Raleigh - 10/20/2010

Quality of life in Raleigh, NC is good!

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Raleigh, NC region is generally unfriendly and unw - 10/14/2010

I cannot wait to move away from the Raleigh, NC region. NY, NJ and New England transplants mixed in with local NC Raleigh natives - a strange combination. It is not a friendly place overall - I do not recommend the area. The WOMEN are also not very happy or polite around Raleigh compared to other regioons- a strange phenomenon.

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ANOTHER REDNECK BIBLE BELT CITY - 9/28/2010

I hate this city. This place is full of uneducated , redneck bible thumping trash. There is nothing cosmopolitan or sophisticated about Raleigh. No culture, museums or social venues. Very little to do and the weather is HORRIBLE, Hot, humid and bugs galore. The people are rude and have no style or class whatsoever. Not a chic or fun city to be in, Dirty , polluted, No thank you, you can have it.

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We Excel at Mediocrity - 9/10/2010

I’ve lived in the Raleigh area for about 25 years. I am in constant contact with all sorts of Raleigh inhabitants, so I’m well acquainted with the life of the city. The greater Raleigh area includes several cities and towns, but Raleigh is by far the largest municipality. Immediately to the southwest of Raleigh is the town of Cary. Further to the west are Durham and Chapel Hill, which are considerably more diverse and funky than Raleigh and Cary. There are a few small towns with some charms, such as Hillsborough and Pittsboro, otherwise the outlying areas are full of featureless suburbs. Maybe I should preface my comments by saying that I lived in poor but fascinating places before moving here. It was a conscious decision, to leave interesting but poor places to come to a dull but prosperous place. I needed economic stability during my career-building period and was willing to live without a vibrant cultural scene or stimulating surroundings. Now that I am nearing retirement I ask myself why should I stay here, because there’s really very little of interest to me. It’s fine here if you are raising children and want a easy suburban lifestyle. This might be one of the best places in the country if that’s the where you are in life. Raleigh is not much of a city…it’s more a collection of suburbs…the downtown is small and doesn’t have much to offer other than a score of bars and restaurants catering to the young crowd. Most people’s lives are conventional and revolve around their children, their children’s school, their swim club, their church, their work, their possessions, their vacations at the beach, and the handful of strip shopping centers they frequent. Watching and keeping up with the neighbors is a big thing. Maybe these preoccupations are very common across the country, but they seem particularly pronounced (and vapid) here. There is very little civic engagement or sense that Raleigh is a unique city. Most people don’t have much of a sense of being citizens of Raleigh, of belonging to something bigger than the church or swim club. I think this is partly due to the kind of people Raleigh attracts and the kind of place Raleigh is. As Gertrude Stein famously said, There is no there there. The economy in the region is remarkably stable and prosperous. The cost of living is a little higher than the national average but is much easier to deal with than that of the West Coast or the Northeast. This is one of the best places in the South to live…of course being better than Jackson, Mississippi or Birmingham, Alabama isn’t saying much. In the Raleigh and Cary suburbs people tend to be conservative and conformist. They can be