Thanks, Brown Eyed Girl! I was just making my way back in here to ask about some other areas, Charlotte being one of them. I have ventured into thinking about SC, so that is good to know as well. Seems like overall NC is a better fit for us, plus closer to Ohio for visits back to family would be that much shorter!
What are thoughts on the Durham area? I have been reading on Marxxx’s link, and consensus seems to be that Old North Durham, etc have a slightly liberal feel and are nice.
We are by no means “crunchy hippy”, and I certainly am learning that NC is not as bible belt as my impression was, so moderate/democratic towns are also ok, which it seems as though most of the bigger cities are. Weighing all my options! I know Durham has many medical opportunities, but the problem with all the academic hospitals is the pay - as I’ve learned in NE Ohio, even though we have great medical facitlities, the pay there is not so great because of the “prestige” of working there
Durham is more of a blue collar place than Raleigh or Chapel Hill but it’s mostly liberal. Duke is a big part of Durham and there are a lot of medical jobs all over the Triangle area. The other big industries here are software , biotech, electronics and clinical trials. State government is big since Raleigh is the capital.
Pretty much any of the big cities in NC are full of transplants from up north and other parts of the US. People joke that is some places it’s hard to find natives of NC. A lot of people come to the triangle area for school at NCSU, UNC, or Duke and then stay here because there are lots of jobs.
I lived in Wilmington for four years. You can do better. It does fall into the “nice place to visit” category, with the riverfront and nearby beaches. But it had limited opportunities and I’m just as glad not to live there anymore.
This is why I need to just go and stay in a few areas for a couple days! I have a distant friend that lives in Wilimington, and I just contacted her about it and she loves it there. Although, she is from Ohio, so is probably estatic with sunshine and beaches. General NCer consensus seems to be that it is not all that great, though.
Due to the medical opportunities, I think we are probably looking at Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham - or a place like Asheville if it has an opening because the pay is fantastic due to the need for recruiting. Problem is, many of those higher pay places are RURAL and way in the mountains with snow, cold, etc and I don’t know if we want to up and move to a place with weather similar and less to do. I guess that is why Asheville stuck out to me at first (beautiful scenery, probably decent pay, liberal, etc), but I don’t even know if a job exists there.
He hasn’t really dove into it yet, as we were just researching overall areas (and this has been extremely helpful). Time to get to the nitty gritty!
Maybe I am wrong but I thought a Dr. can get a job pretty much anywhere , for a general practice Dr. I know here in NC many rural areas want more doctors but obviously those jobs don’t have high pay. (I think that is true in just about every state) Some rural areas have no doctors at all and the residents have to drive to the nearest major city.
It depends. My husband is a pediatrician, and many rural Appalachian areas recruit as “under served” areas and include things like student loan repayment incentives, etc. to get doctors there. Many times, it can be a government program even that is trying to get medical care to these areas, but it can also just be a recruitment from a practice (not as often, but can be). That is only true of real out of the way places, not so much “country suburbs”. Asheville may be considered near some of those areas, but we haven’t looked that closely at it yet.
He could probably find a job in just about any area, especially being general peds. Bigger cities offer less call, and better work schedule, usually because there are more physicians serving in the practice. It all depends, though, and there are alot of factors that need to be weighed! Which is why this is could be so difficult
There are very rural areas close to Asheville, pretty much all the southern NC mountains are rural. If you head west it’s all rural and real small towns until you hit Chattanooga or Knoxville, both are around 2 hours away. For example Swain County has 12k people, Graham County has 8k.
I read about a Dr. who was recruited to work in a rural area and he had 1 requirement - he wanted to be within 75 miles of an NHL team. He moved to eastern NC because he was close enough to the Hurricanes in Raleigh.
Do some research into New South. It’s something of a business movement, something of a cultural movement, something of an intellectual movement, something of a social justice movement: the idea is that the Old South is the South of poverty, racism, religious bigotry, etc., and the New South is a vibrant and heady mix of cultures and creativity. Some cities exemplify the idea more than others, of course, but a lot of smart folks here in the South appreciate this idea and wish more folks from outside the region would think of the South more as jazz and less as the Klan.
I live in Raleigh. Never been to Asheville however one of my liberal friends tells me that it’s just bursting with Democrats and hippies and gays, oh my!
Charlotte, in my opinion, is a dump. One of the ugliest cities I’ve ever seen, traffic was awful and I was thoroughly unimpressed. Lots to do there, yes, but ugh – so not pretty.
One thing I have found surprising here in Raleigh (I’m a transplant) - it is HARD to get to know people here. People are polite, but they aren’t necessarily friendly. I don’t know if that’s a Raleigh thing or an NC thing, but I’ll put it out there for your perusal. That’s my only complaint about this city, though - everything else is hunky dory. If you’re a tree hugging vegetarian, you’ll find others members of your tribe here. If you’re a raging conservative, we got those too. If you’re apathetic, disillusioned and cynical, we all meet at my place the 2nd Tuesday of every month, bring an appetizer to share
Wilmington is lovely. I’m not a beach person at all but I’d seriously consider living there if the opportunity presented itself.
