In my mind its not even a hard choice. Raleigh over Charlotte hands down. I lived in Charlotte 18 years and Raleigh 5 years till i moved to Wilmington. If I ever
had to move for a job I would quickly jump back to Raleigh; Charlotte would be a tough sell. Raleigh is a big city but in my mind
you do not get "lost" in the city as one seems to do in Charlotte.

Traffic in Charlotte is horrendous. The infrastructure is so much
better in the Raleigh-Durham area than in Charlotte. Though its not Charlotte's fault that Raleigh gets 2x the $$$ for roads as Charlotte.
Unless you work and live downtown or close to home expect over an hour sitting in rush hour everyday. When i lived in Raleigh I could jump on the
beltline to Wade Ave, take wade to I40, I-40 to the new 540 segment, and be at Sony Ericsson (pretty much on the border of Durham) in under 25 mins.
Charlotte does have the light rail but with one route open unless you live in pineville or are a mexican on S. Blvd wheres the benefit
beyond giving yourself a pat on the back for being more green by not driving downtown.

I'll take the college or young professional feel of Raleigh anyday over the douchebag banker or yuppie feel in Charlotte.
Raleigh has plenty of nuevo rich but I do not quite see the as much of the condenscending prick attitude as I did around South Park or Ballyntine.

Charlotte may have the panthers but I'd much rather have NCSU football. Plus the canes games are fun to see. On the other hand living
in Charlotte my parents tax dollors went to help Bob Johnson make lots of $$$ on the bobcats to which they get no benefit.

5/11/2009 4:35:01 PM

your parents must have rented a lot of cars and stayed in a lot of hotels in charlotte if their tax dollars went to bobcats arena, since those are the taxes that paid for it...you knew that, right?

Also I get to work in 15-20 minutes, although the 12th street exit off 277 is a bitch

5/12/2009 1:50:56 AM

uh oh.

5/12/2009 1:51:48 AM

You know when I created the alias Howard, I didn't honestly expect him to create such successful threads about absolutely nothing, lol.

5/12/2009 8:49:11 AM

lol @ this pissing contest

5/12/2009 9:01:56 AM

yeah this thread is amusing because both cities aren't that different and kinda suck

5/12/2009 10:33:48 PM

suck compared to what?

lifestyles of the rich and famous?

detroit ghettos?

nana's tears?

5/12/2009 11:05:51 PM

to each his own

the fact that both are pretty indistinguishable from one another- aside from a few skyscrapers and different street names- is probably why i don't really care for either one of them

they are FAR more alike then they are different [/thread]

5/12/2009 11:22:58 PM

"i'd rather eat shit"

5/13/2009 10:57:16 AM

Yeah Raleigh downtown is never busy until Friday/Saturday and sometimes one other night of the week. The times I've been to Charlotte (much much less) it was bumpin on the week nights.

5/13/2009 11:21:12 AM

lol at trying to call /thread in an opinion based thread like this thats already gone 8 pages

5/13/2009 11:41:55 PM

lol @ living in Charlotte and thinking it's cool

5/14/2009 2:45:28 AM

^^^ That's one of those things that matters for about 8 years of your entire life.

5/14/2009 7:29:42 AM

hey guys i hate both cities, i'm gonna call /thread cause im cool

gtfo noob

5/14/2009 10:21:02 AM

WINSTON

SALEM

4

LIFE

5/14/2009 10:28:25 AM

Quote :

"That's one of those things that matters for about 8 years of your entire life."

amen

5/14/2009 10:32:22 AM

^are you guys implying you don't have a social life after the first 8 years of enjoying the downtown of a city?

If i'm not mistaken what every city is striving for is a place for people of all ages to go do things. I know plenty of older people who love being social. I don't exactly understand what you guys mean by that.

5/14/2009 1:32:20 PM

what i'm implying is that big city life is lame

5/14/2009 1:37:15 PM

^^ I'm implying that the club/bar scene does not make or break a city once you reach a certain age/maturity level.

5/14/2009 1:43:44 PM

^ahh so you made the assumption that all a city nightlife has to offer is the club/bar scene? I think that's quite the limited view. Theaters? Museums? Restaurants? I know plenty of older people (parents of friends) who enjoy a nightlife that varies from your typical late 20's club scene.

But yeah if the first poster was assuming "bumping" applied to simply clubs and bars then yes. But hopefully when a city has a larger nightlife, then it should also have things to do at a higher maturity level.

[Edited on May 14, 2009 at 2:56 PM. Reason : .]

