Raleigh Metro Area Among Top 50 Most Populated U.S. Cities

Brian Sears
03/28 03:13 PM

I consider this to be a single metro area from Zebulon to Carrboro. Many companies serve the entire RTP area. This is a single media market for Radio and T.V.  Where do we rank if Raleigh and Durham are combined?

John
03/29 12:44 AM

If Raleigh and Durham were combined, we’d be the same size as the aforementioned Austin, TX.  We’d be bigger than the Jacksonville, Richmond, Louisville and Salt Lake City MSAs, etc. 
It was very damaging to the visibility of the Triangle to have been split into 2/3 - 1/3.  Frankly, it damages Durham’s MSA more than Raleigh since it sits at less than half the size of the Raleigh/Cary MSA.  Conversely, it elevates Cary’s visibility because it’s now a named city in the fastest growing MSA in the country.  I had heard that Durham actually petitioned to be separated.  If this is true, I have no Earthly idea what they were thinking!

gd
03/29 08:37 AM

Raleigh has been on this list what seems like for at least 2/3 years now right?  Regardless of it being on these type of lists, Raleigh still feels hella small town.

rl
03/29 08:45 AM

who cares? raleigh durham chapel hill is the way i’ve seen it always. who the hell had the idea to turn it into raleigh/cary and then durham/chapel hill? st paul and minneapolis are still in the same metro and they are not as close as raleigh and durham. i wouldnt be surprised if durham did in fact ask to be split i remember when they had a problem with the raleigh/durham airport naming having raleighs name in front of durham i mean lets be for real raleigh is twice that of durham and wake county is three times that of durham county.

gd
03/29 10:36 AM

I get tired of hearing “Raleigh-Durham” when I travel and tell people im from Raleigh.  It is almost always followed by “oh, Raleigh-Durham?”

ScottN
03/29 10:54 AM

gd, it is not as bad as where I used to live, Tampa.  I had people insist I lived in Tampa Bay, despite telling them I could not breathe underwater.

gd
03/29 11:34 AM

Haha.  I have heard Tampa referred to it as Tampa Bay a LOT.

John
03/29 12:02 PM

I had an argument with a Durhamite once.  He wanted to have two metros because he was convinced that EVERYTHING that that gave the Triangle kudos was in Durham.  While I disagreed with him, I decided to just play along.  So, I said: Fine, get your own airport…after all, the airport is Wake County.  Does anyone remember when Money magazine first listed the Triangle as the best place to live in the country?  Money (who is affiliated with ABC Network) reached out to WTVD to build the story and they, in turn, pretty much gave the entire story to Durhamites and provided a Durham bent to the story.  In fact, the Durham city officials knew about the honor way in advance of Raleigh.  So much for regional cooperation!

As for Minneapolis and St. Paul, they are closer to each other than Raleigh and Durham.  So, that’s a weak argument. Nonetheless, I agree that the Triangle is ONE MSA.

joe
03/29 04:25 PM

Couldn’t you guys put a more updated photo in here? 

As for Durham, if you want to get a ‘cap’ in your ass, its the perfect place to be.

You know the one advantage Raleigh has over most cities….....We HAVE DURHAM!!
We can just keep the crap tucked away 20 miles away versus most cities that have to incorporate this into their own cities.

mcm
03/29 10:25 PM

I don’t know anything about Minneapolis and St. Paul, but I don’t know how they could be closer than Raleigh and Durham. They’re side by side! That is if your driving on hwy 70…

matt w
03/29 11:00 PM

I used to live in MSP.  The difference is that the downtown cores of Minneapolis and St. Paul are much closer than the same for Raleigh and Durham, let alone Chapel Hill.  That said, to anyone that doesn’t live here, Raleigh, Durham, and CH are pretty much the same place.  It would make more sense to put them all together as an MSA.

John
03/30 12:06 AM

DT Minneapolis to DT St Paul is only about 9 miles.  That’s a lot closer than DT Raleigh to DT Durham.

Brian Sears
03/30 01:14 AM

Thanks for the information, to John and others.
As for Joe and his thinly veiled racist remark, that sentiment is wide spread amongst Raleighites. And while I too think that the ‘bad’ neighborhoods in Durham are more widespread, there are great neighborhoods in Durham also. There is an obvious difference in racial makeup between the two cities. But the tension between the cities is more than that, it goes to how the money has been made. Historically speaking. Durham is a blue collar town that made it’s money in manufacturing. Raleigh is a government town, more white collar jobs. Everything else fall from that.

arthurb3
03/30 11:00 AM

I agree with gd. People here Raleigh-Durham for he airport and think Raleigh-Durham is a city. I am sure the Dallas-Fort Worth people go throught the same thing?

matt w
03/30 12:21 PM

I think people know Dallas and Ft. Worth are separate because Dallas is such a beast of a city on its own.  The population of the entire triangle would fit in a few square blocks of Dallas.

(yes, this is hyperbole, please move on)

rl
03/30 02:09 PM

durham does have some nice neighborhoods but lets face it… it is way more hood than raleigh lol. i agree that durham is blue collar kinda like greensboro and charlotte, raleigh is white collar. the two need to work out their differences and merge again i mean damn!

rl
03/30 02:12 PM

one more thing, if anything is a burden… its CARY… i hate that place!

ernie
03/30 03:33 PM

Why don’t we combine all of Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill and rename it RTP City?

ernie
03/30 03:34 PM

RTP Burgh?

john
04/03 05:05 PM

After a monthlong stay in Savannah, even with the “so called high crime rate and bad schools” Raleigh is indeed lacking in metro status.  Savannah is half the size but more urban/city feel than the suburb of Raleigh.  Technically Raleigh is indeed a city, but realistically—-not even close