Help me out with positives & negatives of each city, need to make a decision & be in place by July 4Th. Things I would want to know about; running, nightlife, housing, crime, economy, etc...
Help me out with positives & negatives of each city, need to make a decision & be in place by July 4Th. Things I would want to know about; running, nightlife, housing, crime, economy, etc...
unemployment rate in CLT exceeds US averages
glut of unsold homes
crime on a rampage in north meck
running is hit or miss LOL
yet 90% of all the a-holes who live in NC are still located in CLT
people here are insanely pretentious, crime is on the rise (HORRIBLE in most parts of town), city gov't is a corrupt and worthless money pit, as is the school system. but in spite of this, charlotte is a pretty livable place. weather aside, the running here is pretty decent. great road running in south charlotte, decent trails at mcalpine and its adjoining parks. i would say that the running in the triangle area is 10x better though.
raleigh is pretty good. good trails at umstead park and american tobacco trail nearby. good greenway system. pretty decent nightlife on glenwood ave or hit up the college scene at state or up the road in chapel hill. good racing scene...several sub 15 guys. plenty of running stores in the area.
I'd choose Raleigh over the "Queen City" any day. Plus, Raleigh is pretty equi-distant to either the mountains or the beach (approx. 3-4 hrs.) and much closer to I95 (if that matters to you).
I made this same decision once 18 yrs ago and have lived in both cities since, a couple of quick questions, how old are you? If you are a graduate how do you make you're living?
I would pray about your decision and follow the leading you get after that, you can make things work in both places no doubt,it all depends what your ultimate goals are and what your best options are currently....
grew up in charlotte. live in raleigh now and the running scene is great here. lots of great trails and rubber tracks to run on and the post college scene is pretty good. if you are mid-20's or early 30's, raleigh is great. charlotte probably better if you are older and/or married.
Raliegh: Typical state capitol and college town. Close to beach (relatively speaking) and pretty far from mountains. More expensive and mainstream American population/culture. Pretty compact city if you ask me. If you like suburbs and don't mind seeing folks that look like the majority of the people that visit this message board, you'll love Raliegh. Singles are flocking to Raliegh. Too many young people for my taste.
Charlotte: Schools here suck; plain and simple. Closer to the moutains and South Carolina, with a much more rural culture than the locals would admit to. Great food (especially the southern favorites), nightlife is ridiculous (in a good way), but is much more of a family city than Raliegh. If you're single and looking to find another like-minded single in Charlotte...good luck. This is the place to bring your family, not start one. Bigger, more open city with great greenway system. McAlpine is nice. Needs a serious facelift (city gets dirtier as you drive away from S. Charlotte/Ballantyne). This is where the grown and sexy roam. Crime is high, but is random and pervasively spread throughout the city...even Ballantyne.
Greensboro: Not asked about, but is probably a smaller microcosm of Charlotte with great schools and running scene.
Charlotte>Greensboro>Raliegh.
fan of both wrote:
grew up in charlotte. live in raleigh now and the running scene is great here. lots of great trails and rubber tracks to run on and the post college scene is pretty good. if you are mid-20's or early 30's, raleigh is great. charlotte probably better if you are older and/or married.
To the original poster. I think Charlotte is like a mini Atlanta. I just moved from the ATL and it is a cool city if you live in the right place ie Midtown. I feel Charlotte is just like that. Get into the burbs and it is stepford. All soccer moms and corporate chains. I am now in Raleigh and I really like it. Again, you need to live in the right place. Living in the Brier Creek area you are going to be around strip malls and soccer moms, live inside the beltline just off Glenwood and you have really nice area's.
To fan of both:
Being new here can you tell me some nice tracks to run on? I live in 5 points. They are just about done with the new one at Meredith, but not sure if the public will be allowed on it.
piedmontcat wrote:
Raliegh: Close to beach (relatively speaking) and pretty far from mountains.Singles are flocking to Raliegh. Too many young people for my taste.
Charlotte>Greensboro>Raliegh.
I was hoping you'd spell Raleigh correctly at least once. Oh well. And I suppose it depends on where in the mountains you want to go, but Raleigh is 3 hours from Boone, 3 hours from Wilmington.
Durham is plenty good as well. Good university, and the crime really isn't that bad, although everyone says it is. Just stay out of the worse parts of town, just like any city. Running is excellent, Duke Forest has miles and miles of great trails.
Mrs. M wrote:
I was hoping you'd spell Raleigh correctly at least once. Oh well. And I suppose it depends on where in the mountains you want to go, but Raleigh is 3 hours from Boone, 3 hours from Wilmington.
Mrs you need to up the speed in the car. By my watch Wilmington is a touch over 2 hours, the OBX you can do in 2.5hrs to the southern parts ie Morehead City area and Nags Head, Duck, Corrola i sabout 3.5hrs.
Inside the Beltline you can run on the track at Broughton (almost always open and a few clubs do workouts there all the time), NC State (when open), Martin Middle and yes, soon Meredith, although I bet they'll be stingy on letting people on it at first.
Dude, dont let anyone here fool you. The 704 (Charlotte) as it is called by its residents, sucks. So does EITS and Friday Night Lights
Everyone in Raleigh hates Charlotte. Because Charlotte has everything except the money Raleigh hords for themselves and their dirty little lying politicians.
You hate Charlotte if you are from Raleigh, but then again you probably hated the quaterback when he stole your girlfriend.
Charlotte has US White water center a great place to run, Charlotte has 4 other parks with great running, Diltworth where I live is awesome, if you have a job. If you are movign from Raleigh you prob don't have a job just an unemployment paycheck.
That would be Great Britain you moron!
As a person who has lived in NC for 15 years - Okay, Ill admit that Raleigh has much better running than Charlotte, but this is only because Charlotte is much more of an actual, true urban center. Therefore, sports typically dominated by African Americans (like football and basketball) are much more emphasized in Charlotte, while more "white" sports like swimming, running, tennis, golf, etc. are pushed to the curb. Raleigh is a minscule urban center compared to Charlotte, and Raleigh also hoards all the money from the state completely to itself. Thus, all the money that all NC residents pay to the state goes to building things like really nice parks and community centers all over the Raleigh area instead of being evenly dispersed throughout the state. The result of all this is that more middle class "white" sports (like distance running)are highly focused upon in Raleigh, and Raleigh also has the money to build really nice places to run to attract potential runners. But, Charlotte is still a really nice city, and I would much rather live in Charlotte before I ever lived in Raleigh. Charlotte is a much bigger city and has so many more exciting things going on - it has two pro sports teams and it is a great place to grow up and also raise a family. Hope this helps.
Mrs. M wrote:
piedmontcat wrote:Raliegh: Close to beach (relatively speaking) and pretty far from mountains.Singles are flocking to Raliegh. Too many young people for my taste.
Charlotte>Greensboro>Raliegh.
I was hoping you'd spell Raleigh correctly at least once. Oh well. And I suppose it depends on where in the mountains you want to go, but Raleigh is 3 hours from Boone, 3 hours from Wilmington.
Are we having a discussion or a damn spelling bee?
If you're going to attempt to speak with some knowledge about a city on a thread that names the city (and spells it correctly), it's not too much to hope that you could've spelled it at least once correctly, to show perhaps you were having typo issues. But not ever being able to spell it correctly when it's correctly given in the title of the thread would make one wonder about the quality of the advice you give about the city.