5/14/2009 2:54:38 PM

having a vibrant downtown gives a city like Charlotte an advantage over Raleigh in many areas, like attracting businesses to the area, attracting events that need sufficient hotels, dining, etc to be able to support the influx of people

this thread is silly though...Raleigh is an afterthought, Charlotte has its sights set on Atlanta, although it will be a good 50 years before we can fuck with them...but we've been able to see some of Atlanta's good and bad aspects of their growth, and learn what to do and what not to do...our public xportation beats the sit out of MARTA already and our traffic is nowhere near as bad...they still have a lot more people and global companies, but with their state controlled transportation laws, they lost out on potential recent businesses moving into the area like GMAC Headquarters and the Nascar Hall of Fame, both of whom assumingly picked Charlotte over Atlanta due to Atlanta's traffic

But the Sacramentos will always be jealous of the Los Angeles'

5/14/2009 3:02:02 PM

^^ he was very specific in saying bar/club.

^ Raleigh attracts a ton of business/events.

[Edited on May 14, 2009 at 3:03 PM. Reason : aerf]

5/14/2009 3:02:25 PM

Charlotte also sends more text messages than Atlanta overall. I read that somewhere.

^not in relation to Charlotte it doesn't.

[Edited on May 14, 2009 at 3:04 PM. Reason : .]

5/14/2009 3:04:08 PM

^^what big ones recently?

^lol wut

[Edited on May 14, 2009 at 3:04 PM. Reason : .]

5/14/2009 3:04:14 PM

fyi the Bechtler Museum opens up next year.



designed by Italian architect Mario Botta. His only other work in the US is the San Francisco MOMA.

Which is also right down the street from the new African American Cultural Center.



If anyone hasn't been in Charlotte recently.

5/14/2009 3:11:08 PM

Is that going to be across the street from the new Duke Power (formerly Wachovia) high rise? It looks like it.

5/14/2009 3:39:06 PM

yeah i like the overhang of the bechtler, its right around tryon and 1st

^basically

[Edited on May 14, 2009 at 3:39 PM. Reason : .]

5/14/2009 3:39:26 PM

>

5/14/2009 4:06:20 PM

We need to find a newer skyline shot. That one is missing the new stuff.

5/14/2009 4:07:46 PM

a skyline doesnt make a city, but the charlotte skyline beats the hell out of the raleigh skyline

5/14/2009 4:36:04 PM

Quote :

"ahh so you made the assumption that all a city nightlife has to offer is the club/bar scene? I think that's quite the limited view."

You do realize my comment was in response to someone else's comment, right? way to read, chief.

5/14/2009 5:24:17 PM

I wrongly assumed he meant the entire night life of a city. I'm sorry I didn't solely assume the bar/club scene.

[Edited on May 14, 2009 at 10:41 PM. Reason : .]

5/14/2009 10:39:54 PM

off topic but Raleigh is like a dictionary example of poor city planning

5/15/2009 12:17:31 AM

because you are a city planner...

5/15/2009 2:08:45 AM

[Edited on July 21, 2009 at 11:02 PM. Reason : click for fullsize]

7/21/2009 11:01:05 PM

^^^people say this, and i don't understand what they mean. plz 2 explain to a city planning n00b.

[Edited on July 23, 2009 at 6:26 AM. Reason : ]

7/23/2009 6:26:23 AM

Quote :

"Raleigh is an afterthought, Charlotte has its sights set on Atlanta,"

ya Charlotte is better if you like Rush hour traffic from hell, hanging out with Guido douchebag bankers that occupy the down town bars, and
want to visit a fucking NASCAR hall of fame.

We have the most skyscrappers and most people so we {Charlotte} is clearly number 1 durr de durr.

I guess NYC is the BEST city in america since they have the most skyscrappers and most people (and most bars/clubs) then any other city in the
US???

I will consent though that Charlotte has a better skyline.

Quote :

"topic but Raleigh is like a dictionary example of poor city planning"

how so. At least from a infrastructure point of view the roads around Raleigh are a lot better even on an absolute scale than Charlotte. What
do you expect though when you are the capital of a state and all the state legislatures want to minimize their inconvience driving around the capital.

7/23/2009 9:49:05 AM

Quote :

"ya Charlotte is better if you like Rush hour traffic from hell, hanging out with Guido douchebag bankers that occupy the down town bars, and want to visit a fucking NASCAR hall of fame."

yeah cause afternoon traffic on 40 and the beltline is smooth sailing, 24/7...

and clearly the only rednecks and douchebags are in Charlotte, Raleigh is full of classy and respectful people

i just feel sorry for the people who actually buy this stereotype bullshit you're spewing...its blatantly obvious you havent spent much time in Charlotte

Quote :

"We have the most skyscrappers and most people so we {Charlotte} is clearly number 1 durr de durr."

We're technically the capital so we'll choose to ignore that the Charlotte metro is blowing us away in terms of growth. Sacramento and Albany are better cities than LA and NYC!

Quote :

"I guess NYC is the BEST city in america"

it's damn sure right up near the top though personally I'd take Chicago

btw I like both Charlotte and Raleigh

7/23/2009 11:09:17 AM

Quote :

"I will consent though that Charlotte has a better skyline."

concede, not consent.

