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You cannot guarantee anything. However, if you only focus on building up urban areas, all you will have is jam packed streets, lots of pollution and very little greenery left. If you spread out the employment centers, many people will gravitate toward the centers for their living situation. If we can reduce the amount of traffic flowing into the cities and RTP, it greatly increases the day to day enjoyment of the cities, reduces strain on infrastructure and allows other areas to prosper. There are some big companies in Johnston County and people have flocked there. If a ton of people live far outside one central area for employment and drive many miles to work, you end up with the mess we had in MA. Not good. If you end up packing most of the employment into one area, along with overpopulating the residential side of things, you end up with a NYC nightmare. If you sprawl things out into individual activity centers, allowing people to choose where they would like to live AND work, your odds are much better of creating environments that benefit all, as everyone will have a choice.
The best solution is to work on urban and rural development. Allow those that prefer the urban style to have it, without over crowding it and inviting in day squatters for employment. Allow those of us that enjoy country, nature and all things green to farm our land, grow our food and appreciate the animals, while having work close by. A win win situation.
What makes you think that sprawl would not infest the rural parts and countryside of NC in the future? With sprawl, the more you build "out," sooner or later that sprawl will meet and infest the rural parts of a county.
Do you work where you live? Good if you do. If you don't, you are also part of the problem. (I live 2 miles from work. I walk there on many occasions.)
What do we do if people don't want to live where they work? What if they want to commute from Raleigh to the RTP every day? Should we not offer them other modes of transportation, such as light rail with little to no emissions? Should we not offer hybrid buses and taxis? Other cities across the country are tapping into these resources. It makes no sense to me to have some of the most technological companies work in this area, yet still be in the Stone Age when it comes to our modes of transportation.
What makes you think that sprawl would not infest the rural parts and countryside of NC in the future? With sprawl, the more you build "out," sooner or later that sprawl will meet and infest the rural parts of a county.
Do you work where you live? Good if you do. If you don't, you are also part of the problem. (I live 2 miles from work. I walk there on many occasions.)
What do we do if people don't want to live where they work? What if they want to commute from Raleigh to the RTP every day? Should we not offer them other modes of transportation, such as light rail with little to no emissions? Should we not offer hybrid buses and taxis? Other cities across the country are tapping into these resources. It makes no sense to me to have some of the most technological companies work in this area, yet still be in the Stone Age when it comes to our modes of transportation.
This biggest issue is that many only think one way. They are very limited in the overall view. I am not and as a result I am in favor of:
A light rail system
Hybrid vehicles
Electric car
Hydrogen car
Urban renewal
Individual activity center sprawl
The answer is multifaceted. It is not just do this one thing and all will be better with the world. Remember, lots of people walk to work in NYC, yet the roads are clogged, pollution is awful and people are generally not in a good mood from having to fight the crowds. If all we do is focus on urban building, what you see in NYC is exactly what you will see here. I notice nobody every discusses the bad things that come along with urban only development, like in NYC.
I lived close enough to work where I had a very tiny commute or could ride a bike to work. I gave that up to acquire what was more important to me. If an employer moves closer to where I now live, I would consider working there. In the meantime, I drive to work adding to issues that bother some. Yet on the other end, I am more green than many of these people that complain. I walk the walk, rather than talk the talk in so many ways.
And Novartis has said from the start that they plan to hire locally whenever possible. My husband currently works there... and we live in Holly Springs, so they sure seem to be telling the truth (he's been there from the start of construction.) Novartis has been very involved in the town - even before the actual plant is here (it started out with safety folks and planning as ground was broken and buildings started going up.)
I believe they are close to doing some actual vaccine production by the end of the year - it's very exciting!
This sounds awesome. I will have to keep them in mind down the road.
I lived close enough to work where I had a very tiny commute or could ride a bike to work. I gave that up to acquire what was more important to me. If an employer moves closer to where I now live, I would consider working there. In the meantime, I drive to work adding to issues that bother some. Yet on the other end, I am more green than many of these people that complain. I walk the walk, rather than talk the talk in so many ways.
So now you are part of the problem... you are driving farther to work. You chose to live where you do and chose to work where you do. So many other people are like that.
Who is going to tell people that they should live closer to work. Shouldn't people be able to live where they want?
And how green are you? What are you driving to work? How is your carbon footprint?
So now you are part of the problem... you are driving farther to work. You chose to live where you do and chose to work where you do. So many other people are like that.
Who is going to tell people that they should live closer to work. Shouldn't people be able to live where they want?
