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They are trying to upgrade the highway between Raleigh and Norfolk, but this isn’t the 1890s and port and rail access will only get you so much. Again, Raleigh is the outlier in this group.
Why is the country and state still investing im these industries? Why does Raleigh want or need port access?? These things matter Virginia has to do better with advertising it's industry's.
And interstate 87 is a new highway being built between Norfolk and Raleigh.
I always laugh at the high speed rail comments (no offense though), it's like going back a few decades in technology -- we'll get more self-driving cars (possibly flying) before we ever get that here in the U.S. If that's the sort of connectivity you think will bring cities together, think again, as self-driving cars will make that obsolete.
Well considering we're trying to cut pollution, trains may get more love. Also the Northeast corridor is pretty busy, it only helps Richmond to be more connected.
Public transportation, and walk ability are becoming more important everyday.
Whenever anyone mentions anything good about Richmond someone on here always has to come and knock it down a peg. Richmond has rowhouse neighborhoods turns into "just a couple rowhouses." 7 Fortune 500 companies in the city, "a couple companies." High Speed Rail connections and investments in infrastructure gets "this aint 1890, doc." Real connections to a metro that literally touches ours: "Richmond is a dingleberry." It's super weird. Other cities are allowed to tout their successes. Its crazy because if you go back 5 or 10 years on here and people thought Richmond was a dump. It's been chugging away the entire time. Idk why the city gets this reaction here. Locals don't even boost like some other cities.
Why is the country and state still investing im these industries? Why does Raleigh want or need port access?? These things matter Virginia has to do better with advertising it's industry's.
And interstate 87 is a new highway being built between Norfolk and Raleigh.
I mean ports and highways are important. But it’s not going to lead to more explosive growth than Apple moving in. That isn’t how that works anymore.
I mean ports and highways are important. But it’s not going to lead to more explosive growth than Apple moving in. That isn’t how that works anymore.
Who even said that? Richmond doing something well isn't a slight against anywhere else. I'm not sure why y'all take it that way. Gotta put Richmond in its place, I guess. Super weird. Crazy I just made a post about this knocking Richmond down a peg mentality and you were literally doing it inadvertently at the same time.
Richmond could just as easily be classified as "Piedmont Atlantic" -- it's in the Piedmont of Virginia and right off I-85. Is also the closest to the Atlantic ocean of any of those cities.
Metro Richmond literally abuts Metro DC whereas there's a good bit of sparse ruralness between Richmond/Petersburg and Durham/Raleigh. Unless South Hill is about to undergo a boom I know nothing about, then no, Richmond couldn't just as easily be included in the Piedmont Atlanta megaregion.
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But you're right, it's not at the moment due to the influence of D.C., which is actually more of a liability than a strength. Richmond does not have the growth potential of even Birmingham. Though Huntsville has the most.
If DC is more of a liability for Richmond, then why is Atlanta not a liability for Birmingham? And the only sense in which Richmond doesn't have the growth potential of Birmingham is because it's already growing a good bit faster than Birmingham and is thus already fulfilling more of its potential.
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New Orleans can't even grow geographically except on it's north shore, which is too far removed. It is last on this list for having growth potential but is arguably the realest city here.
I mean ports and highways are important. But it’s not going to lead to more explosive growth than Apple moving in. That isn’t how that works anymore.
I don't think the point is more explosive growth, but most likely economic diversification. The Triangle doesn't have anything to prove on the tech/STEM/knowledge-based front, but it would be helpful to get some more warehouses and manufacturing outfits in the mix to balance things out with the high-end white-collar sectors. Gaining highway access to Norfolk's port isn't much of a heavy lift but it will more than pay for itself several times over. Plus physical infrastructure will always matter.
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Originally Posted by mpier015
Who even said that? Richmond doing something well isn't a slight against anywhere else. I'm not sure why y'all take it that way. Gotta put Richmond in its place, I guess. Super weird. Crazy I just made a post about this knocking Richmond down a peg mentality and you were literally doing it inadvertently at the same time.
I don't believe Heel82 was doing that at all. It seems you may have misread him here.
I look at where the job growth is, that is the best measure for a city's growth potential. And Birmingham has nothing on Huntsville in that regard. Maybe Atlanta is a liability for Birmingham, I never said it wasn't.
The D.C. metro also doesn't abut the Richmond metro -- at it's furthest extent the D.C. area goes down to Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania, which is still largely rural and hardly the constitutes the core of the metro. It has pretty much all but fizzled out at that point. However, there is not as much distance between Spotsy and Caroline County, which is just a rural area with an army base -- not even an exurb.
The reason people disrespect Richmond is because it's trying to grow "by association" instead of on it's own. No one cares that a city is 110 miles apart from a major city -- on the East Coast that is a huge distance. This is not the Western U.S. where cities are spaced apart 500 miles or more.
Abutting rural exurbs that would prefer not to be linked to any city at all, do not link metro areas. If that's the case rural areas are simply the space between cities and not their own thing. Which I object to.
I don't think the point is more explosive growth, but most likely economic diversification. The Triangle doesn't have anything to prove on the tech/STEM/knowledge-based front, but it would be helpful to get some more warehouses and manufacturing outfits in the mix to balance things out with the high-end white-collar sectors. Gaining highway access to Norfolk's port isn't much of a heavy lift but it will more than pay for itself several times over. Plus physical infrastructure will always matter.
I don't believe Heel82 was doing that at all. It seems you may have misread him here.
You could be right. It just seemed like a super odd response. Someone mentions VA is investing in infrastructure and your response is "This isn't 1890. It isn't going to get you an Apple BOOM" *feels* like just that, to me.
The D.C. metro also doesn't abut the Richmond metro -- at it's furthest extent the D.C. area goes down to Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania, which is still largely rural and hardly the constitutes the core of the metro. It has pretty much all but fizzled out at that point. However, there is not as much distance between Spotsy and Caroline County, which is just a rural area with an army base -- not even an exurb.
Spotsylvania County is in DC's metro area and it borders Hanover County in Richmond's metro area. So yes, they do abut each other. I'm well aware they are outlying counties and not part of their metropolitan cores, and I never said that was the case.
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The reason people disrespect Richmond is because it's trying to grow "by association" instead of on it's own. No one cares that a city is 110 miles apart from a major city -- on the East Coast that is a huge distance. This is not the Western U.S. where cities are spaced apart 500 miles or more.
Richmond is already growing on its own and has been for a while. And in real life, nobody "disrepects" Richmond for refusing to be part of a larger federal transportation project that aims to have high-speed rail along the whole length of the East Coast. If anything, people would disrespect the city for making such a boneheaded decision.
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Abutting rural exurbs that would prefer not to be linked to any city at all, do not link metro areas. If that's the case rural areas are simply the space between cities and not their own thing. Which I object to.
If the growth patterns clearly show exurbs are becoming sandwiched in on both sides by encroaching metropolitan growth, then it is what it is. You may not like what's happening but that doesn't change reality. Places often change, including formerly rural areas that were once their own thing but over time have become absorbed by a proximate large and growing metropolitan area. Welcome to the postwar age of high mobility facilitated by widespread personal vehicle ownership and the Interstate Highway System.
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It's super weird. Other cities are allowed to tout their successes. Its crazy because if you go back 5 or 10 years on here and people thought Richmond was a dump. It's been chugging away the entire time. Idk why the city gets this reaction here. Locals don't even boost like some other cities.
