http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/which-is-americas-best-city-09202011.html#p1

Quote :

"“It’s a combination of things: There’s a great university system here so it’s easy to find qualified talent and it’s a great place to hire people. The relative cost of living is low, the cost of real estate is dramatically lower [than other cities], and the state is pro-business,” says Whitehurst, who moved to the area in 2008 from Atlanta. And with most of the benefits of a major metropolitan area, he says, “it’s a wonderful lifestyle.”"

Take that #9 San Fran, #13 Seattle, #14 NYC, #16 Boston, #53 LA, and list-enders Laredo Texas, and Detroit!

9/19/2012 6:33:26 PM

Charlotte > Raleigh

9/19/2012 6:34:52 PM

that's funny, because i just left raleigh recently and my quality of life has improved tenfold.

9/19/2012 6:38:46 PM

Charlotte Crime Rate > Anywhere in NC

9/19/2012 6:48:40 PM

uh

SF> anywhere in NC

lucky me though- lived in both places

9/19/2012 7:55:55 PM

How can a town filled with ignorant gay bashing rednecks be America's best city?

9/19/2012 7:59:48 PM

Quote :

"September 20, 2011"

[old]

9/19/2012 8:07:22 PM

^^Raleigh City Council passed a resolution against the amendment, and Wake County was one of the few counties to go against it (Durham, Orange, Chatham, and a few others too as I recall).

[Edited on September 19, 2012 at 8:20 PM. Reason : one*]

9/19/2012 8:09:37 PM

DO

NOT

LIE

9/19/2012 8:12:18 PM

lol no

9/19/2012 8:41:47 PM

why is this blowing up everywhere if it was from a year ago???

9/19/2012 9:25:46 PM

Lack of decent public transportation automatically disqualifies a city from that title.

9/20/2012 12:51:44 AM

saw this all over Facebook yesterday and was like wut

9/20/2012 1:10:54 AM

Quote :

" suppose you could choose to live anywhere you wanted regardless of cost? What if you could live in a city that offered a wealth of culture, entertainment, good schools, low crime, and plenty of green space? Many people might opt for obvious choices such as New York or San Francisco, but great as they are, data reveal other cities are even better."

I guess by the numbers we do have all those things

9/20/2012 5:10:48 AM

it's my 3rd edit. i have no idea what my opinion on raleigh is.

[Edited on September 20, 2012 at 7:50 AM. Reason : except that it's super hot. that never changes.]

9/20/2012 7:47:06 AM

Its getting there. It has a ton of pluses if you don't mind driving. 2 hours to nice beaches, 3-4 hours (could be wrong there, it's been a while) to very nice mountains (but shitty skiing).

And like the guy said...great job prospects without having to go to a big city. So you can make good money, but not have to spend it all on your house and other living expenses. Which means you can live a level or or two above what you would be living if you were in a NY/San Fran/Chicago type place. Since you didn't have to spend half a mil on your shoebox apartment...you can take extra trips, buy a boat, have a couple nice cars...etc.

And the restaurants and arts seem to be picking up the past few years as well....which, IMO, has always been pretty shitty in the triangle.

9/20/2012 8:01:18 AM

this is a year old

a whole year

shut up

9/20/2012 8:16:47 AM

Quote :

"Lack of decent public transportation automatically disqualifies a city from that title. "

Agreed.

9/20/2012 8:40:09 AM

Arlington, VA is a giant suburb with no downtown and no real culture and ranked #2. This list is irrelevant.

9/20/2012 9:24:54 AM

Arlington is the fucking worst place ever conceived.

9/20/2012 10:06:36 AM

Nice cemetery though.

9/20/2012 10:14:07 AM

I can't disagree with the rest of what you said about Arlington, but it definitely has a downtown.

9/20/2012 10:24:17 AM

If someone has drawn circles around some buildings it MUST be downtown

9/20/2012 10:26:23 AM

I definitely really liked Raleigh and would totally move back there if I could do the same job I have now for the same company but just there instead. However, if you say that money isn't a factor, I would easily live somewhere like San Francisco over Raleigh.

9/20/2012 10:28:22 AM

Raleigh is great on paper. SF is a bit of a bitch to do normal life stuff like groceries. Smelling piss and weed everywhere. It still somehow maintains Its own charm.

9/20/2012 11:00:50 AM

It is a great great place to open a business thats all it is saying

for the citizens there is much better out there, like just on public transportation alone. this area sucks ass and you cant expect to get anywhere after 7 o clock

9/20/2012 11:43:03 AM

Quote :

"If someone has drawn circles around some buildings it MUST be downtown"

The circles are for radius around Metro stations. I should have found a better pic admittedly but I didn't want to waste more than 10 seconds of my life on anything related to Arlington.

9/20/2012 12:09:27 PM

but youve wasted more than ten seconds.

youve wasted two posts that probably took twenty seconds a piece, and then you took the time to search an image, open ms paint, draw circles in the photo, probably messed up on the circle placement a couple times, then save it, open your photo gallery, upload the photo, try to remember where you saved it, and then waited probably ten seconds for the image to actually upload to the tdub server.

Then you had to find this thread and then add it to the thread.


Arlington won. Damn you Arlington!!!!

