I've lived in both Charlotte and Raleigh and can say without a doubt that Raleigh is a better city to live and raise a family in.

I currently live in Cary which is just outside of Raleigh, comparable to South Charlotte except not as crowded and while there are tight covenants to make everything look asthetically sterile as possible, its not nearly as bad as South Charlotte.

We have the Research Triangle Park which is a hotbed for Pharma, Biotech, and general Technology jobs.

We have 1/10th the traffic of Charlotte, and 1.5 beltlines around the city, whereas Charlotte isn't finished with their first one. We're halfway complete with the 540 loop which is a huge highway around almost all of Wake County.

As for VX's in the area, I think there are 4 I could name at one point or another being on this site, but I manage to run across another in town about once every 4 months.