I’m much less interested in thinking about (as you say) “forgiveness” than I am in understanding why the cynicism?
This is really good press for Raleigh, and the video focuses visually on downtown in particular from the street, from the air, and both day and night. Lots of nice things are said about the city and this YouTuber has a fast growing list of subscribers.
When Durham was given a separate MSA nearly 20 years, it was heralded as a watershed moment by Durham boosters and officials. Finally Durham headlined a MSA instead of being second billing. The narrative was that it was going to finally be seen that everything good about the Triangle was because of Durham. Raleigh was riding Durham’s coat tails, was the message being sent. Yes, there was that much ego about it.
While it’s arguable that the heralding of Durham never really materialized like boosters/officials had hoped, the separation of the Triangle into two MSAs took away the Triangle’s “Million” people and pushed the area back 10 years before it got that visibility again. The legacy of that separation still haunts the Triangle as a much smaller place than it is. Nonetheless, as Raleigh’s separate MSA reaches for 1.5 million (which will likely happen by 2022), the visibility has returned, but this time as Raleigh alone.
If Raleigh has to go it alone, it’s proven that it can because more and more people are starting to pay attention to what’s happening. Personally, I’d love for Durham and Chapel Hill to come along for the ride and add to Raleigh’s coat tails, but the city is well positioned to go it alone if it needs to.
Oh, no, I totally agree with your interpretations! I didn’t mean my negativity to be directed at you or the message itself. Rather, I felt like we already have plenty of examples of similar rankings (of …varying… quality) in the MSA thread. I didn’t think this YouTuber seemed influential or interesting, so it wasn’t clear to me why this particular video should be interesting.
This wasn’t entirely obvious to me, so I just thought it was some random self-proclaimed ~pro content producer~
(I still stand by what I said about his annoying voice, though.)
That’s a good point, and to be fair, it’ll probably be even clearer once this year’s census is out. I guess the opposite of that stands true, too: if Raleigh can go at it and stand in the national stage alone, there’s no reason to keep it from fulfilling that dream either.
IMO, Raleigh going it alone isn’t ideal, but it’s not as limiting as it was when the MSAs were first split. I say that it’s not ideal because it ignores the important context of what gave the Triangle its visibility in the first place: the synergy of the 3 universities and the resulting Research Triangle Park. With decreased focus on suburban business campuses, RTP itself is not as consequential as it once was, but it’s still relevant.
Also, let’s face it, size matters. I ran across marketing material for Charlotte from 1940 that was showing how the 75 mile population around Charlotte was more than Atlanta. I had to laugh at that one because that logic would suggest that Asheboro is the most populated “area” in NC because its 75 mile radius captures both Metrolina and The Triangle.
The Greater Raleigh Esports Local Organizing Committee (GRELOC) was created when Wake County’s Destination 2020 Strategic Plan identified Greater Raleigh as having the climate to create and sustain a true esports ecosystem. The organization’s mission is to support and attract esports events, leagues, tournaments and other gaming related activities to stimulate the local economy.
Through a diverse collective partnership of civic, sports and business leaders, GRELOC is working to secure $500,000 in annual funding . Those funds will be applied to support a wide variety of gaming and esports programs, events and activities for 2021 and beyond. GRELOC is working to attract 6-8 events per year at the local, regional, nation and international levels that will drive economic development and job growth in all sectors of the gaming community.
E-sports definitely feels like an opportunity for Raleigh. Already popular and massively growing, it is a natural fit in the Triangle’s tech-y culture and there are of course some major players in the gaming industry, most notably Epic Games in Cary. Glad we are trying to capitalize!
That being said, the acronym GRELOC sounds like a monster or supervillain.
I was talking a few weeks ago in the business/economic section of the thread, and I said that Visit Raleigh markets our city as a quaint city. Someone replied and I won’t specifically say who called me out but I’ll quote him “I have not seen VisitRaleigh market our city as Quaint, show me!!!” That got me thinking Raleigh isn’t competitive in Economic HQ Development or Tourism, and we let our biggest and closes enemy Charlotte take us over and take everything away from us!!! We’re next to them in population, in TV Market DMA were 24 there 22 and so and so. So there always gonna be our arch-nemesis. And all these issues we talk about in the Forum is important the Census Numbers are gonna be extremely crucial to the future of Raleigh and I feel like this topic isn’t explained enough in this thread!!! We need to campaign for events like the RNC or DNC coming to town getting campaigned through the Chamber of Commerce or MLB Major League Baseball getting an owner to you know bring us a team with a new stadium on the way how do we attract a bid to get a team here. Making Raleigh-Cary MSA and merging Durham-Chapel Hill MSA into ours again!!! All the issues that are discussed have to do how we market ourselves!!!
Unfortunately, we don’t have control over whether or not the Triangle’s two MSAs get recombined. So, from a statistics perspective, Raleigh has 2 thresholds that it will soon reach that will help with visibility: 500,000 in the city, and 1.5M in the MSA. Those two could be reached in the next few years. The MSA will likely reach 1.5M within 3 years, and the city might be approaching 500K in the same timeframe, but it could take a couple of extra years.
I would love a baseball team. Forget the RNC or DNC I don’t want the political mess. I love that we have Red Hat amphitheater and the development of Dix Park will be a good development for the city. The History Museum is supposed to grow. I love the branding of The Smithsonian of the South.
Yeah but I don’t city the chamber of commerce engaged in it!!! Nor have I ever seen a Visit Raleigh ad anywhere here or outside of Raleigh. I’m sure we’ll hit the 500k threshold so we don’t have to deal with the states mess soon. But on to that yeah I just don’t see!!!
When I-95 was built, it was purposely done in the coastal plain. I suppose that it was easier to expand on flatland, rather than on rolling countryside? Also, I think that there were politics involved as well, with landowners along its route having influenced its location. That said, I don’t know the specific stories involved with that “legend”.
What’s remarkable to me is that Raleigh rapidly grew for years without any connection to the Interstate system. In addition to not being an American “legacy” city, it didn’t have physical visibility provided by Interstates, yet here we are. Instead of being in the conversation with places like Nashville, we easily could have been among cities like Macon & Roanoke. It’s quite the remarkable story.
I always figured 95 was built to get Yankees to Florida as quickly as possible. Heading south, once you leave Richmond, there is no real city until you hit Savanah and no major city until Jacksonville. That’s like 600 miles through southern VA, NC, SC and GA while barely hitting a speed bump.
In that light, I think it makes sense that 95 goes the way it does -especially Fayetteville. So it’s not wrong but it’s also not designed specifically for northerners.
@John I am sure you, and a number of others, remember that the only way to get out of Raleigh was state hwy. Sure, we had the northern leg of the beltline, and 40 out to the park that dead ended into the Durham Freeway, but then you and to travel across Durham to get to 85. Going any other direction was worse, lol. Old 54 to Chapel Hill was a “bloody road” for awhile, what a twisty turny two lane that was!! And these aren’t ancient stories for all our younger readers, this is the late 80s!!
When my family moved to Raleigh in '74 from the Bay Area in California, we were in shock. My mother often said that she felt like a freight train that had its tracks stolen.
I totally remember not being able to connect directly to the Interstate from Raleigh. The first time we tried to go west, we got lost in Durham and my dad had to pull out the map and argue with my mom about which way we needed to go. As for going east on US70, I also remember “The KKK Welcomes you to Johnston County” sign and the dropped jaws and disbelief on all of our faces when we saw it.
I just did some research and it was actually a Klan sign welcoming you to Smithfield, not the county. Pardon my error, I was pretty young!
