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OP, I really appreciate your honesty about your experience living in the Triangle area. I've researched the place a lot myself, but still have the feeling that it's best for people with kids. Coming from a large metro area myself, I know it would be a big adjustment although I, too, am not as go-go as I used to be. But I still like to know that there are a variety of places to "go" for stimulation if I want to. Raleigh is going thru a lot of growing pains as people from other parts of the country move there.
There a saying I love..."go where you are celebrated, not just tolerated".
The Raleigh area is really a bunch of small towns kind of linked together. Yes, I would call it southern but there has been a significant influx from the north over the last 15+ years. Culturally, it just does not offer the breadth or depth of what you would find in an established bonafide big city. I moved here 13 yrs ago from the San Francisco Bay Area, so cultureshock! I did adjust, eventually. At the same time it's always been missing something and for me that's because I don't have a family or any family. I recognize that empty feeling would exist regardless of where I happened to live, because without family there will always be a hole.
That's the impression I got when I went to Raleigh for the first time. It's more like a large town than a city. I love the area if I wanted NY I would have stayed up there.
Raleigh is somewhat a typical small capital city. Most of the city centers around a very small area around the capital. It reminds me a lot of Albany, NY.
If you're attracted to bigger cities, I'm not sure what drew you here in the first place. I'm from outside NYC, and IMHO there is no large city like it. But Raleigh is pretty far from even cities that are somewhat comparable to NYC.
I don't ever get why people make these posts as if they're expecting people to justify why they DO like it here though. Just move on, no one will mind.
I don't ever get why people make these posts as if they're expecting people to justify why they DO like it here though. Just move on, no one will mind.
Exactly, Tokyo has like 8 or 9 million people, Raleigh less than half a million. Why would you expect them to be close or even compare them?
We've been here 7 years and I'm still dealing with the lack of stimulus. My kids enjoy it, but we work hard to make sure that they get to spend a few weeks each year in a big city or experiencing foreign cultures. While I do think that we'll stay another 8 years until my youngest is in college, I don't expect to stay a second beyond that. There's just not enough to do here, and the overall culture is just not what I want. But I am a city girl at heart and don't think I'll be happy until I'm back in major city with no need for a car and round the clock stuff to do. I will say that we have made some great friends here that we'll keep in touch with forever, and we work for great companies, so we're not sad here by any means.
My kids think Raleigh and Charlotte are too big and are very happy in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. They don't like skyscrapers and have no desire to contemplate moving to some place like New York or even Charlotte or Raleigh. If you're looking for big city life this isn't really the place for that. If you're looking to slow down and make some connections I do think that can be done.
Raleigh is somewhat a typical small capital city. Most of the city centers around a very small area around the capital. It reminds me a lot of Albany, NY.
If you're attracted to bigger cities, I'm not sure what drew you here in the first place. I'm from outside NYC, and IMHO there is no large city like it. But Raleigh is pretty far from even cities that are somewhat comparable to NYC.
I don't ever get why people make these posts as if they're expecting people to justify why they DO like it here though. Just move on, no one will mind.
It baffles me as well.
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Hope my question isn't received in the wrong way, but are you African-American by any chance? I just ask because a friend of mine since high school moved here for a couple of years and said a lot of the same things you did, and he always used Atlanta as a reference point for comparison (I noticed you listed that one first in your itemization of big cities). If he had not moved away a couple of years ago I would have wondered if you were him
It's not that I disagree with your assessment completely. I would say yes is it a major research hub, and there are a lot of young professionals and potential does not even being to describe the current level of growth. If skyscrapers are your measure of a city you will certainly be disappointed, a lot of "what's going on" in this area is across a very dispersed, somewhat hilly, and separated by greenery type of terrain which gives it a very different vibe than a flat concrete jungle. You don't always have a "view" of the rest of everything that's going on. I always describe the area as sprawling and deceptively large -- wherever you are at any given point feels like a small town, but as you get out more and start making your way around, the "size" starts to sink in. This is a very different vibe than a densely urban area where you get the "busy" sense from tall buildings, grids for roads, and people walking everywhere all within a relatively small geographic radius.
As others said, its a place where people come to work, live, study, raise families, make a difference etc. more than they come to party. I think you're absolutely right about the bar scene, the "white" bars are what they are, certainly welcoming to all races but a noticeably white collar vibe, and then there are black clubs with predominately AA patrons. I'm not sure that all of the area necessarily feels southern (at least any more than Charlotte or Atlanta in the same demographically defined social circles), but it is definitely not Miami, NYC etc.
Raleigh is somewhat a typical small capital city. Most of the city centers around a very small area around the capital.
For better or worse this is very true. I grew up in Oregon's capital city and for some odd reason have found myself spending a lot of time in many capital cities and there are definite parallels between most of them. Not sure if it's a preponderate bureaucrat population, 2nd city status or whatnot but they are usually more alike than different.
Again, not good or bad, just kind of interesting. I still enjoy Raleigh very much though.
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