I contend the safest place to live during a prison break is next to the prison since the prisoners will want to get as far away as possible

4/14/2011 2:43:22 PM

^ahahah i say that too

4/14/2011 2:44:04 PM

Quote :

"I can see how it would be cool if you wanted the N. Raleigh lifestyle, but as long as most of your friends live near downtown, most of the restaurants you enjoy are near downtown, and most of the bars/clubs/venues you enjoy are close to downtown it can be a real drag."

yep, none of our friends who live around NCSU ever venture up to our side of town, probably wont be much better when we move up near Wake Forest

4/14/2011 2:45:17 PM

welcome to my life...


for the past 9 years

4/14/2011 2:46:09 PM

Slave spits the truth. People are so fucked up with their priorities, what they think they "need". But, that is their perogative. The problem is our city planning and especially our transportation system has been geared towards meeting the demands of those people for 60 years. It kills me when people that live 30 miles north of Atlanta in the burbs bitch about having an hour commute. You live 30 MILES from your work, what the fuck do you expect?

4/14/2011 2:46:14 PM

ok, so i began to think about all the places i listed and tried to think which one is my favorite or least favorite....i can't!!!
i mean, i can think of pros and cons of each place but not enough to say whether one was better than the other.

it's a blessing really, i can have fun anywhere!!!

4/14/2011 2:47:10 PM

i mean...really the only thing i don't like about living in garner...

are the other people living in garner


most people actually from garner may as well be from johnston county

4/14/2011 2:48:51 PM

my fave in Raleigh was my tiny ass Cameron Village condo. Could walk to just about everything, even work. Least favorite in Raleigh (and everywhere actually) was my big ass house in N. Raleigh that I didn't need. There were rooms that I literally did not open the door to for 6 months. A bathroom that I think I never used once in the two years I lived there. I got stupid/greedy and fucked up my priorities and was miserable. I would fight the traffic to get home from work, and then be too tired or burned out to turn around an hour later and drive downtown to hang out so I started seeing my friends less, ate at a bunch of shitty restaurants because that was all that was nearby etc.

4/14/2011 2:50:05 PM

^^^^they're the same people that have one kid and say they "need" a minivan or full size SUV.

[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 2:50 PM. Reason : ^^dammit fuckers]

4/14/2011 2:50:21 PM

^^booooooo.
whereabouts in N Raleigh?


and

Quote :

"lave spits the truth. People are so fucked up with their priorities, what they think they "need". But, that is their perogative. The problem is our city planning and especially our transportation system has been geared towards meeting the demands of those people for 60 years. It kills me when people that live 30 miles north of Atlanta in the burbs bitch about having an hour commute. You live 30 MILES from your work, what the fuck do you expect?"

A FREAKING MEN! i know several several ppl liek this. several.

[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 2:52 PM. Reason : gfhfg]

4/14/2011 2:51:07 PM

I was spoiled at my last job because most days I was ready walking/biking distance from work. I didn't realize how much I would miss that. Once I settle down into a career job it's my mission to regain that sort of commute. I think it's the sort of thing you can't really appreciate until you experience it firsthand.

4/14/2011 2:53:25 PM

Most people with a long commute don't realize that more then pain in the ass of sitting in traffic, what you're really losing is time. Time to work out, time to relax, time to do whatever. If you have a a 40 minute commute, I have an extra hour of time than you every day. And you can't put a price on that.

4/14/2011 2:56:13 PM

^^ yeah, I agree. Living in Midtown has been amazing. Cant imagine living in the burbs ever again. The first week I moved in me and my gf at the time were walking back from dinner and we were like "Oh, there is a Dali exhibit at the High Museum of Art... lets go inside" I knew things were going to be alright.

^^^ off of Capital, near Brentwood, Broadlands

^ yup, people always forget to factor in value of their time, and sanity. Our office is in the burbs north of Atlanta and I HATE being up here, sucks the life out of me. So I try to work from home as much as possible

[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 2:59 PM. Reason : g]

4/14/2011 2:57:25 PM

^^yeah...my commute now sucks (about 40 minutes each way)

luckily i've beeen using it to study (hurray for recording drugs on CDs!) and catching up on the news.
when i start rotations and my commute will get longer i think i wanna get rosetta stone...(don't they have audio tutorials with their other stuff?)

