[TriLUG] [offtopic] Considering a move to RDU area

[Tim Jowers]

Comments below....

On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 10:30 PM, Matt Frye <mattfrye at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 12:12 PM, Jason Watts <jsnonzzr at gmail.com> wrote:
> > so... I am considering a move to the RDU area... and am heavily leaning
> >  towards the yes side...but I have a few other questions.
> >
> >  1)  How does the cost of living compare to the cost of living in
> Charlotte
> >  (for those that have moved from the Charlotte area to the RDU area)
>
> Lower.  Less crime too.
>
> >  2) I have a sport bike... anyone on here ride know what the motorcycle
> >  community up that way is like?
>
> There is a pretty active motorcycle community.  I have several friends
> on both the sportbike and Harley-style sides.  When the weather is
> right, there are rides most weekends.
>
> >  3) ...any good reasons to consider as
> >  to why I wouldn't want to move to the area? eg. shrinking IT industry
> ...
> >  assuming it is
>
> Well, there definitely *isn't* a shrinking IT industry.  The only
> reasons I can think that you wouldn't want to move here might be:


IT industry: very big. High Tech industry: existent but limited. Startup
environment: existent and growing. Offshoring is ongoing but many local
companies have already started bringing projects back. This area can also be
seen as a sort of relo/offshoring destination. E.g. a big investment company
just moved about 2000 people here. Similarly, I know of a shipping company
who just relocated to a CLT suburb. Not sure if these are tax incentives or
real moves. I suspect the latter as its the sort of place a team would
identify as the best place to live and work.


>
> a) Hot as fsck in the summer.  i mean *hot* !  of course, if you're
> coming from some place like Death Valley, then no worries.


- But 10 degrees cooler at night than Columbia, SC. :-)  Plus, lots of small
lakes and greenways everywhere in cities like Cary so you can at least cool
off by walking there or living next to one. It's definitely warmer than San
Francisco but also has seasons. Nice to see trees change in the fall and
flowers bloom in the spring. Versus Columbia, SC, I actually find it cool.
FWIW, I found SF down right cold (I lived near the west/ocean and Los
Angeles cool (only got to about 80F a few days along the coastal area and
the water is almost too cold for swimming). The snow is actually slightly
less than CLT area. The general area is more hilly than CLT so you get nice
cool sides of a hill.

b) No real useful public transit.  The traffic problems of the late
> 1990's have really been fixed for the most part, e.g. I-40 has been
> widened.  20 minutes from everywhere...if you have a car.


There is a traffic jam at quiting time on I-40 East (south) coming down from
RTP and, I think, at I-40W going by Chapel Hill. You can bypass the former
by leaving later or earlier - that's standard around here. You can bypass
the latter with 147 up through Durham. Or just pick a house near to your
job. Some companies actually require 2 Work From Home days a week for
instance.


>
> c) Development - Housing prices are going up.


- You can go 20 miles in various directions and get really lower priced
deals. Or live in a one of the new "Village" neighborhoods if you want. E.g.
they are building one in Cary right at the edge of what is really RTP.
Unlike the rest of the large cities in the USA, RE prices in Charlotte and
Raleigh-Durham are still appreciating. Playing catch-up with other major US
cities methinks. RE has stalled here but it was never as over-priced as CA,
FL, etc.

>
> d) Public schools are run by morons.  The Wake County School Board is
> a fickle and stupid machine.


- But they do have magnet schools. Really bad busing. A large % of the
little kids from the good neighborhoods are being bused into the bad
neighborhoods. From what I remember it was something like 20% which means
you might be paying for a good neighborhood but receiving a bad neighborhood
for your kids. Of course the welfare state is a huge problem everywhere.
Entitlements are the largest Federal expenditure and the government in NC is
also heavily brain-washed into rewarding non-workers, illegals, and
otherwise redistributing wealth from those who create it to those who waste
it. Some of these bad schools have as many as 60% of the kids on feed
programs from what the news said. In contrast, there are entire
neighborhoods in Cary who all send their kids to private schools. Having
grown up and done business with the entitlement people I know more about it
than most. As my grandfather would say: "lackadaisical". Busing kids is a
definite way to ruin a city. The people with wherewithal just move out and
redistrict. Been there. Suffered that. This is the one thing which really,
really scares me about Cary. If the Wake County school board doesn't get a
clue then then exodus will begin. In SC it is called "The Private School
Tax" and you pick your neighborhood based on whether than school district
requires private school. OTOH, we do have very good magnet schools and the
NC HS of math and science is up in Durham so you can play that game too in
order to get your HS age kid a decent and safe education. Private schools
are so expensive its cheaper and easier for everyone just to pick a school
district with minimal challenged students. I'm not saying the challenged
students shouldn't receive an education but they need a special education
because you're basically destroying the school when you try to put kids who
are starving, abused, or undisciplined into the normal classroom as nobody
learns then. No Child Left Behind = All Children Left Behind. Why do you
think about 50% of the students in Computer Science are from foreign
countries!?! New Math = A Generation of Idiots. You gotta wonder what idiots
from the top to the bottom are running our schools. No wonder the USA has a
50% dropout rate in HS.

e) I'm not too sure about the social environment of Charlotte but you'll
probably find here is a much headier area. E.g. you are more likely to run
into professionals in some field. E.g a large bio-tech industry and large
pharma. Very good Universities and colleges are the norm and much more
present than in Charlotte I think. Very less banking environment although
there are a few offices here: CSFB, RBC Centura, FirstCitizens (think that
was it). The competition between universities is really a good thing for the
community as well.

You probably know from Charlotte but the now indigenous people of NC are
very fair, kind, generally non-judgemental, and have a penchant for
knowledge. The area is the majority non-indigenous but that's cool too. No
matter where you are from then you can find others from there. Of course
there are fewer first-generation neighborhoods (aka "China Town" or "Korea
Town") but I think generally people just integrate. But if you like sushi
for instance then your choices may be more limited than in some places. I
think about the same as in CLT. But you can probably find some good German
food like you can in CLT. ???

f) Very, very good tech groups. TriLUG, TriJUG, and many meetups. Very
knowledgeable people too.

Another consideration is under-valued coastline. Wilmington was found out a
decade ago but maybe still undervalued but many other cities are still yet
to be discovered. Nice if you are loaded as its only about 2 hours to
Wilmington. I'm still trying to load up myself. :-)

I'm really optimistic about this area. Its the best area we've lived in or
evaluated. A little pricey but I think that's due to the overall
economy/soft money/dollar printing.

Just more opinions,
tim


>
> Just my opinions, btw.
>
> MPF
> --
> TriLUG mailing list        : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG Organizational FAQ  : http://trilug.org/faq/
> TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
>