North Carolina people..

[Dubb]

Normally I wouldn't make a post like this, but I seem to recall alot of people around here being from that area, so what the heck.

We may be moving to that area in a few months, and are trying to plan out the apartment scouting/job interview short trip we'll be taking in a month or so. I have a few questions for those of you who know the area:

How easy is it to get around by taxi or public transportation? Neither of us is 25 yet, so if we fly in, that'd be our only option for getting around. Otherwise we have to drive (looks like about 14 hours of driving to get there).

As far as housing goes, we're looking for 1br apartments in the $600 - $800/mo. range. I've heard that durham is a sh!thole but cheap, chapel hill can be a bit pricey, but haven't heard anything about raleigh. Anybody with hot tips on affordable, good areas to live in? The female who allows me to associate with her will be a grad student at duke, so if any places offer deals to grad students we should be able to take advantage of them.

how is rush hour? if I'm living in one city and working in another, commuting might be an issue.

TIA

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: Dubb
Normally I wouldn't make a post like this, but I seem to recall alot of people around here being from that area, so what the heck.

We may be moving to that area in a few months, and are trying to plan out the apartment scouting/job interview short trip we'll be taking in a month or so. I have a few questions for those of you who know the area:

How easy is it to get around by taxi or public transportation? Neither of us is 25 yet, so if we fly in, that'd be our only option for getting around. Otherwise we have to drive (looks like about 14 hours of driving to get there).

As far as housing goes, we're looking for 1br apartments in the $600 - $800/mo. range. I've heard that durham is a sh!thole but cheap, chapel hill can be a bit pricey, but haven't heard anything about raleigh. Anybody with hot tips on affordable, good areas to live in? The female who allows me to associate with her will be a grad student at duke, so if any places offer deals to grad students we should be able to take advantage of them.

how is rush hour? if I'm living in one city and working in another, commuting might be an issue.

TIA

Public transportation? What public transportation?

Taxis...you have to call a cab--they dont have them driving around like in NYC. I've never done this.

Rush hour SUCKS. BAD. No really...it sucks. Some areas are much worse than others because there's a fair amount of construction going on at the moment...and NCDOT is famous for being a**-slow with highway work. Where will you be commuting to/from?

Uhm appartments in Raleigh (as long as you avoid the downtown area) are OK. Worse than CH, but much better than Durham.

Duke is in a funny neighborhood. Duke is nice. Step 100 yds off Duke property and you better lock your doors...

 

[Excelsior]

What he said. You'd have to call for a cab, and they are expensive. Besides that, no public transportation. And also like eLiu said, basically, Durham fvcking blows, not counting Duke.

edit: If I was you, I'd for an apartment in Chapel Hill. Really close to Duke, but better area.

 

[Vette73]

Public transportation is pretty weak here in Raleigh, but i have a car. Also my 3 bedroom apartment that is 1470 sq feet is only 765 a month and that is in North raleigh. So look at getting a 2 bedroom as 1 bedrooms cost about the same but have less room and quality.

 

[Skiguy411]

The Raleigh/Cary area isn't so bad. Like the others have said, there is hardly any public trans. Oh and be prepared for humidity!

 

[Insomniak]

Raleigh - Not a bad city. NC State is here. Lots of good restaurants and tons of tech type industry.

Durham - Pretty much Raleigh's ghetto. Every time a buddy of mine drives through here on his way to NC state he has some ridiculous new traffic story about a bum climbing in someone's car, or a semi parked in an intersection or something.

Chapel Hill - All roads have been under construction for the past 78 years. You will not be able to find anything anywhere, and once you do, the way to get there will be different tomorrow.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Excelsior
What he said. You'd have to call for a cab, and they are expensive. Besides that, no public transportation. And also like eLiu said, basically, Durham fvcking blows, not counting Duke.

edit: If I was you, I'd for an apartment in Chapel Hill. Really close to Duke, but better area.

South Durham is nice, especially near the Streets at SouthPointe mall. I wouldn't advise going into the other parts of Durham after dark though.