very smug: they live the good life and why won’t everybody get on board their suburban bandwagon? For instance, to live in a contemporary house is “strange.” Black clothes are“strange.” There’s no value seen in diversity…people who are different are automatically “strange” if not outright inferior. Your house upkeep (very important!), religious views, clothing, possessions and your “people,” (i.e., your extended family) will be constantly scrutinized for any note of waywardness. No front yard vegetable gardens, please! There are many cultural events happening in the larger Triangle region at any given time. Cultural life mostly emanates from the universities (Duke and UNC more so than NCSU). These cultural events are usually on the university campuses and are therefore a little difficult to find the venue and then find a parking place. You have to stay on top of the cultural calendar and plan ahead if you want to go out and do something other than eat and drink. For a metro area of one million plus, there’s really not much of an arts scene. The restaurants in Durham and Chapel Hill are generally better than those in Raleigh so be prepared to drive an hour each way for an evening of theater or dance performance and a memorable meal. Of course if you are so inclined you can become rabid fans of our hockey team and one or another of our college basketball teams. The struggles of these teams are major topics of conversation (along with the kids’ schools). In any event, you must have a car…preferably a car for each member of your household who can drive. And be prepared to drive a lot. Like in most of the South educational attainment and intellect are not emphasized or particularly respected. Raleigh has the state’s A & M university and it shows. We’re all about nuts and bolts here…lots of engineers, computer people and government bureaucrats…the humanists are all in Durham or Chapel Hill. The education of people who don’t make it past high school is particularly abysmal. Having some work done on your house, or even having some keys made, can be like a season in hell. The surrounding counties are shockingly backward. Yes, there are Confederate flags and people with incomprehensibly bad grammar right outside of the metro area. If you are black, a foreigner or gay, there are rural gas stations where you won’t want to get out of your car. Though full of trees, there isn’t much open space or natural beauty around. There are a handful of nice parks but after a while you’ve been to them enough times to have them memorized. The summers have become so hot, humid and long that the weather for four months of the year is not conducive to outdoor activities. The mountains are quite beautiful but are several hours drive away; the beach is not charming or particularly appealing, and is mostly stripped out with businesses appealing to the Southern working class. There are some more remote, “wild” beaches on the Outer Banks, but they are a long drive away and are just the same monotonous brown sand dunes for miles but without the strip development. Otherwise the county side is almost totally settled, one little house after trailer after little house along the roads for miles. In short, if you are young, creative, intellectual, liberal, if you have particular cultural interests or talents, if you are a member of a minority, there are so many better places to live. If you find yourself drawn to this area, you should strongly consider living in Durham, Chapel Hill or Carrboro, which are not so straight-laced as Raleigh or Cary. If you are white, conservative, religious, raising young children, want a suburban house, and want to keep the dangers of urban life at a distance, Raleigh might just be the perfect place for you.

