where in north carolina?

U.S.A. North Carolina

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HI fellow nurses,

I need your help. I'm from new york and we are considering of moving either tampa or north carolina. Since i have no clue where to go, can you suggest a country or city that you think you will choose to live if you have a family, houses between 100-200K and near good hospitals? We're considering the wake county in raleigh or Bennington in DUrham. What do you guys think?

thank you very much. If you need any info about new york, i'll be willing ti help.

Specializes in Oncology, OR.
Gotta go now....gotta go get my AK-47 out from the closet...after all, it's almost eleven pm.....(pops cartridge into weapon, locks and loads....):lol2:

OH NOOO!!! :rotfl:

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I think the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area is great. I grew up there, and loved it. I graduated from Nursing school and decided I needed to travel a bit and see things, and let me tell you, I am missing NC more than I ever would have imagined!!

I was raised in Boston and moved to Greensboro many years ago. I love Greensboro and it is a wonderful place to live.

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I was raised in Boston and moved to Greensboro many years ago. I love Greensboro and it is a wonderful place to live.

Sorry I didn't look at the date b4 I responded.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Tele, DOU.

Jolie,

Thanks for the info. I will check out the CMC-Pineville website.

gentle

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Pardon me for saying so, but I really get bored with people bashing Durham all the time. Especially when the bashing either comes from (a) People Who Live or Lived In Raleigh (caps for emphasis) or (b) People Who Really Never Lived In Durham. (There's also the category of, People Who Have Lived In Raleigh And Have Never Lived Anywhere Else, but it would seem none of those people have posted here.) Raleigh isn't exactly perfect, either. But I digress...

Please - not every house in Durham is a crackhouse, we're all not carrying guns around with us for personal protection, and as a matter of fact, I live within the city limits and only lock my doors just before I go to bed. I've never had to call the police and I don't keep my cars in a garage for fear of auto theft; they sit right in my driveway, unbothered and unharmed.

I live in North Durham, above I-85 and about fifteen minutes from Duke University. I have never been mugged, shot at, accosted, followed, carjacked, or otherwise disturbed in any way. We own 2100 square feet on 1/3 of an acre (if it's land you want, and who doesn't, avoid new construction - my house will be ten next year). I do not live in a slum, a rundown neighborhood, or on the edge of the ghetto in some undesirable part of town. In fact, my house has appreciated by $60K since we bought it two years ago (a little less than half that is due to the fact we redid the kitchen, though) and we didn't pay an arm and a leg for it to start with.

I've attached a picture. I live less than 20 minutes from Duke, which is basically downtown, and I can hear birds in my yard and crickets at night in the summer. Not a crackhouse in sight...LOL...

I hear schools in Durham County might not be that great (LOL - I know the deal), but my nieces go to school in Wake County at a "Governor's School of Excellence" and I can't say they impress me too much either. The fact that they're so overcrowded and Wake County, according to the front page of this morning's News and Observer, really isn't willing to up the taxes :nono: to support a school bond referendum strikes me as rather sad. The private schools in the area must be ecstatic at Wake's reluctance.

Durham is home to the Durham Bulls, Duke University, and the Research Triangle Park (and if you tell my mayor Bill Bell that RTP is in Raleigh, God help you - his favorite thing is setting people straight on this issue). We are known as the "City of Medicine", after all! We're about halfway between beaches and mountains, and are less than twelve hours away from NYC by car. RDU International Airport has a daily flight to London (DH is British and when we came back from overseas this flight was a big selling point with me) so Europe is only a few hours away by 777!

(And for my Canadian friends , Air Canada goes to Toronto daily from RDU as well, so home wouldn't be too hard to get back to during the holidays or for vacations.)

We do have some excellent hospitals in the area - UNC, Rex (which actually is part of UNC, but it's private where UNC is public), the Duke University Health System, and WakeMed are all within a respectable commute of various areas of Durham. I live about 40 minutes from work (traffic can be horrendous here at times) and my office where I work now is the next exit up from the airport.

So please, don't think Durham is some black hole off the edge of the earth. Raleigh news stations certainly paint us that way - even though they're only MINUTES from here and not exactly Nirvana themselves. Sorry to run on so but this is a big issue with me.

