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Things you Like/Dislike about the Triangle


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Saw this on another forum. List 5 things that you love about the Triangle and 5 things you dislike about The Triangle. Here are my lists:

Like:

1.) Very Educated Area :yahoo:

2.) Great Schools. (Both grade schools and College/University)

3.) Very Attractive Region :D

4.) Nice Homes/Neighboorhoods

5.) Job Growth

6.) Diversity

7.) RTP

8.) Restaurants and Shopping (Not to Shabby In my opinion)

9.) Lots of New Areas and Developments :thumbsup:

Dislike:

1.) Mass Transit needs work :unsure:

2.) Downtown Shopping/Destination for both Raleigh & Durham

3.) Arena not in downtown Raleigh

4.) Home prices expensive to Similar Sized areas in the South.

5.) Not enough fortune 500 yet. Were working on it.

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like

1. N.C. STATE (campus, basketball/baseball/football teams, hillsborough st., etc...)

2. carolina hurricanes (hockey + triangle = tailgating, cheerleaders, great atmosphere, i love it!)

3. the greenway (from new bern ave. to past crabtree mall!! - nuff said)

4. weather (right now its 75 and sunny, with a cool breeze)

5. downtown (getting to where theres stuff to do now)

dislike

1. unc fans in raleigh (come on, you have your own town - raleigh is n.c. state)

2. lack of arena/stadium downtown (i'm telling you, mudcats need to move to downtown raleigh)

3. parking tickets

4. expansion of raleigh further and further north (what about all that land out near the RBC)

5. to get anything done you need like 7 approvals twice, way slow at doing anything in raleigh

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Likes:

1. Several colleges- and their associated cultural activities, sports, and radio stations. Folks in the Triangle don't appreciate how lucky we are to have about 5 kick-ass college radio stations!

2. Diversity

3. Jobs

4. Leaders are starting to see the value in revitalized downtowns

5. The American Tobacco Trail- this will be one of the coolest trails in the nation when all 22 miles are connected.

Dislikes:

1. Tepid support amongst leaders and populace for curbing auto dependency, and associated sprawl.

2. Lack of regional coordination and planning.

3. RDU- the airport in Flint, MI is more charming (This should improve with the rebuild of Terminal C).

4. Few physical landmarks- I envy Portland's Mt. Hood and Willamette River.

5. No amusement parks nearby.

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Likes:

-the Eno River

-The American Tobacco District and the Bulls Stadium

-Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill's infill projects

-The music scene

-the abundance of good schools and universities

-the abundance of research jobs

-the Botanical Gardens

-Occoneechee Mountain

-the museums, particularly the NCMOA

Dislikes:

-the downtowns are far away from rivers or other natural landmarks.

-the research triangle park is poorly planned and sprawly

-other than Chapel Hill, transit in the triangle is insufficient

-NIMBYs and fiscal conservatives getting in the way of downtown development

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Like

- Local music scene--lots of options but still somewhat intimate

- One county away from Virginia state line, two hours from Wilmington, three hours from Charlotte

- Interesting Geography--influenced by vestigal Uwharrie Mountains

- Really good highway and surface road infrastructure

- Many downtowns in the metro area--all of which have some sort of comprehensive plan for future development

- Local job market has an abundance of high-tech related jobs--local population is mostly very educated and/or technically resourceful

- Metro area feels pretty culturally diverse for its size

Dislike

- Too many blowhards who denounce every project or proposal that comes down the wire. It severely interferes with progress.

- Exurban culture is geographically segregated--outside of the three core counties, hippies live to the west and rednecks live to the east.

- Road projects often take an inordinate amount of time to complete, like Piney Plains Rd in Cary--been under construction now since like 1998.

- As stated before, mass transit in Raleigh is horrible. Chapel Hill is alright, and C-Train in Cary actually isn't half bad.

- Capital Blvd

- US64 Business

- S Saunders St, US401

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like:

1. diverse area for the most part (Ral, Dur, CH ea have diff feel)

2. warm climate, but we get a good enough taste of winter for most ppl

3. excellent universities

4. good economy (tech, pharma, universities, govt, medical, etc)

5. location (near beach, mtns, within a drive of DC, Clt, Atl, NYC, FL, etc.)

