[sapphos]

Since we are in east you know what...we have begun to mull around where we will live next year and want to take the next few months to begin exploring neighborhoods. We don't know Raleigh and Durham too well, but Chapel Hill we're slightly more familiar with.

Anyway, what neighborhoods do you Triangle moms live in and what do you love about it?

Thanks mama's

 

[dcgrl]

My husband and I moved to the area about 2 years ago from near Boston--we really, really love the Triangle and our lives have changed in so many positive ways since coming here.

So far, we have lived in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and now Durham, where we just bought a house in Duke Forest. We like all of them. They all have a certain laid-back energy, if you know what I mean. We really liked being in Chapel Hill because we enjoy going out to see bands, and there's a lot of opportunity for that there. We loved Carrboro because of the villagey, activist feel, the presence of Weaver Street and the Farmer's Market. It's super family friendly (in fact, watching families in Carrboro is probably what convinced us to finally have a kid).

Now, we're in Durham, and we suspected when we moved down here that we would end up buying in Durham. Chapel Hill/Carrboro was too expensive for us, Raleigh and other towns in Wake County were too sprawly (except for inside the beltline, which seems fantastic, but was also out of reach).

We really love Durham--it has a great vibe, and a supportive community of people who also love Durham passionately. We recognize the city has its share of problems, but there's a lot of soul here that makes us want to see it succeed. There's also great dining, outdoor music, hiking, baseball, etc.

As far as neighborhoods, I'm really only familiar with Durham neighborhoods since I spent so much time researching them when we were house hunting. I really love Watts-Hillandale--it's very neighborhoody, with people out walking with their families, neighborhood events, block parties, etc. You'll also find that same kind of vibe in Duke Park and Trinity Park. These are all organic, old, established neighborhoods--your neighbors are likely to be artists, professors, Duke staff, etc. Hope Valley Farms is a popular neighborhood, but we didn't like it because it's a cookie cutter development--the houses are too close together, and all look the same. Woodcroft is another development--we liked it better since it's older and the landscaping has had some years to mature.

We ended up in Duke Forest, which is I guess a pretty desirable neighborhood. We like it, but it's not very neighborhoody--we've only met one neighbor so far, and we've been there since February.

Two drawbacks to Durham are crime and the schools. We haven't experienced either of these so far, and I kind of think that we'll be able to avoid crime if we don't go looking for it. Schools are a different matter. I'm not sure what we'll do when we have a school-age kid--maybe they'll have improved in five years? here's hoping...

 

[supervee]

dcgirl, if there's something in specific you are worried about re: crime or schools, please let me know & I'll get the pertinent info for you! Otherwise, I'll come post back some general stuff, L, when I have less kids jumping on my head.

 

[dcgrl]

nope, I'm not worried--just thought I'd point out the two issues that most Triangle people have with Durham. I personally love it, and advocate for it whenever I can!

 

[supervee]

Well ya said that they were a drawback. Ok, I'll read that as "someone told me the schools and crime were bad" and leave it alone.

L, I've lived in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Durham (and a bunch of other rural and suburban places to compare).

I liked living in Carrboro because the bus was free and we could walk to Weaver Street to listen to bands and have lunch. I will leave out the stuff I didn't like b/c you didn't ask that, but because I think it is an important thing to think about, I will say we could only afford to live in a poor neighborhood, and had the ongoing crime and annoyances that come with that. I had colleagues who lived in the neighborhoods off of North Greensboro Street, and those seem to be really pretty neighborhoods; lots of flowers and trees.

I lived in Chapel Hill when I was in school, so can't really compare that to family life. Might want to make sure you are not smack-dab in a student neighborhood there.

I like Durham because we are closer to the school we want for our kiddos. We can afford a big ol' yard in a quiet, friendly, potlucky neighborhood. I can drive quickly (and I hate long commutes) to the things we like, such as museums. The atmosphere of community development ("bull city rising") is appealing. A realtor pointed out to me that parts of Durham right now are a good investment because of the limited land area, and apparently we stumbled into that, so I guess that makes me happy (who knows?). I suppose you could plan for that. I don't like that I have to drive everywhere now, and I suppose I could have planned for *that* a little better.