BTW, I'm prior military and a Navy brat and have pretty much lived everywhere - CA, NJ, FL (I concur with the awful heat on that one!), PA, OK, VA, NC, HI (I was even born there!), Germany. I even lived in Saudi Arabia for 2.5 years right after I got married. So I'm not completely blind to the rest of the country.

PICK US! Raleigh, Durham, Morrisville, Wake Forest - NO MATTER! This is a great place to live - come down and check it out! I recently read in a news article that the Triangle area is full of "halfbacks" - Yankees (easy now, I'm half Yankee myself!) who moved down to Florida, couldn't hack the heat, and moved halfway back home. I was in a restaurant the other day and the waitress, who was from WI, commented that I was the first person she'd ever met who was even remotely from here (my dad retired and we moved to NC when I was much younger; I graduated from high school in an NC town most folks have never heard of). A couple hundred thousand transplants can't be ALL wrong, right?

Thanks for posting a picture of your house.It's beautiful. I was becoming very confused about the cities in NC. Anyway, I am a Canadian who will be relocating to NC as a new graduate. I am single 40+ and would be looking to live in a city with available men!!! AND a good hospital to train at. Any suggestions? Thank you

Patti

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I've lived in the Third World as well and cannot imagine how Durham would compare. New one for me.

Obviously you've never been lost in Camden, NJ. Or the south end of Philadelphia. Now THAT'S dirty. :lol2: I don't know where you've been in Durham....consider yourself lucky you don't live in the Fayetteville I remember from about ten, fifteen years ago. It was horrible - Bragg Blvd. was all pawn shops and peep shows. Glad to hear it's improved!

Oh - the Caribbean. Yeah - you got me on that one. The beach is like snow - it makes EVERYTHING prettier! :)

Lol, Bragg Blvd. is still nothing but pawn shops and strip clubs. With a few fast food places of course.

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I have been to durham many many times and I must say, It is my least favorite place in n.c. I agree with the other poster, It just appears to be dirty.All we hear on the news here about Durham is gangs, crime, shooting. We stopped in a service station there once a few yrs ago and the person who was working there was behind plastic glass and you had to take to them through a speaker. ! So that indicated to me that they had had a problem with being robbed. There was lots of trash on the roads and the road sides were very much in need of a good mowing. We saw some pretty trashy looking places also. Glad we were just passing through. CHarlotte is my second least favorite place in nc. gangs, crime is big in charlotte. went to a wor shop there last yr and the person who was doing the class was from out of state. their car was broken into, parked in a VERY well know hotel parking lot in broad day light.The stereo was ripped right out.

Move near the mts. Less gangs or crime here. Dont get me wrong, we do have the occasional crime but no where near what charlotte has.

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

moderator's friendly reminder: let's keep this thread civil and avoid any personal attacks or inflammatory statements, over-generalizations, stereotypical comments, etc. thank you. 'nuff said :)

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Liked how you stuck up for your town and were moving to Raligh/Durham and we were hearing all this negative stuff about Durham but like you said you have crime anywhere you go. Were looking for large land lots w/ or with out a home but your home & land is nice. We would love something like that. You said it was going to be foreclosed and you snatched it up? Sorry if that wasn't you. Can you suggest where to look? My husband was looking at Durham, Chatham & Lee. Also what does the job market look like for LPN's or Surg Techs? Sorry-I know alot of questions. Thanks =)

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Charlotte!

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Specializes in Oncology, OR.
I have been to durham many many times and I must say, It is my least favorite place in n.c. I agree with the other poster, It just appears to be dirty.All we hear on the news here about Durham is gangs, crime, shooting. We stopped in a service station there once a few yrs ago and the person who was working there was behind plastic glass and you had to take to them through a speaker. ! So that indicated to me that they had had a problem with being robbed. There was lots of trash on the roads and the road sides were very much in need of a good mowing. We saw some pretty trashy looking places also. Glad we were just passing through. CHarlotte is my second least favorite place in nc. gangs, crime is big in charlotte. went to a wor shop there last yr and the person who was doing the class was from out of state. their car was broken into, parked in a VERY well know hotel parking lot in broad day light.The stereo was ripped right out.