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We Excel at Mediocrity - 9/1/2010

I’ve lived in the Raleigh area for about 25 years. I am in constant contact with all sorts of Raleigh inhabitants, so I’m well acquainted with the life of the city. The greater Raleigh area includes several cities and towns, but Raleigh is by far the largest municipality. Immediately to the southwest of Raleigh is the town of Cary. Further to the west are Durham and Chapel Hill, which are considerably more diverse and funky than Raleigh and Cary. There are a few small towns with some charms, such as Hillsborough and Pittsboro, otherwise the outlying areas are full of featureless suburbs. Maybe I should preface my comments by saying that I lived in poor but fascinating places before moving here. It was a conscious decision, to leave interesting but poor places to come to a dull but prosperous place. I needed economic stability during my career-building period and was willing to live without a vibrant cultural scene or stimulating surroundings. Now that I am nearing retirement I ask myself why should I stay here, because there’s really very little of interest to me. It’s fine here if you are raising children and want a easy suburban lifestyle. This might be one of the best places in the country if that’s the where you are in life. Raleigh is not much of a city…it’s more a collection of suburbs…the downtown is small and doesn’t have much to offer other than a few dozen bars and restaurants catering to the 20 to 35 crowd. Most people’s lives are conventional and revolve around their children, their children’s schools, their swim club, their church, their work, their possessions, their vacations at the beach, and the handful of strip shopping centers they frequent. Watching and keeping up with the neighbors is a big thing. Maybe these preoccupations are very common across the country, but they seem particularly pronounced (and vapid) here. There is very little civic engagement outside of the immediate daily routine. Most people don’t have much of a sense of being citizens of Raleigh, of belonging to something bigger than the church or swim club. I think this is partly due to the kind of people Raleigh attracts and the kind of place Raleigh is. As Gertrude Stein famously said, There is no there there. The economy in the region is remarkably stable and prosperous. The cost of living is a little higher than the national average but is much easier to deal with than that of the West Coast or the Northeast. This is one of the best places in the South to live…of course being better than Jackson, Mississippi or Birmingham, Alabama isn’t saying much. In the Raleigh and Cary suburbs people tend to be conservative and conformist. They can be very smug: they live the good life and why won’t everybody get on board their suburban bandwagon? For instance, to live in a contemporary house is “strange.” Black clothes are“strange.” There’s no value seen in diversity…people who are different are automatically “strange” if not outright inferior. Your house upkeep (very important!), religious views, clothing, possessions and your “people,” (i.e., your extended family) will be constantly scrutinized for any note of waywardness. No front yard vegetable gardens, please! There are many cultural events happening in the larger Triangle region at any given time. Cultural life mostly emanates from the universities (Duke and UNC more so than NCSU). These cultural events are usually on the university campuses and are therefore a little difficult to find the venue and then find a parking place. You have to stay on top of the cultural calendar and plan ahead if you want to go out and do something other than eat and drink. For a metro area of one million plus, there’s really not much of a visual arts scene. The restaurants in Durham and Chapel Hill are generally better than those in Raleigh so be prepared to drive an hour each way for an evening of theater or dance performance and a memorable meal. Of course if you are so inclined you can become rabid fans of our hockey team and one or another of our college basketball teams. The struggles of these teams are major topics of conversation (along with the kids’ schools). In any event, you must have a car…preferably a car for each member of your household who can drive. And be prepared to drive a lot. Like in most of the South educational attainment and intellect are not emphasized or particularly respected. Raleigh has the state’s A & M university and it shows. We’re all about nuts and bolts here…lots of engineers, computer people and government bureaucrats…the humanists are all in Durham or Chapel Hill. The education of people who don’t make it past high school is particularly abysmal. Having some work done on your house, or even having some keys made, can be like a season in hell. The surrounding counties are shockingly backward. Yes, there are Confederate flags and people with incomprehensibly bad grammar right outside of the metro area. If you are black, a foreigner or gay, there are rural gas stations where you won’t want to get out of your car. Though full of trees, there isn’t much open space or natural beauty around. There are a handful of nice parks but after a while you’ve been to them enough times to have them memorized. The summers have become so hot, humid and long that the weather for four months of the year is not conducive to outdoor activities. The mountains are quite beautiful but are several hours drive away; the beach is not charming or particularly appealing, and is mostly stripped out with businesses appealing to the Southern working class. There are some more remote, “wild” beaches on the Outer Banks, but they are a long drive away and are just the same monotonous brown sand dunes for miles but without the strip development. Otherwise the county side is totally settled, one little house after trailer after little house along the roads for miles. In short, if you are young, creative, intellectual, liberal, if you have particular cultural interests or talents, if you are a member of a minority, there are so many better places to live. If you find yourself drawn to this area, you should strongly consider living in Durham, Chapel Hill or Carrboro, which are not so straight-laced as Raleigh or Cary. If you are white, conservative, religious, raising young children, want a suburban house, and want to keep the dangers of urban life at a distance, Raleigh might just be the perfect place for you.

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Great for conservative home bodies - 8/29/2010

Raleigh is a great place to live if you are white, heterosexual, conservative and upper middle to upper class. If you want to raise a family in a classic suburban environment it can't be beat! You'll never have to parallel park your SUV here! Churches and grocery stores are always right around the corner. With recent changes to the school system your kids can have minimal exposure to minorities and poor people. All of that said, tongue-in-cheek, if you are young, creative, a minority or from another country, gay, bohemian or particularly interested in music and the arts this is not the place for you. There are any number of places where much more creative synergies are going on...even Asheville and Richmond, VA are more "happening." Neither is there quality open space around...the countryside is full of trailers and little houses, mile after mile. Raleigh is a surprisingly quiet and conservative place. Having lived here now for 25 years I'm constantly amazed at the high reports given to Raleigh...but then, look at the sources: magazines like Money and Forbes.

