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The area is fine. We have aholes and we have nice people. We have nice southern ladies and ladies of the night. We have trolls and we have people that contribute, wait that is this board. The Triangle is in the midst of growing pains and will be for the foreseeable future.
Is it like New York? Well I assume you mean the city as New York is a huge state and I have been to a lot of sleepy towns there. We are getting more Italian run pizza shops, so that is good. I find just as many rude people here as I did in New York, percentage wise, but I also find just as many good natured friendly people.
The Triangle is it's own place, with it's own quirks and it's own habits. We are not New York, Atlanta, Seattle or any place people try and compare it to. We have good seafood AND good BBQ (not brisket, that is Texas). We have new south ("yankee-fied") and old south ("redneck"). It is it's own culture, based on the cultures of the people that have lived here and those that come here.
We have new south ("yankee-fied") and old south ("redneck").
And it is an ENORMOUS oversimplification to claim that "new South" is the same as "yankeefied" or that Old South is the same as redneck. In fact, the usual definition of "Old South" is more of a "Scarlett O'Hara" mindset which is quite the opposite of redneck.
We have all of the above here, and then some...and that's just the natives
You know it was a learning experience moving here. I always thought the word Yankee referred to all Americans - I think when I saw my first Yankee go home bumper sticker it dawned on me that it was the New Yorkers - New york yankee's team - yes I get it, was never a sport fanatic. Yes I moved here from another country from my grandma to my ancestors that first colonized this country back to the mid 1600's lived in the south and east coast so what does that make me. People move. It is one country for all Americans.
^ Actually "Yankees", as used in this area, is a general term for Northerners as a whole, including Midwesterners. It got started during the IBM "immigration" to Raleigh during the 1960s, almost all of whom were from NY (Kingston, etc). Lifelong Raleighites (Southerners, at the time) didn't know what to make of these folks who talked loudly and did things more quickly and with seemingly more impatience than had been done here in the past. Worst of all were the ones who moved here, and immediately began criticizing everything because it wasn't the way they did things "Up North", or making fun of Southern accents or Southern people. You can be sure that a group will not be welcomed when they approach a new area with this kind of attitude!
40 years later, "Yankee" is a more general term (many Northerners themselves use it) that is mostly not derogatory, it just defines someone as a non-native to the South. For example, thee has long been a joke that CARY stands for "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees", because a huge number of Northern transplants move there every year, but the term is more tongue-in-cheek than offensive. Yes, there are some Southerners who find all 'Yankees' offensive, just as there are Northerners who have innate prejudices and stereotypes about all people from the South. But most of the time, you can tell by someone's tone whether "Yankee" is meant to be a diss or simply a descriptor. Yes, I believe "Yankee go home" would count as offensive.
My family moved to Raleigh from California in 1974. At the time, the majority of those moving to the area were coming from IBM towns in New York state...not so much the city. As time passed and more companies grew or expanded in the area, transfers from other areas started appearing. They included Canadians from Northern Telecom (now Nortel), Jerseyites (is that a word?) for pharmaceutical jobs, Californians from the Silicon Valley tech industries, etc. As the city's population boomed through the 80's and 90's and areas in Texas stumbled, an influx of Mexican and Mexican American laborers found their way to the Triangle from Texas to fill the demand in construction. The universities brought in more International students and residents and the tech industry has grown the Indian and Chinese populations from the ground up over the last 30 years.
As the Triangle has gained more national exposure and has built its "brand", those who come to the area are coming on their own instead of being tranferred. I think that's a big difference now than in decades past. I have seen a lot of Florida plates as well as those from Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas, NJ, NY and the surrounding Southern states.
My experience hasn't been that the area has become more rude as much as it's become a blending of peoples and cultures. To me, that was much more evident in the 70s than it is today. Then it was all about the juxtaposition of New Yorkers and Southerners. And, even then, I found that the two cultures influenced each other rather than one of them dominating the other. I think that gives the Triangle a really balanced culture that has broad appeal to many people and continues to change as time passes.
First, many or some of these people could have left the area including their children
Well, I'm thinking of relocating to NC from South Florida which is the capital of rudeness. I'm a nice conservative guy and cannot take it any longer here. Too much traffic, foul language, loud hip hop music, many come here illegally, so the majority in South Florida are now Haitians and Jamaicans. There are also a lot of African Americans and Canadians. The customer service is the worse you can find. Whenever I do go to Bestbuy, Walmart, Costcos, the Malls etc... customer service people can be very rude. Many cannot even put a proper English sentence together. Oh well. Hopefully my move is for the better.
What a great question! This is only from a personal perspective based on non magnetic materials compositions. Raleigh is diverse and attracts big people, little people, and those that are size indifferent. It attracts the rich and the poor and those they call in the middle. If one was to travel the world over and meet all the different people's of the world and get to know their cultures you would find them living all right here in the Raleigh area if you were to look for them.
You will find a population that is late 20 something soon to be 30 somethings, starting a family or well on their way to having 2.8 children who still feel the American dream is just the next new home and car away. You will find the 40 and 50 something or another crowd that maybe empty nest-ers that are tired of the high taxes and low services of the rust belt states who decide to cash in their life monetary chips and move to the south for better weather and longer golf and tennis seasons. You will find the 60 years olds who retired and want to escape the higher taxes and lower temperatures of the north and stretch their retirement income, especially when that income comes from the tax payers of the northern states. <sweet, evil grin! ) You will find the 70 something group that will be brought down by their children to be closer to them but may or may not live with them. And lastly you will find the 80 something crowd that will bear witness to the changing face of the south who will be more than happy to tell you the way it use to be when they grew up in this place they call the south.
So I would not characterize nor polarize my answer into a specific group like New Yorkers or even ones that are based on ferrous material like those from steel town in Pittsburgh Pa. I would take a more modern looking approach and say the Raleigh area is more like "fusion" which means, ' The merging of different elements into a union', That my friends be us!
I've experienced rudeness from Southern people just as much as I've experienced rudeness from people up North. It's all relative...And bad driver habits down South are different than bad driver habits up North. There's bad drivers everywhere. In my experience, one thing I have noticed about Southern drivers is that they have no care for other drivers/people and will never give you a chance at a go, etc. At least in Southern NH or Mass where I've lived, people are more apt to give you a break. You pretty much have to take it around here...
I think your attitude determines or filters what you'd like to see or not see...The big difference in this "Southern Hospitality" thing is that Southern people that do not like you or choose to be rude to you will be nice in your face but real mean behind your back. People in Mass where I'm from are more likely to let you know up front...Big difference...It's what you prefer I guess...
To the original poster, I think the area is IDEAL if you're looking for a place to start a family. There's a huge mix of people from everywhere here and not just NY. I think NY probably dominates the transplants because they've been coming here even before the area blew up...You will find a huge mix of people from every state...There are differences in demographics in each part of the Triangle though. For example, people from metropolitan areas tend to come to Durham or DT Raleigh versus people from suburbs tend to go to Cary, etc...
As a single 30-something I have found that the Triangle seems to attract families, couples planning families, and singles looking to get attached as soon as possible in order to...start families. lol.
Of course there are many different people here for different reasons but culturally I have never lived anywhere that seeemed so "familiy-oriented".
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) You will find the 70 something group that will be brought down by their children to be closer to them but may or may not live with them. And lastly you will find the 80 something crowd that will bear witness to the changing face of the south who will be more than happy to tell you the way it use to be when they grew up in this place they call the south.
