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I can see Burlington winning in housing costs, and maybe crime rate... but thats about it. Perhaps Burlington vs High Point would be a more fair contest.
Unfortunately, there's no real comparison between Burlington and Greensboro. The size difference is just too great. The west side of Burlington near Alamance Crossings, Mackintosh on the Lake, University Commons, Waterford is nice but there aren't that many areas in Burlington like that. Greensboro has far more nice neighborhoods and shopping options.
Charlotte has Concord outside its city limits. I see Burlington as Greensboro's Concord. Greensboro is leaps and bounds ahead of Burlington.
I think this is a good comparison, assuming the population of each is divided into 2 or 3 compared to the Charlotte metro.
Overall, there's no comparison in saying Greensboro has more options related to shopping, dining, and things to do. By infrastructure, you'd have to define what you mean (traffic?, highway system/layout? bus service?, age of sewer?, parks?, etc.).
Also, in terms of education, Greensboro has a wider array of colleges and universities (Not counting the community college system, 5 are located within Greensboro's city limits versus Burlington which only has Elon in an adjoining town). As far as K-12, it depends on perspective because the Guilford County school system has a sharper divide between the haves and have nots in the school system, when it comes to socioeconomic conditions and school resources. Crime rates depends entirely on the crime and the time period looked at, but I don't see a huge difference between the two.
Burlington gets a slight edge to cost of living/housing costs, but it's not dramatically cheaper to live there, so it wouldn't make much sense to live in Burlington and commute to Greensboro just for cheaper housing costs unless there was some other reason for preferring Burlington.
The job market question depends on how you look at it. If we're talking about living in one place and finding a job within the city limits of one's residence, I would give an edge to Greensboro simply because of a more diversified, complex economy (though Burlington has some diversified opportunities such as Labcorp). However, if the question posed is asking about the job market within an hour's drive, I'd give a slight edge to Burlington because it not only includes most of the Triad, but pulls in some of the Triangle which may be a hot job market, depending on one's field.
Where it becomes even more subjective is "human interactions". My impression is that the differences are subtle. Burlington strikes me as a tad more laid back than Greensboro, with fewer rushed "stuffed shirts" (which in my subjective opinion seem more prevalent in Northwest Greensboro than elsewhere in Greensboro). But Greensboro is more diverse, so there's a better chance of finding someone that shares eclectic interests than in Burlington, where people and their tastes tend to be a bit more on the conservative side.
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