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vacancy rate - 8/15/2010

I saw that BLS shows Raleigh's vacancy rate has shot up from 6.2 (Q1 2010) to 15.1 (Q2 2010) which really surprised me. Your housing section shows a number that's much more in line with BLS' Q1 number. Can you share where/how and when you get the vacancy number listed here? Thank you very much!

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vacancy rate - 8/15/2010

I saw that BLS shows Raleigh's vacancy rate has shot up from 6.2 (Q1 2010) to 15.1 (Q2 2010) which really surprised me. Your housing section shows a number that's much more in line with BLS' Q1 number. Can you share where/how and when you get the vacancy number listed here? Thank you very much!

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vacancy rate - 8/15/2010

BLS is showing a major increase in vacancy rate for Raleigh, jumping from 6.2 to 15.2 from Q1 2010 to Q2 2010, which took me by complete surprise. You're showing much lower vacancy rate for Raleigh, more in line with Q1 # from BLS. I see that most of your data were updated from June 2010. Can you share how you get your vacancy data? Thank you very much!

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raleigh, nc - 6/22/2010

Raleigh is a nice city if you have family here, children under 12 yrs old, retired and play golf, or are 21-25 and bar hop. Single parents, people over 30, childless couples and all others, Raleigh is fairly boring. Once you have gone thru the list of about 12 things to do then you have to wait months for a show you would like to see, or go to a chain restaurant and drink, or suffer hanging out with 20 year olds. I have been here 10 years, it has grown a lot, it has changed a lot, but now that I have a child I will be moving. Too much suburban sprawl with not enough to do especially for teens. They drink, make babies and get into trouble, especially once football season is over. If your kid isn't into soccer better to move else where. Every place has pro's and con's, according to needs. If you need a place with more recreation and more for teens, and you don't want to drive 2 hours to do it, visit Raleigh, then move on!!!

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Being new to Raleigh - 6/5/2010

I was born and raised in the south. Have lived upstate Ny for the past 13 years. Recently moved to Raleigh 3 months ago in March 2010. I simply hate it and regret that I moved here. Hopefully I will be moving back upstate by August. I guess you can say I have been gone to long from North Carolina. I am so creeped out by the thumb size centipedes crawling through the bathroom drains. The big wolf spiders greeting you in the hallway outside of the apartments. The snakes that are killed daily outside my daugter's job due to the construction next door. I am tired of seeing for sale signs in every wooded lot that is left standing. No wonder wildlife is all over the place. Driving down interstate 85, a black bear crosses the road in front of the car. A child actually gets bitten by a copperhead at durham middle school. I advise anyone that isn't use to these sort of things to not move to Raleigh. Yes the beauty lured us here to....but Raleigh is not what it is cracked up to be. Health care sucks and so does some of the hospitals. Nothing to do in Raleigh but eat. You would think a place this size would at least have an amusement park or zoo. When I move back upstate, I am going to kiss the ground and never complain again.

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very Storng health Care Option - 5/18/2010

The city has excellent sources of health care with three major university medical schools, research hospitals, a very strong medical professional population and medical business headquarters at Research Triangle Park.

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quality of life - 4/29/2010

Great!

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Cost of Living in the Capital City - 4/26/2010

As a 20+ year resident of the Capital City, I have seen Raleigh grow from a small town bursting at the seams to a Metropolis. Unfortunately, while the median home prices now exceed $200,000, the City Fathers are extremely slow in taking care of streets and widening the heavily-traveled ones to handle the increased traffic flow. Yet, property taxes continue to spiral upwards. I would encourage anyone planning to relocate or retire here, to consider these issues before moving here. There are a number of smaller towns in NC that are not as pricey.

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Lots of Opportunity - 3/3/2010

Have lived in Raleigh for 10 years. It's a great city with lots of job opps. Climate is great and you have Mts. and Ocean each within 2 hours+ drive.