If your husband’s a doctor, though, I’m thinking Raleigh/Durham if he wants to have a life. He’ll be a small fish in a big pond, yes, but he won’t be the only doctor in town and thus may get a weekend to himself every now and then. That said - there are a surprising amount of pediatric clinics statewide that have Saturday hours.
Aww, bummer. You must not have seen the nice parts of Charlotte. I think it’s a nice city. Certainly a lot nicer than Cincinnati.
I find just the opposite in Charlotte, so I’m not sure it’s an NC thing. There are so many transplants it seems we’re all in the same boat as far as getting to know people. Also, I find southerners in general very welcoming and friendly. When we moved into our neighborhood in Rock Hill, many of our neighbors came out to welcome us and tell us how wonderful our neighborhood is.
Hey, shirts, if you decide to come down to Charlotte to check things out, let us know. Maybe we can meet for lunch or something. You know, just being a Doper means you’ve got instant local friends where ever you end up. Maybe it’s time for another Charlotte Dopefest, come to think of it.
Pfft. Last guy to tell me that was just trying to sell me something. I’ll never fall for that again. And even if you aren’t scamming, which you probably are, I can’t be arsed to show up.
There isn’t much difference between Raleigh area and Charlotte. Both have plenty of transplants and lots of growth although it’s slower now due to the economy . The main difference is Charlotte is big in banking and Raleigh is big on high tech, medicine and universities and state government.
You guys are awesome, thank you. I am still considering Asheville because there are so many aspects about it I like, and it is a little closer to family in Ohio - only drawback is the climate is not as “warm” as I would like, but would certainly be an improvement over Ohio winters! The mountains are beautiful, so it may make up for it
Any recommendations on suburbs of Raleigh or Charlotte? I am leaning more towards Raleigh, but would have to go where a job is. Also, I was reading that they re-district the schools just about every year - is that just a “city” thing due to growth, or do the suburbs do this, too? That would be a HUGE drawback for the area to me.
All the areas around Raleigh are pretty similar - the higher priced areas are Apex, Cary and Holly Springs. Other areas are more middle class. In Raleigh the north is the high end area. Schools do shift but the school board just got a big overhaul so that is probably going to decrease a lot. The schools cover all of Wake county. Schools are growing fast although the recession has slowed that down a little. For example a few years back they added 6000 students per year .
Chapel Hill has very good schools but it’s the most expensive place to live. CH used to be a college town but now a lot of non UNC people live there. Durham is a mixed bag, some nice areas but more poor areas. Nice areas are in the south and north.
Any other RDU area questions you can send me a private message.
As for the Charlotte area, there a number of choices for suburbs:
The Lake Norman area: about 20 miles north of Charlotte, right off on I-77. The commute to/from the city can be pretty bad. It’s a large lake if you’'re into boating. Not much for swimming though (only a few small public beaches.) Towns in the area are Huntersville, Cornelius, Mooresville, Davidson, Denver and others.
Belmont: Just minutes west of the city, accessible right off I-85, the commute is fairly easy. Nice, small town. Further west is Gastonia, which has a reputation of being a bit “red necky” but is changing slowly as more folks move in.
Union County: South of the city, about 30 minute commute depending on whart part of the city you’re going to; low taxes; good schools, lots of new developments sprinkled among farms; LOTS of transplants (like me!) Towns include Weddington, Waxhaw, Indian Trail, Wesley Chapel and others.
Fort Mill/Rock Hill, SC: Also south of the city on I-77. Low taxes, good deals on homes, so-so schools (Fort Mill’s are supposedly pretty good)
When we moved 5 years ago we chose Charlotte over Raleigh because we were coming from NYC and Charlotte has more of a city feel to it. Just a personal choice. Plus, I liked that they had pro football and basketball teams. Charlotte is 2 hours from the mountains and 3.5 hours to the ocean. The weather is usually pretty mild. We get snow once or twice a year and it usually melts the same day it arrives. Contrary to PandaBear77’s opinion, there are many beautiful areas in and around Charlotte. Like any large metro area there are some ugly spots too, but coming from the NYC area, I find it incredibly clean and nice here.
Just a small opinion from an Ohio liberal who has never lived in but frequently visits NC…
I’ve been hanging around Chapel Hill/Durham/Carboro/Pittsboro/Hillsboro for about 10 years now. I find the whole place very “hippie liberal.” All my friends out there are artists and musicians. We go to indie movies, eat at vegetarian restaurants, visit indie art shows and go to free outdoor concerts.
Now, granted, I’m sure we do more “artsy” stuff due to the nature of my friends (one’s a middle-aged nurse/musician who lives on a farm in the country. The other is a hip young mom who works in an office and lives in Durham) but still, those sorts of activities are ripe for the picking out there. There are tiny pockets of hipness in Northeast Ohio (Tremont, Kent) but those are more like city blocks. The “hipness” in Chapel Hill/Duram goes on for miles.
Besides Asheville, I also lived in Rock Hill for five long years fifteen years ago. I found Rock Hill itself to be pretty worthless as far as a city, but Charlotte’s only minutes away, and that’s where we went for everything.
