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Tell me please about North Carolina


Pato del Muerto

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So I’m job hunting. Lots of jobs go me in the Raleigh Durham area. Heading there next month to check it out. 

Also going to spend time in Asheville, as there’s at least one potential job there and the geography more closely matches what I’m leaving. 

Already had phone screenings in brevard, Clayton, and Durham. 

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I’ve always enjoyed the area, but it greatly depends on what you are looking for. We spent a lot of time in the Raleigh area over the years as my wife’s family was from Goldsboro. My oldest is 100% committed  to going to UNC although that may change. It’s been the only school she talks about for several years because it was her grandfathers first love. Saying that, Charlotte is the hot place to be right now though.

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NC is a great place.  Blue Ridge Mountains area is allsome.  Asheville, Hendersonville and west to Cashiers / Highlands is The Duke.  

Middle of state Piedmont and Triangle areas are not bad.

Charlotte has become mini Atlanta and now full of unfriendly northeasterners.   

Coastal area is remote and hard to get to in a car.   There isn’t an I-10 you can haul ass on to get there.   

Don’t order brisket or ribs anywhere in NC. 

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1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

So I’m job hunting. Lots of jobs go me in the Raleigh Durham area. Heading there next month to check it out. 

Also going to spend time in Asheville, as there’s at least one potential job there and the geography more closely matches what I’m leaving. 

Already had phone screenings in brevard, Clayton, and Durham. 

Asheville would definitely be my choice. Very pretty, good food and drink scene. Lot of outdoors stuff.

Raleigh is meh. Kind of non descript American city.

I think @South Austin grew up in Carolina, but maybe Wilmington?

 

Anyhoo, I have friends in both Asheville and Raleigh if you want some on the ground opinions.

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15 minutes ago, G650 said:

Asheville would definitely be my choice. Very pretty, good food and drink scene. Lot of outdoors stuff.

Raleigh is meh. Kind of non descript American city.

I think @South Austin grew up in Carolina, but maybe Wilmington?

 

Anyhoo, I have friends in both Asheville and Raleigh if you want some on the ground opinions.

I grew up north of Wilmington, but that was over 25 years ago. I spent two years in Raleigh. The Raleigh-Durham area is kinda like DFW but with tall pine trees and hills.

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Asheville is my choice too, but pharma jobs are limited there but plentiful in the triangle. 

Merck is north of Durham, so I’d probably look for something on the way to wake forest if I worked there. 

I’ll see in a week how rural or suburban Clayton is. 

If I'm going to live in a dfw type metro area, I want it to be something like pilot point or sanger. 

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We've been in Greensboro, NC for 18+ years now and will only leave to move for retirement on the coast of North or South Carolina. Raleigh has a completely different vibe than the Piedmont area here does-we are less political, a bit slower pace, smaller footprint but growing. Depending on how far you want to commute in the Raleigh area you can easily find property that is rural in nature, rolling hills and lots of pine trees. For instance, when we go into Chapel Hill the back way the last 20 miles is all rural farmland.

Asheville is truly a mini Austin and, I think, may even have a higher yuppie douche bag ratio. It can't really grow because of the surrounding terrain but it is beautiful. Dupont National Park is just north of Asheville and is a gem. Beer scene is booming in Asheville, BBQ is of the NC style but there are some great places to eat. I like to visit Asheville but don't have any interest in moving there, unless a new job were to take me there.

I despise Charlotte for the same reason I dislike all magalopolis cities. Sprawling concrete jungle with no identity and huge traffic issues. Raleigh has it's share of traffic issues as well but seem to manage them better.

From here in Greensboro we can be on the beach south (way south) of Myrtle Beach at Pawley's Island in 4.5 hours and correct, no interstate carrying you all the way in...which I like. Can be in Ashevile in 3.5 hours. Charolotte is 90 minutes. Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill is 45-90 depending. Can be in Wilmington in 3.5 hours.

My kids are at East Carolina in Greeneville, NC and one is at UNC-Greensboro right now after starting at Chapel Hill. Let's just say the culture and academic pressure at Chapel Hill was not for her so we took her out, even though she pulled a 3.75 in her 1st semester. Great school and some great kids there. Also many social retards.

Anyway, PM me if you have specific questions or interests. 

 

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Asheville is truly a mini Austin and, I think, may even have a higher yuppie douche bag ratio.


