At certain radii, it makes sense that the population around N. Hills is higher than DT Raleigh because the city isn’t symmetrical around the Capitol Building. N. Hills is nearer the geographic center of the city.
With DT proper being just a tad over 1 square mile, it makes sense that the population around the smaller radii shows a larger population.
I don’t think that the radii populations without context are that meaningful. Nonetheless, point taken that there are definitely areas of suburban development that are significantly denser in population than many parts of ITB. Frankly, and like I alluded to in an earlier post, it’s the combination of gracious homes on gracious lots, but near downtown, that makes ITB neighborhoods so desirable. In my opinion, that’s sort of a double edged sword. Downtown has very little room to expand on the one hand. On the other, since the downtown footprint is so small, it will be easier to fill-in and improve the urban experience.
i lived in ashevile in mid nineties and it seems I recall that they had had rather relaxed zoning laws there for decades.
One reason for the North Hills / DTR discrepancy is the South side of DTR. Centennial campus, the farmers market, Dix park, and all the industrial/warehouse space along S. Saunders creates a ton of “averaging down” low density. This emphasizes downtown Raleigh’s biggest opportunity: Expansion South. Once there is density south of MLK, then there is political will to fix that road.
Fix MLK? Or fix S Saunders?
Or both 
I meant MLK specifically, as it is even less bike/ped friendly than Saunders.
I was just agreeing with orulz that
In addition, there are lots of OTB neighborhoods that are diverse, inclusive, and in some cases, surprisingly dense!
Radii populations are used in flyers for office/retail buildings. They provide information on how much of a population that a store/office may have access to. Here are some fliers that provide populations within different areas:
I use it to compare areas of similar size. In the thread talking about statistical area population, we talked about how Raleigh’s MSA is smaller compared to other cities. Mapping it within distance gives a better look at what population a city may have access to.
City Council’s planning to talk this coming Tuesday about the Southeast Special Area Study, an updated long-term strategy for extending their extraterritorial jurisdiction -and, when the time comes, how to bring those future communities into Raleigh’s fold.
More details are below. As a Chapel Hill resident, this side of Raleigh is far from my neck of the woods -so I could’ve glossed over something that’s actually interesting for those of y’all in eastern Wake County.
My neck of the woods! Would definitely like to see this area grow more. Seems like there’s almost a gap between where Wendell Falls and Wendell proper is booming right now and then areas of sporadic nothingness until you almost get to 440.
Historically, eastern Wake has been much slower in growth due to its distance to RTP. It’s also made that side of the county more affordable in comparison. As Raleigh continues to grow, east Wake will certainly follow suit. And don’t kid yourself, the thing that places like Wendell have over Clayton and points south on I40 is that it’s in Wake County.
That’s true. I keep forgetting how big of a deal being in wake is since Atlanta has 13 counties in the metro.
There’s a lot on the docket for Wendell and even Zebulon just hope we continue to do it smartly and not just popping up all over the place.
Both Wendell and Zebulon do have a lot of subdivisions that are going to start construction in the near future. I usually see what is being built months before the individual house permits begin. None of them are anything like Wendell Falls.
Is that good or bad? don’t know much about Wendell Falls
Mostly everything built out there are just neighborhood homes. Although Wendell Falls has lots of that it’s more of a very large mixed use development. Most people on here would still say it’s just more sprawl.
I think 2 million sq ft of commercial should qualify as more than sprawl.
Yes. I wouldn’t call it sprawl. I am all for single family homes in the burbs with some reasonably close commercial nearby.
Also, theoretically at build out Wendell falls would be able to stand alone as a self functioning town. Mix of houses, apartments, retail, office, hospital schools etc.
Not to get too far off topic that’s what drew me to it, along with all the trails and greenway access. Plus it’s affordable. I’d never go for one of the traditional subdivisions where it’s literally a couple hundred houses and nothing else.
You know they tried doing a similar thing with Wakefield in Raleigh making it its own town or city or putting it a part of Wake Forest. I’m glad at least Raleigh had the brains and did not put up with those people shenanigans up there.
East Wake is going to eventually house another 100,000+ new county residents.
Apartments should be open in June/July! We will start pre-leasing soon!
Nice! Looks like the Publix should be right behind them with the way they’ve been working and If Treelight square really is supposed to open this year, they should be breaking ground soon