North Carolina: More like South Carolina or Virginia? (Charlotte, Raleigh: houses, safe)
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.
The VA border with NC (extreme southern VA) is about as southern as you can get. And about as poor as you can get, too.
Very true, the NC/VA border is quite rural and culturally southern. Towns near the border in Virginia such as Galax, Danville, Martinsville, South Boston, South Hill, and Emporia are very similar to North Carolina towns along the border such as Mt. Airy, Eden, Reidsville, Roxboro, Oxford, and Henderson. Tobacco has always been huge in these areas, also. However if you think this area is culturally southern, go down to some of the areas alongside the NC/SC border, EXTREMELY southern.
Realistically I would say SC. VA and NC share a much bigger border, but there's a much bigger population along the NC/SC border and a lot more people traveling regularly back and forth between the two (Charlotte Metro residents/commuters, upstate to mountains traffic, back and forth to Myrtle).
Interestingly, when I lived in NC, I always thought of VA as our sophisticated older brother and SC as our redneck cousin to the south. When this thread started, I would say NC was closer to VA politically. But given the rabid Tea Party influence that's taken control in the last few years, I would say that NC is doing all it can to be more like SC!
Realistically I would say SC. VA and NC share a much bigger border, but there's a much bigger population along the NC/SC border and a lot more people traveling regularly back and forth between the two (Charlotte Metro residents/commuters, upstate to mountains traffic, back and forth to Myrtle).
I think I'd say that NC is characteristically a bit more like VA but is more closely tied to SC for the reasons you mentioned which I've also noted elsewhere.
NC is more like SC, after all it is our sister state.
The beaches are the same, we have the same basic geography, mountains, piedmont, coastal plain, etc.
I don't think the beaches are the same at all. SC's coast is decidedly more developed than NC's and provides a nice little variety of scenes. And geographically, NC's land area is a bit more evenly split between mountains, Piedmont, and coastal plain. SC is mostly coastal plain and only has a sliver of mountains.
NC is one of the best states in the nation. Just because NC and SC share the same last name doesn't mean, their the same. NC is cut above every state it borders. Culture wise it's more of a hybrid of both states... NC is the largest state of the two, by a considerable margin.
Agreed.
I think NC is pretty different in character from both SC and VA, about equal amounts. In fact the neighbor I would compare it most to is probably Georgia. It is sort of like if you split Atlanta into five smaller cities and spread them out in the middle of the state... you'd get something very much like NC.
It's kind of hard for me to pick one state, but it's very safe to say that you can definitely find similarities in Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. Tennessee not so much besides the similarities between western NC and eastern TN. As for Virginia, I visited Richmond recently and it almost felt like a mashup of Raleigh, NC and Washington, DC. However, I'd say it's culturally more similar to Raleigh even though the architecture looked more like DC. The drive on I-85 from Petersburg, VA to Durham, NC is almost identical on both sides of the state line, VERY rural and culturally southern.
I think NC is pretty different in character from both SC and VA, about equal amounts. In fact the neighbor I would compare it most to is probably Georgia. It is sort of like if you split Atlanta into five smaller cities and spread them out in the middle of the state... you'd get something very much like NC.
NC's largest cities are more spread throughout the state and are separated by a half-tier to a tier as you "step down;" in contrast, there's a huge gulf between Atlanta and the second-tier cities in GA that makes for a very different feel, and I say this as a former Charlottean who now lives in Atlanta and has been to several cities in each state. I don't think that can really be understated. And although NC's recent sharp turn to the right politically has made it a bit more like GA in that respect, historically NC has been a bit more moderate than GA. And NC doesn't have any SEC schools or schools with great football teams; that's a religion in GA. The good ol' boys in north Georgia who didn't even go to a university will rep GA Bulldogs with a passion simply due to football.
And let's not forget that there's a WHOLE LOT of Georgia outside of Atlanta and I find most of the similarities in the second-tier cities to be among SC and AL cities as opposed to NC's. Savannah and Charleston have similarities of course; Columbia and Augusta have similarities; Columbus and Montgomery; Gainesville and Spartanburg; etc. I think Athens can be paired nicely with Chapel Hill though. The Lowcountry culture spans both GA and SC.
The three categories that I find NC and GA to be more similar are growth of largest metro areas, certain industries in those metro areas, topographical division, and colleges/universities, which are admittedly significant points of comparison. On just about all other fronts, GA and AL/SC are more similar IMO.
If you think VA is more like MD than NC, and SC is more like NC than GA, then NC is more like SC. If you think VA is more like NC than MD, and SC is more like NC than GA, then NC is more like VA. If you think VA is more like MD than NC, and SC is more like GA than NC, then, NC is more like SC. If you think VA is more like NC than MD, and SC is more like NC than GA, then NC is more like VA.
Well, that clears that up.
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.
