Dogwood is good, but Cardinal makes me think of the senior place on Six Forks.
And the shops may be good for people who live nearby. But you mention the average store in the Village to a North Raleighite, and they’d have no clue where you are talking about. You have to specify Cameron Village for the lightbulb to go off.
I doubt anyone cared about the name. But if they keep Village in it at least the “Village Subway” can keep its name when it some day comes back online… I think that name has historical importance.
Sir Walter Raleigh was a slaveowner. The logical conclusion to reach here is that we must rename Raleigh. I don’t see how you can be for one and not for the other? If we keep going down this path we will have to rename states, cities, streets, buildings, schools, neighborhoods, and so on.
That’s a very good point. The Cameron Village name is an identifiable brand in the city, and the name for most people is more than just the shopping center.
While I think that it will be challenging to make a new brand stick, it’s not impossible. Look at Midtown for an example. It may not be a 1:1 comparison because North Hills still exists, but it was a successful branding exercise. Village District is almost an opposite situation to Midtown. While Village District will reside in a greater area that continues to use the Cameron name (Cameron Park/Cameron Village(neighborhood), etc), North Hills resides within the greater Midtown moniker.
One of the things that I like about Dogwood and Cardinal replacing Cameron is that there’s a familiar cadence to how they’re all said, and it would be personally easier for me to make the transition in my head.
I thought about University Village, but that name is being used in Chapel Hill. I also thought about Park Village, but that sounds too RTPish for Raleigh. Others have suggested Oberlin Village, but is that disrespectful? Let me explain: On the one hand, we are going to rid the center of an offensive name. On the other hand, we are going to steal the Oberlin name from just up the road and slap it on our shopping center. Oberlin can make sense, but someone other than me will have to say if it’s inappropriate or not. It just feels like a landmine to me.
I think the play these days is to go neutral right now. When a good idea comes later, it can be renamed as part of a branding strategy. I’m guessing that districts and neighborhoods are cooler than going to a mall or shopping center so that might be the drive behind Village District for now.
When trends change, names can change, NBD.
If we said it was named after Cameron from Ferris Bueller, we could open a restaurant called The Cameron Frye Shoppe and serve good french fries like they do on the Boardwalk at Ocean City, and Alan Ruck would probably come down and sign autographs for the grand opening.
But I guess it’s too late for that.
Will this affect the Cameron Park neighborhood name? What about Mordecai?
The point is that if you dig deep enough you will find some 
in every name. I’m bet the Cameron’s that build Cameron Village did not really know a lot about family history. It’s only been recent that anyone could easy dig deep into history. If want to be so PC make Cary and Raleigh change their names.
Woke Village is probably available. Better get that trademarked before Raleigh has to become Woke Town. This is so asinine. Colonial Baptist church just ditched “colonial” and “baptist” but things like this are all just meaningless surface reactionary things, it’s the same people, stores, etc. So sad everyone has become so fragile.
Durham will have to change it’s name along with Raleigh, as it is named for Dr. Bartlett Snipes Durham, who who in the 1840’s offered the N.C. Railroad a four-acre tract of his land to build a station. To recognize his gift, the railroad named the station Durhamville after him. Unfortunately, Durham was part of a group called the “Sons of Temperance” which refused to admit black people as members when he was a member. I’m not sure if I have the correct pronouns for Dr. Bartlett. 
See where this is going?
I don’t see any evidence that anyone is forcing the name change, and I also don’t see evidence that their decision to do so applies to places around it with the Cameron name.
I think name changing is appropriate when the main thing the historical figure was known for wasn’t good. Christopher Columbus, Andrew Jackson, Robert E Lee, etc.
If they are mostly known for something else, but their legacy isn’t spotless if you audit it, then I find it hard to care. Obviously they were a product of their times.
Why did you include Cary? Named after a person who was anti-slavery.
Who cares. You’re the one getting worked up about it
Close this thread. Getting off topic
Maybe I’ll pause it for the weekend if one more person decides to beat that drum one more time.
I suppose on second thought, you’re right and I agree. Even when I wrote my comment I considered that perhaps slapping an historically/culturally important name of a freedman’s society on a fancy shmancy shopping center might be a bad look. Good call!
UNC-TV did a documentary last year about the history of Oberlin Village that was super in-depth and I learned a lot about the history of that area: https://www.pbs.org/video/oberlin-a-village-rooted-in-freedom-qubmgq/
Definitely encourage everybody to give it a watch.
New images revealed on the biggest development change to The Village in a decade. Abutting the Village Library will be a large 6 story apartment complex with 370+ apartments (about as big as the current biggest building in The Village–Berkshire Cameron Village).
Wow, might need to check what kind of density increase this will deliver. This looks great, IMO!