[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 3:02 PM. Reason : sfjkdsf]

4/14/2011 3:02:12 PM

A 15-20 minute drive with some good music can be a good way to prep for the day or de-stress.
Once the timer hits 30 minutes I'm usually over it though.

4/14/2011 3:07:29 PM

Quote :

"Most people with a long commute don't realize that more then pain in the ass of sitting in traffic,"

Quote :

" yup, people always forget to factor in value of their time, and sanity. "

As far as the context of this thread goes, I live pretty far up in North Raleigh and work around NCSU and my commute is less than 20 minutes. No big whoop. and yeah, I get to catch up on NPR/sports radio in that 30-40 minutes, so I've never minded it. RTP might be a different story, I dunno. I'm like like Skack, once you start talking 30 minutes it's another story for me.

4/14/2011 3:14:08 PM

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small
That we can never get away from the sprawl
Living in the sprawl
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains
And there's no end in sight
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights

4/14/2011 3:15:10 PM

I'd love to live within 6 miles of my office so I could occasionally ride my bike to work. Unfortunately I don't want to live where my office is (Morrisville) so I live 13 miles away. As such I drive 500-600 miles a month just for my commute, which sucks. That's roughly 2 tanks of fuel which at current costs is around $90-100, nevermind mileage depreciation of the car.

However I've gotten good at getting around traffic problems on I-40, at least in the afternoon. By the time I leave the gym after work traffic is usually done with.

4/14/2011 3:24:01 PM

I live up in the NRC and I work behind Cameron Village. Takes me 15-20 minutes to do the drive.

4/14/2011 3:28:09 PM

I grew up in N. Ral (between Falls & Capital Blvd), and after moving down here I will not be moving back up there.

4/14/2011 5:26:52 PM

Quote :

"I grew up in N. Ral (between Falls & Capital Blvd), and after moving down here I will not be moving back up there."

I live in North Raleigh [proper ], and I too would not live over there. Falls is as far as I would go, and even that would be a stretch.

4/14/2011 5:39:23 PM

I do not want to move beyond walking distance of Ruckus really.

4/14/2011 5:43:20 PM

I live in Chicago and take public transportation to work. It takes me 35 minutes to get to work and 45 minutes go get home. That's an hour and twenty minutes a day or 40 minutes each way... and it's completely normal (I live about 4 miles away from work).

So I guess my point is... just because you live in a big city doesn't automatically mean your commute gets smaller.

And yeah, I could live closer to work if I wanted to. But doubling my living costs to save an hour a day of commuting isn't sustainable in the long run.

4/14/2011 5:56:17 PM

I had to drive up to Cornelius for a meeting earlier this week which was scheduled in the late afternoon. I gave myself 30 minutes to get there and it took me 50 minutes. It reminded me why I'm glad I only live 4-5 miles from my work.

4/14/2011 6:01:12 PM

Lake Norman is ridiculous at rush hour. That area has grown so much in the last 15 years and with little infrastructure improvements to correspond. But if you work around there and don't have to touch I-77 it's not as horrible.

4/14/2011 6:12:23 PM

My parents live in Mooresville and my dad used to work in the area but his job got moved Uptown near BofA stadium. He has commuted down there for atleast 15 years and I commuted with him for two summers while I interned nearby. It used to take something like 30 mins (15 yrs ago) and now takes closer to an hour (maybe 45 mins on a really good day). He definitely does the get there early and leave early (gets to work at 7 and leaves at 4) before rush hour REALLY begins but still, its shitty no matter how you cut it.



Those expereinces have definitely played a HUGE role in how I've planned my live/work scenarios.

[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 6:29 PM. Reason : and if N. Raleigh is a suburban hell hole then the lake norman area is easily 10x worse IMO]

4/14/2011 6:27:56 PM

Quote :

"I live in Chicago and take public transportation to work. It takes me 35 minutes to get to work and 45 minutes go get home. That's an hour and twenty minutes a day or 40 minutes each way... and it's completely normal (I live about 4 miles away from work). "

yeah but 45 minutes relaxing on a train /= 45 minutes driving in shitty traffic

4/14/2011 6:55:41 PM

Yup. Time spent on transit isnt lost. Especially now with more and more mobile devices.

4/14/2011 7:12:58 PM

I think a lot of people in this thread of been dead on and the "problem" lays with ones priorities. If you think having a 2500+ sqft home made of uneven drywall, with rooms used only 5x a year and looks EXACTLY like the home 3 houses down then that is good for you, but that isn't for me.

