According to

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2006/top100/bigcities.html

7/19/2006 10:31:34 PM

cary is #5 overall, obviously these people have never been to cary

7/19/2006 10:37:13 PM

according to them we are also a big city.

7/19/2006 10:37:26 PM

We're better than a Whales Vagina

7/19/2006 10:39:09 PM

i think the HR guy at my workplace said Raleigh has passed St. Louis and Pittsburgh on the population chart

7/19/2006 11:02:15 PM

cary is #5 overall, obviously these people have never been to cary

The writers obviously have a bias towards boring ass, strip mall-filled, immature, petty gentry havens.

[Edited on July 19, 2006 at 11:07 PM. Reason : asdf]

7/19/2006 11:03:29 PM

Well, money-wise their data seems to have a point. Better cost of living, cheaper homes, lower state taxes for the high income brackets, and higher job growth. Both cities seem to be pretty equivalent in terms of crime rates.

If you say San Diego is better, I guess you're referring to the weather, nightlife, and maybe the cleanliness of the city (if there are other factors, feel free to point them out). That's appropriate for the average single person, but someone trying to raise a family would probably appreciate the cheap homes and low cost of living in Raleigh.

The survey has most to do with measurable statistics anyway. I think most people's problems with Raleigh/Cary has more to do with hard-to-measure stuff (people, cleanliness, general atmosphere).

[Edited on July 19, 2006 at 11:09 PM. Reason : .]

7/19/2006 11:05:18 PM

no, my problem with cary is that it is nazi germany

every building must look the same, you have to pay $10 to go to the city-run dog park, the mcdonald's is BLUE, all the roads are circles, and there is nothing there of significance

7/19/2006 11:33:24 PM

What a bunch of fucking liars.

7/19/2006 11:49:37 PM

I live close to Eden prairie MN

It beats the crap out of Cary

7/19/2006 11:58:14 PM

When the hell did Raleigh become a big city?

And I thought VA Beach was kind of a dive...

7/20/2006 7:07:23 AM

Quote :

"no, my problem with cary is that it is nazi germany every building must look the same, you have to pay $10 to go to the city-run dog park, the mcdonald's is BLUE, all the roads are circles, and there is nothing there of significance "

thats the whole concept of a planned community....and believe it or not, a lot of people like that. they like the uniformity and consistency....it doesn't look as trashy. cary is the same as every other planned community out there...and they are typically nicer communities.

columbia, md (number 4 on that list) is the cary of baltimore. i don't like planned communites, but a lot of families do.

7/20/2006 8:48:23 AM

yeah and while cary isn't MY favorite place in the world...what i DO love about one of my favorite places (hilton head island) is the fact that it's a planned community...i love the consistency. part of it may be b/c i go to as a vacation spot, but it just feels nicer when everything has a flow to it

7/20/2006 8:50:43 AM

last night i was in a bar in philadelphia.

a youngish (~30) girl and her father were talking over a bottle of wine next to me.

she apparently was about to move to raleigh. she was telling him she was "probably going to move to cary, which seemed like a suburb full of transplanted northerners, so she thought she'd fit in better and have an easier transition"

i busted out laughing, and they looked at me. i explained how i had moved from cary up here a few weeks ago.

pretty random.

7/20/2006 9:06:24 AM

not by a long shot.

i love SD

raleigh and i are in a fight.

7/20/2006 9:41:22 AM

I was just in the DC area and stayed in Fairfax and it looked just like Cary with more traffic. It was horrible. And for that matter the entire area around DC sucks pretty bad except maybe Arlington.

7/20/2006 9:56:33 AM

TEAM SAN DIEGO

7/20/2006 10:02:35 AM

I dunno, Cary is nice in its own way. I kind of like having to pull all the way into a gas station before I can see the sign that has the price they are charging for a gallon of gas. Finding out that it's about $0.10/g more than in Raleigh makes it even more enjoyable.