Move near the mts. Less gangs or crime here. Dont get me wrong, we do have the occasional crime but no where near what charlotte has.

Again...negative comments about a city from someone who has never lived there. I'm sorry you had this experience, and the conditions you describe certainly do exist. But gangs, crimes, shootings and dirty streets aren't all you will find. Yeesh! :uhoh21:

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Originally Posted by gretchengirl

I have been to durham many many times and I must say, It is my least favorite place in n.c. I agree with the other poster, It just appears to be dirty.All we hear on the news here about Durham is gangs, crime, shooting. We stopped in a service station there once a few yrs ago and the person who was working there was behind plastic glass and you had to take to them through a speaker. ! So that indicated to me that they had had a problem with being robbed. There was lots of trash on the roads and the road sides were very much in need of a good mowing. We saw some pretty trashy looking places also. Glad we were just passing through. CHarlotte is my second least favorite place in nc. gangs, crime is big in charlotte. went to a wor shop there last yr and the person who was doing the class was from out of state. their car was broken into, parked in a VERY well know hotel parking lot in broad day light.The stereo was ripped right out.

Move near the mts. Less gangs or crime here. Dont get me wrong, we do have the occasional crime but no where near what charlotte has.

****

Jeez! The bad rap this place gets is ridiculous! I came house-hunting in NC 3 months ago from FL and was told to avoid Durham like the plague. The picture folks painted of Durham, as in this post, was of a ravaged, filthy, broken down hell hole. So I set out to search for homes in places like Raleigh, Knightdale, Apex, etc..., anything BUT Durham. My agent, thankfully a wise woman, insisted that I gave Durham a chance, just a once over, and boy am I glad I did!

I was so surprised!!!!!! I found a beautiful, 2 yr old 2200 sq ft home sitting on 0.5 acre lot in a wonderful community with a lake, pool, tennis, beach v-ball, b-ball, fitness center, golf course, tot lot and walking trails! I am 10-15 mins from Duke Univ. Hosp (where I work), 8 mins from shopping at Brier Creek, 10 mins from Southpoint (a superb mall) and 15 mins from Crabtree (another fab mall). My house is a sweet gem and it cost me JUST $200,000! And that's with numerous upgrades! I am in the city yet can enjoy the wonders of the suburbs/country. My kids can walk out their front door to feed the bunnies! We see deer and hear crickets outside. I drive 3 minutes literally for my kids to pick pumpkins and catch a hayride at the nearby farm. ALL this and I am in Durham! I owned, and still do, a 1600 sq ft townhouse in FL that I purchased for $300,000 and it can't compare to my house here. Check this out, I paid (pay) $2,600 a yr for HO insur in Fl. Here, I pay $330! It costs me $670 a YEAR to fully insure two SUV's and I am NOT in Hilly-Willy, town population=60. How can you beat that???????

The city schools are like every other school system: some are great and some aren't so great. Do your research. There are numerous Magnet schools to take advantage of. Parental involvement is KEY anywhere you go.

My neighborhood is multi-cultural (great real-world exposure for my kids), my neighbors are friendly, strangers driving by wave hello and kids play freely outdoors. It is customary for families to take an evening stroll after dinner. Thus far, I've heard crickets and not gunshots. Our cars, two nice SUV's, stay parked OUTSIDE and my window blinds never come down. I'm orig from NYC and we were too afraid of being robbed to ever leave our blinds open! I see lush green grass and not piles of trash. Each time we step outside and take a deep breath, my hubby and I look at each other and smile like school kids, loving the sweetness in the air, wondering why it took us so long to get here!

I've lived in NYC, all over Upstate NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA and FL and have never felt as at-home as I feel here! I know what gang-ridden areas look like. I've smelled NJ from miles away. I've skied the beautiful, snow-covered Upstate NY mountains and lived 1 block away from one of the prettiest beaches in FL. With all of that, I can honestly say that this is home. HOME. I've been here for 2+ mos and have convinced several family members to come and visit. You know what? They've all been impressed! So much so that two are currently working on moving here from MD!!!

The point I'm trying to make here is what CarolinaPooh made very clearly: stop giving Durham a horrible rap. Don't drive through 5 blocks and blanket the whole city under generalizations. It's a wonderful place to be! Come see for YOURSELF.

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