@Bryan Danielson
I'm not originally from the East Coast ir the South, but I've lived in alot of places and I travel alot, so I tend to have conversations like this in my real life. Because I travel alot domestically, I meet a ton of other people who do the same...
In the same sense, I think not being from the East Coast or the South, gives me a broader perspective of place, than people who haven't lived or traveled much outside their home region...
I personally rank Charlotte above Baltimore and Austin, and I'd say 'most' people do as well, but there is some push back to that----->especially when it comes to Baltimore. There are a LOT of people who favor Baltimore over Charlotte....
I've never been to Austin, but I've been to Baltimore and few times. Can't nobody convince me that Baltimore is a stronger city than Charlotte, not in 2025. Before 2015, sure, but I think Charlotte passed Baltimore in the late 10s. I stand on that, but there are a lot of people who disagree with me and love Baltimore...
I'm saying that to say, while I have Charlotte over Baltimore, spending so much time in cities I rank ahead of Charlotte, truly highlight what Charlotte lacks. Denver is right ahead of Charlotte for me, and San Diego right in front of Denver----->but Charlotte is quite a ways away from being even an equal to that SD/Denver level...
I've grown to love Raleigh. Its a smaller city than Charlotte, so all the cities in Raleigh's weight class are also smaller than Charlotte, and as such Raleigh has less ground to cover between it and those cities. Raleigh is already fairly close to all the cities between my #38 (Milwaukee) and #26 (Nashville). Raleigh could conceivably leap most or all of those cities and become a fringe-Top 25 city, in a quicker amount of time than it takes for Charlotte to catch Denver and San Diego...
Do I expect that to happen? Not really, because everybody else's city isn't just sitting idle while Raleigh booms, and same for Charlotte. But Raleigh is closer to being a Top 25 city, than Charlotte is to being a Top 15 city...
I'll repeat this though, both cities are a good distance away, and as it is i think its dope that NC has two cities continuing to expand their national reputations. Charlotte is a legit Top 20 city, Raleigh is a legit Top 40 city. When people call these places "boring" and shyt like that, I vehemently disagree. If you really out in either city there's plenty going on...
Raleigh and Charlotte are the Carolina version of Dallas and Houston...
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