7/23/2009 11:15:48 AM

Quote :

"I guess NYC is the BEST city in america since they have the most skyscrappers and most people (and most bars/clubs) then any other city in the US???"

It is, but not really for those reasons.

Quote :

"yeah cause afternoon traffic on 40 and the beltline is smooth sailing, 24/7..."

I dunno about the beltline (since I don't use it for commuting) but I-40 East bound in the afternoon rush hour is about 10 times better than the traffic I dealt with on I-77 when I worked in Charlotte. And as far as the morning rush...no traffic jams on I-40 ever.

7/23/2009 1:30:01 PM

Quote :

"We're technically the capital so we'll choose to ignore that the Charlotte metro is blowing us away in terms of growth."

The Raleigh metro area is actually the fastest growing in the nation and is expected to be until 2030.

I don't really care too much about this thread as it is kind of dumb but I just thought I would step in here with that.

7/23/2009 1:39:49 PM

Quote :

"its blatantly obvious you havent spent much time in Charlotte"

you are right i have not spent much time. Only the first 18.5 years of my life.

Quote :

"Sacramento and Albany are better cities than LA and NYC! "

For some Albany may be a better city than NYC. though i have heard nothing good about Sacramento.

Quote :

"it's damn sure right up near the top though personally I'd take Chicago"

I've been to NYC and its cool to visit but i'd never want to live there. The city is loud, crowded, and dirty.

Quote :

"I-40 East bound in the afternoon rush hour is about 10 times better than the traffic I dealt with on I-77 when I worked in Charlotte. And as far as the morning rush...no traffic jams on I-40 ever. "

pwned

Secondly look aroudn the two cities. Cary a suburb is in of itself 100,000 people and the 9th largest city in NC. What's around Charlotte?
All the suburbs are dinky.

7/23/2009 4:36:55 PM

Gastonia

7/23/2009 4:53:21 PM

Quote :

". At least from a infrastructure point of view the roads around Raleigh are a lot better even on an absolute scale than Charlotte."

Raleigh desperately needs a limited access North-South thoroughfare, but that will never happen...

7/23/2009 5:27:20 PM

Quote :

" as far as the morning rush...no traffic jams on I-40 ever"

how am i pwned when this is completely false? the way i go to work in charlotte i avoid most traffic...but claiming there are no traffic jams on I-40 ever is just disingenuous...ever driven from raleigh to durham or vice versa at 8am?

Quote :

"you are right i have not spent much time. Only the first 18.5 years of my life"

so when you were 18.5 you were drinking in downtown bars with guido bankers and this is also when you gained your knowledge of the nascar hall of fame, even though the construction of it isnt even completed here in 2009? (btw your profile says your hometown is raleigh so i assumed it was)

i guess the main thing i am trying to convey to you is that there are just as many dumb rednecks and guido douchebags in raleigh as there are in Charlotte...and believe it or not, there are actually bars that are not in downtown...over 1,000 actually, but that would require you to break your stereotype molds i guess

I like both cities...I prefer Charlotte, but I like Raleigh...but when I think about it, if NC State wasn't in Raleigh, I don't know what I would even like about Raleigh

[Edited on July 23, 2009 at 6:46 PM. Reason : .]

7/23/2009 6:36:41 PM

^ true about the NCState part

Quote :

"ever driven from raleigh to durham or vice versa at 8am?"

I did for 4 semesters while on CoOp. I could go from Western Blvd Exit 2 I440 to my work off Exit 280 Davis Dr (either Sony Ericson or Cisco) almost consistently in 25-30 minutes unless there was a traffic jam.

Once they finished the segment of 540 down to Kitts Creek & Davis Dr the ride time to work dropped to 20-25 minutes.

7/24/2009 12:34:01 PM

Quote :

"I like both cities...I prefer Charlotte, but I like Raleigh...but when I think about it, if NC State wasn't in Raleigh, I don't know what I would even like about Raleigh "

ditto

7/24/2009 1:30:30 PM

^ agreed

7/24/2009 1:51:05 PM

^^ yup.

Anyone been to Amelie's in noda? Does Raleigh have a 24/7 French bakery that can make you a breakfast croissant any time of the day?

[Edited on July 24, 2009 at 3:27 PM. Reason : .]

7/24/2009 3:26:06 PM

if any of you are in charlotte i would encourage you to eat at Laurel Market if you haven't already discovered it
GREAT deli sandwiches, and a good beer and wine selection.
http://www.laurelmarketdeli.com/
Laurel Market
114 Cherokee Road
Charlotte, NC 28207

I think one of the advantages Charlotte has is better public transportation. Depending on where you live you can get by without your car for most of the week in Charlotte, that's really hard to do in Raleigh.

7/25/2009 7:41:47 AM