How "green" is the Raleigh area? (Charlotte, Durham: condos, houses)

[MrsSteel]

No, I very rarely get out towards the far far east section of the Triangle.

[lamishra]

Yes, I40 between Raleigh and I95 seems to be one of the the worst and also the Capitol Blvd area and western Glenwood Ave. I can think of. 15/501 is another one I can think of.

[PDXmom]

I think green is relative to what you are use to. I moved to Durham from Portland, this past month. While there are some good recycling efforts I haven't gotten a good sense for reduction efforts. Even the big box grocery stores in Portland had incentives for bringing your own paper bags with you. I haven't seen that at the big groceries. Locals, please direct me if I'm wrong.

And I'm surprised at how many places use styrofoam cups. We were at non-chain restaurant last night, that served all freshly prepared foods and they served water to my kids in styrofoam cups!! I just had them drink out of my glass instead. But we've also eatten at Ted's a chain restaurant and the straws for kids are biodegradable material.

I think the biggest place that our area can make improvements is in transportation and how we think about getting around. Changes are happening slowly. But we need more greenies. And I think there are enough green businesses to suit your needs. People are highly educated here for the most part so that helps alot.

When we pulled into A Southern Season's Parking lot my 7 year son said
"Mom! Mom! Look!! A real live recycling center like our old one. Can we recycle something?" So change is coming with the next generation regardless if we are ready for it or not.

[jfre81]

The Ph.Ds are only worth the paper they're printed on until there's action. It's not good to invite the entire Northeast and West Coast in without having much of a plan of where to put them or where their trash is going to go. North Carolina didn't have to worry about outsiders' housing or trash until relatively recently. So we'll put it up to these bright, enlightened minds who make the Triangle tick to make the right things happen, right?

The bright ones rejected light rail, then blamed the federal government which said it would not fund light rail in the Triangle mainly because there is not enough public support.

That's not a very good start.

[lamishra]

I don't think they "blamed" the federal government, it was a simple fact that the feds refused to help fund it because they couldn't provide any real data on public support for it. And as "green" as I try to be, I still don't think the triangle is ready for a light rail. I'd be the first one line to support it if I thought it was a good option for the area, but I dont see it as a cost efficient option right now.
The idea of a light rail in the triangle has recently been revisited (this week) using existing tracks. We'll see what happens.

[jfre81]

The way I was hearing it was that people were saying it wouldn't work and then saying that the feds said it wouldn't work as a means to back up their opinion. When all the feds said was there wasn't enough local support. Which is a self-fulfilling prophecy, really.

The FTA is screwed. It shells out for new highways without ever conducting studies on whether they are still the most efficient means of transportation, but any other mass transit proposal has the burden of proof that it can be supported before it will get any funding at all. So this is indeed partly the federal government's problem, although the lack of support in the Triangle doesn't help matters.

Bottom line - it's hard to stay green when everyone has to drive.

[lamishra]

it is, I won't deny that, which is why I said in my intial post that the traingle is overall is not a particularly a green area. I hope that changes eventually, but for now, it is what it is.

[jfre81]

There's a lot of green stuff to see around the area. Let's hope the developers keep at least some of it.

Greenest cities? Houston's near the top | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle (broken link)

This was written for Houston and I couldn't find a Raleigh-localized version but Raleigh and San Diego are the "greenest" among 19 cities of comparable density, with Houston no. 3.

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Originally Posted by jfre81

The FTA is screwed. It shells out for new highways without ever conducting studies on whether they are still the most efficient means of transportation, but any other mass transit proposal has the burden of proof that it can be supported before it will get any funding at all. So this is indeed partly the federal government's problem, although the lack of support in the Triangle doesn't help matters.

As to Federal support, Senator Dole withdrew here support for funding the Triangle Light Rail System when it became clear through the TTA study that the ridership numbers would not meet the required standards to be eligible for Federal funding. The ridership numbers calculated by the TTA in the plan were revised after they discovered they had initially overestimated expected ridership. In the meantime, the Feds raised the ridership standards. This failure to meet the ridership numbers is why the initial proposal failed. It really is not related to public support or lack there of. While I am not intimately familiar with the TTA report, it is my understanding that the ridership numbers are not determined by a measure of the amount of public support; rather I beleive a more scientific approach was used that took into account population density, expected growth ect ..... to calculate the anticipated Ridership numbers.

The Charlotte Light Rail would have suffered the same fate as the Triangle Light Rail, but they submitted their proposal for consideration just before the ridership standards were increased. If they took as long as Raleigh to submit their proposal they would have missed out as well on receiving federal funding, again regardless of public support. I am for the Light Rail, and I follow the developments as closely as I can.

There is a wealth of information on the history of the proposal and how they are moving forward from here on the internet. I encourage people who want to learn more about it to check out the various websites available. There seem to be a lot of misconceptions on this Forum concerning why the initial Light Rail proposal failed.

As to what parts of the Triangle are "green". I think Leigh summed it up best. While you can find green thinking in many areas of the Triangle, the most concentrated efforts appear to be in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Durham. That isn't to say you can't find green practices being excercised in Raleigh or Cary, it is happening there as well but perhaps not on such a large scale as the other areas mentioned..... at least at this point.

[jfre81]

Fair enough, but based on what we see here (let's just assume for a minute that the people of the Triangle forum here represent a fairly broad cross-section of the Triangle population) that the public support is indeed low.

The problem, really, is that you don't let the college kids vote. Rail connecting NCSU, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, even Shaw....it'd be a whole new world for them.