Athens vs Durham
Oct. 7th, 2008 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaI am supposed to be writing an essay, but my coworker is meeting with a student and I find it impossible to concentrate with them talking. Must consider earphones and classical music; this happens a fair amount. Or plan all writing for before 10am.
I have been really interested by the contrasts between Athens and Durham. Both are smallish cities, college towns, drops of blue in mostly red states. But they are VERY different.
In Durham, almost everyone I knew who was similar to me in demographic profile (latte-drinkin', volvo-drivin' elite-educated liberal types) was not from Durham, from NC, or from the south. At work, in my neighborhood, parents of the kids' classmates, all tended to be from New Jersey or Seoul or DC or California or Maine. The native Durhamites I knew socially were mostly the children of Duke professors. Very few had southern accents.
In Athens, I work most closely with 6 librarians. They are from AL, SC, FL, GA, NC (and, well, Connecticut). Two of them have strong southern accents (AL and SC). Athens feels much more southern than Durham to me. Interestingly, the parts of it I inhabit don't feel any less liberal - but it's a native southern liberalism, not a transplanted West Coast or Bos-Wash liberalism. I can't yet articulate how it's different, but it is.
Athens feels more segregated than Durham to me; there is no black middle class here as far as I can tell, and the poverty rate among minorities in general is high(er even than Durham). Athens is more a one-industry town than Durham, that industry being UGA, and Atlanta is further than Raleigh, and there's no RTP equivalent. Athens is more truly a college town than Durham, and I suspect is more like Chapel Hill in some respects (student demographics at a state university being rather different from those at Duke).
The weather's about the same, though. It's actually been a remarkably lovely early fall. Athens is horticultural zone 7b, where Durham was on the 7a/7b line.
I have been really interested by the contrasts between Athens and Durham. Both are smallish cities, college towns, drops of blue in mostly red states. But they are VERY different.
In Durham, almost everyone I knew who was similar to me in demographic profile (latte-drinkin', volvo-drivin' elite-educated liberal types) was not from Durham, from NC, or from the south. At work, in my neighborhood, parents of the kids' classmates, all tended to be from New Jersey or Seoul or DC or California or Maine. The native Durhamites I knew socially were mostly the children of Duke professors. Very few had southern accents.
In Athens, I work most closely with 6 librarians. They are from AL, SC, FL, GA, NC (and, well, Connecticut). Two of them have strong southern accents (AL and SC). Athens feels much more southern than Durham to me. Interestingly, the parts of it I inhabit don't feel any less liberal - but it's a native southern liberalism, not a transplanted West Coast or Bos-Wash liberalism. I can't yet articulate how it's different, but it is.
Athens feels more segregated than Durham to me; there is no black middle class here as far as I can tell, and the poverty rate among minorities in general is high(er even than Durham). Athens is more a one-industry town than Durham, that industry being UGA, and Atlanta is further than Raleigh, and there's no RTP equivalent. Athens is more truly a college town than Durham, and I suspect is more like Chapel Hill in some respects (student demographics at a state university being rather different from those at Duke).
The weather's about the same, though. It's actually been a remarkably lovely early fall. Athens is horticultural zone 7b, where Durham was on the 7a/7b line.