Not sure what to make of this. A friend of mine who has lived in Austin for ages just spent some time in Asheville. He said it was white trashy redneck and much more rural than Austin.
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30 minutes ago, KaiserSoze said:


 

 


Not sure what to make of this. A friend of mine who has lived in Austin for ages just spent some time in Asheville. He said it was white trashy redneck and much more rural than Austin.

 

Austin before all the newcomers ruined it!

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57 minutes ago, KaiserSoze said:


 

 


Not sure what to make of this. A friend of mine who has lived in Austin for ages just spent some time in Asheville. He said it was white trashy redneck and much more rural than Austin.

 

You sure he was in the right Asheville? 

 

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One of the best beaches in the country is 3 hours drive from Raleigh, the Outer Banks.  And there are 3 others if that doesn't float your boat.

The research triangle is a great place for schools, jobs and general shit to do.

3 major universities all within 2 hours of each other.

The mountains are 2 house away

Friendly people.

 

There are worse places you could wind up.

 

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1 hour ago, G650 said:

You sure he was in the right Asheville? 

 

Yes, it was the correct Asheville. It seems people have gotten a bit loose with comparing any random city to Austin these days. I'd heard the Asheville comparison for years so I was kinda surprised to hear how inaccurate it is. 

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23 minutes ago, KaiserSoze said:

Yes, it was the correct Asheville. It seems people have gotten a bit loose with comparing any random city to Austin these days. I'd heard the Asheville comparison for years so I was kinda surprised to hear how inaccurate it is. 

I'd wager Asheville North Carolina had more craft beers and hipsters per square mile than pretty much anywhere in the country. Rural and redneck are definitely not words I'd use to describe it.

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Just now, G650 said:

I'd wager Asheville North Carolina had more craft beers and hipsters per square mile than pretty much anywhere in the country. Rural and redneck are definitely not words I'd use to describe it.

Right, but that doesn't mean "omg it's so much like Austin OMG! OMG! OMG!". Plenty of towns in the United States have shit tons of craft breweries. 

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Asheville is awesome, very pretty, the breweries and restaurants are great.  Very young vibe in the city.    White trash Redneck and rural??   Not so much.
Based on the discussion here I think the experience varies based on whether you're a tourist there for a handful of days vs. staying there for more time than a vacation.
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1 hour ago, KaiserSoze said:
1 hour ago, Hook1997 said:
Asheville is awesome, very pretty, the breweries and restaurants are great.  Very young vibe in the city.    White trash Redneck and rural??   Not so much.

Based on the discussion here I think the experience varies based on whether you're a tourist there for a handful of days vs. staying there for more time than a vacation.

Honesty, I think it has more to do with people who think Brevard or Hendersonville are "Ashevile".

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5 minutes ago, KaiserSoze said:

Are you the Mayor of Asheville? You can probably buy out our city council to start a campaign to tell people how Asheville is just like Austin if you like. Please, take the opportunity. 

I already said I have no opinion on the comparison of Asheville and Austin. And if I were the mayor of Asheville I certainly wouldn't be playing up the amount of hipsters there. 

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My current commute is 3.5 miles and no traffic. Long drives and traffic jams are not for me anymore.  Plus I’ve gotten accustomed to the mountains as well. 

But it’s a job with a really, really good fortune 100 company that would be very tough to turn down if offered. 

But then I’m also interviewing for a very small company in Brevard. Completely opposite end of the spectrum. 

Would be quite a conundrum if I had to choose between them. 

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33 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

My current commute is 3.5 miles and no traffic. Long drives and traffic jams are not for me anymore.  Plus I’ve gotten accustomed to the mountains as well. 

But it’s a job with a really, really good fortune 100 company that would be very tough to turn down if offered. 

But then I’m also interviewing for a very small company in Brevard. Completely opposite end of the spectrum. 

Would be quite a conundrum if I had to choose between them. 

 

Yeah, I'm with you there. I don't know how the people who work in the District and commute from Stafford Va. do it. I'm constitutionally incapable of living more than 100 yards from the ocean myself as my life is centered around it.

 

Brevard is obviously way more what you want in terms of locale. But certainly a tough decision. Probably depends mostly on our long term outlook I guess. Being stuck in Raleigh forever is not appealing, but for a few years is no big deal, it's a perfectly acceptable place.

