Even MORE SPIN: Is Cary now the Triangle's Official "THIRD CITY?" (Raleigh: chapel, home)

[UserNamesake]

Historically, when the Triangle has been mentioned, the three municipalities verbalized are "Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill."

Chapel Hill even precedes Cary in the name of this sub forum!

It has been that way in area marketing, in local news promotions and other published media. But a recent post in the Triad forum sparked a thought... is Chapel Hill an afterthought now as the Triangle's "third city" considering Cary's ascent and massive influence on the Triangle from a socioeconomic perspective?


Is Cary now the Triangle's "Third City?"


Here's the recent post from which this thread spins off:

Originally Posted by gsoboi78

... Eventually [Mebane] going to become an attractive place to live as Cary which has had explosive growth. Cary has really become the Triangle's "third city"

[SFspiderman]

Cary has been the "third city" for quite some time. Its population is three times that of Chapel Hill's and is an employment center in its own right. As of 2018, the OMB swapped out Chapel Hill in favor of Cary for inclusion in the name of the combined statistical area used by the census.

Chapel Hill of course has the distinction of being the home of UNC and thus being one of the points of the triangle that generated the name in the first place. So it will always have that going for it in terms of history and name recognition.

[luv4horses]

What’s the OMB? All forum readers aren’t in your line of work. Thanks in advance.

[919 rtp]

No.

It was named for the towns with research universities and Cary doesn't have one.

[rfb]

Originally Posted by 919 rtp

No.

It was named for the towns with research universities and Cary doesn't have one.

This. Cary does have a larger population than Chapel Hill, but that doesn't make it one of the vertices of the Triangle.

[Jkgourmet]

Sorry, but why does it matter?

[SFspiderman]

Originally Posted by luv4horses

What’s the OMB? All forum readers aren’t in your line of work. Thanks in advance.

The federal Office of Management and Budget.

[Waterboy526]

Apex now has a higher population than Chapel Hill as well, but obviously is more of a bedroom community than Chapel Hill.

[HP91]

No...and its because of economics. Think more about jobs and less about people. The Triangle refers to the Universities, as well as RTP. Businesses are attracted to the caliber of employee coming from the Triangle and set up research facilities at RTP.

In a greater sense, you may say Wake, Durham and Orange Counties are the Triangle. Cary is part of Wake and really just a really large bedroom community of Raleigh in that regard.

[TarHeelNick]

Cary has been more populous than Chapel Hill for over 30 years; since at least the 1990 census.

CH's status as one of the three "points" of the Triangle has not changed, however.