Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ch-scene - Re: Ch-scene Digest, Vol 16, Issue 25

ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Ch-scene Digest, Vol 16, Issue 25
  • Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 09:05:04 -0500

Well, you know, those of us who live by the car are destined to die by the car, and I say this as someone who just spent 40 minutes in the car commuting to RTP.

Isn't Parkwood a fairly typical 70s-era white-flight suburb of Durham/RTP, pine trees or no pine trees? That refreshing lack of gas stations & Teeters just meant that the residents had to drive further to meet their basic daily needs -- unless y'all were growing all your own food when you were kids (I can just picture Peder walking behind a plow) . . .

I dig what you're saying about eccentric local funk -- but really, how long do you have to live elsewhere to develop nostalgia for the oil-tank farm and the junkyard that bookend the current Cradle?

Basically, as long as people keep procreating and/or immigrating, we're going to have to deal with development. We only get two choices: out, or up. Up is vastly preferable to out, especially since the surface of the earth is a finite quantity while, strictly speaking, "up" is infinite. The engineering just gets trickier the further up you go ;-)

Ross

dAvid Hollinghurst wrote:
First, I offer my apologies to anyone who I offended with my own
"knee-jerk" reaction toward the new plans for Downtown Carrboro.
Since I have come into the discussion a bit late in the game (and the
distance doesn't help), it could seem immature, rash, and a bit
uncalled for. My intention was to spout off a little, then give
credit to all who have given positive, rational, and reasonable
suggestions and discussions for this new development, support to
those that have given constructive criticism. To some, the first
paragraph just poisoned and erased the rest. Perhaps I should have
made myself clearer.

Allow me to explain my vitriol. My family moved to a housing
community in southern Durham county called Parkwood in 1984. It's a
pretty insular situation, being there are greenways and forests of
pine that generally disallow any kind of development in yr own
backyard. No chance for a gas station, or a Harris Teeter, or a
Wal-Mart looming over you at night. But outside, we watched the pine
forests fall. Strip mall here, townhouses there. Fayetteville Road
and Hwy 54 were doomed once we saw the potential. Pretty soon, the
houses that held a family for thirty years or more were bathed in
traffic, noise, and some serious light pollution. They basically had
no choice, except to eventually move. Yr typical sprawl situation.

And then one day, I was driving down what was once a back road made
of gravel, through the construction of more cardboard housing
developments. Around the corner and BAM!, an entire area of dense
pines completely razed. Bulldozers galore. The signs of a new
development: Southpoint, the mall that would best Crabtree was
threatening it's presence. They will come, cried the machines, and
in droves.

My first thought: what about the people that live on this road, just
on the end of this new commercial excess? Has anyone driven past
Southpoint, to where the four/six lanes turn into two? It's like an
insult to these poor, unfortunate souls who have been living there
for so long, their children, and grandchildren that have visited
them, memories that were planted with the grass in the front yard,
the swingset in back. Now, they live on the very outskirts of the
disease that is about to engulf their homesteads: Development. What
chance do they have? Sure they had a voice, but the town and the
businesses seemed to care little. There is no buffer there. In a
few years, you may see some "For Sale" signs in those yards. May see
them, I say, because they probably have already been offered a lump
sum for their homes, their land, their memories. And eventually,
they'll fold, just like everyone else has, and probably for a steal,
because the brokers are all going for the same deal, the same profit.
No one can blame them; who the hell would want to live in these
conditions?

My vitriol is based on the background of this sprawl, this disease
that spreads like wildfire across our country. Yes, I'll agree with
you before you begin to argue. This plan is not really pushing
people out of their homes. And Main Street Properties has done a
good job in allowing the community to become involved in the process
for this project. The fact that they are designing spaces
specifically for their clients that have become a mainstay in the
cultural and economical process of Carrboro exhibits their
consideration and understanding of what this move, this change, this
development will mean to the community.

But for me, from what I have witnessed, it's the disease. And with
that, the change of the livelihood. It can happen for the better,
but every time I hear the word development, I cringe. There are
obviously far more issues than just the loss of memories and
sacredness of peoples homes, and the rights to live as they please.
Ross pointed out several strong issues in his posting. These are
questions we want answers for.

Character for a town to me doesn't necessarily mean the architecture
or the amount of people to me. It's the odd houses, the random
shops, the old tree on a corner or the funky sculpture some hippy put
in their front yard. The people, the attitude, and variety that
allows everyone to contribute to the greater creativity. A
development like this, as good natured as it is, tends to flatten and
sterilize the character. And where there is one, there is more.

These points I am sure are nothing new; we've seen it everywhere.
Everyone here seems to understand the big picture and what our
culture has the potential to do to itself and to others.

I do realize the juxtaposition of what a somewhat
poseur-satellite-localite has in a newsgroup such as this. But the
thing is, I do care. Living in NYC has given me more appreciation
for what towns like Chapel Hill and Carrboro have to offer. Not just
the quiet and moderately cheaper rent, but the sense of community
that naturally exists. NYC is just so darn big, you don't really get
that here, which is why I signed onto this newsgroup, which is why I
am also part of the "gonna move back to CH/Carrboro when the time
comes" consortium. It's a great place to live; I look fondly upon
the days spent there, watching families grow and the community work
with itself. Sure, I was some poor, rock kid living off McDade for
awhile, but I knew what was going on outside the rental I sat in.
Anyone who didn't understand really didn't belong there.

Maybe us out-of-towners react so vehemently toward these changes
because we miss the old place. All we have is our memories to hold
on to, and when the foundations that created them are uprooted,
shifted, changed, plowed over, or replaced with something else, we
get a little upset. Where is the continuity, is nothing sacred? Or
perhaps the city has creeped in and settled in our nerves. The MTA
can do that to you. I'd be willing to have some anthropological
discussions about this.

But again, I do want to apologize to those who are taking the
positive, wiser, more thoughtful road if any offense has been made.
It's highly commendable, I look up to those doing so, and learn a
great deal from what everyone says, about this topic as well as
others (part of the community process, I feel). I would assume (but
that would hurt us all, right?) that there was a little knee-jerk
reaction in all of us upon first hearing the news; mine was just a
bit venomous and landed in a place where it felt comfortable to say
what is on yr mind. I look forward to following everyone's opinions
here, reading whatever local newsprint I can get my hands on off the
net, and gathering the updates when they come. Thank you for posting
the links for the plans. That's the kind of thing that makes me glad
communities that involve smart and dedicated people like this still
exist. Thanks for listening, if you made it this far.



As far as the Kenlan/Garrison/embittered tag, well, perhaps this is a
personal issue. One that can be discussed outside this forum if
desired, since I'm sure others here don't want to hear about it.


dAve

"Forever alive, forever forward." -Walt Whitman

[ http://www.dAve.hollinghurst.net ] No virus found in this
outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus
Database: 266.5.0 - Release Date: 2/25/05

-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill -- http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/mixed text/plain (text body -- kept) text/plain (text body -- kept) text/plain (text body -- kept) ---





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page