I know you're just gathering anecdotal data now, so there's mine.

I found it helpful to find out our price range, and then look at neighborhoods we could choose... not focusing really on cities. If that helps. Little really depends on the city you are in.

Check out http://www.city-data.com/forum/ralei...pel-hill-cary/ for lots more anecdotal data.

Check out http://www.ncreportcards.org/src/ for school data... be sure to drill down into subreports.

Check out http://www.ci.durham.nc.us/gis_apps/..._entryform.cfm for a crime map of Durham. Not sure if this exists for other Triangle areas. (Does it?)

Check out http://www.familywatchdog.us/ for a national sexual offender registry map.

 

[sapphos]

ok well so far some good info. we are renting right now exacctly 14.2 miles to carrboro, pittsboro and graham. when the lease finishes we will definately go closer, but will not be buying so we have some flexibility. our main problems are 2 dogs and 2 cats and they still have some years left. because of dh's business, we can live anywhere and likely will eventually end up on the west co ast in 3 years or so. so in the meantime we will continue renting but don't ever want to look back and say we never enjoyed getting to do things here. right now it's a major event every time we need to go to town. yea it's nice having the peace and quiet after argentina, but we want/need to be able to get out and do things! so anyway, i still appreciate what other people have to say.

p.s. supervee what's your name? trying to figure out if we've met

 

[Gunter]

just wanted to vote for durham! love it!

 

[supervee]

PM'd you.

 

[mommyoftwo]

What!? No one has mentioned Hillsborough yet! Great small town feel yet still a bit cheaper than Carrboro and Chapel Hill. And we are getting our own Weaver Street.

 

[beanma]

well, laura i think a lot of it depends on what you want out of a place? personally, i'm pretty happy in chapel hill. we bought our house about 10 years ago before the real estate prices exploded. i've been in the triangle since '82 off and on, but have only lived in chapel hill and carrboro. i've definitely been to raleigh and durham and h-boro and p-boro, but we're settled here for now. i think you probably have been exploring the great crunchy things about carrboro/chapel hill so i won't have to go into too much detail there. one thing that i think bears mentioning, though, is the size of the towns. i really prefer a smaller town now. if i were to move elsewhere in the triangle i would consider hillsborough, or pittsboro, or maybe out in the country like you are, and we might consider durham, too, but i'm not really interested in raleigh. raleigh/cary is just too big and sprawly for me. i rarely even drive over there for anything, although i keep meaning to get the kids to the museums -- maybe this summer. we do go to durham to the museum of L&S once a month or so. we're happy in our chapel hill neighborhood. it's right in the middle of chapel hill and close to downtown, carrboro, flying burrito/foster's market, parks, etc.

hth some

 

[PicnicBear]

I'm not suprised to hear a lot of support for Durham and I can't disagree with any of it -- having lived (sort of) in Durham for almost a year (I was very near in the mall in a new development so it wasn't close to a lot of the things people have been mentioning).

Anyway, we bought a house in Cary. When we moved here it sounded like the worst of all the places, being so soccer-momish and all (in its reputation). But, turns out it has some older neighborhoods with bigger lots and trees and all (not that Durham or CH don't) and these homes are quite affordable. There are 5 families on our cul-de-sac and none of them are the soccer mom type -- they are all very chill in their own ways -- two are retired. I know another MDC mama lives within walking distance. I just met another family who just came from Miami and seem great. You do find lots of people from up north, but being a Yankee myself I am fine with that.

Overall, I think there are a lot of cool places to live in the Triangle. I can't think of one town here I would say I would never live in.

For us, a central location was important since we are not sure where we will be working down the road and Raleigh is a possibility.

ETA -- there are some parts of Cary that at very McMansionish.

