Raleigh-Durham, NC - Insight needed

So – did this happen? Is it going to happen?

Kinda on hold for the moment. My wife is still looking for work both here and down there. So its more a matter of what she can find where. She’s worried that having the Maryland number and address on her resume is working against her down there so she’s looking into getting a cheap pay as you go cell phone with a Raleigh number and possibly a P.O. Box.

If anyone knows of any network (she has an associates in Network systems security) positions down there let me know!

RTP traffic is like LA weather. You can mail it in six weeks in advance. At any given rush hour, the Beltline north of 440 will be backed up, there will be some congestion coming into our going out of RTP, and the 40-440 merge in Cary will be messy. Also, when it’s State Fair time, God help you. Beyond that, it’s mostly nonexistent.

I’ve been down here thirteen years and found it a very pleasant place to live. Apart from the crazies in the State House, the biggest issue I’ve got is the mushrooming of overpriced mini-mansions to try to lure people down from Jersey; older construction around here tends to be a hell of a lot better. They bork home prices for locals and add congestion, and they bring crappy strip malls in their wake.

Right now, Durham’s the up-and-coming area, mainly because the artists got priced out of Chapel Hill. Property taxes are a bit higher there than in Raleigh, but at this point, my wife and I prefer the Durham strip from Golden Belt through Ninth Street to downtown Raleigh. With Durham, you can actually see your tax dollars getting put into improvements. It’s astonishing.

Cary, as you’ve probably been told, stands for “Containment Area for Relocated Yankees”. It’s a bedroom community punctuated with strip malls; only the older stuff in Cary Downtown is really interesting and more than ten feet away from either a golf course or a mall. Morrisville is fighting a rearguard action against the same thing happening to it, while North Raleigh really, really wants to turn into Atlanta.

Well the Mrs is from Jersey and I’m from New York so relocated Yankees would be an apt description lol. We really liked the area from Garner heading down to the Southeast from there. Moving down is still in our plans, but since she lost her job last November and no prospects have turned up, we’re heading the wrong way financially. Moving down there would mean a total career change for me, so unfortunately it all depends on her finding something that could support that kind of change. And since she was denied security clearance that got a lot more difficult.

Your wife should just get a 919 area code Google Voice number and have it point to her cell phone.

Oooh thats slick, I’ll let her know about that. Thanks!

Cary is almost like two cities. You have Cary along and east of the Harrison / Kildaire Farm north-south axis and the Cary west of that. The first generally has fewer strip malls, older neighborhoods, and lots and lots of trees / parks. Also almost all of the major roads in that part are four lane and not overly congested. The west side tends to be more sprawling and I’m not sure I’d trust some of the newer construction. Still has some decent parks, though. The infrastructure still hasn’t completely caught up either and traffic can be an issue.

What Cary does get right: parks – not just traditional ones, but a world-class baseball center and tennis center – and greenways. Tons of greenways, and lots of bike routes. Also they spend quite a bit on community centers, events, leagues, etc. as well as hosting two street fairs a year. A decent amphitheater too.

So, yeah, there are a metric butt-ton of Yankees here. The area has seen a ton of growth since I moved here in the early 90s. But if you’ve got to live in the Piedmont of North Carolina (after all, NC has amazing beaches and mountains) it isn’t bad at all.

Regarding yankees: When we moved here, we stopped at 8 or 9 different apartments/condos to check em out over a weekend. Only one was administrated by a Raleigh local, the rest were either run by New Yorkers/Jerseyites or one of the innumerable India-and-surrounding-Islamic-nations immigrants in the area.

Actually, on that note. Cary is great for one thing in particular. The massive Indian/Pakistani population makes for some of the best subcontinent dining experiences I’ve ever had; it almost feels like London along Chatham down here!

Agreed. What are some of your favorite spots? Also, speaking of Indians – it’s sad that the Galaxy movie theater is being turned into a Harris Teeter.

Yeah, I’m quite bummed about that. I might not be a huge fan of Bollywood, but they’d also get films such as “Moon” and they screened “Indie Gamer: The Movie”. Plus it’s a really neat building (on the inside).

Honestly I’ve just been sampling when the mood strikes me and not really had a bad experience except for a place (I think) called Indopak where I thought I was getting white meat and got dark, on-bone. Might make me a sissy lady-boy/un-Godly un-American turrist, but I just can’t hang with dark meat in those quantities.

Udupi is my favorite of the Indian places off of Chatham. We’ve been eating there for years and have never been let down. Incidentally, my favorite sushi-and-otherwise-Japanese place, Little Tokyo, is also right there at the intersection of Chatham and Maynard. Then, if you go a couple miles on Chatham back towards Raleigh, you’ll hit my favorite Indian market in the area, Around the World (I think).

Speaking of the Galaxy, my first job when I moved to the area was there, although it was called Madstone at that time. When Madstone went under, Galaxy opened in its place and has ever since essentially been Madstone With More Bollywood (we were showing a Bollywood film once a month). Apart from a minor lobby remodel, most of everything else is the same. I will be very sad to see it go.

There’s talk that it might move to the ‘warehouse’ area in Raleigh, so let’s hope that happens. That would be more convenient for me. :) My grandmother lives in Glen Aire, which isn’t far from the Galaxy, however, so I’m over that way regularly.

They used to live in MacGregor Downs. When I was little, Kildare Farms was gasp a pretty farm with a lot of cows. Then again, my dad says when he was little, Crabtree Valley was a pretty farm with cows.

So exactly how many of us are there around here, anyway?

Hmm – stab at a list:
Armando Penblade
BigWeather
Brooski
clay
RDansky
sillhouette
Tankero
tiohn
WarrenM

We once tried to get together for beer, but it never happened:

Clay, thanks for this idea. My wife went and set this up, great tip!

I sorta wish the get-together had happened. We should try again sometime. . . perhaps to celebrate Shellfishguy’s wife’s first interview down there when it comes :)

No prob.

I’m always up for grabbing a beer and I’m usually flexible in the evening. Getting a large group together requires too much coordination.

We’ve got our fingers crossed, I’ll keep ya’ll posted!

Best of luck.