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jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
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Nick said:
@jonKranked
I know your deal, but what does the wifey do for a living?
I think you'd dig it down there. Have you both visited? Drop the kids off at mom's and take a recon weekend.
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Same as me mostly, packaging but for consumer pharma. Our skills can transfer to other industries, but generally that would involve a pay cut.

Have been before, but not in a loooong time.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,100
1,150
NC
I live in the Raleigh area.

Tech/science is growing wildly. Most of the science jobs seem to be in Durham/RTP area, and the tech is spread all over (though, as you might expect, does have some concentration in RTP). My riding has tapered off a bit, but local riding is kinda meh, there are trails here and there but the flat elevation means that views or epic adventures require driving to the western part of the state. If you are inclined to drive, though, 4 hours can put you in several places with good mountain biking like Asheville, NC and Greenville, SC.

And the Outer Banks are nice if you like beaches.

Food/drink in the area is pretty great. Breweries and distilleries popping up constantly, lots of restaurants of varying cultures. The downtowns of Raleigh and Durham are both booming and pleasant.

Cost of living is definitely on the uptick, but there are still plenty of affordable areas here and even the expensive areas aren't nuts like Boston/New York/San Francisco prices.

On the downside, the summers are absolutely miserable. Seriously, we'll get weeks on end of 100+ degrees with 80% humidity every day. I hate the summers here. This is our first summer here with a dog, and it sucks that all of the long walks/hikes locally are a masochistic exercise in how much tolerance you have for bathing in your own sweat.

Also, NC politics are nasty. You can insulate yourself a little from the knuckle-draggers by living in the metro areas where there are lots of universities, but the actual state politics themselves are appalling. The republican congress got so pissed about a democrat being elected for governor, they are literally stripping as many powers away from the governor's office as possible. Maybe one of the worst gerrymandered states in the country, too. It's ugly.

It's a nice city area with a fair amount to offer. The summers are exhausting, but the winters in the northeast are exhausting so there's a tradeoff anywhere, unless you have a couple million bucks to buy a house on the west coast. And unfortunately, if you really want some outdoor experiences like hitting a beach or good hiking, you're going to have to drive a ways; you're not very close to either the mountains or the beaches. If you guys spend all of your weekends hiking or camping or beaching or whatever, it's probably a little too central - Asheville, for instance, is far enough away that it's not a day trip.

PM me if you come down for an exploration weekend, we'll find a local brewery and/or pick a good restaurant.
 
AngryMetalsmith

AngryMetalsmith

Business is good, thanks for asking
Jun 4, 2006
21,228
10,084
I have no idea where I am
binary visions said:
On the downside, the summers are absolutely miserable. Seriously, we'll get weeks on end of 100+ degrees with 80% humidity every day. I hate the summers here. This is our first summer here with a dog, and it sucks that all of the long walks/hikes locally are a masochistic exercise in how much tolerance you have for bathing in your own sweat.
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:rofl:

I almost hurt my shoulder recently after a ride picking up my heavy bag of sweaty riding gear. Got to love the land of humidity.
 
KenW449

KenW449

Thanos did nothing wrong
Jun 13, 2017
2,704
329
Floating down the whiskey river...
Nick said:
Western NC has amazing riding. It is as good as it gets anywhere. A friend recently moved to Ashville and raves about it constantly.
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I hear Windrock bike park a few hours away is suppose to be fantastic.

jonKranked said:
considering the last 2 states i lived in were NJ and CA (LA metro area) much of the country is less expensive by comparison.
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Move away from Philly and PA gets much better. I loved living in NewPark, minus the snow shoveling bullshit.
 
jstuhlman

jstuhlman

bagpipe wanker
Dec 3, 2009
16,693
13,042
Cackalacka du Nord
@jonKranked

aight. here’s my take on charlotte:

city: along with raleigh/durham area, has been one of the fastest growing in the country for a decade or two. a decent amount of arts/culture. lots of corporate/banking types as well. job maket seems to be diversifying beyond just banking and associated fields. i find it really easy to live in. outside of a few pricey neighborhoods and a bazillion overpriced condos, cost of living ain’t bad. there aren’t a ton of good universities like raleigh/durham/chapel hill, but a few that bring in a good mix of people. finding schools for the kids has been a bit of a struggle. there aren’t a ton of options. it varies by neighborhood. but we’ve finally found a charter that we’be been happy with for the past few years. and yeah, binary was right about the political climate. like a variety of mid-atlantic and midwestern states, an electoral map looks like blue islands in a red sea.

