This geographical area, titled the \u201cPiedmont,\u201d is one of 12 southeastern U.S. eco-regions analyzed by the study. Of those, the Piedmont is predicted to see the largest absolute change in population, with an increase of 165 percent between 2009 and 2060. This growth is attributed to a number of qualities found in the area, such as the presence of large urban areas and a proximity to \u201cnatural amenities\u201d such as the Appalachians and the Atlantic.<\/p>\n
The lead author on the study, incidentally, is Raleigh\u2019s own Adam Terando, who works both as an adjunct professor for NC State and an ecologist with the U.S. Geographical Survey. Terando also serves on Raleigh\u2019s Planning Commission, where he is a staunch advocate for environmental preservation.<\/p>\n
That being said, it\u2019s clear that being part of a Megalopolis called the Piedmont is far preferable to being known as \u201cRaleigh-Durham-Cary\u201d if only because the former doesn\u2019t make your city seem interchangeable by hyphenating it.<\/p>\n
There is one downside to this kind of grouping, however, and that is that the resulting moniker could be one far, far worse than Raleigh-Durham-Cary.<\/p>\n
Richard Florida, a controversial (aren\u2019t they all?) American urban studies theorist, also predicts the rise of a series of what he dubbed mega-regions in the southeast, and included in his analysis statistics for a present-day version of the Raleigh to Atlanta \u201cPiedmont\u201d megalopolis. But that\u2019s not what he called it.<\/p>\n
Florida dubbed the region \u2026 Char-lanta.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one city Raleigh\u2019s elite inside-the-beltliners hate more than Durham or Cary, it is, without a doubt, the Queen City. Charlotte. North Carolina\u2019s largest and most populous metropolis, and the site, this reporter learned recently, of the only other airport in the state outside of RDU from which it is legal to ship a corpse. Don\u2019t ask.<\/p>\n
The Char-lanta region is home to 22 million people and includes everything from Raleigh to Birmingham, Alabama. Florida noted that the economic output of the region was more than a trillion dollars, placing it among the world\u2019s fifteen largest economies.<\/p>\n
Those are some pretty impressive figures, but it doesn\u2019t change the fact that, someday, the much reviled \u201cRaleigh-Durham-Cary area\u201d might be replaced with the dreadful “Char-lanta area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Happening Now-ish<\/strong> A mysterious construction project on nearby Transylvania Avenue, described on recent city permits as a \u201cdetached garage with walk-up storage,\u201d sounds like the perfect place to store a coffin filled with native Transylvanian earth.<\/p>\n In other news, an antiques shop \u2013 don\u2019t worry, this isn\u2019t the set-up for a \u201cNeedful Things\u201d joke \u2013 will soon open in north Raleigh, on Honeycutt Drive in the Lafayette Village shopping center. The shop, Ad Libs, is relocating from its current spot in Five Points. As nice as some of the items on the store\u2019s website look, it feels as though the owner is missing out on a great opportunity \u2013 an antique store named Mad Libs, that sells nothing but, wait for it, old Mad Libs books. If you think about it, it\u2019s a (adverb) (adjective) idea, and you\u2019d have to be a (noun) to think a store stocked with (plural noun) wouldn’t take off like a (noun).<\/p>\n The corporate headquarters of Affordable Care Inc., a dental support organization, is located just north of Cardinal Gibbons High School off of Edwards Mill Road and was recently permitted for an affordable renovation of just $95,000. Although no details were available on the construction beyond its descriptor as an \u201cinterior alteration suite expansion,\u201d it is likely there will be a lot of drilling involved.<\/p>\n Speaking of corporate interior renovations, EDM America\u2019s Raleigh office, housed in the PNC Tower downtown, also received permits last week, for a $132,681 renovation of its space there. EDM Americas offers its clients \u201coptimized information management solutions,\u201d and even after spending 20 minutes reading the company\u2019s website, this reporter still isn\u2019t entirely sure what that means. It\u2019s something with computers, maybe.<\/p>\n The now-vacant Kroger in southeast Raleigh will soon be home to a new grocery store \u2013 albeit one that will share the space with a Roses discount store. The building was recently purchased by Variety Wholesalers, which manages a number of discount stores, some of which offer grocery items. The Raleigh location, located slightly east of Raleigh Boulevard on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, will be the first standalone grocery store operated by Variety Wholesalers.<\/p>\n Variety Wholesalers is, of course, owned by North Carolina\u2019s state budget director Art Pope. A controversial figure, Pope is often described by his detractors as North Carolina\u2019s version of the Koch Brothers. Whatever his motivations, however, Pope\u2019s decision to open a grocery store in the area will help fill the gap left when the former Kroger shut down<\/a>.<\/p>\n Coming Eventually<\/strong> The former Kroger off of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is finally getting a new tenant \u2013 two of them actually \u2013 and a question that has been plaguing Raleighites for years now \u2013 is there anything worse than people describing the area as \u201cRaleigh-Durham-Cary\u201d \u2013 is finally answered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24061,"featured_media":21806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1599,15],"tags":[1727,1728,1501,1104,1726],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24061"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMembers of the Carolina Country Club should be on the lookout for a\u00a0\u201ctall old man, clean shaven save for a long white mustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"affordablecare2\"](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/urgentcare2-771x514.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"edm\"](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/edm-771x514.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"kroger2\"](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/kroger2-771x513.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThis space would normally be occupied by the \u201cComing Soon\u201d section, which discusses development actions taken by the Planning Commission and City Council. Because there were no Planning Commission or City Council meetings last week, there\u2019s no need for that section to exist. Don\u2019t worry though \u2013 August is going to see more than its share of zoning and site plan cases. Spoiler alert \u2013 there might be more multifamily units coming to the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"