7/20/2006 10:06:28 AM

Quote :

"Population: 106,400 Typical single-family home: $280,000 Est. property taxes: $2,900 Pros: Great schools; good arts scene Cons: Road crews everywhere People come to the Research Triangle area for opportunity. They settle in Cary because they can't believe how pretty the place is. More than 30 parks and greenways dot the region, and regular arts and crafts festivals bring tens of thousands to the downtown area to browse. And, of course, there's plenty of culture in nearby Raleigh. Cary residents don't lack for jobs. Software maker SAS is based here, and about 50% of its 10,000 jobs are in the area. The city also has one of the country's lowest crime rates."

haha, i love how people call that strip mall "downtown" cary. Last weekend was the first time I drove through downtown cary, I would have missed if my friend hadn't told me she worked downtown at the BB&T next the cary news.

7/20/2006 10:11:55 AM

people love the burbs

7/20/2006 10:50:40 AM

Quote :

"I was just in the DC area and stayed in Fairfax and it looked just like Cary with more traffic. It was horrible. "

Uh, Fairfax is one of the nicest places to live in the entire country, I should know since I grew up there. To me, Cary is like a wannabe Fairfax since it has virtually no history. Fairfax blows Cary away.

7/20/2006 11:35:59 AM

that list is terrible

Naperville, IL is the #2 place to live yet its absolutely nowhere near the nicest suburb of chicago

7/20/2006 11:57:23 AM

i think the whole list is kinda dumb to be honest

7/20/2006 12:02:06 PM

This seems so skewed to me..

7/20/2006 12:18:03 PM

Quote :

"no, my problem with cary is that it is nazi germany every building must look the same, you have to pay $10 to go to the city-run dog park, the mcdonald's is BLUE, all the roads are circles, and there is nothing there of significance"

That's my point, it's not very measurable.

Quote :

"I dunno, Cary is nice in its own way. I kind of like having to pull all the way into a gas station before I can see the sign that has the price they are charging for a gallon of gas. Finding out that it's about $0.10/g more than in Raleigh makes it even more enjoyable."

What road are you driving on?

7/20/2006 6:03:03 PM

I love these news articles.

7/20/2006 6:15:17 PM

your opinions don't count to these people

7/20/2006 6:16:05 PM

I like raleigh but four years is enough for me.

7/20/2006 7:53:07 PM

I think when you read these rankings and debate their validity, you have to remember that the people who make this list are coming from a certain vantage point. What a college student, new family, or retired couple may want in a community are very different things. Of course, individuals differences in preferences in people also come in to play. I think the people who make this list are, like was mentioned, going on facts that can be objectively measured. I also think they are writing for a crowd a bit older who regularly goes to money.cnn.com instead of colleghumor.com.

I think Cary has some good points, most stemming from the more affluent nature of the inhabitants. I think the decidely nazi-esque rules go overboard but I see their point. I was up north for a wedding last weekend and couldn't help but notice how much nicer the Raleigh/Cary area looked, seemed, etc. No urban decay, row houses, and the like. Does Cary need a rule limiting the number of dogs you can have or a sign law that keeps Bojangles out? Not in my opinion. But I wonder how far gone some of the things that make Cary look nice, and more importantly increase property value would be without them.

7/20/2006 9:46:01 PM

Quote :

"We're better than a Whales Vagina"

7/20/2006 9:57:39 PM

Quote :

"Naperville, IL is the #2 place to live yet its absolutely nowhere near the nicest suburb of chicago"

and how

7/20/2006 9:59:59 PM

Quote :

"you have to pay $10 to go to the city-run dog park"

really??

is that per visit? or like some sort of one-time membership?

i never heard of such a thing. Seattle has like 14 off leash dog parks in the city. only one of them you have to pay $1 for parking, but thats unrelated to the dog park.

....

and what the fuck unreconstructed southerner wrote that fucking list?

raliegh sucks balls compared to SD, and cary is one of the reasons raleigh sucks.

7/21/2006 12:57:49 AM

Quote :

"Uh, Fairfax is one of the nicest places to live in the entire country ive ever lived, I should know since I grew up there."

considering you haven't lived in too many other places, its hard for you to make the claim that its one of the nicest places to live in the entire country.

[Edited on July 21, 2006 at 9:45 AM. Reason : df]

7/21/2006 9:43:26 AM

Quote :

"according to them we are also a big city."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHLOLOLOXLXOLXOXLXOLOXL!!!11!

