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The Duke Community

East Campus

LIVING IN DURHAM

According to Rand McNally's Places Rated Almanac, the third best place to live in the United States is Duke's home city; Durham, North Carolina. That rating was based on the availability of jobs, relatively low cost of living, affordable housing, safe streets, a mild climate, culture, and recreation.

Durham is at the apex of North Carolina's famed Research Triangle, an area formed by Duke University, North Carolina State University in Raleigh (20 miles from Duke), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (11 miles from Duke). In the heart of the triangle, the Research Triangle Park covers 6,500 acres of rolling woodland dotted with some of the most sophisticated research facilities to be found anywhere. As a reporter for The Wall Street Journal once observed, the park is known for "pine trees and PhDs."

Durham has come a long way since its early days as a tobacco and textile town. Old brick tobacco warehouses have been converted into modern condominiums and specialty shops, and multinational companies have flocked to the area to take advantage of the resources of the Research Triangle. Thanks largely to the universities and the Triangle's high-tech industries, the area is one of the most pleasant places to live in the South.

The range and level of cultural attractions found here rival those in much larger (and more crowded and expensive) cities. The $20 million downtown Durham Arts Center has become a national model for community arts programs. Other attractions include the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival and the highly acclaimed American Dance Festival; outstanding art exhibits, libraries and concerts in the park; and performances by renowned symphonies, opera, and ballet companies, as well as Emanuel Azenburg's pre-Broadway productions at Duke, described by one New York critic as "some of the best theater in America, at about half the price of a Broadway show." In the movies, Durham is especially well known from "Bull Durham," which featured our popular minor league baseball team, the Durham Bulls-a Class AAA farm club for the new expansion team, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The hot dogs always taste better at the ballpark, and rooting for the Bulls in the Durham Bulls Athletic Park is among the joys of summer. The term "bull pen" was coined here by a sportswriter to describe the area where relief pitchers warm up, because in days gone by their activity was overseen by a snorting, locomotive-size bull on a Bull Durham Tobacco billboard. Having three rival NCAA schools in the Greater Durham area makes this a year-round haven for sports fans. In addition to college football and some of the best basketball anywhere, there is also soccer, lacrosse, tennis, track and field, golf, ice hockey, and competitive swimming. More information about Duke athletics can be accessed at GoDuke.com.

Whatever your game, the facilities are available here. In addition to those provided by Duke University-including a challenging Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course- the City of Durham has nine neighborhood recreation centers, 55 playgrounds, 72 tennis courts, four lakes, 14 softball fields, six baseball fields, four swimming pools and nearly 2,000 acres of park land. Durham has seven golf courses (three private), four riding stables, two racquetball clubs, and three country clubs. Fishing, rafting, and canoeing are favorite activities on the Eno River , and the Eno River City Park features the historical re-creation of the West Point Mill community.

The area's mild climate is one of the many reasons for its popularity and explosive growth. It enjoys four true seasons, none of them extreme; a profusion of dogwood and azalea blossoms in the spring and the red and gold autumn extravaganza add zest to the fine weather. Durham is equidistant from the uncrowded North Carolina beaches of the Outer Banks to the east and the Great Smoky Mountains to the west-both only about a four-hour drive away.

Durham is a center of learning in one of America's most varied and promising states, a research center, the southeastern mecca for high-tech industry and development, and a beautiful, sophisticated place to live. What's more, medicine is Durham 's leading industry, with more than 25 percent of the work force engaged in health-related occupations.