 

[supervee]

Aww, I didn't leave out Hillsborough (or Cary) because they aren't nice but I just thought she's trying to narrow it down, didn't want to add more to her list.

I've had friends rent some neat historic homes in Hillsborough within walking distance of downtown. You might like that.

I'm also thinking there are good rentals down Jones Ferry Road, near Hatch Road? It is far enough out to have country living, but more accessible to Carrboro than you are now. You could certainly have pets out there, and trees.

 

[sweetpeasmama]

hey supervee- what school is it that you wanted to live closer to? you can pm me if you don't want to advertise it!

i am really into durham and when we visit this summer- i want to make sure we walk through specific neighborhoods. i was checking out the central park charter school online and thought it sounded pretty groovy. i also like the idea of being to able to walk to school. we prefer living somewhere that's cheap enough so that i can take my time going back to work eventually. (umm, maybe never??

) anyway- tall order, i know.

this is a great thread! it's so great getting different takes on so many neighborhoods.

 

[Lilcrunchie]

Call me crazy, but we really like living in Hillsborough too

I like the small town feel, we were able to afford more land and a better quality house (DH is in graduate school) than we could in other neighborhoods. I think the town is kind of coming along nicely...and I can't *wait* until the new Weaver Street co-op opens out here

Groceries are one of my annoyances w/ living out here as we usually drive to Carrboro or Chapel Hill for the co-op or occasionally WFs. Having the co-op here will be fabulous! The little farmer's market in town is great (at least on Saturday mornings) and has really improved in the past year or two. The town is building a new library, and they are working to make everything a little prettier than it is now. There are quite a few cute shops on Churton Street, and we love frequenting the local merchants (a little french bistro, a great independent hardware store that has everything, a locally owned coffee shop, a few cute home furnishings/accessories stores, an independent book shop).

Downsides...not much shopping for regular items without patronizing Wal Mart or driving into Durham or Chapel Hill. Public water in the town of Hillsborough is quite pricey (we have a well and septic).

 

[mamazappa]

Anyway, we bought a house in Cary. When we moved here it sounded like the worst of all the places, being so soccer-momish and all (in its reputation). But, turns out it has some older neighborhoods with bigger lots and trees and all (not that Durham or CH don't) and these homes are quite affordable. There are 5 families on our cul-de-sac and none of them are the soccer mom type -- they are all very chill in their own ways -- two are retired. I know another MDC mama lives within walking distance. I just met another family who just came from Miami and seem great. You do find lots of people from up north, but being a Yankee myself I am fine with that.

----------

Yay! We have to meet! We just bought a house in Cary, too, and I usually feel like I can't even say that out loud to friends in the crunchier parts of the Triangle. I was pushing for Durham, but we bought here - closer to dh's work. And we are in one of the older, tree lined neighborhoods, close to Bond Park and it has a very nice neighborhoody feel. The only thing missing so far are other AP families and playmates.

We just suck it up and drive to Chapel Hill and Durham pretty often. But we'd love to find friends closer to home. (We are Yankees, too -- RI). I know people must be out there who are kindred spirits! Cary can't be all plastic sprawl! We love the downtown/library area and the drugstore on the corner where you can get lunch at the counter. Come subvert the stereotypes!

 

[ruhbehka]

No one has put in a plug for Raleigh yet, so I guess I will.

We live inside the beltline in west Raleigh (near NCSU, but on the "sketchy" side, not the nice side, LOL.). I *love* it. Our rent is affordable (although we're pretty much priced out of the housing market everywhere except downtown in some of the other sketchier neighborhoods). We're close to Whole Foods and Cameron Village, we can take the bus or walk downtown (maybe 3 miles?), and the Wolfline is free. I'm just 6 miles from our parish, which is also nice.
------------------------------

We're currently debating between buying a home in a slightly sketchier neighborhood downtown (one of those tiny 2 BR homes with a front porch in the kind of neighborhood where everyone goes outside in the evenings, even on weeknights, but where there is also more crime, mostly because people have less money)... or moving to Durham, where we could afford a similar (or maybe slightly nicer?) home.

