Well, we’re packed up and ready to head out bright and early in the morning. I’ll let y’all know how it went when we get back. Thanks for all the info we really appreciate it. And if you see some lost northerners wandering around, please be gentle =P
Huh, just got back from a mini-vacation to visit family in Tennessee. Was struck by the much higher percentage of Truck Nuts and Crazy Jesus bumper stickers, and the maddening inefficiency of the road construction (some of which has been going on for a year and a half in a half-mile long strip of 4-lane road).
If any of you ever vacation in Sevier County (Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Smoky Mountains, Dollywood, etc.), you have my sincerest apologies for someone on the Sevierville City Council deciding it was good to begin gargantuan, underfunded construction projects of each of the main routes into town, at the same time, right in the middle of tourist season.
Christ. RDU people, rejoice in the sight of a man praising the traffic in this area.
I had a friend move to the area a couple years ago. They were able to buy a house and his wife found work easily as a nurse. He had a sister doing medical research in the area and they eventually moved his father back there.
The only negative I heard from them was that their high school age son went to school on his first day and found that he was the only white kid in many of his classes. He got a quick lesson on what being black in an all-white environment must be like. His grades plummeted and he had a rough few years.
That’s not something you would run into in central California. Although you could be the only white kid in a all-hispanic class room.
Well we made it back alive! And while my wife and I are still discussing things, it looks like Raleigh area will be our future home. We spent Saturday driving through Northern Raleigh and then down through Cary, Apex and some of the area around there. Sunday, we roamed down to the south east and drove through Garner and its surroundings then out to Clayton.
Overall we liked Cary and northern Apex, but really fell for the Garner area. Lots of developments with the types of houses we’d be looking for and a number of really nice parks and outdoor spaces but still having access to necessities. But then the Raleigh area feels so small that you’re not really far from anything. We’ll be stopping by again as we head down to Atlanta for Thanksgiving to show the kids around and get their feelings about it.
Here are some things we found:
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Cost of living wise it’s not that different to where we are now. Groceries are about the same, Gas is a little more expensive but housing is much cheaper.
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So many trees! I was consistently amazed at how the area has obviously grown, but has also managed to keep a number of greenways and sections of woods between areas. We stopped at a few different parks, all we’re nicely kept and being used by a lot of people. I don’t think we’ve seen so many folks out biking/running/walking their dogs etc. We also love how many lakes and ponds are in the area.
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Traffic, while I’m sure can get bad, is nowhere near what we have here. Talking to some long time residents and hearing their descriptions of traffic made it sound wonderful compared to local conditions.
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Schools, what a mess! Wake county has really made things confusing. Some schools on traditional schedules, some on year round schedules, and then different year round schools can be on different tracks. So with kids in the same area but different schools ( we have elementary, middle and high schoolers) they could have their vacations at different times… seriously wtf.
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People, Everyone we spoke with was really nice. And as we rode through neighborhoods, people working in their yards or out talking would all smile and wave as we passed by.
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Raleigh is tiny! We drove through the city center of Raleigh and I think I almost missed it when I blinked. It takes us longer to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to get to the eastern shore than to drive across the city. I think its great, this isn’t a knock against the city. Everything seems to be easily accessible (concert venues, convention center etc). We’re not really city people so that’s cool with us.
I’m sure I’ll think of more but those are the main things. I wanted to thank everyone again, I had printed out most of the thread and took it on the road with us and it was really helpful.
We don’t have a time frame for the move, but we’re thinking less than a year. I’ll be sure to bump the thread again when we’re looking for people to help unload the moving van, beer and burgers on me!
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!