FWIW, center of city to center of city, Raleigh and Durham, which basically don’t border each other, are almost as far apart as Dallas and Fort Worth, which don’t border each other at all. Raleigh and Cary, which do share a significant border, are almost exactly as far apart as Minneapolis and St. Paul, which also share a significant border. So the correct analogy depends on who you’re considering Raleigh’s junior partner to be.
I’d be curious to see some examples of Raleigh actively marketing itself as a quaint, sleepy, quiet town. I realize some people have that perception, but I’d be really interested to see some examples where the city has actively leaned into that as a marketing strategy, because I’m not aware of any instances where the city has done that.
@John yeah, plenty of reason to think both the Triangle and Charlotte could support pro sports teams in the same league some day. Historically I think there’s been some concern that college football and basketball in the Triangle would crowd out interest in pro football or basketball, and there just aren’t a lot of hockey fans in Charlotte. So that leaves MLS (which is, I keep pointing out, not even remotely as popular as the NHL, let alone the others), and MLB. It seems kind of weird to think about given that there are currently zero MLB teams in the Carolinas, but you could absolutely support one in each city, I would think, at least in the very near future. But as @Francisco correctly pointed out, Charlotte has a huge leg up because of its proximity to South Carolina, which is a pretty significant market in its own right. Cities can do their best to improve certain things about themselves, but Raleigh can’t control where South Carolina is.