When I graduated, I moved to cary because I thought that is what I was supposed to do; I hated it. I then moved downtown and have lived there ever since. I now live in one of the cameron village condos that were mentioned above. I may only have 1000sqft but there are still rooms I don't use. What I like the best is I can walk to the many local events downtown, eat at restaurants unique to my environment and have a general sense of variety in my life. Where I live is distinct to this particular location; whereas, in most of suburbia, you could be in any other metro area of the US and see the exact same groupings of red robins, targets and wild wings cafes covered in faux stone that you could anywhere else.

People who don't live in a dense environment lack the community connectivity that those who live in more dense, urban environments have. These same people make claims, stating that they could make it downtown in 15minutes and do all of these things so it is no bid deal, but in reality they often let the distance prevent them from doing so; so it must be a big deal. I also think that living in the cookie cutter areas leads to what bothers me most about the human condition. We're starting to suffer from a lack of personality and let a culture of replication define us. We are afraid to stand out and I think that, ultimately, the creativity and the individualism that makes us human suffers the most. We no longer understand to imagine anything that is different because everything we have seen is the same. Drive through the many homes in the downtown area (oakwood, 5pts, mordecai, boylan heights, cameron park, etc..) and check out the homes/people then compare them to the morrisville/ north raleigh crowd.

As for having property and a yard, I am all for that. Personally, from my experience, I am more likely to find that downtown than in newer developments in Cary, Morrisville or North Raleigh. These older homes actually have lots, with huge shaded trees and front porches at ~300k. Right now I live in a condo that has huge, open courtyards in front and in back that sport a variety of perennials and 60yo oak trees. The same money spent in the suburbs will buy you a flat graded .15 acre lot that is a stones throw from being attached to your neighbor. Sure, your home in the suburbs may be 3000sqft and not 1750sqft, but go ahead and buy a 3000sqft home for a family of 4 and then wonder why you never see your kids and why your home feels so empty, distant and cold.

But, like I said, its all about what is important to you, I suppose.

[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 7:17 PM. Reason : spacing]

4/14/2011 7:16:29 PM

^ this motherfucker and I need to get a beer, its like he possessed me and spit out my wisdom

4/14/2011 9:07:54 PM

I like space and having big rooms. Just becuase you have a big house doesn't mean your kids will be faraway from you and the house will be distant and cold. It all depends on how you treat your family.

4/14/2011 9:10:45 PM

thats fine, but, unless you are rich as shit, you need to be aware of what you are, and should be, giving up to get that... then you can decide if its worth having those big rooms.

4/14/2011 9:16:21 PM

Quote :

"People who don't live in a dense environment lack the community connectivity that those who live in more dense, urban environments have. These same people make claims, stating that they could make it downtown in 15minutes and do all of these things so it is no bid deal, but in reality they often let the distance prevent them from doing so; so it must be a big deal. I also think that living in the cookie cutter areas leads to what bothers me most about the human condition. We're starting to suffer from a lack of personality and let a culture of replication define us. We are afraid to stand out and I think that, ultimately, the creativity and the individualism that makes us human suffers the most. We no longer understand to imagine anything that is different because everything we have seen is the same. Drive through the many homes in the downtown area (oakwood, 5pts, mordecai, boylan heights, cameron park, etc..) and check out the homes/people then compare them to the morrisville/ north raleigh crowd. "

This is such a load of bullshit that it's not even funny. It's not the location that makes the person and their habits, it's the person that makes the person. If you can't separate the two, that's your fault and your problem. It doesn't infect everyone, though.

4/14/2011 9:19:36 PM

I disagree. Location matters a lot. Thats why there are public spaces, public art, etc. The same exact condo is magically transported from Paris to Apex, NC. There would be a HUGE difference, even though the people and their actual property didnt change.


I should say, location matters a lot to some. As I said earlier, I believe there are two types of people. Those that measure their home/area by what they have, and those that measure it by the overall community around them. I am the latter. I would rather have a "worse" home in a great area, with great public spaces, then a great home with my private area surround by a bunch of generic, bland shit.

[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 9:25 PM. Reason : d]

4/14/2011 9:22:44 PM

I'm thinking about buying a 2300 sq foot home for 189k. The house is about a 1 minute walk away from an elementary school and a 5 minute walk from a new boeing factory. Sure the house is to big for a single male like me but I can afford it and rent it out. Great investment property I think.