9/20/2012 12:13:14 PM

Fuck.









(I didn't draw the circles though)

9/20/2012 12:15:04 PM

Raleigh is like Miami with less Pitbull.

9/20/2012 12:18:01 PM

Some high-rises, office buildings, and a Cosi does not a downtown make. It's as much of a "downtown" as North Hills is in Raleigh.

9/20/2012 12:18:52 PM

Quote :

"SF> anywhere in NC"

lol @ people that enjoy living in kalifornia

9/20/2012 12:23:23 PM

hey, some people hate having money

9/20/2012 12:24:32 PM

Downtown is just an American term for central business district. Most towns, big and small, have a "downtown".

Your point stands, though, it's terrible.

9/20/2012 12:24:54 PM

lol @ the fuckers in this thread suggesting charlotte

fuck dat

9/20/2012 12:25:20 PM

north carolina is great

whats wrong with it. I cant imagine wanting to live in big california cities. i laugh at those people

9/20/2012 12:25:32 PM

I too, am a huge fan of Raleigh. I moved away for 3 years after undergrad but definitely missed it.

I can't say what it is like to live in San Fran/other big California however, I have spent a little bit of time in LA and San Fran (~2 weeks each) and didn't love it.

Granted, you don't understand living somewhere if you visit for 2 weeks.

9/20/2012 12:47:50 PM

I think a key thing that people are not taking into account is that the article states immediately

Quote :

"suppose you could choose to live anywhere you wanted regardless of cost?"

Now, of course this makes a study like this totally useless since cost of living certainly has to be a factor but for the sake of this discussion within the scope of the article, cost of living isn't supposed to be a useful negative.

9/20/2012 12:55:21 PM

Quote :

"north carolina is great whats wrong with it. I cant imagine wanting to live in big california cities. i laugh at those people"

it's cool, we laugh at you

have you even visited big cities in California, or do you just hate the 'idea' of them?

if you've lived in both places, i might take you a little more seriously, but it sounds like sour grapes/jealousy to me...

[Edited on September 20, 2012 at 1:03 PM. Reason : asdf]

9/20/2012 1:01:34 PM

Quote :

"lol @ people that enjoy living in kalifornia "

Quote :

"north carolina is great whats wrong with it. I cant imagine wanting to live in big california cities. i laugh at those people "

It's kind of like this, I can wake up and go for a swim at the beach in the morning and still make it to work by 9--on the weekend even though I live at the beach I can make it to a real skiing mountain in under 3 hours. There are like actual jobs that pay well unlike most coastal NC cities. You have to go out of your way to eat at a chain restaurant. There is a plurality of cheap ethnic food you can't get in the larger NC cities (ramen being the most notable example).

There's a lot of hate on the new age-y stuff, but it's that or bible beaters that think Obama is the anti-christ. Every area has it's dumb segment to contend.

SF is a pain in the ass to live in unless you live in one of the more central, shitty, neighborhoods. LA the traffic is horrendous, so if you can live near where you work it isn't all that bad.

9/20/2012 1:04:29 PM

Quote :

"There is a plurality of cheap ethnic food you can't get in the larger NC cities (ramen being the most notable example). "

You can get ramen at restaurants in Cary so I don't know if that's a great example. Only ethnic food I can think of really that isn't available around here is stuff like Indonesian and Filipino food but I wouldn't be surprised if that changed in the near future.

9/20/2012 1:09:08 PM

oh boy. most of the filipino food I've tasted isn't worth paying for

9/20/2012 1:12:17 PM

Quote :

"it's cool, we laugh at you have you even visited big cities in California, or do you just hate the 'idea' of them?"

they're great except for the fact that they're filled with people like you. Plus if we wanted to deal with insufferable snobs, Chapel Hill is just 20 minutes away.

So fun to visit, but I like money more than i like being able to say i live somewhere trendy.


..

sidebar-- for all of the posturing about environmentalism and green everything, it's SPRAWL SPRAWL SPRAWL. other than SF proper,public transit is weak for such a "progressive" state.


[Edited on September 20, 2012 at 1:28 PM. Reason : .]

9/20/2012 1:25:12 PM

does it make you sad that you'll never be as rich as the silicon valley gurus who still run the show?

it's cool that you do the industry equivalent of their 'side work' in RTP, but I think they make a little more than you AND have a higher standard of living

oh was that snobbish? i'm sorry

9/20/2012 1:35:33 PM

haha, hilarious assumptions, champ.

I don't even live in NC.

But seriously, i am happy that you can legally marry your partner in CA. that's certainly an area where CA > NC.

9/20/2012 1:37:37 PM

oh that's right, you moved to Richmond, VA!

talk about a high standard of living

9/20/2012 1:38:49 PM

certainly better than yours, that much I'm certain of.

keep trying. I do admire your tenacity.

9/20/2012 1:44:42 PM

hey man, I make enough money that I could fly to Richmond, VA pretty much any time I want

that's living the good life

9/20/2012 1:49:37 PM

Quote :

"oh boy. most of the filipino food I've tasted isn't worth paying for "

Hey now sinangag is usually pretty good

9/20/2012 1:51:36 PM

i'm tired of pancit and overboiled shrimps

9/20/2012 1:58:02 PM