I spent this past Saturday at BarCampRDU. As I mentioned previously, some good questions came up relating to general business development, marketing and sales.
But several folks who had recently relocated, or who were considering relocating, were curious as to how I got "plugged in" after moving here. Some folks I know who don’t live here were equally curious as to why I moved here in the first place.
So I figured I’d do some posts on relocating to the area. If you know someone heading this way and think the info is valuable, send them on over…
In this inaugural post, I thought I’d address the whys of moving here. I’ll get on to other topics in future posts. But before Why comes What…
What is RTP?
First of all, what is RTP? The actual Research Triangle Park is an area between Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh, but RTP is commonly used as a catch-all for the whole area.
Back before the dawn of time (1959), some smart politicians (I’m actually not being sarcastic here, really) had the foresight to set aside a bunch of land and try and create a research park area that would be a magnet for technology of all kinds. You can read all about it on about page at the RTP website. A quick taste: "Situated in the heart of North Carolina, The Research Triangle Park today comprises 7,000 total acres and is home to more than 150 organizations that employ more than 39,000 full-time professionals. While commonly referred to as the Silicon Valley of the East, the Park has endured its share of challenges but has come out on top".
I have only been here 9 months, but this is the ONLY place that I’ve seen RTP referred to as the Silicon Valley of the East, so adjust your expectations a little.
Moving along… As mentioned, there are three cities/towns in the immediate area: Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh. Chapel Hill is your funky lefty recycley college town. Durham is a bit more urban and real. Raleigh (which to me includes Cary, Morrisville and Wake Forest, but that will be a sin for some folks) is a _lot_ more suburban overall. Think recumbent trike versus Scion versus SUV-Minivanland to get a basic feel for each town.
If you move here from anywhere of any size (Phoenix in my case), the distance between the three is trivial (~20 miles or less). If you’re local, you’ll probably consider me crazy to happily pop to Chapel Hill for lunch.
The local airport is Raleigh/Durham International (RDU), which is why you’ll see local events, like BarCamp, with RDU worked in to the title. It’s pretty small and flights in and out of here to interesting places will almost certainly involve a change of planes somewhere else.
Overall, the area is a nice mix of folks from around the world. Again, depends where you are from. Compared to Phoenix, RTP is fantastically diverse. If you’re coming from the Valley or NYC, you’ll be unimpressed.
My biggest gripe so far is the food. Restaurants here are, on average, pretty bad. I’m really not a food snob and have no problem with chains (used to be a regular at Chilis in Phoenix) — the food and service here is just pretty bad. And I’m English, so I have some expertise in bad service and terrible food. There are some standouts that I’ve discovered, but they are the exception and not the rule.
Why RTP?
Since moving to the US, I’ve mostly lived in Phoenix, with a brief stint in Silicon Valley. My reasons for moving here were combination of personal and professional.
Personal first:
- Housing: the property market here has just been growing steadily. No bang, no bust, just nice growth. There does seem to be some concept of town planning/growth control (100% absent from Phoenix) and plenty of neighborhoods are well established. Prices are very reasonable compared to other major urban areas. I traded a 1400 square foot 3-bed 2-bath home in Phoenix for a 3000 square foot 4-bed, 3-bath on 2.4 acres. If the Phoenix market hadn’t crashed so hard, there would have been no difference in price.
- Weather: we have seasons, but none of them brutal. Summer is hot
and humid, but not a Phoenix 120. Winters are cold-ish, but not really
sub-zero. We had maybe 1" of snow this past winter. - Schools: Wake County and Orange County both have excellent schools. There’s been some turmoil recently with all the growth, but they still seem far ahead of Phoenix to me.
Professional:
- Something of a tech center: RTP has brought some big name tech companies to the area. RedHat, Cisco, IBM, Lenovo and plenty of others are here.
- Universities: UNC, Duke and NC State are all here, plus a host of other colleges. Each has it’s strengths, but all are pretty darned good as far as I can tell.
- Talent (relating to the above): there’s a nice local talent pool to pull from
Before I decided to move, I considered Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Austin, Boulder and Atlanta. California was out for two reasons: the cost of housing and the ability to build a stable business. Competition for good people in CA is fierce. I saw that first hand while I was there. Building and keeping a brain-trust together is almost impossible as a startup. New York and Boston were expensive and too cold in the winter for me. While Austin is the only part of Texas I would live in, it’s gotten pretty expensive. Not to mention that much of the tech there centers around semi-conductors or PC manufacturers. Colorado seemed interesting, but I wasn’t crazy about Boulder the last time I was there (some time ago) and my wife and I weren’t crazy about being even more land-locked than we were in Phoenix. Atlanta went in the "too expensive" category too.
All in all, RTP seemed like an area where I could balance the needs of my personal life with the needs of my professional life. We came out for a week and a half to see how it was, and obviously I liked it enough to move out here…
More in the next relo post.
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