I'll say that the media has made me nervous about Durham, but mostly because I don't know which areas are safe and which aren't, and I don't know that we could afford to rent in the safer areas (and it seems like the sketchier areas are MUCH worse than those in Raleigh where we live, heh).

I'd love to talk with someone via PM about where to look in Durham, though... one reason we'd like to move downtown (in Raleigh) or to Durham is because the part of Raleigh we live in now doesn't really have any sense of community (it's all renters and apartments for the most part) and I miss the little houses and front porches like the city neighborhood I grew up in had. Now that my little guy is getting bigger, I'd like for him to have some friends to play with that I wouldn't have to invite over for "playdates." (Whatever happened to just "coming over," anyway?

)

 

[supervee]

I'll be happy to tell you more about Durham & tell you the places to look for & avoid... PM me!

 

[Andiad]

Yay! We have to meet! We just bought a house in Cary, too, and I usually feel like I can't even say that out loud to friends in the crunchier parts of the Triangle. I was pushing for Durham, but we bought here - closer to dh's work. And we are in one of the older, tree lined neighborhoods, close to Bond Park and it has a very nice neighborhoody feel. The only thing missing so far are other AP families and playmates.

We just suck it up and drive to Chapel Hill and Durham pretty often. But we'd love to find friends closer to home. (We are Yankees, too -- RI). I know people must be out there who are kindred spirits! Cary can't be all plastic sprawl! We love the downtown/library area and the drugstore on the corner where you can get lunch at the counter. Come subvert the stereotypes![/QUOTE]

----------

Hey MamaZappa! We live in Cary also. Probably not to far from you, we're off Walnut St. near Cary Towne Center. I also love the little downtown area. Believe it or not, I actually grew up here, but then moved out of the area for about 10 yrs. While we were gone we were living in RI as well!

We lived in Providence while my husband was finishing his masters and I was finishing by BA. We have a 3.5yr old and a 8mo. old. So, we should definitely try to get together. We're artsy/fartsy types also. (I saw art-lovers on your sig) PM me sometime and we'll see if we can hang out.

Andrea

 

[lizabird]

I live in Chapel Hill but in Durham County so the realestate prices were a little more affordable than a house down the street in Orange County. My little neighborhood area is called "Colony Woods" and there are at least a few houses for sale right now in this neighborhood. I love it here, it's a great location being convenient to lots of places in both Durham and Chapel Hill, we're on the free Chapel Hill bus line, easy access to I-40 for commutes to Raleigh if necessary. I lived in Raleigh for a few years before moving to CH and liked it there too, but found myself driving to CH fairly regularly. Now that I'm in CH, I hardly ever drive to Raleigh. Hmmm...

 

[Marimami]

We're in Cary too, and we chose it just for its central location. We too are yanks (RI,NJ,PA,DC,MD) with the added excitement of also having lived in Austin and the Bay Area in CA. So, yea, we've lived in far cooler places, but our neighborhood has been fine. However, we're like the only street in Cary with no other kids, and it's because it's an 80sish neighborhood. We have a large backyard though.

We are actually only renting because we had to decide between buying a house or starting an adoption when we moved here. But, we hope to be buying a house within the next year, and we are actually likely to choose Pittsboro.

We have considered practically every area from the inner Beltline, to Durham, to Hillsborough, CH, Carrboro, etc., but we kept coming back to Pittsboro over and over again. Then when we found my daughter's fabulous school, we knew it was right.

It's basically just south of Chapel Hill and west of Apex/Cary. Tons of new housing has been built but with large land pacts and also a lot of green building. It has a new co-op and some funky restaurants and businesses. It still has a more "southern" feel to it. Anyway, I've been predicting that it's the next up and coming town for a while now, and I'm sure of it based on what I've seen.

Other Cary-ites, we need to bond! I'm pretty sure me or my hubby have met several of you.

Holli