Is Raleigh NC a good relocation area for African Americans?

[leolah01]

Considering relocating to Raleigh from Norfolk VA. Is Raleigh a diverse area? I am a single professional and would be interested in the types of cultural events & nightlife choices there are for African Americans in the area.

[dmccall]

Yes? No? Raleigh is a great place to live with a low crime rate, low unemployment rate, and many entertainment options. Does the color of one's skin matter???

[krazeeboi]

Yes? No? Raleigh is a great place to live with a low crime rate, low unemployment rate, and many entertainment options. Does the color of one's skin matter???

On another forum in a discussion about Houston possibly being the "next Black mecca," a similar sentiment was shared by one of the forumers (about the color of one's skin being a factor in choosing where to live) and the following response was given. I think it is important and relevant here as well:

Also, it appears that some non-African Americans perception of what the African American experience is, is different than what many African Americans experience it as. Trust me when I say no one wants America to be colorblind more than African Americans, but the reality is we as a society are not quite there yet despite all of the progress.

Something else to consider is the simple fact that although we are all Americans, there are indeed cultural difference between races in this country and African Americans are no different. Can I easily purchase greens in Seattle? Can I easily find a place to braid my daughter's hair in Portland? Does Shirley Ceasar regularly make a stop in San Diego when she tours? Do the Chittlin' Circuit Plays stop in Austin so I can laugh at Tyler Perry as "Madea"? All of these things can make a difference, and when you couple that with a healthy job market, great educational opportunities, a 2500 sf home @ 125k, warm weather, and a welcoming environment, life can become a little bit smoother.

So essentially, yes; it does matter.

[DanRNC]

I would see Durham as more diverse at least in leadership roles and business ownership than Raleigh. Shirley Ceasar, on an off note, lives in Durham.

[closeminded]

Raleigh isn't bad, but it's definately no where at the top of the list for a place Black people would really enjoy. Atlanta and Houston are truly the black meccas of the south. Most Caucasions, love Raleigh, but most Blacks find it hard to relate here. I personally wish I could move, but I have established a firm base here, plus my family's base is here also.

Also I forgot. Try Charlotte if you are looking for something in N.C. It's definately more diverse. Check it out.

[Tayfromcarolina]

Raleigh is a great place for African-Americans. I should know. I also am a young (22) single professional, I work in downtown Raleigh and live in North Raleigh near the new mall. There is always lots to do as far as entertainment with concerts and a vibrant night life. Always plenty of stage plays and great resturants to check out. i.e. Bahama Breeze on Wake Forest Rd. Also plenty of job oppurtunities and housing also. Check out the following websites and feel free to pm me if you have any questions about the area

Dynasty 5 productions

Urbancowboyz

A-List NC A Great Site

[metropolitan]

I agree with closeminded, as a Afr-Am transplant to NC that has perspective of having lived in both Triangle and Charlotte. Raleigh is nice, but Charlotte is much more diverse and has more to offer...unless perhaps you're college age. Charlotte has a more professional set, and although there's significant in-migration to both places, my sense is that Afr-Am relocations here are much higher. I'm single also, professional, well-educated, and I enjoy it here. You should broaden your search. Also, not a bad place to be if you're a GBM, there's lots to do.

[leolah01]

Raleigh isn't bad, but it's definately no where at the top of the list for a place Black people would really enjoy. Atlanta and Houston are truly the black meccas of the south. Most Caucasions, love Raleigh, but most Blacks find it hard to relate here. I personally wish I could move, but I have established a firm base here, plus my family's base is here also.

Also I forgot. Try Charlotte if you are looking for something in N.C. It's definately more diverse. Check it out.

Thanks for such informative responses. I will defintely keep them in mind. As a member of the "30-somethings", diversity and options of "things to do" are factors to consider when considering relocation.

[Subway Scoundrel]

I agree with closeminded, as a Afr-Am transplant to NC that has perspective of having lived in both Triangle and Charlotte. Raleigh is nice, but Charlotte is much more diverse and has more to offer...unless perhaps you're college age. Charlotte has a more professional set, and although there's significant in-migration to both places, my sense is that Afr-Am relocations here are much higher. I'm single also, professional, well-educated, and I enjoy it here. You should broaden your search. Also, not a bad place to be if you're a GBM, there's lots to do.

