill, and maybe Greenville (the NC one!): R&D isn't as much of a presence in Charlotte, but the universities and RTP in the Triangle, and East Carolina in Greenville have sparked massive growth. And it's a specific kind - pulling in a talent pool that is multiethnic, and very, very, very highly educated. And notably - it hasn't arisen from incentive-based "reeling in a big plant" or HQ facility (or some big conceptual $ sink-hole like the Global TransPark), but rather from businesses that have local roots, and grew into what they have become. In the Triangle and Greenville, there's a lot of university spin-offs - health, tech, biotech, et. al.
Greenville also offers a window into the other NC, as it's in the East. This is the NC of declining one-industry towns (tobacco, furniture, textiles). There's a lot of places like Kinston, Hickory, Rockingham Morganton scattered around the state that are essentially rust belt-gone-to-the-South: low educational attainment, concentrated poverty, highly segregated, HIV/drug issues, declining populations. The boom towns in the state are sucking the brains out of those towns. Greenville - which is the smallest of the big 10 cities in the state, but the fastest growing after Raleigh, Cary and Charlotte, is completely sucking the best-and-brightest from the rest of eastern NC - which (excepting Wilmington) is in deeply dreadful economic shape. To some extent you see this in the mounatin counties to the west as well - wealthy tourist/service driven economies (with severe rich/poor divisions), versus the traditional Appalachian-type places, that seem stuck.
As this wild divide in urban/rural, rich/poor, highly educated/poorly educated deepens in the state, it throws a big question mark over the state's future. Spend a week in Cary, Carrboro or Chapel Hill (wealthy, arty, uber-brainy) - and then spend a week in Lenoir, Kinston or Hamlet (none of the above), and you'd think you were on two entirely different planets.
----
And - regarding the OP: of 100 counties in North Carolina, I've spent time in or at least passed through around 90 of them. I love having - 6 hours apart - Wisconsin winters (Boone) and North Florida winters (Wilmington) about 6 hours drive apart. I have hiked and camped and driven my way up and down the Blue Ridge (and the Uwharrie Mountains at the center of the state); had family friends living on the Outer Banks when I was a kid - it's a great place. I love the fact that the state isn't dominated by one megacity, but rather has many midsized-to-biggish cities that have distinct personalities of their own - Wilmington, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem and the Triangle cities are all very interesting places, with very notable differences, and (in places at least) quite a bit of charm.
The South does still get stereotyped as whatever it gets stereotyped as, and many African-Americans (and many people of all ethnicities) may have some trepidation about how much of the area's past lingers in its' present.
But I'm a black Southerner, with a circle of friends that looks like the United Nations. I have - within the last year - gone to a film festival, seen classic Japanese and Italian films on a big screen, eaten in various international eateries, toured a local organic farm (there are dozens within a 20-mile radius of where I live), taken trains from city-to-city ... there's a lot of the South that has become as cosmopolitan (if not moreso) than any number of cities elsewhere in the countries.
Long story short, what they said. The South is not what you think it is anymore. The cities provide a better representation of this than the towns, but come on guys, this is 21st century America. Racism itself is not the issue, its classism, but that's another topic.
People move to the South because land is cheaper and the economic opportunities generally are better.
Long story short, what they said. The South is not what you think it is anymore. The cities provide a better representation of this than the towns, but come on guys, this is 21st century America. Racism itself is not the issue, its classism, but that's another topic.
People move to the South because land is cheaper and the economic opportunities generally are better.
Not so much anymore. This recent recession has hit places like Atlanta and Charlotte like a ton of bricks.
Not so much anymore. This recent recession has hit places like Atlanta and Charlotte like a ton of bricks.
But you've still got Texas, Raleigh-Durham, Nashville, etc., and smaller metros like Charleston, Baton Rouge, etc., that are still doing comparatively well. And while unemployment is still somewhat high in Charlotte, there have been a spate of economic development announcements over the past several months (even some corporate HQ relocations), and that's already helping us to get back on even footing. People still want to move here.
But you've still got Texas, Raleigh-Durham, Nashville, etc., and smaller metros like Charleston, Baton Rouge, etc., that are still doing comparatively well. And while unemployment is still somewhat high in Charlotte, there have been a spate of economic development announcements over the past several months (even some corporate HQ relocations), and that's already helping us to get back on even footing. People still want to move here.
Not to mention even though Atl and Clt have been hit by the recession, people are still moving there. But you're post is spot on.
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