which area of north Carolina would be better for me? (Charlotte: crime, home)

[scottyr]

Which of these 3 areas in NC ---Charlotte-Gastonia-or-The Research Triangle-or-Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point----would be the best for me.

I really am not concerned about specific cities, but rather the above mentioned mult-city metro areas as a whole.

I am wondering which metro has---

A)The most white collar office jobs (per capita that is, in relation to the percentage of service and blue collar jobs)

B)The highest metro-wide homicide rates (per capita again)

C)The most impressive commercial areas with historic archetecture and vibrant streetlife and an urban,bustling environment ---skyscrapers are not important, but i like good street-level archetecture that is well-kept and alive with interesting stores. I realise these metros may have more than one downtown district...but what metro has the best collection of such areas.

D)Not really important, but what area comes off as having the most liberal population, in proportion to the percentage of non-liberals?

E)Not important either, but really really wondering if each metro area in the state has its own identity and culture that really make them seem differant from the others? Like in the Northeast, Boston has it's own accent, own architectural style, own cuisine (chowda, succotash), and comes along with a stereotype of having alot of irish and ivy league liberal snobs...and this sets it apart from NYC and Philly...which also have their own cultures and customs...and stereotypes surrounding them....just wondering if NC metro areas have their own strong identities and stereotypes that people think of.


thank you

[Francois]

As far as "character", The Triad is still seen as more blue-collar, while Charlotte is seen as more of a "banking/business" city and the Triangle is Tech/biotech plus home to 3 good universities. There aren't really any "accent" differences between natives from the three places, though of course all three have many folks from other areas, so you will hear many accents. There is a difference between NC natives who grew up in cities vs. the rural areas (but isn't every state like that?).

Charlotte and the Triangle are more white-collar, but be advised that competition for jobs in NC is perhaps the highest it's ever been, with so many wanting to move here even as the number of jobs is reduced by layoffs and hiring freezes. What industry are you specifically interested in?

Crime varies so much between specific areas of each metro, that shouldn't be a deciding factor of one metro over the other, since all have very nice places and ore crime-ridden places.

Charlotte is the biggest "city" as far as downtown architecture, etc., but you would really need to visit and check them out, if this is a deciding factor for you.

The Triangle is probably the "Bluest" area politically. But NC overall is a "Purple" state with some oxymoronic political outcomes sometimes.

Is there is a reason you are interested in "NC" but don't seem to know about the cities themselves? How do you know that a different state might have more of what you're looking for? Usually people come becasue they like a paticular city that happens to be in NC, as opposed to picking NC but not knowing where they want within the state.

You can look up basic info on the cities in NC on City-Data's main NC page.