Sorry, I just don't buy the comment "Charlotte has a more professional set" and "unless perhaps you're college age". That is such BS !. Sorry again, but just not true. Yep, if you lived in Cary, it is true, but I go to both Charlotte and Raleigh and especially with the tech sector here in Raleigh, both comments don't hold water..... Raleigh has high tech people who are professional but don't wear ties, but are still professionals and the Triangle is much more than college students....

[ncwebguy]

In my opinion, Raleigh has done the best job with desegregation in the state. The New York Times recently did a front page story about the economic mixing of public schools in the area producing great results. There are two historically black colleges near the downtown area -- Shaw and St. Augestine's -- and the neighborhoods that surround them. The MEAC has recently moved its basketball tournament to Raleigh's RBC Center. A couple of jazz clubs have recently closed, but a couple of new ones appear to be on the horizon.

Durham was once known as the "black wall street" with a large concentration of A-A owned businesses including banks, insurance companies, etc. NC Central also attracts lecturers, etc. and there is also the Bull City Blues festival in Durham Athletic Park. Several jazz musicians and singers call Durham home.

Durham does have a reputation of being higer crime for a city of its size and gangs seem to be on the rise there.

Charlotte has recently upped the ante with Robert Johnson (former owner of BET) bringing the Bobcats to town, which begat the new downtown arena, which in turn led to the CIAA basetball tournament's move

from Raleigh to Charlotte, despite Raleigh making it into one of the premier college sporting events.

(Not that we're bitter or anything) It seems there is a lot of self-segregation in Charlotte, moreso than

the rest of the state. It has all the big city perks, but also the big city problems.

[closeminded]

It's not really an issue of segregation. The problem is, there aren't any affluent black areas in Raleigh. Kb Homes and a couple of below par shopping centers don't cut it. There is a stark contrast between southeast Raleigh and the neighboring districts of town. Southeast Raleigh is pathetically underdeveloped. I feel as though the council members who represent southeast Raleigh have failed by a large degree in making sure that we stay competitive. There is the unknown southeast Raleigh, then the rest of the city. If you ask me, the place has to be atleast 20 years behind. Even in east Raleigh where there is a great percentage of black population, there is still a little sense of abandonment.

Having just a "couple" of places where blacks can relate and enjoy themselves isn't enough. The black population in Raleigh is 100,000+.

Raleigh might have a better Racial situation than "some" other cities, but it's very far down the list. Raleigh still suffers from racism and economic class issues.

[JunktionFET]

Though I can understand the argument about ethnic differences and the need to "identify with" people that look like you, shared your childhood heros, etc... I really don't like the idea of having specific "affluent" areas for any racial group, black, white, asian, or whatever. While I'm sure no one here means it this way, it sounds like an unhealthy way to think--it continues to draw that line that I really hope most people in my generation have gotten the hell past.

At any rate, compared to many places, the primary form of segregation that occurs in the Triangle is economic. While there are lower income neighborhoods that feature a majority of black or hispanic people, the middle class and especially the upper class seem to all live together with no pattern, and seem to think nothing of it.

This conversation has reminded me about my parents' neighborhood in Cary. The homes there range from $300k to $500k and it is also a pretty diverse. There are two asian families and three black families on their street alone. Cary is primarily white (80% I believe), so this mix of cultures is striking IMO. Cary's asian population outnumbers the black population too I believe.

[ngp]

This thread might help you:

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...opic=15786&st=0

There are some great responses there.

[Subway Scoundrel]

It's not really an issue of segregation. The problem is, there aren't any affluent black areas in Raleigh. Kb Homes and a couple of below par shopping centers don't cut it. There is a stark contrast between southeast Raleigh and the neighboring districts of town. Southeast Raleigh is pathetically underdeveloped. I feel as though the council members who represent southeast Raleigh have failed by a large degree in making sure that we stay competitive. There is the unknown southeast Raleigh, then the rest of the city. If you ask me, the place has to be atleast 20 years behind. Even in east Raleigh where there is a great percentage of black population, there is still a little sense of abandonment.

Having just a "couple" of places where blacks can relate and enjoy themselves isn't enough. The black population in Raleigh is 100,000+.

