Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well, I am happy to see my tax dollars go to needed infrastructure improvement in rural areas (and I think any of us would agree to that). By that - I mean - such things as taking care of bridges in our rural counties. Some are in horrific shape!!! But things like roads to nowhere that are essentially payoffs for political favors . . . that just has to cease . . .
Forums like this are the only way we are ever going to have such discussions, as think about it - our metro areas are like little bubbles - our newspapers only discuss local issues - rarely do we get info on Raleigh and vice versa. We have to ferret out the info . . . I truly do not know the issues that Raleigh citizens face. To me, Raleigh is home of NC State and the General Assembly and I really do not think about the city as a place w/ citizens, LOL!! I know that is pretty shallow, but truly . . . I just don't spend time in Raleigh these days and so don't know the issues w/in the city itself. I bet there are more people like me than not.
Well Raleigh is definitely a city of citizens. Greater Raleigh (immediate areas outside of Raleigh included) is almost the size of Charlotte. The only place that has a freeway paved with gold, is Hwy 1 in Cary [salivates]. Wake county is fast approaching 1 million people, and the infrastructure is almost exactly the same as it was 10 years ago when it less than 600,000. Oh yeah, we have problems.
Personally I keep up with Charlotte. I lived there for a short while years ago when I moved back to NC. The Queen City deserves better especially considering the fact it's on it's way to becoming a major city, not just a major metro. I wonder how our Greensboro brethren feel?
Yes, Peyton, I really do feel the majority of the posts have been from members who truly were trying to sift through issues and give thoughtful, heart felt replies and provide info. It is a very important topic and our tax dollars are involved!!! The future of our city is at stake, and that is not overly dramatic rhetoric.
I think it would be helpful for us to have our legislator's names and addresses so we can write them and express our concerns. Also, I want to find a website where I can keep track of what bills are being introduced. The things that are really difficult to uncover are budget items and that will take work to discover those projects.
Our legislators need to know they are under scrutiny. It would really help if we had a more robust newspaper, but the CLT OBS is LAME. They should be taking the lead in representing CLT's needs and concerns.
Well Raleigh is definitely a city of citizens. Greater Raleigh (immediate areas outside of Raleigh included) is almost the size of Charlotte. The only place that has a freeway paved with gold, is Hwy 1 in Cary [salivates]. Wake county is fast approaching 1 million people, and the infrastructure is almost exactly the same as it was 10 years ago when it less than 600,000. Oh yeah, we have problems.
Personally I keep up with Charlotte. I lived there for a short while years ago when I moved back to NC. The Queen City deserves better especially considering the fact it's on it's way to becoming a major city, not just a major metro. I wonder how our Greensboro brethren feel?
Good question. I suspect they feel very little connection to either CLT or RDU regions. They have certainly lost more than their share of manufacturing and textile plants over the last 10 years, wh/ has affected their status as a tax revenue base . . . bound to have hit their local municipalities hard . . . worked w/ a hospital recently N of G'boro and they have definitely been affected. So many people have lost jobs - and thus - healthcare insurance . . .
Yes, Peyton, I really do feel the majority of the posts have been from members who truly were trying to sift through issues and give thoughtful, heart felt replies and provide info. It is a very important topic and our tax dollars are involved!!! The future of our city is at stake, and that is not overly dramatic rhetoric.
I think it would be helpful for us to have our legislator's names and addresses so we can write them and express our concerns. Also, I want to find a website where I can keep track of what bills are being introduced. The things that are really difficult to uncover are budget items and that will take work to discover those projects.
Our legislators need to know they are under scrutiny. It would really help if we had a more robust newspaper, but the CLT OBS is LAME. They should be taking the lead in representing CLT's needs and concerns.
Wow, I never thought about that, a newspaper. I hope someone with the right connections is reading this.
Wow, I never thought about that, a newspaper. I hope someone with the right connections is reading this.
HA HA HA. No one wants to be the owner of a newspaper these days. No money in it. If there were, I would establish one. Maybe the N&O really cares about representing the interests of the citizens who support it. The CLT OBS is a shell. They even outsource their layout to India. They don't support the very people who buy their ads. They have no vested interest in the community at all except insofar as revenue generation. A journalistic travesty.
