Wake Up Wake County

Last night, I shared the stage with the very impressive Keith Parker, who heads the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS), at Wake Up Wake County's forum on transit. A committed group of volunteers in Raleigh, North Carolina, whipped up 300+ citizens to attend an evening forum on transit plans for the region. The smart questions and general high level of discussion were impressive.

Raleigh-Durham-Cary-Chapel Hill -- or "The Triangle" as they frequently call it -- is one of the nation's most successful regions, ranking number 1 or 2 in all talent measures on CEOs for Cities City Vitals and in the top 10 on the innovation meansures of venture capital and patents.

The question I asked and many people in Raleigh are asking is this: Will what made you successful in the past continue to make you successful in the future? So many of the assumptions on which we have built our communities -- cheap and plentiful gas, the ability to build our way of congestion, the supremacy of jobs over quality of place and quality of life, the sprawling campus preferred over urban places -- are now in serious question. Communities must adjust to these new realities to be successful in the future.

Although Raleigh is certainly behind in transit, Charlotte's experience with transit shows how quickly determined communities can catch up. Charlotte's ridership increases are the highest in the country.

Raleigh feels like a community where citizens are smart, active and organized. It feels like a community in good progressive hands.

  

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