< South Durham representin

Paying $730 a month for a 1100 sq foot 2 bedroom apt about 10 minutes from RTP.

Rush hour traffic in Chapel Hill and Cary is friggin evil, worse than Phoenix traffic. PM me where you are interviewing and I can recommend some places to check out and/or avoid.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Insomniak
Raleigh - Not a bad city. NC State is here. Lots of good restaurants and tons of tech type industry.

Durham - Pretty much Raleigh's ghetto. Every time a buddy of mine drives through here on his way to NC state he has some ridiculous new traffic story about a bum climbing in someone's car, or a semi parked in an intersection or something.

Chapel Hill - All roads have been under construction for the past 78 years. You will not be able to find anything anywhere, and once you do, the way to get there will be different tomorrow.

Also there is absolutely 0 parking in Chapel Hill. You will spend half your life there driving around looking for a parking place.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: Excelsior
What he said. You'd have to call for a cab, and they are expensive. Besides that, no public transportation. And also like eLiu said, basically, Durham fvcking blows, not counting Duke.

edit: If I was you, I'd for an apartment in Chapel Hill. Really close to Duke, but better area.

South Durham is nice, especially near the Streets at SouthPointe mall. I wouldn't advise going into the other parts of Durham after dark though.

< South Durham representin

Paying $730 a month for a 1100 sq foot 2 bedroom apt about 10 minutes from RTP.

Rush hour traffic in Chapel Hill and Cary is friggin evil, worse than Phoenix traffic. PM me where you are interviewing and I can recommend some places to check out and/or avoid.

Ah, word up fellow North Carolinian.

 

[Skiguy411]

Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

:thumbsup:

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Let's just hope they can make it in the end zone this year.

 

[Vinney]

Raleigh will probably be a cheaper option than Chapel Hill and you can definitely find nice stuff there. Each of the places you mentioned (Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh) have major universities so they have plenty of cheap housing options. Chapel Hill will be closer to Duke than Raleigh is, though, assuming you're not really far out in Chapel Hill. I-40 is the major interstate that runs between Raleigh - RTP - Durham/Chapel Hill areas. Taking I-40 from Raleigh to that area at 9 am you'll run into a lot of traffic. Same with coming back at 5 pm. Rush hour does not suck as much as I-95 in the north does, trust me, but it still sucks. You should be able to avoid the I-40 commute if you live in the right places in Chapel Hill (and obviously Durham).
In my opinion, Raleigh is too far away to be driving to Duke every day. People do it, but I wouldn't want to.
Durham is definitely not considered a very safe area, though, so you probably want to look around a lot and talk to people if you're thinking about living there. There might be some on campus graduate housing at Duke, I'm not sure. That could be a good option. Otherwise, Chapel Hill is a good area. More expensive like others mentioned, but housing in general is not too expensive in NC so you should be able to find something in your price range.
There are the CAT buses, which is our only form of public transportation. I've never ridden them and wouldn't consider them to be something that a lot of people use to get around. Otherwise, you definitely need a car when you live in this area.
You should check out Enterprise rent a car. I don't think you have to be 25 to rent a car from them. You'll pay more because of your age, but it's really the only way to get around.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Let's just hope they can make it in the end zone this year.

I know Trestman won't be nearly as bad as Mazzone.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Excelsior

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Let's just hope they can make it in the end zone this year.

I know Trestman won't be nearly as bad as Mazzone.

Hell, a blind deaf mute couldn't be any worse than Mazzone.

Course still kind of irked Holiday and Herring left...that majorly sucked

 

[athithi]

Someone recently told me that Cary stands for "Containment Area for Relocating Yankees" so you might want to factor that in. I live there and I like it enough that I turned down two 100k job offers in Charlotte recently. Public transport does not seem to be very reliable, but I do see the buses quite frequently. You can find plenty of cheap apartments right next to the RTP, which wouldn't be very far from Duke. I don't think you have to drive more than 45 minutes to get to cover the entire Raleigh-Durham and Chapel Hill areas. But if you want to see any place interesting, you'd have to virtually drive out of state!

