MONEY MAGAZINE ARTICLE

Money Magazine Article - Part 2

When Dudley and Marian Lacy, both 44, graduated from Duke in 1972, they thought they would shake off Durham's dust permanently. But a decade later, while the couple was living in Houston - he as an architect, she as a banker - they had second thoughts. "We wanted different values, something more low-key," Dudley recalls. And cheaper. Marian hoped to quit her job and become a stay-at-home mother , caring for Anne, now 11, and Julia, 9. After looking at several East Coast cities, Durham won out, in part because Research Triangle Park and Raleigh, the capital city 20 miles away, offered excellent opportunities for Dudley, who specializes in corporate, government, and research and development projects.

Since the Lacys moved back in 1984, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill has dolled itself up. Where steakhouses and barbecue once ruled, the buzz now is about restaurants like the Magnolia Grill and Nana's, whose chefs have gained national recognition from magazine restaurant critics. Shows on their way to Broadway regularly stop first at Duke. "We saw Laughter on the 23rd Floor," says Dudley, "and Neil Simon was sitting five seats away taking notes." More important, says Marian, "Research Triangle Park is drawing in lots of different types of people, so the area feels more cosmopolitan." Furthermore, there's a genuine feeling of security. "I can bike, jog or walk Calvin [the bassett hound] by myself and never feel worried," says Anne. Concludes Marian: "It's been a great move for all of us." A year ago, Dudley's retired parents left Irving, N.Y. to settle here too. Marian's mother has lived in Durham for 45 years.

An astonishing range of people have found their niche in this 30-mile section of the Carolina Piedmont, nestled between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Atlantic beaches. Chapel Hill, for example, has become a regional rock center, with two record labels, and more than 50 area clubs host local bands, including Chainsaw Kittens and Combustible Edison. Yet retirees like Herb and Rita Fussman feel at home among the rockers. Rita, 60, is going for her bachelor's in history at UNC. She and her twentyish cohorts study together, then order in pizza from Domino's. Herb plays tennis and studies at the Duke Institute for Learning in Retirement.

It's true that some old-timers grouse about all the new people arriving: "We used to have easy access to Raleigh before the Yankees came pouring down and clogged the highways," says one. And natives joke that Cary, a fast-growing upscale community just west of Raleigh, is an acronym for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees. Still, the economy has room for all of those new hands and brains. Local area job growth hit a robust 4.9% over the 12 months that ended in February, according to Arizona State University's Economic Outlook Center. Little surprise, then, that US Housing Markets, a quarterly trade report, has just named Raleigh\Durham\Chapel Hill the nation's fifth hottest housing market. " A year ago it took about three months to sell a home. Now a good property is gone in a week," says Century 21 Haywood Davis Realtors agent Norma Van Vleet.

If you're thinking about making the area your home, it helps to be nuts about college basketball. Although there are no pro sports teams here - the NFL's Carolina Panthers will play 135 miles away when they get going next fall - the local Atlantic Coast Conference schools more than make up for that deficit. Carolina's Tar Heels were the '93 champs and Duke's Blue Devils won the title the two previous years.

Oh, yes, a tiny minority of residents do grumble about the boringly beautiful weather. "It's never really hot or really cold, and there are no blizzards," complains young Julia Lacy. But New Yorkers, who shoveled out from 17 snowstorms last winter, might see things a bit differently.

Money Magazine Article Part 1