* Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill – What’s the Difference?
Saturday, November 27th, 2010
Recently, I was working with someone moving to the Triangle who asked me “How would you describe the three cities of the Triangle? And why do you prefer Durham to Chapel Hill and Raleigh?” It’s a good question, as each city has a different personality and character. Here is what I told her.
First of all, Raleigh is our “big city.” It is the largest city of the Triangle in the largest county in the area. It has just about everything, both good and bad, that a big city has — professional sports teams, several major concert/event venues, “good” and “bad” parts of town and so on. Raleigh also tends to compare itself to other larger cities (usually Charlotte), before looking at the other parts of the Triangle.
Chapel Hill, on the other hand, is the quintessential college town. It is much smaller than Raleigh or Durham [Chapel Hill is a quarter the size of Durham, and a sixth the size of Raleigh], and University of North Carolina is by far the town’s major employer. Much of the character of Chapel Hill is defined by the University and it’s student body.
Durham is the happy medium of those two extremes. It has a college town area, just like Chapel Hill (except with a darker shade of blue). It has many of the features of a small town, such as a vibrant Farmers Market and strong annual city-wide festivals. Plus, it have many of the features of a larger city, including a first class performing arts center and a professional sports team.
So, in many ways, the Triangle is like the beds in Goldilocks’ story. Raleigh is big, Chapel Hill is small, and Durham is just right.
[Although what really makes the Triangle special, in my opinion, is that the big city, the mid-sized city and the college town usually work together to solve common problems. Sometimes that doesn't happen in more traditional city & suburb areas]
Photo credits: Doug Kerr, Ildar Sagdejev
