Yankees Go home/Odds and Ends
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8/22/2007
I'm a New Yorker - rented in Cary for a few months and moved into a home in N. Raleigh a year and a half ago. I like Cary better, but I didn't think the roads could keep up with the growth and it's a little more expensive down there.
I have not come across people who have the attitude "Yankee Go Home." But I have to tell you, I meet more people from the North than I do North Carolina! The people who are native to N. Carolina, are warm and generous, polite people. If they hate me, they haven't let on! But I don't have any "liberal" attitudes or complain about their state, etc. Every place I've lived has its pros and cons.
It's wonderful that nobody honks their horn here. People have patience! The first few times people cut me off it traffic, I instinctively flipped them the bird. Now, my finger has retracted because I am so embarassed we do that in the North. But traffic is bad. They can't keep up with the growth and the DOT has made some mistakes using wrong materials, leading to more road work to fix the problems. Everywhere you turn, they are doing construction - widening roads, etc.
I don't see myself here long term, as I feel landlocked and the summers are SO LONG. I think the last time I spent more than 5 minutes outside was in April. It's humid and buggy, as it can be in NY, but it doesn't last as long in NY. The flip side is the LONG winters in NY. It's also growing at a ridiculous rate down here and I think the quality of life will suffer. The reasons people move down here, will become obsolete with the growth. Housing is already more expensive than we thought. They are building McMansions on every plot of land possible. In my immediate area in the last year, they have cleared 5 parcels of land and are putting up houses from 470K - 800K+. And we're talking, 3,000 sq. ft. homes on .1-.14 acres. But people are buying them up.
I do wonder what Native North Carolinians think of all of us moving here. Some of them (like my realtor) understand that housing is so expensive where we move from and that they, too, would not be able to afford a house from our native states. But I'm sure the growth has made others resent us. And I feel bad about that.
Daisy | Raleigh, NC