I don't think the newcomers understand the politics in this state well enuff to fully comprehend what it means that we have voted in so many DEMS to elected office this past Nov.
Historically, this state is divided down the middle, w/ eastern DEMs making sure that the western part of this state gets screwed on any major issue, w/ roads being the # 1 bone of contention.
A two party system has been essential in this state, and we desperately needed a GOP Gov this go round to balance things out and to see that the Good Old Boys in the state house and senate didn't appropriate all the funds to their pet projects in the eastern part of this state.
For those of you who don't understand what is gonna happen - or don't believe the history I have alluded to - just sit back and watch, as Charlotte, and indeed, every county in the western part of this state, gets screwed on major projects in the coming years.
Building roads in CLT has always been like pulling teefs, because CLT has to go groveling to Raleigh for road money, and Raleigh has always considered CLT as a rival city and will short change CLT on road money.
CLT should be the State Capital,. Atlanta has massive roads, highways with 7 lanes on both sides, they get the money because they are the state capital.
Building roads in CLT has always been like pulling teefs, because CLT has to go groveling to Raleigh for road money, and Raleigh has always considered CLT as a rival city and will short change CLT on road money.
CLT should be the State Capital,. Atlanta has massive roads, highways with 7 lanes on both sides, they get the money because they are the state capital.
Building roads in CLT has always been like pulling teefs, because CLT has to go groveling to Raleigh for road money, and Raleigh has always considered CLT as a rival city and will short change CLT on road money.
CLT should be the State Capital,. Atlanta has massive roads, highways with 7 lanes on both sides, they get the money because they are the state capital.
Atlanta is also 3x the size of Charlotte. Dude, what makes you think Raleigh has it made?
Asheville needs more than tourism to support that. Tourism creates a huge part of the jobs here, but it doesn't pay squat.
I am not from Asheville so I would not know all the issues facing it. Is the development really that bad? I have always wondered why people in the mountains hated development. It seemed to me that all the growing and building would bring high class developers and increase tax revenue for the area. Does Asheville experience/feel short changed like Charlotte does as far as projects?
Whoever brought up how our brethern in the Triad feel I was wondering the same thing. Does Greensboro and Winston get short changed like Charlotte does?
I would actually love to be involved with the creation of a newspaper that advocated Charlotte problems and concerns to the state capitol and what not. Perhaps a web-site would be the first step to this creation. I don't mind being up for it. Anybody up for the challenge?
That is quite an interesting thought, Charlotte and Raleigh leaving NC to form another state. How would that look and what areas in between CLT and RDU would leave with it?
To Ani, PeytonC, and others, much love and respect for y'all even though we don't see eye-to-eye on everything. I respect ya'lls contributions, since we are all die hard NCians, and even more important, CLTeans.
I truly enjoy reading everyone's ideas - and the main thing is - we are talking, we are sorting things out - whether we always see eye-to-eye or not. Also, knowledge is power so learning another perspective can be enlightening; discourse leads to new ideas, new ways of thinking.
I think what has happened all over this country - not just here in CLT - in re: to segregation has basically been b/c of economic issues, not avoidance or being w/ a different race - or even preference of being w/ one's own race. However, whole communities have been established in the black neighborhoods and I think at this point, there are many areas where people are staying in those communities by choice.
I think I must be a lot older than some of you . . . b/c integration was the law of the land, LOL!!! Have we all forgotten our history? It was only what - 40 years ago, maybe? - that LBJ signed into legislation Civil Rights laws. You all correct me if I have gotten mixed up about the years/laws.
Don't have time to continue w/ the discussion right now . . . but thank you to all who have worked to share ideas and get the thread back on track. Yes, discussing race IS part of this whole overview of the politics here . . .
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Greater Raleigh (immediate areas outside of Raleigh included) is almost the size of Charlotte. The only place that has a freeway paved with gold, is Hwy 1 in Cary [salivates]. Wake county is fast approaching 1 million people, and the infrastructure is almost exactly the same as it was 10 years ago when it less than 600,000.
Oh yeah, we have problems.
