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.
So my wife and I are originally from Raleigh, but we moved to Pittsburgh for awhile for jobs. Last year my wife got a job in Durham and we decided to move back to the Triangle, but this time we were going to give Durham a shot. We moved to the South Durham area and the neighborhood itself is quite nice.
We did a lot of research in regards to the crime and such and the general consensus online was that "it's just bad in parts" and "it's better than it was". We were living in a really bad area in Pittsburgh (houses on the market for like $50k for reference) so we thought we could handle it well. However, that has not been the case.
There was a shooting last year at a store we go to on occasion:
We hear gunshots off of Fayetteville Road at night and often times cops never follow up. Police have showed up in our neighborhood posted up to look for criminals a few times. Last year someone was followed home in Hope Valley and was murdered in their drive way.
We frequent downtown Durham and we were told it was fine crime wise. Yet there have been multiple shootings downtown in 2019 from bagel shop shootings to shootings in front of the court house. There have even been unreported ones where I saw bullet holes in the window of a storefront for no reason, or some of the places we go to have been robbed at gunpoint (Pokeworks). Not to mention the panhandling has got really aggressive to the point where things escalate.
The neighbors tell us American Tobacco Trail is nice, but don't take it all the way downtown because you could get robbed in the area just south of downtown. Why use it all to get to downtown by bike at all if that's the case?
My question is, is Durham always like this or this a particularly rough time (fall 2018 through now)? I really want to love this city and I want to give it a fair shot but it's really difficult.
I always find it hilarious that people bash Cary without telling the whole story. I'm not going to deny that there are a lot of parts that are cookie cutter, but their old downtown is walkable, safe, and has great places like Bond Brothers (which has better beer than most anywhere in the Triangle), Pharmacy, and The Cary Theater. Not to mention Cary and Morrisville have the best authentic ethnic cuisine in the area and it's not overpriced "fusion" or tapas like in the downtown areas. Yes, it rightfully deserves a lot of the cookie cutter criticism but at the same time the food and beer (now with Cotton House) is among the best in the area. It ain't perfect (nowhere around here is) but it also doesn't deserve all the lumps it gets.
There's a head scratcher.
After 22 years in Cary, I still harbor the impression that there are also "people" in Cary.
No?
Mike, there are a few of us that think that Cary is boring. I am spending more time there shopping or occasionally eating. But Durham has a completely different personality. It's all these places together that make the Triangle interesting.
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.
