Suggestions for new name for Triangle? (Raleigh, Greensboro: best town, chapel, tenants)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Outsiders sometimes refer to the Triangle as Raleigh-Durham, as if it's one place, but it's not a term that is used by the people who live here -- because they are two separate and distinct cities. Yet "the Triangle" isn't very descriptive.
What else can we call our area?
I have a suggestion. I took the first two letters of the names of all the bigger cities, towns, and suburbs that comprise the Triangle (see list below) and came up with a new name for the Triangle:
"Cara Clap du Moho Waca Chug Fasasm"
When you say it out loud, it has a certain rhythm, and it's easy to dance to. In fact, someone could create a new dance called, "Clap du Moho."
I'm sure someone creative can incorporate the new name into a catchy tune that describes why we all like to live in "Cara Clap du Moho Waca Chug Fasasm."
College kids could sing the song at football and basketball games.
Elementary school children could create a clapping game using the words.
Children book authors can write books with characters: Cara, Clap du Moho, Waca, Chug, and Fasasm.
Quickly, news will spread worldwide about what a wonderful placeCara Clap du Moho Waca Chug Fasasm really is. It will soon appear to others to be a magical place, and millions will want to move here, and companies will fall over themselves to bring new jobs and prosperity.
What do you think? Will it fly?
And what suggestions do you have for a new name for the Triangle?
I used these cities, towns, and suburbs with more than 10,000 people in the Triangle:
Raleigh
Durham
Cary
Chapel Hill
Apex
Carrboro
Clayton
Fuquay-Varina
Garner
Holly Springs
Morrisville
Sanford
Smithfield
Wake Forest
Hey, whoever thought the name Fuquay-Varina would stick?
lovebrentwood, I hear you about the need for a better, catchier name for the region. Even after all the years I've been here, every single time I hear the name "The Triangle," it makes me think of anatomy. Not necessarily a bad association, but also not the most dignified moniker for our beloved region. We can do better.
Honestly, I'm sure many people on here won't agree, but I think the best thing would be to simply refer to the entire region as "the Raleigh area" or "Greater Raleigh" or something like that. That would eliminate the confusion and awkwardness of feeling obliged to include Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, or other municipalities in the name of the region. I know people in those places are all justifiably proud of their communities, or even a bit defensive about it (e.g. our buddy Bull City Rising), and would likely be resistant to omitting them from the region name. But realistically even they would have to concede that while Raleigh is not necessarily the best town around here, it certainly is the largest, most politically and economically important, and best-known municipality in the region, and the natural flagship for it.
Another name for the region that some friends and I have begun to use lately is "Region J," or simply "The J" or even just "J," alluding to the Triangle J Council of Governments, an intergovernmental association of several counties and municipalities in a portion (Region J) of central North Carolina that roughly corresponds to the Triangle. Officially, Region J encompasses Johnston, Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, Lee, and Moore Counties, which isn't a perfect equivalent to the Triangle region, but close enough, I think. And to me, I think "Region J" has kind of a good ring to it (granted not quite as much as Cara Clap du Moho Waca Chug Fasasm, but not bad). But it's probably a little too obscure and esoteric to ever be widely adopted by the mainstream. Here's a little more information on the TJCOG, in case anyone's interested:
lovebrentwood, I hear you about the need for a better, catchier name for the region. Even after all the years I've been here, every single time I hear the name "The Triangle," it makes me think of anatomy. Not necessarily a bad association, but also not the most dignified moniker for our beloved region. We can do better.
Honestly, I'm sure many people on here won't agree, but I think the best thing would be to simply refer to the entire region as "the Raleigh area" or "Greater Raleigh" or something like that. That would eliminate the confusion and awkwardness of feeling obliged to include Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, or other municipalities in the name of the region. I know people in those places are all justifiably proud of their communities, or even a bit defensive about it (e.g. our buddy Bull City Rising), and would likely be resistant to omitting them from the region name. But realistically even they would have to concede that while Raleigh is not necessarily the best town around here, it certainly is the largest, most politically and economically important, and best-known municipality in the region, and the natural flagship for it.
Another name for the region that some friends and I have begun to use lately is "Region J," or simply "The J" or even just "J," alluding to the Triangle J Council of Governments, an intergovernmental association of several counties and municipalities in a portion (Region J) of central North Carolina that roughly corresponds to the Triangle. Officially, Region J encompasses Johnston, Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, Lee, and Moore Counties, which isn't a perfect equivalent to the Triangle region, but close enough, I think. And to me, I think "Region J" has kind of a good ring to it (granted not quite as much as Cara Clap du Moho Waca Chug Fasasm, but not bad). But it's probably a little too obscure and esoteric to ever be widely adopted by the mainstream. Here's a little more information on the TJCOG, in case anyone's interested:
In all seriousness, one point worth mentioning: I'm not convinced that "the Triangle" emerged from anything intentional on the part of civic boosters.
Raleigh leaders, certainly, have marketed Raleigh; Durham, the same. No one thought of this as a single region when RTP was formed.
"Research Triangle" was a moniker that does NOT refer to the three cities. It refers to the three universities (Duke, UNC, NC State) in close proximity that were graduating lots of brainpower and seeing much of that brainpower leave the area upon graduation for NY, California, etc. in the post-WW2 era.
Today's RTP, at the time, was poor-soiled farmland with little economic value. To touch on our discussions of density in RTP and development patterns in another thread, if anyone had sussed that this might someday be prime housing/retail/commercial land for dense development, it never would have become a research park! Instead, the idea was to take 7,000 or so acres of bad farmland that would be convenient to all three universities and to try to attract employers to build massive campuses there.
The first tenants were heavily university related. RTI emerged as a major non-profit research firm and is now a major employer but initially was a bit of a double-down by the universities. Take TUCASI (still there), or UNC TV (still there) -- other examples of university-led innovation. But textiles research firms, then the big win of IBM followed. Burroughs Wellcome grew into GSK, and now we see Cisco, Biogen Idec, EMC and lots of other companies in and around the park.
....
The point of this lesson is that it wasn't "Raleigh" or "Durham" or "Chapel Hill" that got this region on the map. Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem don't have our national and global profile -- and trust me, very few people outside NC have any idea what the "Triad" is.
The Triangle has stuck, though, because it was the great conceit of our modern-day region, and an amazing bit of forthrightness on the part of leaders in the 1950s even in the face of an initially tepid reception.
The Triangle works for me not because it is "inclusive" of all three of our cities. As a referent point to our universities, it is EXCLUSIVE of all three of our cities, actually. Instead, it points to the very unusual concentration of three top national/global universities in close proximity, and between them a very diverse mix of faculty, research interests and programs -- sufficient to be a major driver of jobs.
Those knowledge worker jobs at universities and spun out of them in the private sector are what made our cities great. Keep in mind that in the first half of the twentieth century, Durham was a smoky tobacco-production center, with a larger population than sleepy Raleigh -- neither places that would have been on "best places to live" lists then.
Fundamentally, it was the triad of universities, and the Research Triangle Park that followed, that made our area world-renowned. Our urban areas followed, but did not lead, that drumbeat.
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