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Looking for a conservative area in RDU area to raise a family with kids ages 9,7. Looking for great schools, very safe and very good youth sports (Football, baseball, softball) Not looking to spend a lot of $$ for housing, nor want to be near the hood. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
A place you can afford, maintain a standard of living you are comfortable with and still manage to save 15%-20% of your take home pay is the place you should be. Where exactly is that?
Only you know for sure..I generally suggest Chapel Hill or Carboro, but since I see the BIG "C" word and not looking to spend a lot of $ on housing (does that really complement the "C" word?) I am at a complete loss. May be others with more insight will be able to identify such a place?
Prefer to rent until I can get some property sold (commercial, 2-3 years) so looking to rent around $1500+/-. The hood I refer to is just that, the hood, a place where I don't want my family to be around, run down, neglected, crime infested, gang activity, open air drug markets.
Gottcha..cause I live in a hood, but seem to be lacking the above mentioned criteria...my hood just has families, children and a few puppy dogs...and of course assorted wildlife..
Prefer to rent until I can get some property sold (commercial, 2-3 years) so looking to rent around $1500+/-. The hood I refer to is just that, the hood, a place where I don't want my family to be around, run down, neglected, crime infested, gang activity, open air drug markets.
Are you having flashbacks to the 70s? Sounds like you want to live in Clayton.
Looking for a conservative area in RDU area to raise a family with kids ages 9,7. Looking for great schools, very safe and very good youth sports (Football, baseball, softball) Not looking to spend a lot of $$ for housing, nor want to be near the hood. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I'm honestly not sure what you mean by a "conservative area." If you mean environmentally conservative, the whole area is pretty good, although hardly perfect. Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Pittsboro, and parts of Durham would probably tend to have the highest percentage of people with a strong sense of environmental awareness and activism, but there's a reasonable presence throughout the region. If you mean politically conservative, this area is fairly mixed-up. For better or worse, I find a lot of people across the political spectrum living more or less everywhere here. As a whole, the Triangle region tends to be fairly moderate or lean slightly left politically, though it's certainly not San Francisco. The highest concentration of highly progressive people politically is around the universities—especially UNC and Duke. But there are some all across the area. Likewise, the strongest concentrations of conservative voters tend to be in the more rural areas on the fringes of the suburban sprawl, but there are plenty of conservatives everywhere here, too. If you're talking about socially conservative, the entire region tends to be pretty conservative, although not (for the most part) to the point of stifling people's expression and sense of freedom. In that kind of cultural sense, you're likely to find the most conservatism in the various country club communities, and in the upper-middle-class suburban areas in North Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, and Wake Forest.
Like zthatzmanz28 and toot68, I also found myself a bit perplexed by your references to "the hood," as though that was a specific place. Probably the only places that more or less fit what you were describing—and that you thus should steer clear of if you want to avoid something like "the hood"—are the corridors immediately to the east and southeast of downtown Raleigh, and the areas just to the east, south, and southwest of downtown Durham. Whether or not a place is "run down" and/or "neglected" is mostly subjective, but there are some higher-than-average crime rates and open-air drug markets in those areas. Virtually the entire rest of the region has a pleasant, suburban feel, which doesn't seem to be the kind of "hood" you're concerned about, so you should be in luck. Crimes of various kinds, and especially drug crimes, can and do happen literally anywhere, but they may be a bit less visible and conspicuous in the more suburban areas.
At any rate, the kinds of housing opportunities you describe yourself looking for should be easy to find throughout the Triangle area. Frankly, it actually represents the overwhelming majority of the entire region (safe, family-friendly, good schools, plenty of conservative people, affordable at around $1500 rent, not "the hood"), so you have plenty to choose from. I think I might therefore concentrate on the part about being close to RDU. Morrisville, the northern and western parts of Cary, the southeastern part of Durham, and the northwestern part of Raleigh are the most convenient places to get to and from the airport, and they all fit the criteria stated above excellently. Personally, I would start by looking in Morrisville and the immediately adjacent portions of Cary. It's a very nice, suburban area, but also has plenty of rental housing available in your price range.
Also, as a point of reference, are you moving into the Triangle area, or are you already here and looking to move within the region? If you are coming from out of town, where are you coming from? Are you happy living where you are now? Knowing that might be helpful to further refine exactly what it is you're looking for.
There are plenty of areas. You just have to come and visit because they really do have a different feel. I've had a not-so-good experience with Davis Drive Middle (along with others I've spoken to) but a good one at Green Hope Elementary (although the pickup line at school is a bit militaristic!). Its an area where people are walking around with that CNN/Money list of best places constantly in their heads. I actually prefer parts of North Raleigh, which has a more urban and mixed feel. Not so much attitude. All different price ranges there as well.
TomPope-Thanks SO much for all the information, very very informative. Not currently in the area, but lived in Asheville for many years, but now live in Texas and looking to get back to NC.
hood
noun
1. a soft or flexible covering for the head and neck, either separate or attached to a cloak, coat, or the like.
2. something resembling or suggesting such a covering, especially in shape, as certain petals or sepals.
3. the hinged, movable part of an automobile body covering the engine.
4. British . the roof of a carriage.
5. a metal cover or canopy for a stove, ventilator, etc
So...I'm going to suggest that he means:
Explore the Visual Thesaurus »Related Words for : hood
goon, hoodlum, punk, strong-armer, thug
'hood /hʊd/ Show Spelled[hood]
noun
Slang . neighborhood
Vicki
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