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The example of the yellow and red paint describes exactly what happened to Miami and South Florida over the past 15 years, except 10 times worse. I'm in Miami where the population according to the 2000 census is 10,000 per square mile. I'm sure it will be higher for 2010. I have a home in NC and Miami, both of similar value. The homeowner's insurance in NC is $700 per year. Here in Miami, it's $3,200. I would love to get out of here and move to NC. But I'm respectful to North Carolina's residents, heritage and natural areas. Most of the people new to Miami in the last 15 years are disrespectful to native Floridians, it's history and what's left of the natural areas. If you're upset with people like me moving to NC, as BTO said, "you ain't seen nothing yet". If Miami is anything like the future for the rest of the country, look out! But I think the wave of people moving to NC from Florida is almost done. There's a few left that want to get out, but the majority is out. And for the ones that are left here (the 10,000+ people per sq mile) they don't want to move to NC because they hate the cold. These past two winters have been a great deterrent. Now all you hear people talk about is how crazy it is to move to NC, you have to be crazy!!!
The facts are that NC grew by approximately 1.3 million people between the year 2000 and 2009. Approximately 830,000 or 64% of the growth was in the Charlotte and Raleigh metro areas. Charlotte and Raleigh are driving the growth of the state. Many of the counties and cities such as Cleveland County (home of NCRebel) experience very little growth. For example, Cleveland county, NC only grew from approximately 96,000 to 99,000 people from 2000 to 2009. Growth is inevitable in some area of NC for now. But it may not always be that way. Ohio was growing in the 1950s. I believe the people of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Michigan would agree that they would like to experience again the job and population growth and challenges that this growth presents. Unfortunately, cities, counties, and states are either growing or shrinking. Once the shrinking begins, it is difficult to turn around. These shrinking states would love to have the problems that NC has experienced with runaway job and population growth. Before NCRebel is too critical of NC's problems, he should look more closely at the alternative.
Before NCRebel is too critical of NC's problems, he should look more closely at the alternative.
But "dying" is not the only alternative to "out-of-control growth". There is also "reasonable, healthy growth". Lot of middle ground between 4% annual and negative %, which you claim is "the [only] alternative".
Those of you worried about people from Florida, New York, and the Midwest moving in, buying up homes and land, and ruining the rural nature of North Carolina might want to consider counting your blessings.
Minnesota is becoming inundated with people from Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, etc. "seeking services." As support services are cut back in their home states, they move here seeking subsidized housing, food stamps, medical and mental health care, etc. MNCare (state subsidized health insurance for those with low incomes) is struggling to keep up. Our schools are overwhelmed with students needing Special Ed. Charitable organizations are drained of funds.
At least those moving to North Carolina are paying taxes. Minnesota should be so lucky.
I have met and talked to zthatzmanz28 (and Mrs. zthatzmanz28) and they are very sincere about the area and what they love about it, and are not "those types" who want to move somewhere cheap, then promptly turn it into the very thing they left (and invite everyone they knew from "back home" to move down, further destroying the home atmosphere). All transplants should be like them.
However, yes, I do fear frequently that since many consider FL to be "ruined" by overzealous growth and people who don't appreciate thet area, and instead just complain about everything that's different from where they chose to leave and move here. Now this trend has caused people to leave Florida, as well, and somehow NC has gotten in the crosshairs, so in some cases, the same foils who "ruined" Florida are showing up to "put their special mark" on North Carolina as well.
Unfortunately, people tend not to compare and area with how it used to be, but with how the place they moved from was. So, even if a certain area may have, to locals, lost 75% of the charm, character, and niceties of whata it was like 20 years ago, it's still a good thing for someone who arrives from somewhere "even worse". And in the meantime, of course, their moving here pushes it even father in that direction. Take the traffic issue. NC used to have far less traffic than many "transplant magmet" areas do now, but complain about it and you will hear "it's NOTHING compared to Long Island/New Jersey/wherever they came from." Of course, locals cound't care less what traffic is like in those places, but to the transplants, it's an improvement (though ironically adding to the very traffic they claim is "nothing" :-/ )
It is kind of like two buckets of paint. Imagine that Yellow is "good" and Red is "bad". A drop of red paint find its way to the yellow bucket and thinks "Wow, this is great!" that one drop doesn't affect the rest of the yellow drops much, so all are happy. Then Red Drop tells his friends back in Red Bucket that they all need to come to Yellow Bucket right away! More red drops arrive, still having negligible effect overall. But soon, more and more and more Red Drops arrive, and suddenly Yellow Bucket is a little but Orange, which is noticeably inferior to the Yellow Drops than what they had before. But compared to Red Bucket, it's still a great deal, and they continue to implore their fellow Red drops to move to Yellow Bucket just as fast as they can. It gets Orangers and Oranger, but if a Yellow Drop dares to suggest that things were better a little while ago, where there weren't so many Reds there, the response is an indignant "Are you KIDDING? This Orange is SO MUCH BETTER than the Red we used to have! In fact, I've just invited everyone on my old street in red Bucket to get the heck out of there and come here as fast as they can!"