7/21/2006 9:57:05 AM

^^^

http://www.townofcary.org/depts/prdept/parks/dogpark.htm

Quote :

"Pet owners can purchase an annual membership or day pass at any Cary community center. Membership cards and day passes will allow entry through an electronic gate. Fees Resident Non-resident Single Dog $40 $80 Multi Dog $60 $120 Day Pass $5 $10 "

[Edited on July 21, 2006 at 9:57 AM. Reason : ^]

7/21/2006 9:57:37 AM

^^if you would read the FAQ, you would see that their definition of big city is a population > 50,000

that might not be your definition, but you didn't write the article, so its a moot point.



[Edited on July 21, 2006 at 10:00 AM. Reason : df]

7/21/2006 9:59:34 AM

Quote :

"no, my problem with cary is that it is nazi germany every building must look the same, you have to pay $10 to go to the city-run dog park, the mcdonald's is BLUE, all the roads are circles, and there is nothing there of significance"

If you have a problem with these types of things, you should reevaluate your life. I'll take a little bit of vanilla over a shit town any day. Whether it is planned or not, I don't give a shit, but if planned means it is cleaner and less prone to crime and trash over some other alternative, then I'll take it.

7/21/2006 10:23:45 AM

reevaluate my life?

i don't see raleigh as being any trashier than cary, but I can put a sign for my business outside my office in raleigh.

7/21/2006 11:25:53 AM

Quote :

"i don't see raleigh as being any trashier than cary"

you should open your eyes then.

[Edited on July 21, 2006 at 11:27 AM. Reason : df]

7/21/2006 11:26:46 AM

10 Best Big Cities
1 Colorado Springs, CO 369,800
2 Austin, TX 690,300
3 Mesa, AZ 442,800
4 Raleigh, NC 341,500
5 San Diego, CA 1,255,500
6 Virginia Beach, VA 438,400
7 Omaha, NE 414,500
8 Columbus, OH 730,700
9 Wichita, KS 354,900
10 New York, NY 8,143,200

nyc is really the only "big city" imo.

7/21/2006 12:16:29 PM

nm

[Edited on July 21, 2006 at 12:17 PM. Reason : nm]

7/21/2006 12:17:09 PM

haha there are parts of raleigh that are ghetto as fuck

bloodworth, south blount, BRENT ROAD anyone?

sure, there are plenty of nice neighborhoods in Raleigh. but i can't think of anywhere in Cary where i felt unsafe other than the parking lot of cary town center with all of those soccer moms in SUVs

7/21/2006 12:28:26 PM

anyone that thinks brent road is ghetto has never seen an actual ghetto.

7/21/2006 12:29:11 PM

based on "best cities" averages, i don't see why raleigh is so great:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2006/snapshots/PL3755000.html

7/21/2006 12:33:57 PM

sure i have, i've been to baltimore dozens of times

7/21/2006 12:36:46 PM

obviously not if you think brent road is ghetto.

7/21/2006 12:37:45 PM

Quote :

"sure, there are plenty of nice neighborhoods in Raleigh. but i can't think of anywhere in Cary where i felt unsafe other than the parking lot of cary town center with all of those soccer moms in SUVs"

cary isn't all country clubs. there are trailer parks and low income areas in cary too.

7/21/2006 12:38:19 PM

well you live in baltimore and think it's nice, so i can see why you wouldnt find brent road ghetto

Quote :

"considering you haven't lived in too many other places, its hard for you to make the claim that its one of the nicest places to live in the entire country."

actually, you're wrong

my father was in the millitary and i've lived in NY, AZ, NC, VA, MD, DC, Mexico City and now CA



[Edited on July 21, 2006 at 12:43 PM. Reason : asdf]

7/21/2006 12:40:27 PM

more proof that you havent ever been to baltimore.

Quote :

"my father was in the millitary and i've lived in NY, AZ, NC, VA, MD, DC, Mexico City and now CA"

i see, i didnt realize those were the only places to live. you can now say that fairfax is one of the nicest places to live in the county since you have lived everywhere else.



wait, you still live with your parents?

[Edited on July 21, 2006 at 12:51 PM. Reason : df]

7/21/2006 12:43:46 PM

nah my parents live back in NOVA, you know, the NICE part of the Baltimore/Washington area?

7/21/2006 12:53:38 PM