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On 10/28/2018 at 6:49 PM, Onboard 2.0 said:

It's in the middle of kinda nowhere though isn't it ?  I wanna be close to a convenient airport.

Correct, its a bit of an outpost.  There is an airport there though you will be connecting through CLT,  RDU or ATL pretty much every time.

Edited by jdhorn92
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On 10/28/2018 at 2:10 PM, G650 said:

I'd wager Asheville North Carolina had more craft beers and hipsters per square mile than pretty much anywhere in the country. Rural and redneck are definitely not words I'd use to describe it.

Higher percentage of Ashville voted for Trump than did in either Raleigh or Charlotte. 

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5 minutes ago, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

Higher percentage of Ashville voted for Trump than did in either Raleigh or Charlotte. 

To quote my next door neighbor, who has Trump yard signs, bumper stickers and T-shirts, "I hate rednecks".

 

 

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OP- How much do you enjoy the outdoors in the mountains? If hiking, biking, tubing, trout fishing, scenic drives, and live music are your thing then Asheville is a pretty damn good place to be.

Beware Brevard is nearly 40 minutes from Asheville and even more of a tourist town than Asheville.

Edited by ShaggyBevo RIP
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One of the best beaches in the country is 3 hours drive from Raleigh, the Outer Banks.  And there are 3 others if that doesn't float your boat.
The research triangle is a great place for schools, jobs and general shit to do.
3 major universities all within 2 hours of each other.
The mountains are 2 house away
Friendly people.
 
There are worse places you could wind up.
 


2 hours? naw, son...30 mins tops.

when i was at Duke we would climb up the chapel tower and could easily see UNC a mere 6 or so miles away.
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20 hours ago, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

As for the Austin to Asheville comparisons Asheville would be late 70s early 80s Austin with the hippies replaced with hipsters.

Yeah, I guess that would be the closest, but honestly, I've never found Asheville and Austin to be remotely alike. Not sure why anyone would make that comparison in the first place.

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On 10/28/2018 at 11:45 AM, KaiserSoze said:


 

 


Not sure what to make of this. A friend of mine who has lived in Austin for ages just spent some time in Asheville. He said it was white trashy redneck and much more rural than Austin.

 

My comment was just that, a comment and was really neither negative nor positive, but more observatory. Asheville is no more trashy white redneck than any other southern city including Austin. I like both cities. I loved the Austin of the early 80's. I don't love Asheville but it's a nice town. The outdoor opportunities that are there a glorious and it's has beutiful terrain. 

 

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Our younger daughter attends Duke and we absolutely love Raleigh. It’s a terrific town with great, new restaurants, lots of cool places to live including revilatized factories that are now kickass loft apartments, a good farmers market, parks and more. It’s close to a Domain-level, indoor/outside mall, and of course, it’s loaded with tech jobs. Plus, the university is beyond amazing and puts virtually every campus that I’ve been to to shame. (Helps when you have 7,000+ acres for 14,000 students) You can get anywhere in 10-20 minutes including their first-class airport.

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On 11/2/2018 at 8:49 AM, G650 said:

Yeah, I guess that would be the closest, but honestly, I've never found Asheville and Austin to be remotely alike. Not sure why anyone would make that comparison in the first place.

Cause Asheville is a tourist town that is New Orleans level of dependent on tourist dollars?

I should add that Asheville also has a lot of well to do retirees from the East Coast that are there for the climate.

Edited by ShaggyBevo RIP
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Just now, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

Cause Asheville is a tourist town that is New Orleans level of dependent on tourist dollars?

Uh, not particularly? Tourism is a big sector, but far from the only one. More than anything I would classify it as a enclave for well off North Carolinian/Eastern Tennesseeans, particularly for second homes.

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Our younger daughter attends Duke and we absolutely love Raleigh. It’s a terrific town with great, new restaurants, lots of cool places to live including revilatized factories that are now kickass loft apartments, a good farmers market, parks and more. It’s close to a Domain-level, indoor/outside mall, and of course, it’s loaded with tech jobs. Plus, the university is beyond amazing and puts virtually every campus that I’ve been to to shame. (Helps when you have 7,000+ acres for 14,000 students) You can get anywhere in 10-20 minutes including their first-class airport.


ummm...Duke’s in Durham, NC State is in Raleigh.

but assuming you meant Durham, you did a damn fine job describing it.
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