 

[BigB10293]

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Hahahaha. I dont think anyone should pull for "the Chest".

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: BigB10293

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Hahahaha. I dont think anyone should pull for "the Chest".

wth is The Chest?

 

[Skiguy411]

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: BigB10293

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Hahahaha. I dont think anyone should pull for "the Chest".

wth is The Chest?

He would be refering to Coach Chuch Amato. He is a former player for NCSU and basically has a massive chest.

However, he is just about the best thing that happend to NCSU football in awhile. If it werent for him, there would have been no Phillip Rivers.

 

[Dubb]

Thanks for the replies.

sports - well, I dunno, I've never gotten up in arms over sports...the stories I've heard about duke basketball fans just seems idiotic to me. I plan on doing alot of smiling and nodding.

road construction and detours - I live in michigan. it can't be as bad as it is here.

Sounds like raleigh would be the best place to live, but it's probably not feasible, commute wise.

Will look into enterprise. Thanks for the tip.

one more question I thought of - how pedestrian friendly are these places? I get the impression that alot of it is suburban sprawl.

also...anybody like durham? I'm just thinking that maybe it's like Detroit - 98% of people think it's an awful, cruddy, crime infested place, but if you know where to look, it's actually pretty cool.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

:thumbsup::beer:

The Wolfpack Rules

 

[BigB10293]

Originally posted by: Skiguy411

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: BigB10293

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Hahahaha. I dont think anyone should pull for "the Chest".

wth is The Chest?

He would be refering to Coach Chuch Amato. He is a former player for NCSU and basically has a massive chest.

However, he is just about the best thing that happend to NCSU football in awhile. If it werent for him, there would have been no Phillip Rivers.

Yes. I actually kinda like NCSU. I would have most likely ended up going there had my family not moved to another state for my high school years. I just can't pull for him or any of his teams... or anybody from FSU for that matter.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: Skiguy411

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: BigB10293

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Hahahaha. I dont think anyone should pull for "the Chest".

wth is The Chest?

He would be refering to Coach Chuch Amato. He is a former player for NCSU and basically has a massive chest.

However, he is just about the best thing that happend to NCSU football in awhile. If it werent for him, there would have been no Phillip Rivers.

Actually, Rivers was already coming to NC State. O'Cain already had him convinced. All Amato had to do was tell him we still wanted him.

CTC, Chuck The Chest, is Coach Chuck Amato. Dude is a former linebacker here, and an All-ACC wrestler. I wouldn't want to grapple with him even now.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Skiguy411

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: BigB10293

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Hahahaha. I dont think anyone should pull for "the Chest".

wth is The Chest?

He would be refering to Coach Chuch Amato. He is a former player for NCSU and basically has a massive chest.

However, he is just about the best thing that happend to NCSU football in awhile. If it werent for him, there would have been no Phillip Rivers.

Rivers was practically already committed to NC State before Amato became coach. Amato didn't find him, just got lucky that Mike O?Cain had gotten him.

 

[Skiguy411]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb

Originally posted by: Skiguy411

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: BigB10293

Originally posted by: Skiguy411
Just make sure when you come down here you pick the right college sport team to pull for, which would be NCSU of course.

Hahahaha. I dont think anyone should pull for "the Chest".

wth is The Chest?

He would be refering to Coach Chuch Amato. He is a former player for NCSU and basically has a massive chest.

However, he is just about the best thing that happend to NCSU football in awhile. If it werent for him, there would have been no Phillip Rivers.

Actually, Rivers was already coming to NC State. O'Cain already had him convinced. All Amato had to do was tell him we still wanted him.

CTC, Chuck The Chest, is Coach Chuck Amato. Dude is a former linebacker here, and an All-ACC wrestler. I wouldn't want to grapple with him even now.

Really? I thought no one was picking Rivers up and as soon as Chuck was hired he went straight to Rivers.

I guess I heard wrong.