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.
The single most impactful event for the Triangle was Raleigh being named 1993 or 1994"s "Best Place to Live in America".
I don’t know if that is actually true, but it definitely felt true at the time. RTP and the Triangle had a rapid growth period in the 1980s (Northern Telecom moved in), but the area began maturing in the 1990s. Money Magazine’s 1994 declaration seemed to be a Eureka! moment for the region entering the national consciousness. Getting a professional sports team soon followed, and it’s basically been an extended period of good national press ever since.
The single most impactful event for the Triangle was Raleigh being named 1993 or 1994"s "Best Place to Live in America".
I think that the single more impactful event for the Triangle was IBM deciding on committing to RTP in the 60s. It took decades for a lot of people to start noticing what was happening, but by then the train was moving full speed ahead.
In the late 80's when I was at NC State, I also drove the airport shuttle van for the North Raleigh Hilton.
Along with daily American Airlines flight crews when RDU was a mini hub, I got to talk with people from all over the country visiting Raleigh.
The Beltline was only 2 lanes and lined with trees so people visiting the area in general not just NR Hilton guests never saw or knew where Raleigh's downtown was for their entire stay. All they saw were a few 4-lane highways surrounded by trees.
But the growth was simmering, and it seemed like cities of 150,000 people in the Sunbelt states was a sweet spot that everyone wanted in on.
The Beltline's 2 lanes in each direction reached over 1,500 per hr, one of highest volumes in the country. It was like a racetrack with little room for error. Cars were spaced too close together and all were moving at high speeds 65+ plus.
Some people I drove would come for months and work at RTP companies or Square D near Knightdale.
Some people were surprised by the I-40 traffic and back then it was only 6 lanes wide, the 4th lane hadn't yet been added.
One woman from Madison, WI was unpleasantly shocked by how big the area was based on the I-40 traffic and obviously felt intimidated in populated areas.
So I agree that IBM was a big factor, and y'all agree with me on Raleigh starting to make every best of list which continues even more so now.
But the growth to me started ramping up in the late 80s. I moved to Atlanta in 1991, and that coincided with Raleigh's renaissance including WRAL debuting a new logo, and I love this dramatic music and new graphics they adopted during this period of national recognition:
Similar story for me.. I entered NCSU in 1987, could have graduated in 1990 but I deliberately dragged it out by attending part-time hoping to outlast the Gulf War recession (didn't succeed at that... took me until 1992 to find a salaried job).
Anyway, my high school friends from Greensboro agreed that Raleigh was pretty comparable to Greensboro at the time. The main things we noticed were that traffic lights were timed longer, and Raleigh had a few amenities lacking in Greensboro like a comedy club, a NY style dance club, the state fairgrounds.
And it had RTP, which offered better paying internships than we'd have found closer to home. We knew it was "a little more urbanized than Greensboro" but I don't think any of us viewed it as "the big city" the way we would have viewed Charlotte at the time.
It's these sorts of announcements that continue to accelerate the Triangle in ways that the Triad hasn't been able to match. Here's another story link: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/26/appl...na-campus.html
3 top executives at Apple have degrees from Duke (Cook/Williams/Cue), and their COO (Williams) grew up in Raleigh, when to public high school at Sanderson, and has his undergraduate degree from NC State. This is an example of the Triangle's success being generational, and its investment/focus on education paying off. While he didn't grow up in the Triangle, Cue has his undergraduate degree from Duke. The jobs being created are also really big jobs in software engineering and machine learning. It's not just a data center or a call center. It's a really big deal. Their property is on the very southern side of RTP in Wake County next to Morrisville and Cary.
Too bad there isn't a separate NC Development thread in which we could discuss this Apple announcement and its impact on RTP and the surrounding metro area.
First you gotta get two single spots that thousands would go back and forth to everyday to justify and pay for operations.
That Durham/ Orange proposal was done all wrong.
They didn't identify where it was really needed or helpful and took a map and drew a meandering line trying to pick up enough passengers. It had like 17 stops and would have taken 3-5 longer (way over an hour) than just driving.
It wouldn't be used and would be a money pit just for daily operation.
My guess for the first segment would be downtown Raleigh with a huge park and ride lot doing a beeline to RTP with a stop at NCSU and one in Cary and that's it.
Companies would pick up their employess at one central RTP stop..
Maybe the next segment would be from RTP to downtown Durham.
An airport stop would be great, but that's a whole host of other issues.
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.
