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The few people complaining about NC being "crowded" and "over built" don't seem to know what crowded is.
The Charlotte Metro Area is bigger in land area with about half the population of the Minneapolis Metro area where I am from, and the Minneapolis Metro Area still has plenty of room for more before I would even start to consider it "crowded". The Raleigh Durham area has even less people than the Charlotte area.
Even the humidity that i see people being "warned" about isn't bad compared to where I am from. Minneapolis is 89% humidity right now, while Charlotte is 78% and Raleigh is 76%.
Charlotte has an average afternoon humidity of 53%
Raleigh has an avarage afternoon humidity of 54%
Minneapolis has an average afternoon humidity of 62%
Some other randomly picked cities with an average afternoon humidity higher than both Charlotte and Raleigh.
Chicago - 62%
Cincinnati - 60%
Cleveland - 62%
Indianapolis - 62%
Boston - 58%
New York - 56%
Atlanta - 56%
Houston - 63%
Kansas City - 63%
Seattle - 62%
I thinks it's the perception because of the rapid growth. The smallish town I live in Connecticut has a higher population density than Charlotte. It's all relative.
I think North Carolina has a different kind of humidity due to it's location. I have lived in several different states and I would compare N. Carolina's humidity to Florida. It depends on the jet stream. I live in Kansas Cuty and the humididty here is nothing compared to the humidity in Philly where I moved from. I feel like I am an expert on humidity as I have searched and searched for places to live with lower humidity. I would agree MN is horrible.
Humidity numbers are pretty meaningless by themselves. What some folks complain about is actually the Heat Index. The Heat Index is a comfort scale. Even though two North Carolina cities like Raleigh and Asheville may have the same humidity percentage, the difference in air temp. between the two will make a big difference in the comfort level. In the Summer, it's not uncommon to see a difference of around 10-20 degrees in air temp. from one end of the state to the other. High humidity by itself is not uncomfortable unless the air temp. is also high. The normal Heat Index for Asheville in July is 86 while in Raleigh, its 106.
The few people complaining about NC being "crowded" and "over built" don't seem to know what crowded is.
The Charlotte Metro Area is bigger in land area with about half the population of the Minneapolis Metro area where I am from, and the Minneapolis Metro Area still has plenty of room for more before I would even start to consider it "crowded". The Raleigh Durham area has even less people than the Charlotte area.
Even the humidity that i see people being "warned" about isn't bad compared to where I am from. Minneapolis is 89% humidity right now, while Charlotte is 78% and Raleigh is 76%.
Charlotte has an average afternoon humidity of 53%
Raleigh has an avarage afternoon humidity of 54%
Minneapolis has an average afternoon humidity of 62%
I've been thinking these same thoughts, T.S., ever since I got back from NC a month ago. After everything I read here, I was expecting things to be much more crowded down there--but that was not the case at all. I didn't feel like any area was "congested" to a point of discomfort. In fact, driving through the rural areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin, things look a lot more congested up here than they did down there!
You're right about the humidity too... it was at 70% here yesterday and 40% in Asheville. One other big difference is wind-- did you know that in many places in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, the wind is worse than in Chicago? Most places in NC have significantly lower winds, which I'm looking forward too, but will also influence the heat index, I'm sure.
As far as your assessment on crowding goes - these are the population density numbers for the two cities:
Minneapolis - 2,691.4/km²
Raleigh - 930.2/km²
Charlotte - 861.9/km²
clearly Minneapolis is a much denser city than Charlotte or Raleigh.
but by state:
North Carolina - 63.80/km²
Minnesota - 23.86/km²
The state of North Carolina has roughly 3x the population density of Minnesota.
So it's clear that in a state like MN, people tend to crowd toward the city, where in NC the population is more evenly spread out over more rural areas. I think the people complaining about crowding don't live in downtown Charlotte, they live in the outlying areas - so I don't believe your comparison really addresses these issues.
But I do get what you're saying - North Carolina isn't crowded by the standards of the urban midwest or northeast. But therein lies the flaw in your argument: North Carolinians don't gauge their crowdedness by the standards of the urban midwest or the northeast, they gauge it by what they are used to in North Carolina.
Well I wasn't really making an argument... more of an observation really. And what I said wasn't based on facts or data, of course--mainly what I saw from the interstate. It just wasn't really as crowded as I was expecting.
I can understand why people in NC are upset about all the people moving there. It sucks when the countryside you've enjoyed all your life is suddenly filled with cookie-cutter homes and grocery stores and Wal-Marts. It's happening like crazy here in Western Wisconsin too--people who work in Minneapolis and want to get out of the city but still commute are discovering St. Croix County and moving here in droves. All the farm land is getting sold off to builders and homes are popping up everywhere. But hating it and kvetching about it won't change anything. I've been reading a lot of nastiness on this board between NC natives and potential transplants, and it's troubling to see this kind of behavior between adults. But it won't deter me from moving to NC. I think most of the locals will be just fine with us coming. We keep to ourselves a lot, and we aren't interested in politics or changing how things are done. We'll adapt to NC or we'll leave.
I've been thinking these same thoughts, T.S., ever since I got back from NC a month ago. After everything I read here, I was expecting things to be much more crowded down there--but that was not the case at all. I didn't feel like any area was "congested" to a point of discomfort. In fact, driving through the rural areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin, things look a lot more congested up here than they did down there!
You're right about the humidity too... it was at 70% here yesterday and 40% in Asheville. One other big difference is wind-- did you know that in many places in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, the wind is worse than in Chicago? Most places in NC have significantly lower winds, which I'm looking forward too, but will also influence the heat index, I'm sure.
Yeah, well we dont want to be crowded like Minneapolis! NC has a higher population than the whole state of Minnesota anyways. Oh yeah, and the comments on the climate, try being out east NC in July and tell me that Minnesota is worse. Asheville is in the mountains, and is a lot cooler so the humidity is alot more tolerable.
Last edited by Carolina_native; 06-18-2006 at 12:50 PM..
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Humidity