6. good cultural and art opportunities for region of its size

dislike:

1. generally unsustainable land use planning--TOO SPREAD OUT! (esp in Wake, Chatham, Johnston Co--not so much in Orange and Durham Co)

2. completely inadequate transit system (except CHill and maybe NCSU Wolfline)--related to sprawl, go figure :wacko:

3. Wake Co politics/people too conservative and are typically owned by special interests

4. not enough regional cooperation

5. no defining natural features like rivers, mtns, etc.

6. no real political or business community leadership (such as a Hugh McColl or McCrory did for Clt)

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Likes:

good weather

Durham Bulls

American Tobacco Trail

cheap beer

close to mountains AND beaches

low cost of living

Dislikes:

lack of local train system

lots of "sprawl"

no major bodies of water

too many parking lots

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  • 3 weeks later...

Like:

1) The diversity: I mean this on several levels...the cities themselves are diverse (Durham, Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, and even the smaller ones all have distinct feelings...compare Carrboro to Garner, for example) but the region as a whole is a mixture as well of old and new, Dixie and transplants and immigrants, and the intellectual climate of RTP and the universities contrast with the still agricultural/Old South elements. I like all of that.

2)The sports environment. I love college basketball/football, love the Bulls, love the Canes, and I like how the Triangle gets excited about sports.

3)The food. God how I miss the food.

4)The optimism. Especially in Raleigh I think people believe things are getting better and that's not something you encounter everywhere.

5)The culture...good museums, good music, good theatre...they're all available and getting better.

Dislikes:

1)The geographic size of the region...it's too big and that contributes to sprawl...there's nothing anyone can do about it, of course, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

2)The traffic - of course there are plenty of cities with a lot worse, but that doesn't mean that it still isn't bad and that we shouldn't demand regional leaders do something about it. Which brings me to...

3)The lack of/attitude about mass transit in the region.

4)Although the Triangle's certainly more progressive than the rest of the state, I still don't enjoy running into the elements of bigotry you sometimes encounter...

5) I can't think of another one. I really love the Triangle and I miss it!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Likes:

1.Strong local economy - There's a good mix of businesses here too. We don't have to rely on a handful of major employeers. Having so many small and mid size companies, across a range of sectors, certainly adds to the stabilty of the area. Of course, another Fortune 500 company or two wouldn't hurt.

2.Diversity - not just ethnic and cultural, but overall. People come here from all over the country, and the world.

3.Low cost of living - especially the taxes and utilities. My house is roughly the same size as the one my parents owned in Buffalo, with a much larger yard. Yet, my property taxes are only about 25% of what they were paying. I love the cheap utilities, too.

4. Location - not too far south, easy access to the beach and mountains, and a reasonable drive to many major cities.

5. Yeah, the weather is nice.

Dislikes:

1. Traffic - I could probably break this into two separate dislikes. When the traffic is flowing, it's OK, but when it's not, it's a nightmare. I have trouble finding practical alternate routes when there's an accident or bad weather. North Raleigh makes no sense. There's good flow on the main north-south roads, but travelling east and west takes forever. The other half of it is the bad drivers. The highway system relys heavily on people obeying yield signs, but its rare that I see anyone who does. There have been a number of times where I've nearly missed an exit because the driver coming from the on-ramp went through the yield and prevented me from getting over. But, that shouldn't be a surprise, considering the only time you see someone signal a lane change is when they're about to cut across all the lanes of traffic.

2. Sprawl - Especially the new subdivisons where the developer clear cuts all the trees and then piles housing onto tiny lots.

3. A lack of what I call "hallway ettitqutte" - more of a peeve of mine than anything, but I notice it way more here than anywhere I've been. As a child, I was taught to keep to the right in hallways, or aisles in a store, and to let people get off of an elevator before getting on. It irks me when trying to get off of an elevator and someone else is in my way, trying to get on. I can't even count the number of times I've had to stop because someone was going the "wrong way" down a hallway, and had no intention of moving. While keeping right in a store, I've even had people try to squeeze between me and the shelf.

4. Barbecue - I'll probably get flamed for this, but Carolina-style (both of them) is awful compared to Memphis, KC, even Texas styles.

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