Oranger and Oranger. Always a good deal with the Reds, by definition, but the Yellows see their formerly nice, yellow home becoming more and more Red. And one day, when it starts to tip more toward Red than Orange "(but ti's still better than Sold Red! Here we come, whee!!"), soon those Orange drops now start to seek out yet another bucket, as they realize "it's not quite the nice place we thought it was, for some reason. Sure seems awfully Red here."
And they move to another Yellow bucket...
Well, thank God it's America and you are always free to move somewhere more "country".
Your distaste is misguided.. Maybe you should take it up with state council.
I don't know how familiar Francois is familiar with why many Floridians are leaving the state, Ihopefully myself included within the next year. There are 2 major factors. The first is the influx of people from the Carribbean nations, South and Central America and Cuba over the past 10-20 years. This has caused a tremendous amount of "white flight" as you feel more and more like your living in a 3rd world country rather than America. There's not the appreciation in being here like we have from European immigrants and frankly they are plain rude with their conversations in Spanish in front of you. A great many once thriving businesses have closed shop and fled, only to be replaced by so many mom and pop Spanish stores that only cater to the Latin's.
The 2nd big reason is the cost to insure your home. Since Florida got hit with 4 hurricanes in one year some 6-7 years ago, the cost of insurance has skyrocket and many residents are paying far more for insurance than property taxes.
This used to be one of the kost inexspensive places to live but not anymore. Florida has been ruined and not by all the Northerners who once moved here. Those people spent money and gave back to the community and we were glad to have them but the trend has reversed itself. Nort longer are they moving here from the North but rather countries South of us. You don't see those people getting involved in community or school activities like many other people do from this country.
Watch out because it's a sign of what's going to happen all across America because someone in Congress left the spicket on.
I welcome the growth in NC and to be honest its NCs fault. The rise of banking in Charlotte and RTP in Raleigh was due to native NCians having a vision to make NC a better place. As some posted, 64% of the growth in NC is concentrated in Charlotte and Raleigh. IMO, no matter how many transplants move to these areas both are still incredibly Southern. Btw, only Wake and Mecklenburg are the only counties over 600k. Guilford might be in that range but is not near Wake or Meck. So most of the complaints are probably directed to those areas.
I like transplants. Makes for more diversity amongst the general population.
All I ask is that any transplant who moves here because they love the trees, the slower pace, the larger lots for building... do all you can to try and keep NC beautiful.
When I lived in New England, locals resented the people from NY and NJ who would move there for the "country life" but cling to their big-city ways and try to remake the area into what they wanted it to be. Here in the Midwest, Wisconsinites dislike the FIBs who buy vacation and weekend homes in the state and bring their Illinois ways north. And locally, people keep moving to Naperville IL for the quality of life ... today, I avoid the downtown because Naperville is no longer the quaint and friendly town it was decades ago; rich yuppies have purchased the old homes along Jefferson street and replaced them with million dollar monstrosities way too large for their lots ... a rich person's vision of what it means to live in a small town. I find myself cringing now when I drive down that street.
I think it's not outsiders that are the problem, it's our perennial American desire for an imagined better life and our restlessness in pursuing it ... which by the way, Alexis de Toqueville wrote about nearly 200 years ago: "...[the American] settles in a place, which he soon afterward leaves, to carry his changeable longings elsewhere..."
I would also say, you can't move to a place and be open to it without being changed. I carry in me a bit of every place I've lived, and all the people I've met in them (including my five years in Chapel Hill). No doubt, NC has been changed by the people who have moved there ... but it's also a sure thing that those who have moved to NC have been changed by the people and places they've encountered there. And that includes those who speak a different language, or come from alien lands (something which could have been said about many of our ancestors). We're all sojourners in this land.
I lived in Naperville for about a year, oh... 1987-88?
The downtown was really beautiful. I remember wishing we had downtown areas that lovely here in the Triangle area. It would probably make me sad to go there now.
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