beer/music: there are probably 30-40 breweries here. there might have been one or two when i moved here in 2006. many are really good. some of the better clubs have closed; the local music scene is pretty small/diverse, but you can find good shows if you look for them.

riding: the city is ringed with literally hundreds of miles of singletrack within a 30 mile radius in various parks. nothing super crazy, but decent options, and more coming. the greenway system is slowly expanding too. there are a decent amount of riders here. yoy can find a crew that you like. as @stevew said, the whitewater center is a cool spot and has everything from trails to rafting to rock climbing to concerts 3 nights a week in the summer.

location/transportation: huge plus, i think. 3 hours to the beach (but fuck the beach); 2 hours to either pisgah proper or the wilson creek area. 2 1/2 to three lift/shuttle-served DH spots; 4 to windrock; 5 to snowshoe or massanutten. the airport is an American hub. there are flights to everywhere all the time.

climate: yeah, it can get hot in the summer. but whatever. it gets hot up there too, amirite? if you’re not a baby you can ride all year round. the bonus being you almost never have to dress like you’re running the iditerod, even in january in the mountains.

fwiw, i hate ashevegas: too touristy, overpriced, and too many trustafarians. plus you’re still likely 45 minutes from pisgah, unless ou live south of town.

winston salem/greensboro could be cool.

i could see us ending up back in raleigh/durham if a job opened up for me. but i’d miss being this close to decent mountain riding.

tl;dr: carlotte is pretty cool. or else i wouldn’t have been here for 12 years.

hit me up with any other questions.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,100
1,150
NC
jstuhlman said:
climate: yeah, it can get hot in the summer. but whatever. it gets hot up there too, amirite?
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Central NC summers can only be compared to New England summers if you've suffered heatstroke and have lost the ability to detect moisture.

Humidity chart for jon's region of PA:
upload_2018-7-22_8-57-33.png

Humidity for Raleigh:
upload_2018-7-22_8-57-48.png
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,942
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appreciate all the feedback, esp @binary visions and @jstuhlman . Summers don't sound too much worse than here; we get super hot humid weather, but it sounds more common down there.

bv - regarding poltiics - doesn't sound terribly dissimilar to here. PA got the nickname pennsyltucky for a reason. There's pittsburgh and philly with kentucky in between.

We're not in a situation where this will be short term relocation plan (but maybe sooner than we'd otherwise plan, maybe not). just starting to consider what our next steps are gonna be. There's a couple other regions we're looking at (including some states farther north, because i REALLY like winter, wife not so much) but NC seems to have the best prospects career wise. We're not thrilled at the idea of moving farther away from family (again) esp now that our parents are all in their 70's and want to spend time with their grandkids.
 
stevew

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,590
9,599
politics.....i can agree with people....but i dont want to fucking hear you bitch about it 24/7....
 
Jeremy R

Jeremy R

<b>x</b>
Nov 15, 2001
9,698
1,053
behind you with a snap pop
If riding is important to you, you will want to be close to Asheville, but not in Asheville. Charlotte is about as far away from Asheville as I would want to live in NC, but riding is important to me. NC has lots of great riding but two incredible areas: The Pisgah /Du Pont area in Brevard, and the general Boone area that includes Wilson Creek, Rocky Knob and the ski resort riding at Beech and Sugar. One area you should look at for sure is Greenville, SC. It is a cool growing city with an awesome downtown, and is only an hour from Pisgah. Unlike Asheville, it has a fantastic job market as well. If I was like you moving to this area fresh, but needing a city for my job, I would either move to Greenville or Charlotte just to be honest.
I was talking about it with my wife this weekend, I absolutely love the "general" area we live in. I live on the SC/NC line. I am 50 minutes to Pisgah, 40 minutes to DuPont. 30 minutes to Downtown Greenville, An hour and twenty minutes to downtown Charlotte for a Panthers game, and 3 hours from the Awesomeness of Charleston and Folly Beach where my sister lives. 2 hours from Sugar/Beech and 3 hours from Windrock.
Downsides to living here has already been mentioned. Heat in the summer, and as far as politics: I have lived here all my life, and I have just learned to just ignore people with different political beliefs than mine, but also not to dislike them because of it. One of the most head scratching things about a lot of the people here is that despite their political beliefs or otherwise downright offensive beliefs, some of them can be the most generous down to earth people you will ever meet.
 
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