Larger City of Raleigh, with Boroughs? (Charlotte, Durham: appointed, get credit, how much)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Has there ever been serious discussion, considering the rapid growth of this area, of merging Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Garner into Raleigh City? And allowing them to remain boroughs with semi-independent borough leadership for managing some things independent of City? I saw there was talk a long time ago about Morrisville and Cary.
The idea that Raleigh is "only" a city of 470k people is a bit absurd considering Cary has 170k alone, making it the second largest "town" in the U.S. by population (after Scottsdale, AZ). Wake county is 1.1M (includes other municipalities and county only areas, of course). I believe the outsider's view is that we're a small city when they only look at Raleigh population alone. Merging any of Durham in doesn't seem feasible, but some of the Wake municipalities and unincorporated "Raleigh" certainly could make sense, and push the city's population to over 700 or 800k plus whatever the relevant unincorporated areas include (~200k?). Would this give Raleigh a better position when being considered for various corporate and other bids, being top 15-20 versus #41? Charlotte has 880k, consumes most of Mecklenburg, and at 310sq mi is more than double Raleigh's square mileage in territory. Even after a hypothetical merger of CMAG, Raleigh would still "only" be about 250-255 sq mi plus unincorporated areas. (Adding Knightdale and Holly Springs would only add 25 sq mi and 35k more people).
There's been considerable development in each of these towns and they do have some unique identity that would need to be protected; they've developed amenities and features that make them all desirable in their own right (hence the borough idea). But regionally we don't get credit for Raleigh-Durham being 1.5 million people in the two counties alone. This could be one way to change that.
Assuming we want the additional development (which seems like it's coming either way - might as well get the best of it). This isn't without precedent either. Probably not something most people would want, but would be interesting.
I don't understand the purpose of this at all. Corporations looking at Raleigh understand what it is and won't be fooled by higher numbers created by additional sprawl I don't think.
No thank you. I don't think Raleigh is perceived as smaller than cities that are really of similar size but which consolidated with their county/suburbs like Jacksonville and Indianapolis.
How much better could Wake County do relative to economic development and growth? Its already exploding. I don't see what the problem is that this would fix.
Has there ever been serious discussion, considering the rapid growth of this area, of merging Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Garner into Raleigh City? And allowing them to remain boroughs with semi-independent borough leadership for managing some things independent of City? I saw there was talk a long time ago about Morrisville and Cary.
Let me guess--you're a recent arrival from New York who wants to turn everywhere else into the city you left?
This area is what it is--almost every metro area in the US has several smaller towns swallowed up by as growing exurbs. This is actually a much more common occurrence than "boroughs". Let this city be the way it was long before you got here, or move to somewhere that has "boroughs" if you can't live without them .
Francois: Not from New York, and your response isn't very friendly. Why not let me turn it back on you -- if you can't handle change and people with different ideas, why not stay off forums where people discuss ideas?
To the others - I guess I'm reacting mostly to news stories, marinating on it a bit and wish I had saved some links, that called out Charlotte for being substantially larger than Raleigh w/r/t the MLS decision. I know a lot of it was chasing NFL money, but it seemed odd to me that they didn't realize the two metro areas are nearly the same in population. Also happened similarly during the Amazon and Apple decisions (not that I am disappointed they passed).
Francois: Not from New York, and your response isn't very friendly. Why not let me turn it back on you -- if you can't handle change and people with different ideas, why not stay off forums where people discuss ideas?
To the others - I guess I'm reacting mostly to news stories, marinating on it a bit and wish I had saved some links, that called out Charlotte for being substantially larger than Raleigh w/r/t the MLS decision. I know a lot of it was chasing NFL money, but it seemed odd to me that they didn't realize the two metro areas are nearly the same in population. Also happened similarly during the Amazon and Apple decisions (not that I am disappointed they passed).
I'm pretty sure the NFL is smart enough to understand the differences between Charlotte and Raleigh, which is why they chose Charlotte. Adding suburban sprawl doesn't change that.
I think Raleigh is great the way it is. Why pretend it's something it's not? If anything we should be going the other direction - like busting up the WCPSS.
Francois: Not from New York, and your response isn't very friendly. Why not let me turn it back on you -- if you can't handle change and people with different ideas, why not stay off forums where people discuss ideas?
To the others - I guess I'm reacting mostly to news stories, marinating on it a bit and wish I had saved some links, that called out Charlotte for being substantially larger than Raleigh w/r/t the MLS decision. I know a lot of it was chasing NFL money, but it seemed odd to me that they didn't realize the two metro areas are nearly the same in population. Also happened similarly during the Amazon and Apple decisions (not that I am disappointed they passed).
I think MSA and CMSA population and demographics get more focus from corporate folks than urban city population.
Ah, that's a good point. They'd see what I want them to see with those. Was just a head-scratcher for me why they focused on city sizes when it's obvious that our two biggest metro areas are similar in size.
m378: Don't get me started on WCPSS... That can fill a thread or two!!!
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