May 18, 2008 1
On N.C. Growth
I had some interesting conversation at a shindig last night about the planned growth for my town, Carrboro. There is a great deal of development coming to our downtown area in the next few years. All of it seems just a bit out of place until you realize how quickly our state, and the greater “Triangle” area is growing. In fact, this year N.C. eclipsed N.J. to become the 10th most populous state. And we’re still growing.
Nonetheless, I learned that two large parking lots downtown will be going away with the addition of all these new buildings. Plus, the neighborhood street-parking will be permit protected to help out the folks who live near downtown. Sooooo… considering our free buses stop running at 8pm and don’t run fully on the weekends do they expect people to patronize all this new business-tax-base?
Growth is a hard problem, but N.C.’s its getting some recognition . In fact, a friend sent me a link to a good article about N.C.’s growth problems, through the eyes of a Californian. Its an interesting perspective. One very good point the author makes is that N.C.’s growth has to be seen through the historical filter of a state moving from an agrarian society to whatever it is becoming. California skipped the agrarian step thanks to the gold rush.
Like the rest of the South, North Carolina must struggle every day with the dream of being rural and the reality of being urban. That’s what makes it increasingly difficult to keep growth good.
I think about the town I grew up in through that filter, and I suppose I see Carrboro through it as well. N.C. is not the simple place it once was. I am grateful for that, but always a little nostalgic for the old state too.