And how green are you? What are you driving to work? How is your carbon footprint?
I picked the type of setting I did, because I enjoy it. Life is about enjoyment and I do enjoy everything. I am not going to live in an urban setting and hate it, just to make someone else happy. If employment opportunities expand, as I expect they will, I will consider working closer to home. I drive a low emission Honda Civic back and forth to work. I carpool almost everyday in it. When they come out with a mainstream electric vehicle, I will buy it. I grow my own veggies. I picked a development that left most of the trees and has deep woods for wildlife. I provide food for the wildlife. I recycle and use as many all natural products for my yard as I can. I add a ton of trees and shrubs to the landscape wherever I live. We plan out our daily travel routes to take care of errands all at once, reducing the need to travel extra distances and on weekends. I bought a house with proper design which allows me to run a high velocity fan at one end of the house to suck the hot air out, greatly reducing how often I need to run AC. We hardly use it. We do a lot of things to be green. We are nature lovers.
I picked the type of setting I did, because I enjoy it. Life is about enjoyment and I do enjoy everything. I am not going to live in an urban setting and hate it, just to make someone else happy. If employment opportunities expand, as I expect they will, I will consider working closer to home. I drive a low emission Honda Civic back and forth to work. I carpool almost everyday in it. When they come out with a mainstream electric vehicle, I will buy it. I grow my own veggies. I picked a development that left most of the trees and has deep woods for wildlife. I provide food for the wildlife. I recycle and use as many all natural products for my yard as I can. I add a ton of trees and shrubs to the landscape wherever I live. We plan out our daily travel routes to take care of errands all at once, reducing the need to travel extra distances and on weekends. I bought a house with proper design which allows me to run a high velocity fan at one end of the house to suck the hot air out, greatly reducing how often I need to run AC. We hardly use it. We do a lot of things to be green. We are nature lovers.
Didn't you just post in a Durham thread that you drink mostly bottled water?
There are those that live in an urban downtown setting and those that want to that think they have the best understanding of living green and think the actually live it. But, do they ever:
Go see a play
Go to the theater
Go to a museum
Go out to eat
Work somewhere they don't walk to
Blog
Watch TV
Use AC
Go to a ballgame
Go on vacation
Go to a concert
Go to a bar
etc
Taking part in all these things is NOT green. The travel to and from, the venue itself and the consumption are all not green. These are things the same people that claim to be green like to do. However, it seems that people that preach green think needing to be greener stops at their lifestyle. The only way to be completely green is to not work, stay at home, grow your own food, do not watch TV or use the computer and so on. How many people here live like that? Who has the say on how green is green enough?
Think about this:
If having employment opportunities, dining & shopping options, doctors & dentists and all the other things one needs to live is a good thing for downtown Durham & Raleigh, then why is not not a good thing for Holly Springs, Apex, Fuquay & Clayton? Why isn't it a good thing to create exactly what the green people are suggesting, just in another spot than just the downtown of a city?
The human population always grows. It will keep growing. Growth here will continue. You cannot stop it. How many people do you think can fit in Downtown Raleigh & Durham? 5 million? 100 million? At some point the growth has to go out. Why not create it the proper way be trying to have great companies like Novartis set up shop in places other than RTP? Spread the wealth and give people more choice than all flocking to the same areas to work.
Remember, no one lives completely green. They just like to preach how others do not live green enough.
Back on topic, there's actually a ton of (good!) flu-related activity throughout the Triangle.
Novartis has the HS plant for cell-based influenza vaccine. Merck is building a $1b+ influenza vaccine plant in northern Durham that will be producing vaccine in a couple of years. And GSK produces Relenza (antiviral for flu) in Zebulon, along with having its US HQ in Durham with sites in RTP and downtown Durham.
Back on topic, there's actually a ton of (good!) flu-related activity throughout the Triangle.
Novartis has the HS plant for cell-based influenza vaccine. Merck is building a $1b+ influenza vaccine plant in northern Durham that will be producing vaccine in a couple of years. And GSK produces Relenza (antiviral for flu) in Zebulon, along with having its US HQ in Durham with sites in RTP and downtown Durham.
Thanks for the info BCR. Much appreciated.
FYI - Everything has been on topic so far if you read the original post. I was using Novartis as an example of how sprawl growth is good and should be encouraged. We are talking about creating multiple activity centers throughout the Triangle, rather than trying to focus just in the cities and RTP. Novartis is one example of how this can work and how it is actually more green to do it this way.
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Think of this
