RTP-area local music and culture

[Mary Anne Barckhoff <barckhoff AT yahoo.com>]

Howdy neighbor!  I live in Parkwood too.  Actually,
Parkwood is an early 60's-era development that was in
the middle of nothing, but close to burgeoning RTP. 
It was built with a shopping center (what is now the
library used to be a grocery), churches and a school,
so it was intended to be a self-contained community. 
My realtor also told me that it almost became its own
town back in the day.  So, even though it is now
"suburbia," at the time it was built, it was intended
to be self sufficient.

But it's no Chapel Hill/Carrboro for sure.

mab

--- grady <grady AT ibiblio.org> wrote:

> 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
> 
=== message truncated ===


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