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Comment by NTDF9 | Hacker News Reader

Raleigh is a hidden treasure. Educated populace with good schools, pretty decent jobs, yet peaceful and green.

Their only drawback is isolation from west coast hubs.

I'd say its main drawback is that its enclosing state looks like a right-wing hellscape compared to, say, Massachusetts. I know they have a Democrat in charge at the moment, but the non-urban residents of NC horrify me.

I grew up in Charlotte and a lot of my engineer friends have settled and started families in Raleigh. It's made me consider moving there when I finally burn out on the Bay Area scene.

I can personally attest that every place on that list is pretty damn nice except for Grand Rapids which is to damn cold! They all have low cost of living and a solid tech scene as well.

Don't forget cloudy too. You can go for close to a month without any sunshine around February in Grand Rapids.

Charlotte itself has gotten quite popular among my white collar Atlanta friends who are looking for a smaller town feel. The job market is soft but the city is very nice.

Yeah, I'm in LA but from NC and many of my close friends are still there. I've heard Durham has also exploded.

Not sure what you mean by isolation from west coast hubs. Is it because service from RDU still has to hop over to CLT sometimes? Because that does suck. Even flying home though, I have to connect via Atlanta to then hop to CLT sometimes. Travel was way easier when it was LAX/BUR -> DFW -> CLT.

I fly SFO -> RDU direct pretty cheaply a few times a year.

That wouldn't have anything to do with the reindeer, would it?

That's nice.

RDU is a decent airport too. Maybe not all the amenities of some but much easier than CLT or LAX.

I mean RDU has fewer direct flights to the west coast. That's where tech is, investors are, initial customers are.

NY has an advantage that there are flights to SF, SEA all day every day.

Gotcha.

Depends on what sort of work people are looking for. If you're trying to do a hyper-growth startup, then yes, unfortunately you still have to be near the VCs in SF.

Though maybe that's also changing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15849795

RTP has plenty of well-known companies that provide a solid base for employment in the area. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to have created the same sort of money flowing into startups as happened in SV back in the day.

And maybe that's a good thing. Don't want Raleigh to become another SV. Life in SV is a miserable rat race. Raleigh-Durham is fun, relaxing and a great place to raise a family.

No disagreement there. I thought you were actually arguing for the connectivity to SV and that culture.

As I argued in the thread I linked to, it might be a bit misguided for these folks to run around trying to fund a hyper-growth style startup in 'flyover country' (which I don't consider NC) when what's probably more beneficial for local communities are stable, sustainable businesses.

Seconded. It's got most of the amenities of a big city without the traffic problems or horrendous cost of living. I really miss the greenway bike paths from my college days living there!

> Raleigh is a hidden treasure.

Durham is way cooler than Raleigh!

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