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Not Perfect--But Great--Let's Clarify - 3/1/2010

I had posted a couple years ago and still receive numerous inquiries regarding Raleigh when I left my email. In fact, I received three this week. Look, if you are seeking a perfect city--pass Raleigh by because it is not perfect. I mentioned before that I have traveled 27 countries and have visited 45 of the States and have lived in a variety of cities in a couple other States. I believe I have a good point of reference when I say Raleigh is a wonderful place to live. Does it have flaws--yes, but then so does every city I have visited over the years. In these postings, I have seen allegations of Confederate flags and people being called Yankee. This is for those folks. Look, if people are calling you a Yankee--stop acting like one. Don't appear aloof, holier than thou and stand-offish. Stop looking down your nose at Southerners. We all are not uneducated rednecks. We all do not drop the last syllable in words. Our universities are noted for their academics just as much as their atheletic programs. I recently did some work in Nigeria. The Nigerians had major issues with the British and Dutch expats working with them because they said they looked down at them and treated them as second class citizens. This creates a great divide. If someone calls you a Yankee, it may be in fun--just like the Bostonian who wants me to pronounce car, art or Saturday over and over again for their amusement. Maybe you need thicker skin. Suck it up--you don't get a cross burnt on your lawn this weekend---sorry. The roads in and around the city have not kept pace with the surging growth. That's right--you aren't the first or last person to research great cities to live in who actually moved to one. With 30% growth in the last few years, our infrastructure has been challenged to the max. We have worked hard at adding new roads and widening exisiting ones. We have not done a great job tearing down all those wonderful trees you noticed when you flew in here for the first time and replacing them with concrete and asphalt just so you don't have to sit too long in your air-conditioned car on the way to work. I go to LA every month (have for about 15 years) and every month I sit in a traffic jam and admire how they have paved over a third of their city's real estate to accomodate all the needed roads to mobilize their society. But I don't stress nor do I sit there and cuss at the few inches I have progressed in the last ten minutes. When I look out at the thousands of cars and the heavy smog hovering overhead, entertained by the road rage I see, I am thankful for my return to Raleigh that weekend. I fear that Raleigh may become an Atlanta someday--its unique charm and coziness lost to millions of impatient commuters shouting obsenities to the person in the car next to them, a city where folks complain about the "good ol' days" and people who have never visited Umstead Park, NC Museum of Natural Science,or Marbles Kid Museum, or the Farmers Market, or attended any of the Broadway series, or NC Museum of History or our local lakes belly-aching about nothing to do in this hick town. Grab a copy of the weekly publication, Independent, which is chocked full of things to do in this area. Then when you have exhasuted the Raleigh options--go visit the universities. If you are bored--it is because you are lazy--sorry-we don't deliver culture to the door. Look--Raleigh makes the top ten list of great places to live and work but it never made the Top Perfect Cities in the US. Again, I post my email (p_ingalls@msn.com) if you want to contact me with questions regarding Raleigh and the surrounding area. If you want to contact me to belly ache about my adopted city--send your email to Washington DC because I heard they really care about your input and suggestions and they will work hard to do something with it..

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Crime Rate - 10/29/2009

It has increased, especially in violent crime, over the last decade or so.

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Climate - 9/5/2009

The climate is wonderful. Seasons but severe.

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Overrated - 9/2/2009

I have lived in Raleigh for 18 years. The month of August is terribly hot and humid. If you are not a southerner you will never be accepted here and will always be referred to as a "Yankee". They have tried to remake downtown to no avail. Have a lot of nice dining facilites downtown, but don't have a glass of wine with your meal. You'll get harassed by law enforcement once you leave to go home. Smoking is also banned in bars, so if are a smoker, don't expect any rights. If you get outside the city limits you will see confederate flags flying everywhere. If you are still determined to try the south I would try Greenville, SC - smaller - closer to the mountains - more of an industrial base for jobs - located halfway between Charlotte and Atlanta.

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Not Bad At All - 7/24/2009

I like Raleigh, I really do. It is great for family and friends. There's a lot of places to shop, things to do, pretty good restaurants, good services - you're never far away from any service, really. But the climate is getting hot - hotter, than I ever remember before, so I'm moving (maybe), maybe to the northwest. In my way I miss the cold.

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