more complaining about where I live
I feel like whenever I post in here, I'm mostly ranting about hating Raleigh. I really don't hate Raleigh. I like the city; it's a nice city. I just don't LOVE it I guess. Plus, it's not home. Anyway, an article in the newspaper this week confirmed a suspicion I have long held about Raleigh. Out of the 52 largest metropolitan areas in the country, Raleigh was ranked the 6th most dangerous city in the country for pedestrians. What a surprise that was. Ever since I moved here, I have hated how pedestrian-unfriendly this city is. Most streets don't have sidewalks. Many streets are 5 to 8 lanes across (sometimes even more) and very few have crosswalks. As the more indepth article at t4america.org points out, the most dangerous cities are largely in the west and southeast because these cities were largely developed within the last 20-30 years when streets have mostly just been developed for cars, unlike many streets in the northeast which were developed long ago to handle horses and buggies and stuff.
Now I just need the stats to also show that Raleigh is also a very dangerous city for drivers as well. It's not very often in the Cleveland news that I heard of fatal car accidents. However, fatal car accidents seem much more common here in Raleigh. I can't help but think that the much higher speed limits have something to do with it. Although I have become more used to the speed limits here, for about the first year I lived here it was very scary. It felt very unsafe, especially when you aren't familiar with where places are located. Looking for stores or reading street signs when whooshing past them at 45+ miles per hour is not easy.
I can't wait to finish school and start looking for a new job. I really would like to find a job back in Ohio. Raleigh offers nothing to keep me here. I keep reading about all the growth plans the city has for improvement, but all those plans won't be completed for years, it not decades. And frankly, I feel very uncomfortable raising any children here, Partly because of the pedestrian safety issues. When I was a kid, I walked or rode my bike everywhere. Here in Raleigh, not only is walking or riding your bike dangerous, there also nothing to ride your bike to. We don't live close to any libraries, parks or swimming pools. It's not like Raleigh has much of these things to begin with. The middle school and high school are extremely far away too. Which gets into an even bigger problem I have with raising any kids here. The school downright suck. Raleigh thinks it has good schools, but it totally does not. The schools are extremely overcrowded. One of the local high schools has housed all it's 9th graders in an old supermarket in a shopping center because there are no room for them at the regular campus with the 10th-12th graders. On top of that, US News does high school rankings, and I was checking them out recently. Instead of numerical rankings, they just do medals for schools, but I was sorely unimpressed with the schools in this area. Most of the schools in the Cleveland area got medals, even schools like Lakewood High School and John Marshall that Clevelanders would not consider the best schools in the area got medals. Only TWO schools in the entirety of Wake County got medals, Raleigh Charter School and a high school in Cary. That's just sad. It's especially sad that only one school in all of Cary got a medal. Cary is considered a more wealthy and affluent town and they have several high schools there. Yet only ONE of their high schools got a medal? Something just doesn't add up here.
Now I just need the stats to also show that Raleigh is also a very dangerous city for drivers as well. It's not very often in the Cleveland news that I heard of fatal car accidents. However, fatal car accidents seem much more common here in Raleigh. I can't help but think that the much higher speed limits have something to do with it. Although I have become more used to the speed limits here, for about the first year I lived here it was very scary. It felt very unsafe, especially when you aren't familiar with where places are located. Looking for stores or reading street signs when whooshing past them at 45+ miles per hour is not easy.
I can't wait to finish school and start looking for a new job. I really would like to find a job back in Ohio. Raleigh offers nothing to keep me here. I keep reading about all the growth plans the city has for improvement, but all those plans won't be completed for years, it not decades. And frankly, I feel very uncomfortable raising any children here, Partly because of the pedestrian safety issues. When I was a kid, I walked or rode my bike everywhere. Here in Raleigh, not only is walking or riding your bike dangerous, there also nothing to ride your bike to. We don't live close to any libraries, parks or swimming pools. It's not like Raleigh has much of these things to begin with. The middle school and high school are extremely far away too. Which gets into an even bigger problem I have with raising any kids here. The school downright suck. Raleigh thinks it has good schools, but it totally does not. The schools are extremely overcrowded. One of the local high schools has housed all it's 9th graders in an old supermarket in a shopping center because there are no room for them at the regular campus with the 10th-12th graders. On top of that, US News does high school rankings, and I was checking them out recently. Instead of numerical rankings, they just do medals for schools, but I was sorely unimpressed with the schools in this area. Most of the schools in the Cleveland area got medals, even schools like Lakewood High School and John Marshall that Clevelanders would not consider the best schools in the area got medals. Only TWO schools in the entirety of Wake County got medals, Raleigh Charter School and a high school in Cary. That's just sad. It's especially sad that only one school in all of Cary got a medal. Cary is considered a more wealthy and affluent town and they have several high schools there. Yet only ONE of their high schools got a medal? Something just doesn't add up here.