4/14/2011 9:26:43 PM

I get what you're saying and at my age and lifestyle I do agree with you. Shit, I'm looking at condos in downtown Raleigh right now...

But to the point of the thread, I don't see how someone can be bashing North Raleigh like the OP did by acting like those people don't have access to the same shit in THIS CITY as the people who live downtown. It's all PERSONAL preference. Living in CV doesn't make someone more apt to taking advantage of the culture (or lack thereof) and nightlife that downtown Raleigh has than someone who lives north of the beltline.

4/14/2011 9:28:47 PM

^^ do you work at either? if not, how far is your drive? what city are you in?

^ dude, I lived in both, and I am telling you it totally slipped. I tried to not let it, but as soon as I moved north it all started happening. "Oh, i just drove up from near campus, I dont feel like changing and going back down there to hang out, I will just sit here instead and watch a movie" And no, its not cause I am lazy, when I am in an environment that I can walk to that stuff I do it all the time. When you live out there you base your life more around your own private world because its easier. The difference is having those public spaces around you, in your community vs. having it be an "event" when you go to them... "come on kids, we are heading downtown for some fucking culture!" is different then having it around you all the time.

I am telling you, just read that book if you have the time. You might not agree with it, thats ok, but you will understand the viewpoint and see the logic.



[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 9:37 PM. Reason : d]

4/14/2011 9:29:10 PM

^I work about 5 minutes away. I only live 5 miles from work and I try to bike it when its warm. I know the value of not wasting 1.5 hours a day sitting in traffic.

4/14/2011 9:40:39 PM

I dont live close to my main office because it is in Duluth, GA. (pure shit), so my drive to the office (when I go in) sucks. But I sacrificed that to be able to walk to literally everything else I need from my place aside from work.

4/14/2011 9:44:35 PM

I didn't know Snewf belonged to Arcade Fire.

4/14/2011 10:04:45 PM

Quote :

"not cause I am lazy, when I am in an environment that I can walk to that stuff I do it all the time. When you live out there you base your life more around your own private world because its easier."

I like the combination of the "i" to "you" switch for the positive/negative descriptions, and the near-textbook definition of lazy.

4/14/2011 10:16:55 PM

Geppetto and Jaybee1200 need to have some kids, then suddenly their sweet downtown hipster condo no longer will make sense

4/14/2011 10:26:40 PM

I love this romanticism with riding on a train. Like it's all pretty girls and the occasional ethnic guy and me. All of us just passing time in our clean seats, undisturbed and idle, while we coast on into the city.

[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 10:42 PM. Reason : ..]

4/14/2011 10:41:09 PM

^^^ what? I am saying its not a question of effort, its a question of desire. I will put forth MORE effort (walking to things) when I am in a actual livable area rather than drive (less effort) if I am out in the middle of nothing. And the "you" was referring to anyone that lives out there, including me

^^ yea, there are no kids raised in NYC, Chicago, London, Tokyo, etc. Its impossible.

^ not sure where you live, but most people have the opposite view of transit, they think its all "them people" and crime everywhere.



[Edited on April 14, 2011 at 10:47 PM. Reason : d]

4/14/2011 10:44:45 PM

best thing you can do is gtfo of wake county altogether

4/14/2011 10:51:06 PM

Jaybee1200, tell us more about how living in an urban environment is the only suitable method to live

4/15/2011 12:30:17 AM

Presently, my favorite pastime is sitting outside and drinking beverages.

Luckily, this activity can be done in urban, suburban, and rural settings.

So, yeah, I'm pretty versatile.

I'm not trying to brag, but you know...

4/15/2011 1:11:17 AM

^^ or how about I tell you more about what I actually said:

Quote :

"thats fine, but, unless you are rich as shit, you need to be aware of what you are, and should be, giving up to get that... then you can decide if its worth having those big rooms."

Quote :

" Its not for everyone, I realize that."

Quote :

"There is so much stuff that the general public is just completely ignorant about and they dont take it into account when making housing choices. All they see is "big yard, big bonus room, quiet street" but they dont think about things like:"

4/15/2011 1:52:33 AM

An interesting article: http://secretrepublic.com/post/4608802363/the-real-reason-why-bicycles-are-the-key-to-better

4/15/2011 3:08:59 AM

sweet this thread is about commuting now.


I love my 7 minute commute.

4/15/2011 9:43:17 AM