Raleigh might have a better Racial situation than "some" other cities, but it's very far down the list. Raleigh still suffers from racism and economic class issues.

Closeminded,---Pointing to SouthEast Raleigh and then comparing it to other neighbothoods in Charlotte is not fair. But not just point out one neighborhood and then compare it against an entire city. I could say the same thing about neighborhoods in Charlotte, especially around DT and say it doesn't compare against the Triangle and that would just as unfair.

[ncwebguy]

It's not really an issue of segregation. The problem is, there aren't any affluent black areas in Raleigh. Kb Homes and a couple of below par shopping centers don't cut it. There is a stark contrast between southeast Raleigh and the neighboring districts of town. Southeast Raleigh is pathetically underdeveloped. I feel as though the council members who represent southeast Raleigh have failed by a large degree in making sure that we stay competitive. There is the unknown southeast Raleigh, then the rest of the city. If you ask me, the place has to be atleast 20 years behind. Even in east Raleigh where there is a great percentage of black population, there is still a little sense of abandonment.

Having just a "couple" of places where blacks can relate and enjoy themselves isn't enough. The black population in Raleigh is 100,000+.

Raleigh might have a better Racial situation than "some" other cities, but it's very far down the list. Raleigh still suffers from racism and economic class issues.

Why aren't there affluent black areas in Raleigh? Because the black community has long equated moving up with moving out. There are handfuls of African-American developers ready to build yet another community center, strip mall, or apartment complex, but *none* want to build a house you can't use a section 8 voucher for. Whose fault is this?

Southeast Raleigh is 20, if not 30 years behind the rest of the city because a few "developers" bought and razed several landmarks of the black community in the 60s and 70s in the eastern part of downtown, mostly around the Pope house across Wilmington from the current civic center. From then on, neighborhood activists fought tooth and nail to keep any and all development out of the area, and they *won*. Time has yet to heal these wounds. Until the Kroger on MLK opened a couple of years ago, the only two grocery stores in southeast raleigh were the Winn-Dixie (now closed) and the Food Lion on Rock Quarry, just outside the beltline. Neither of these stores were close to "average" and the shopping centers they were part of struggled as a result. The next closest grocery stores were Jimmy's city market (now closed) and the Food Lion off Raleigh Blvd, which may be on par with the rock quarry location, but slightly below the already sub-par food lion chain.

The city's dollars followed the development, adding little to no new infrastructure to Southeast, with sidewalks few and far between a few blocks east of East street. only New Bern, Poole, Raleigh Blvd/Rock Quarry, and MLK are more than two lane roads, with a lot of interior roads being only one lane.

In addition to this, the police were told they weren't welcome, as residents grew suspicous of substations/presences on East street, Halifax, and Chavis housing projects. In the 90s the Fetzer and Coble administrations went further and cut off any non-federally mandated funding to Southeast, while diverting as much as possible their north and west constituents.

There *are* black middle class neighborhoods along New Hope, Poole, Rock Quarry, Crosslink, and Garner roads, but all outside the beltline, so I guess they don't count? How "abandoned' is east raleigh with the 64 bypass and improvments to just about every road that runs north from old 64?

District C Councilman/Mayor Pro tem James West has faced little competition for the city council seat, running unopposed this and last election. Yesterday's 2,862 votes were the fewest of any district. Seeing this, the two at-large seats have only seen southeast raleigh in their rear view mirror, if at all. Hopefully this will change after yesterday's election, but time will tell. One glimmer of hope -- wake county schools putting several magnets in the area -- may be in jeopardy depending on how those elections turn out.

Blacks can, and do enjoy themselves all over the city -- the malls, glenwood south, city market, garner -- not just southeast raleigh. But once any non-black people support some place, it automatically isn't good enough? How many "black only" places survive?

The New Bern and Raleigh Blvd. corridors are alive, but hardly thriving. To say nothing of the African-American cultural center off Sunnybrook. Maybe the 100,000 citizens are voting with their dollars and saying no? Do all other ethnicities have to leave so African-Americans can "relate"? MLK had a dream of childern of various races playing together, but Southeast Raleigh doesn't want that, but does want his statue.

With the redevelopment of downtown, there are some signs of things changing. The "invisible wall" between DT and SE however, is still strong, with its support coming from the east side and Southeast Raleigh Assembly.