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Hello. After my posting here, I read more and more but still debating between Centennial, Colorado and Cary, North Carolina. I just wanna here from other transplants how their lives are. TIA.
We relocated from Western Mass about 10 years ago. We are in Durham, not Cary, but I still think this all applies to any city in the area.
We enjoy the mild winters, long lazy summers, Bulls Baseball, great restaurants, trails and greenways, local lakes for swimming &/or fishing, broadway shows, events & festivals, college sports, and several great museums. There is access to two great medical systems (Duke & UNC). Three hours to visit the mountains, three hours to the beach if you want to get away.
It really is a great area.
My biggest complaint would have to be traffic. The roads were not built for the volume of people living here & continuing to move here. Any projects to address it are already well behind.
The things I miss from W. Mass aren't many. We can't find anything here to compare to Millie's pierogis (out of Chicopee MA). My husband was raised on Friendly's Ice Cream shops so a bit of nostalgia there, but maybe one day they will expand this far south.
My biggest complaint would have to be traffic. The roads were not built for the volume of people living here & continuing to move here. Any projects to address it are already well behind.
The things I miss from W. Mass aren't many. We can't find anything here to compare to Millie's pierogis (out of Chicopee MA). My husband was raised on Friendly's Ice Cream shops so a bit of nostalgia there, but maybe one day they will expand this far south.
As someone also from MA (Boston area), I strongly disagree with this. There is a lot of forward thinking here regarding traffic and infrastructure. Roads are usually widened before the demand hits, where in MA roads are widened when in dire need, or not at all.
Simple things like intelligent lights that recognize if and how many cars are stopped at an intersection, traffic cameras that allow a traffic management center to adjust traffic lights as needed, etc, are all things here that you would never see in a place like MA.
If you've ever spent time in the Boston area, traffic here is nothing like it. Not even close.
We moved from St. Louis three months ago, and I honestly feel a little guilty at how little I miss St. Louis. I miss Cardinals games at Busch Stadium on a weekend afternoon, my family back in STL, and...can’t think of anything else. Maybe the local STL restaurant scene and so far I haven’t found anything here that comes close to Pappy's or Bogart's BBQ in STL.
The one thing I would caution you about is drilling down/focusing on Cary so much. The Triangle is a wonderful, diverse area with many great towns and neighborhoods to call home. We have a rental home with a Cary address (kids in Apex schools) and love it here, but could also see ourselves calling many different places home in the Triangle when it comes time to buy.
Dislikes: lack of decent public transit, not as many activities as major cities but this is increasing, traffic - still better than other places I’ve lived, constant growth
From South Jersey near Philadelphia.
I like how many lakes there are where we live in NC, love seeing sunrises and sunsets and fall colors over the lake during my daily driving. I like lower taxes. I like running into older, native NCers with accents & stories. :-)
I miss taking the speedline to Philly to see the Mummer's Parade on New Year's Day. I miss WaWa & hoagies & Greek diners & Philly soft pretzels & steak sandwiches. I miss being a shortdrive from so many places: Atlantic City, Baltimore, Poconos, Amish country, Cape May, Wildwood. We used to take so many daytrips.
We moved from phoenix metro to Brier Creek 6 years ago. Ironically, I am writing this from phoenix
We are on our annual return visit (excellent timing to miss the hurricane.)
Positive differences: the friendliness of the people (this is a biggie). The outstanding healthcare. The abundant green and flowers, and the colors of fall. The wide availability of theaters that show indie movies and documentaries. The low prices and easy downtown parking in Durham and Raleigh (not so much available in Cary). The Triangle sprawl is WAY smaller than phoenix metro - we can get anywhere in 30 minutes or less compared to 1.5 hours. The ethnic diversity has been an eye opening pleasure. Potlucks are easy, so parties are MUCH more frequent.
Negative differences: the humidity in the Triangle can be overwhelming. The stupid NC alcohol laws are a constant annoyance (the ABC store system, the illegality of happy hour, and the inflated prices.) Curvy roads with a serious lack of lighting. Mediocre Mexican and Asian restaurants, and the bahn mi sucks. Higher costs of most things (real estate taxes doubled for us, higher water bills, food, restaurant meals, alcohol, haircuts, nail salons, etc.) Cost of airplane tickets and number of flights from RDU. Possibility of Amazon HQ2. DH misses competitive pool players, free pool in the afternoon, and nobody will gamble at pool (not even a buck).
BUT - except for the humidity and the Happy Hour thing, we MUCH prefer The Triangle.
Last edited by Jkgourmet; 09-14-2018 at 07:32 AM..
We moved here from Syracuse NY in October 2017. At home we lived in a neighborhood that had a mix of older and newer homes (1920's to 1950's,) lots of mature trees, hills, and curvy streets. We found all of that here in Raleigh, and also lucked out by buying a house on a street that has tight knit neighbors who know each other, are welcoming to newcomers, and have loosely planned potluck cookouts for every significant holiday weekend.
We traded five month long winters with weeks and weeks of sub zero temps and 120 inches of annual snowfall for three month long summers that are super hot and very humid - that is a win. We also got far more sunny days per years instead of weeklong spells of heavily overcast skies.
What do we miss?
- A few close friends and family members (we knew only one person in Raleigh and we're friendly with them, but not close)
- Apples. Seriously... central NY has the best apples in the country. You can drive 15 minutes to an orchard store to buy freshly picked apples or even pick them yourself. WE tried all the apples at the NC State Farmers market and none come remotely close.
- Top shelf Vietnamese food with a broad menu to choose from. We like Saigon Pho on Capital Blvd but even their pho (which is the best we've had in Raleigh)is not as good as what we got at home. There is also a broad array of other Viet dishes that none of the places here seem to have on their menu.
- A good Polish restaurant. Is there one here?
Syracuse has almost zero traffic congestion because it is a small city, but it's still tougher to get form one place to another because it lacks the well planned system of feeder roads that we have in Raleigh, and also has chronically bad roads.
We moved from NYC after seven years, but previously lived in DC, Greensboro, Atlanta, and New Orleans.
Positives:I love access to the greenway, driving is pretty easy, abundance of parking, grocery stores, playgrounds, the schools, housing is still relatively affordable.
Negatives: The number one thing I miss the most is being able to walk around an urban area and meander around. I also think most of the ethnic food options are mediocre, especially Asian food. I’ve personally found it harder to make friends, but I think that is mostly because I work from home. I wish there were more direct flights going out of RDU.
I miss the deli selections of Long Island. In my small town there were 2 italian delis, 1 German deli and one Jewish deli. They each had the same core items but had different specialty items per their ethnicity. However, I'd never move back there since there were lines for everything! Bakery..get in line. Grocery checkout...get in line. Movie tickets...get in long line. Traffic...sit in line.
Here...none of that.
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