Things are very different than they were 20, even 10 years ago. Still some rough parts on the south side, but Durham's actually a great place to live. Excellent food, great theatre, good farmer's market, fun triple A baseball team, Duke, lots of young professionals, close to a good airport, a few hours from mountains, a few hours from the beach, nice warm weather, etc. One of my favorite places if not my favorite place I've lived.