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I think Raleigh's low key, understated pursuit of excellence in everything its able to provide for its citizens albeit limited in time and scope, is key to its stellar reputation and success.
I totally disagree. The key to Raleigh's "stellar reputation and success" can be attributed almost solely to the availability of jobs, which is the direct result of having a service and technology-based economy due to being the state capital, the home of a major university and the presence of RTP. All those forces converged nicely for Raleigh in the 1970's through today.
The city's "understated pursuit of excellence in everything its able to provide for its citizens" (lol) has nothing to do with it. Its a fortunate result of being in the right place at the right time, so to speak.
Can Raleigh build its way to be in the same league as Charlotte? Of course it will always be ahead, but are there any specific milestones after which Raleigh can be referred to like with Charlotte?
a 50 story building? 2 or more fortune 500 headquarters? A Ritz Carlton?
I want to know so that when that day comes I can vaunt the humble, little Capital City as more than a Podunk small-time NC city.
As someone who grew up in the Triangle, I contend that Raleigh's success can be attributed to the city quietly going about its business, focusing on quality in all of its endeavors as slow as they may happen.
It has always had more of a professional, white shirt and tie atmosphere than other small cities, especially for the South. Highly educated populace for Raleigh's !48,000 in the early 80's (trailing Greensboro) together with hitting some sort of sweet spot in size for a small city suddenly got it noticed & a stream of newcomers hasn't stopped yet after 30 years.
I think Raleigh's low key, understated pursuit of excellence in everything its able to provide for its citizens albeit limited in time and scope, is key to its stellar reputation and success.
I'm pretty sure RTP had a lot to do with Raleigh's success and the non-stop stream of newcomers since the 80's also.
Can Raleigh build its way to be in the same league as Charlotte? Of course it will always be ahead, but are there any specific milestones after which Raleigh can be referred to like with Charlotte?
a 50 story building? 2 or more fortune 500 headquarters? A Ritz Carlton?
I want to know so that when that day comes I can vaunt the humble, little Capital City as more than a Podunk small-time NC city.
how can Raleigh be in the ”same league” as Charlotte? Stop your partnerships with Durham, merge with the county of Wake só it’s a single government (and overnight it’s the largest city in NC), offer aggressive incentives for people to relocate to Raleigh instead of Durham or RTP. Do something to convince people to move from RTP to downtown.
Maybe focus less on technology, more on banking and financial services. Rename the downtown. The oak leaf is tacky. Oak City could be any small town. Have a little crown as Raleigh’s symbol, Put it everywhere and rebrand the city “the Queen’s city” after Elizabeth since Raleigh explored for her.
I think that's what's missing. Three towers 40 plus stories would put Raleigh’s skyline close to what Charlotte's looked like in the mid 90s. Don't Raleigh have height limits? Raleigh's skyline is way ahead of Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Durham but you're right. It's underwhelming for a city its size. Durham also has a small skyline for its size and in fact ranks 5th behind Greensboro and Winston-Salem's skyline even with the two new towers that have gone up. Durham also has the smallest downtown of the big 5 NC cities.
I disagree with this since I used to live in greensboro and still visit regularly, downtown durham is def larger than dt gboro. along with main st, you have central park district, golden belt, bright leaf square, the tobacco campus. I like both but I just can't see anybody that's walked both of them saying that dt greensboro is bigger.
I disagree with this since I used to live in greensboro and still visit regularly, downtown durham is def larger than dt gboro. along with main st, you have central park district, golden belt, bright leaf square, the tobacco campus. I like both but I just can't see anybody that's walked both of them saying that dt greensboro is bigger.
In terms of square miles downtown Greensboro is a little bigger even if you include all those districts in downtown Durham. Downtown Greensboro is a square mile. Downtown Durham is a little less than a square mile. East to west, Downtown Durham extends about a mile but not north to south. I actually look at a map and measured the distance. Downtown Durham boundaries are not a square like Greensboro's. I think it is in illusion because Downtown Durham has preserved much of its architecture so it seems like their downtown covers a larger area. Its the same with Greensboro and Winston-Salem. One might say that Winston-Salem's downtown is bigger but in fact are the same size. Winston-Salem's skyscrapers and development is so spread out it gives the illusion that it is bigger. Greensboro's skyline and much of its development is compact around a block or two from Elm Street so everything is within easy walking distance. Downtown Greensboro covers a large area and includes parts of residential neighborhoods but most of it has not been redeveloped. But in terms of actual area, Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem and Raleigh all have about the same size downtown. Some are just a hair larger or smaller. Charlotte on the other hand has a downtown twice the size. It has the largest downtown by far which is about 2 square miles.
I disagree with this since I used to live in greensboro and still visit regularly, downtown durham is def larger than dt gboro. along with main st, you have central park district, golden belt, bright leaf square, the tobacco campus. I like both but I just can't see anybody that's walked both of them saying that dt greensboro is bigger.
@gsoboi may be right about the technical size but I get what you are saying and I agree. Durham doesn't have a big skyline but the downtown feels walkable and interesting for much longer then Greensboro. It's one of my biggest gripes for Greensboro as much as I like the city. The few blocks around elm unfortunately are the only spots that really feels like anything is going on.
@gsoboi may be right about the technical size but I get what you are saying and I agree. Durham doesn't have a big skyline but the downtown feels walkable and interesting for much longer then Greensboro. It's one of my biggest gripes for Greensboro as much as I like the city. The few blocks around elm unfortunately are the only spots that really feels like anything is going on.
Yeah I like DT Gboro, honestly sometimes me and my wife visit just because we miss it every now and then(it's where we met) but dt essentially it's just a few spots outside of elm st. that said, that's changing with the development around the grasshoppers baseball field and other developments that def wasn't there back in 2010 when we were living there. and just on a side note, Gboro has been killing it with all these new murals. I was down for homecoming(AGGIE PRIDE) and was like damn when greensboro start adding in all these damn murals. I swear I've been seeing new ones every time I come down.
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