Where are Raleigh’s billionaires?

I think they (Goodnights) May actually be involved with Dix. I’m thinking Ann Goodnight is on the visionaries board.

Why does her voice matter when she doesn’t even live in Raleigh? Are they giving money or something? If they aren’t significantly funding the park, I don’t see the relevance of her participation.

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Because she can help raise a lot of money for starters. B) I’m certain they are giving money as well. They are both from N.C., both went to college in Raleigh (State & Meredith), SAS was born @ NC State and they live in Cary…not Mozambique.

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Sorry. For me, being a rich influencer isn’t enough. I want to know how much they are giving, not presume it. If they are giving a significant amount of money, then I’ll change my mind because that’s unfortunately how the American game is played these days, and the only way that we seem to get nice things anymore.
I’m skeptical because what have they really done for Raleigh compared to other billionaires in their cities? There doesn’t seem to be that much that you can really identify. Has SAS named a public venue in Raleigh? They sure have in Cary. Have they built a 5 star hotel in Raleigh? Have they invested in a school in Raleigh? They sure have in Cary.
If they are not MAJOR benefactors of Dix, then I think that they shouldn’t have a voice just because they went to school in Raleigh. A lot of people in Raleigh went to NC State or Meredith: me included.
If she’s there to raise money, then I want to see results of that as well. Even then, is she really the only person in Raleigh who can reach out to the well heeled in the area? I doubt it. There probably a lot of wealthy people in town who can fish from that same pond.
In the end, if a non-Raleigh voice is given such a privilege to define Raleigh’s greatest public asset, I want some measureable reasons and results.

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Those are some good questions. But I do know the Goodnight’s have forked over big cash for parks in Raleigh. Ann led the effort. Check: https://ncartmuseum.org/blog/view/the_ann_and_jim_goodnight_museum_park

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Ever been to the N.C. Museum of Art? CAM? How about the campus of N.C. State? Check out the department of statistics building. Look up the “Goodnight Educational Foundation”.

I would love to have them purchase the Hurricanes or help Malik with his MLS pursuit, or perhaps bring an NBA, MLB, or NFL team to Raleigh. They (Goodnight, Sall, & Sweeney) don’t seem to care about this…which is unfortunate IMO. They have the financial ability without putting much of a dent in their finances to do so but don’t care to do so which hurts our region IMO.

This said, to say Goodnight nor the Sall family haven’t contributed to the region, including Raleigh would be disingenuous at best. The 5000 jobs are hard to ignore. All of those people don’t live in Cary. (Have no clue what Sweeney May have contributed to in the region (aside from about 1000 jobs)

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Could Raleigh just annex Cary? Isn’t Cary just an ole town? Enough of Cary siphoning off Raleigh’s action. Time to take it over!

Pick up 3 billionaires in just a snap!

Seriously tho that would be cool. The new city would be 470K + 170K = 640,000 population (around #28 nationally).

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If this were Mecklenburg, we’d have annexed Cary, Garner, Knightdale, Morrisville, Apex, and Wake Forest at the very least.

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While I think that consolidation is a pipe dream, Raleigh and its closest immediate burbs combined is a better comparison to Charlotte. Raleigh+Cary+Apex+Garner+Morrisville+Wake Forest+Knightdale combined would be a better population comparison.

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Shockingly, Napoleon complex suffering “charlotte usa” annexed everything in its path so it could claim itself a “big city” in the 80’s-90’s. Indianapolis and Austin TX did effectively the same thing. Raleigh took a much more passive approach.

Then our illustrious GOP stepped in around 2010 effectively killing any future annexation attempts by N.C. municipalities thru another fine piece of legislation that addressed no real problem except their distaste for N.C. cities.

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Except that there are just as many (if not more) annexations going on in Wake County each year as before the law went into effect. At the time that NC ended the forced annexations, it was one of only 3 states in the country who still allowed forced annexations. It was and still is an excellent decision to change that archaic and fundamentally unfair practice of forced annexations upon home owners.

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This is way off topic now, but I’ll add that unfair is a two way street. If residents aren’t paying city taxes but are oftentimes enjoying its services, then that’s unfair to city tax payers.

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FWIW, the Goodnights don’t live in Cary proper

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And 49 states disagree with your assessment as I believe only one state still allows forced annexations. They still are not getting city water, sewer, city trash, city police, etc… But yes you can make a point that maybe they use the parks, drive on city streets, or whatnot. All I am saying is that NC with forced annexations was an outlier state with a law that almost all of the United States viewed as unfair. And now back to billionaires…

Neither does John Sall for that matter. Technically they live in the county but have a Cary zip code.

My favorite painting at the NCMA growing up with was A. Wyeth’s Winter. I use to stand in front of that painting and get lost in the blades of grass, thinking of the story behind it and how a person works through great grief. Here is the back story if you are unfamiliar:

Thanks to the Goodnights there are 2 more Wyeth’s to join it, Weatherside and The Sea Dog I am darn grateful for their generosity in these cases.
https://ncartmuseum.org/blog/view/a_new_perspective_on_andrew_wyeths_weather_side

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And we have #1349 Dennis Gillings (Quintiles and now IQVIA). Lives in Durham

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Oh turns out we have 6 billionaires now and at least one of them lives in Raleigh.

#6. Mark Rein
– Net worth: $1.1 billion (#2,428 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Raleigh, North Carolina
– Source of wealth: video games, Self Made

#5. Sergei Makhlai
– Net worth: $1.1 billion (#2,323 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
– Source of wealth: fertilizers

#4. Dennis Gillings
– Net worth: $2.1 billion (#1,400 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Durham, North Carolina
– Source of wealth: clinical trials, Self Made

#3. John Sall
– Net worth: $3.5 billion (#820 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Cary, North Carolina
– Source of wealth: software, Self Made

#2. James Goodnight
– Net worth: $7.1 billion (#324 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Cary, North Carolina
– Source of wealth: software, Self Made

#1. Tim Sweeney
– Net worth: $7.6 billion (#284 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Cary, North Carolina
– Source of wealth: video games, Self Made

None of which are interested in sports ownership, sadly.

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Furthermore there are ONLY 6 in NC which is strange with CLT being such a major banking center and as the article states, “billionaires are mostly concentrated within just a couple of industries finance and investments, and technology.”

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If this is truly an exhaustive list, then all of NC’s billionaires are in the Triangle.

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