There's such a disproportionate, high concentration of county Wealth in West and SouthWest Wake... how did that happen? (Charlotte: real estate, chapel)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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It's a mini Silicon Valley along with great Universities/Medical Schools and Biotech. Not only do you have the people from NY coming here you have lots of transplants from all over (including Silicon Valley) coming and bringing their wealth. The growth in wealth in certain areas here is similar to the beginning stages of the wealth growth there.
Take for instance zip 27519 which is one of the higher income areas. Lots of these subdivisions have a huge influx of South Asians/Asians that come here for the tech jobs. Just like in Silicon Valley many choose an area that has high performing schools (GreenHope for instance), close proximity to job and a thriving Indian/Asian community.
My parents live in Carolina Preserve and a lot of their friends are civil service retirees from NY. No better retirement plan for that age group exists. Some of these people are pulling 5 figure MONTHLY pensions. Not to mention retiree health insurance. My parents live in Cary but in Chatham County.
Don't be surprised to see an eastward shift. I know a lot of people moving to central Cary from the western side.
There you go. ^
... and moving East, eh? Hmmmmm... would be nice for more wealth distribution....
Quote:
Originally Posted by rnc2mbfl
I think that the prosperity of Western/Southwestern/Southern Wake County can be tied back to IBM and Wake/Raleigh embracing RTP earlier than Durham. The early tie to RTP, especially IBM, started the wave of transferees with deeper pockets than the locals, and Wake got more than its fair share of those newcomers.
The first wave really affected north Raleigh with the ascent of the North Hills mall area in the 60s (today's midtown) and the central area of Cary. As the 60s became the 70s, it brought an even bigger boon to North Raleigh and Cary as the stakes rose with new country clubs like North Ridge and MacGregor Downs. Other higher end neighborhoods started to rise between them: establishing an arc from North Ridge to MacGregor.
Raleigh's higher end development clustered around Strickland Rd., since it was the route to RTP in those days, and Cary's growth started migrating toward its own legacy routes.
The growth along this arc drove infrastructure investment along it, which drove more growth. The outer loop was being planned as early as the early 70s, in the same time frame of the boom of housing sprouting in that Strickland corridor. I540 opened its first segment connecting I40 to US70 in the late 90s. A few years later, the arc was completed to North Ridge.
As Cary expanded, so did its infrastructure. Davis Drive was extended/connected southward through (now) west Cary to Apex, and 55 was slowly being improved/widened. The Western Wake Freeway was the natural next step in the outer loop construction as success builds upon success. In short, money follows money. With the eventual extension of Western Wake to its current terminus, a boom in Holly Springs predictably occurred in what used to be an almost forgotten "hamlet" type poor town. I remember cycling through this area as part of my regular weekend cycling trips with my company cycling team in the early 90s. There was almost NOTHING there.
Wow. Really, really good historical context. I knew there was more to it.
I still hear chatter from some of the longer time residents about IBM, but never related it to the Western Wake boom.
Well i'm a native and I will just supply a few tidbits that I remember.
Raleigh in 1980 has a city population of 148,000. The absolute edge of any development on the North side was mini city.
You immediately entered rural, heavily wooded forest after the US1-US401 split.
Durant Rd. was for the very wealthy who didn't want to live intown.
Sometime in the 80's Raleigh first growth spurt occurred and it was all to the North almost doubling the geographical area hence the new part being coined North Raleigh. It even had it's own local newspaper.
I-540 was planned earlier and it's corridor designated prior to any major growth so I think it's unrelated to wealth or even development patterns. Wake Forest and the US1 corridor certainly didn't rely on I-540 though they comprise a lot of the traffic.
Cary was known to be inhabited by most Yankee NYers even in mid 1980's. I remember my dental hygienist saying with a NY accent, " Everyone up there treats us like royalty" referring to Cary being a beautiful town.
Rolesville had a population of 600, Wake Forest 4,000, Holly Springs was a crossroads, and the only real town was Fuquay.
All of the above towns were mostly natives except Cary.
I think that the NE part of town just became known for starter homes off US401.
I-40 hadn't yet been built, and at first it terminated as Wade Ave at the Beltline which didn't become I-440 until 1990.
The Beltline was 4 lanes and surrounded by thick trees entirely. People used to visit and never see any part of downtown.
Downtown was shunned as the last place people wanted to be until the 90's.
Clayton and Johnston county had almost no association with Raleigh, even the metro area used to be only 4 counties, Durham, Orange, Wake and Franklin, although it remain rural to this day.
The New & Observer had a story I read at the beach with my family in the 90's that added surrounding counties so that the population of the entire region of 6 counties would be 1,015,000 people.
They predicted that one day Wake would have 1 million people, and we laughed and pondered how Wake could accommodate so many people.
Here's the Beltline headed West towards Crabtree from North Hills area in '67:
... and moving East, eh? Hmmmmm... would be nice for more wealth distribution....
Wow. Really, really good historical context. I knew there was more to it.
I still hear chatter from some of the longer time residents about IBM, but never related it to the Western Wake boom.
Am I reading the map wrong? Because it looks like Northern Wake along with Western Wake have the highest pools of wealth. Which makes sense given it encompasses the two sides of the Park located in the WCPSS district.
Don't be surprised to see an eastward shift. I know a lot of people moving to central Cary from the western side.
Just curious, where would you place the boundary between central and western Cary these days? I've heard anything from Maynard (see: West Cary MS) to 540 or even possibly Green Level Church. I wonder if a day may come where it only counts as West Cary if it's between Jordan Lake and the Tobacco Trail.
Say what you want about West Cary, but they did a lot of things right. When I was commuting to RTP, I had the choice of three major thoroughfares: Davis Drive, 55, or 540. There are other options too like taking Green Level Church to 55. The conveniences of living in that area can't be found anywhere else in my opinion as far as shopping goes, as well as access to other areas of the Triangle.
Apex and Holly Springs haven't done as good of a job. Apex (South of Downtown) and Holly Springs really require the use of 540 to get to RTP. 55 in Apex is a nightmare (not their fault as they can't widen due to the railroad bridge I believe), and Holly Springs is one way in one way out even to get to 540. The superstreet or whatever it's called with the u-turn requirement, isn't doing the trick it seems.
Just curious, where would you place the boundary between central and western Cary these days? I've heard anything from Maynard (see: West Cary MS) to 540 or even possibly Green Level Church. I wonder if a day may come where it only counts as West Cary if it's between Jordan Lake and the Tobacco Trail.
Yeah that's an interesting question. I live east of 55 and I consider it "western" Cary but it was defintely west Cary when I moved here. I don't think I'd consider it central . Ye Olde West Cary maybe
West Cary MS has definitely been mis-named for quite a while.
I guess I would consider east of Maynard central Cary.
Funny my daughter was talking about how nice DT Cary is the other day and I told her it was dump when we moved here - we never went there and would never consider going there or that the kids would ever hang out there. I love that they like it and it's a good place to hang out, especially since she has friends on the other side of town.
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