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Rocky Mount is close enough to being NCs own East St. Louis, IL or Gary Indiana. Difference is those two cities have a major city next door whereas Rocky Mount is an hour or so away from the Raleigh-Durham area.
I cannot imagine having to live there unless you're in a gated community and/or have a very good paying job. I would rather live in Kinston, Goldsboro, and Fayetteville before I would move to Rocky Mount. I know someone who loves this state, everything about it except Rocky Mount (and other things I won't dive into).
Quote:
Originally Posted by RoaminRebel
The close proximity of the city to I-95 and 64 makes leaving the city for somewhere else more convenient.
This is pretty much the only positive I can come up with.
I've been posting at CD a long time, and I find the hatred of towns on threads disgusting -- especially those that end up with scarcely-veiled racially tinged sneering at towns (Gary or E. St. Louis? C'mon.)
I live in a city, Durham, that twenty years ago had a horrible reputation; ten years go, a rough but improving reputation; and today, a much better reputation though the old issues linger. But twenty years ago, the people who were moving to Durham or had stayed in Durham -- despite the name-calling, belittling, slurs over a minority-parity or minority-majority city -- are the ones who transformed the place.
I was in line at Monuts (which is co-owned by a CD regular, btw) downtown on Friday and two relatively new residents were talking about the city's transformation, and how five years before it was a tough place no one wanted to live in, and suddenly was hot and redeveloping. What I wanted to point out to them (and managed to do in a nice way) was that Durham revitalized not out of thin air, but because people put the time, energy and love in.
If Eddie Belk and Terry Sanford, Jr. hadn't thought through how old Liggett & Myers warehouses could be renovated into Brightleaf Square in the early 1980s -- if Reyn Bowman hadn't done a great job building our branding infrastructure in the late 1980s -- if Durham elected officials hadn't bucked the will of the people (losing their jobs in the process) to build the new ballpark in the early 1990s -- if Bill Kalkhof hadn't laid the seeds for downtown revitalization in the 1990s -- if Ben and Karen Barker hadn't opened Magnolia Grill, earning national foodie acclaim and spinning out sous chefs from their kitchen into their own restaurants -- if we didn't have a thoughtful mayor, Bill Bell, who merged progressive and business interests... then we wouldn't have the kind of renaissance we're enjoying today.
The latecomers are getting the attention, but the pioneers came in when people talked about Durham two decades back just as people razz Rocky Mount today. They didn't listen to those who would tear the city down, and instead laid the foundation to make Durham a great city.
Durham had some structural advantages in the 1980s: a strong university on the cusp of national and global recognition, great hospitals, and RTP. I don't know that Rocky Mount has those same strengths. But any city with dedicated citizens can become a better place to live.
I'd be curious of those so quick to belittle and minimize Rocky Mount -- what do you do to make the city you live in a better place? Or is it easier just to criticize than to engage?
I've been posting at CD a long time, and I find the hatred of towns on threads disgusting -- especially those that end up with scarcely-veiled racially tinged sneering at towns (Gary or E. St. Louis? C'mon.)
I live in a city, Durham, that twenty years ago had a horrible reputation; ten years go, a rough but improving reputation; and today, a much better reputation though the old issues linger. But twenty years ago, the people who were moving to Durham or had stayed in Durham -- despite the name-calling, belittling, slurs over a minority-parity or minority-majority city -- are the ones who transformed the place.
I was in line at Monuts (which is co-owned by a CD regular, btw) downtown on Friday and two relatively new residents were talking about the city's transformation, and how five years before it was a tough place no one wanted to live in, and suddenly was hot and redeveloping. What I wanted to point out to them (and managed to do in a nice way) was that Durham revitalized not out of thin air, but because people put the time, energy and love in.
If Eddie Belk and Terry Sanford, Jr. hadn't thought through how old Liggett & Myers warehouses could be renovated into Brightleaf Square in the early 1980s -- if Reyn Bowman hadn't done a great job building our branding infrastructure in the late 1980s -- if Durham elected officials hadn't bucked the will of the people (losing their jobs in the process) to build the new ballpark in the early 1990s -- if Bill Kalkhof hadn't laid the seeds for downtown revitalization in the 1990s -- if Ben and Karen Barker hadn't opened Magnolia Grill, earning national foodie acclaim and spinning out sous chefs from their kitchen into their own restaurants -- if we didn't have a thoughtful mayor, Bill Bell, who merged progressive and business interests... then we wouldn't have the kind of renaissance we're enjoying today.
The latecomers are getting the attention, but the pioneers came in when people talked about Durham two decades back just as people razz Rocky Mount today. They didn't listen to those who would tear the city down, and instead laid the foundation to make Durham a great city.
Durham had some structural advantages in the 1980s: a strong university on the cusp of national and global recognition, great hospitals, and RTP. I don't know that Rocky Mount has those same strengths. But any city with dedicated citizens can become a better place to live.
I'd be curious of those so quick to belittle and minimize Rocky Mount -- what do you do to make the city you live in a better place? Or is it easier just to criticize than to engage?
This is the Rocky Mount hate thread.. not the Durham hate thread. Pull the race card in the appropriate thread please..
Not to mention the CSX mainline goes right through town!
I think Rocky Mount gets a bad rap? It has a very nice downtown and I've never once felt unsafe there even at night. You can't always believe the naysayers...
Very nice downtown? You must be thinking of another city. It has the worst looking deserted downtown you will ever see with train tracks running right down the middle of it.
Rocky Mount is close enough to being NCs own East St. Louis, IL or Gary Indiana. Difference is those two cities have a major city next door whereas Rocky Mount is an hour or so away from the Raleigh-Durham area.
I cannot imagine having to live there unless you're in a gated community and/or have a very good paying job. I would rather live in Kinston, Goldsboro, and Fayetteville before I would move to Rocky Mount. I know someone who loves this state, everything about it except Rocky Mount (and other things I won't dive into).
This is pretty much the only positive I can come up with.
Id actually rather live in Rocky Mount than Kinston. Kinston is a hell hole with no interstates. At least Rocky Mount is on 95 and an hour away from Raleigh.
With that being said, Rocky Mount has the worst crime and unemployment rate in the state so that might trump it for most.
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