Raleigh, City of Oaks, anchors the Triangle
Staff Photo by Chris Seward
The Capitol presides over downtown Raleigh, where older business districts are seeing new activity, a venerable auditorium is getting additions, and a children's museum is under construction

The capital city keeps growing in unexpected ways

By MATTHEW EISLEY, Staff Writer, The Raleigh News& Observer, June 1998


      RALEIGH -- Government, politics and education are the traditional anchors of Raleigh, North Carolina's capital since its founding in 1792. But sports, recreation, retail commerce and business are a bigger part of life here every year.
     Raleigh has not only six colleges and universities, but also a multisport arena and a billion-dollar second loop highway under construction, and a growing and diverse collection of small- to mid-size businesses, many feeding off nearby Research Triangle Park, 15 miles northwest of downtown Raleigh.
     Raleigh and N.C. State University form the eastern point of the Research Triangle, with Durham's Duke University and Chapel Hill's University of North Carolina at the northwest points.
     With an estimated 275,000 people, Raleigh rivals bigger Charlotte for statewide influence and national prominence. Although it doesn't compare to the Queen City as a commercial, transportation or sports center, Raleigh anchors burgeoning Wake County -- where rural Eastern North Carolina meets the urban Piedmont -- and it's the economic hub of the state's eastern half. The population of Wake County and its 12 towns is expected to surpass Charlotte/Mecklenburg County's in 15 or 20 years.
     Starting from scratch 206 years ago as the state's new square-mile capital, Raleigh was a sleepy town for most of its history and never built a strong manufacturing base. But the city has grown rapidly for three decades, capitalizing on the success of Research Triangle Park.
     Raleigh's older neighborhoods lie generally inside Interstate 440, more commonly called The Beltline. Many old homes in Oakwood, Boylan Heights and Mordecai have been restored, and a few downtown housing developments are under way.
     Suburban growth has spread outside the 24-mile Beltline loop, especially throughout the half of the city known as North Raleigh, filled with leafy subdivisions, quiet cul-de-sacs, strip malls and congested roads.
     A new Outer Loop, Interstate 540, is being built across Raleigh's northern tier. Its first segment connects I-40 near RTP to U.S. 70 near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. From there, the northern half of the loop will arc across North Raleigh and end at a planned U.S. 64 bypass near Knightdale, east of Raleigh. The loop's half through southern Wake County is being planned but faces budgetary and environmental obstacles.
     Boosters call Raleigh The City of Oaks. Rapid development has led some residents to refer to it sarcastically as The City of Oak Stumps. Since Hurricane Fran walloped the region in September 1996, tree stumps have been more common still, though the storm also cleared the way for fresh undergrowth and new landscaping.
     Life in southwest Raleigh and along the Hillsborough Street commercial district are centered around N.C. State University, North Carolina's biggest college. Raleigh's new arena is being built next to N.C. State's Carter-Finley Stadium and near the State Fairgrounds, off Wade Avenue near I-40. It will also be the home of The National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes.
     Southeast Raleigh is a predominantly black district with two historically black private colleges, Shaw University and St. Augustine's College, the city-owned Walnut Creek Amphitheatre and Wake Medical Center.
     Steadily growing northwest Raleigh has Crabtree Valley Mall, the Triangle's biggest shopping center, a booming retail corridor along Glenwood Avenue, and Umstead State Park, an oasis of woods and wildlife in the middle of the Triangle.
     Northeast Raleigh is the fastest-growing sector of the city, extending across the Neuse River to Wake Forest and toward Rolesville. A mall is planned where the Outer Loop will cross Capital Boulevard.
     Sometimes overshadowed by its own Triangle neighbors, Raleigh doesn't dominate its region as do the state capitals of Richmond, Va.; Columbia, S.C.; Nashville, Tenn.; or Atlanta.
     But the namesake of English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh -- who never set foot in the colony that became North Carolina -- has a growing artistic community and many cultural attractions, including several state museums, the N.C. Symphony Orchestra and The North Carolina Theatre. Raleigh plans to add two or three performance halls to its venerable downtown Memorial Auditorium to create a performing arts center. The Exploris children's museum is being built next to the downtown Moore Square, across from the historic City Market dining and shopping district.
     Favorite Raleigh restaurants include The Angus Barn, Clyde Cooper's Barbecue, Greenshields Brewery & Pub, 42nd Street Oyster Bar, The Char-Grill, 518 West Jones Italian Cafe, LeCount's, Glenwood Grill, Courtney's, Lilly's Pizza, Gregory's, Winston's Grille and Cup a Joe coffeehouse.
     Raleigh has an extensive park system and is building one of the country's best recreational greenway systems along its creeks, lakes and The Neuse River, with many more miles complete than any other North Carolina town's; most of it remains to be built. Other recreation attractions are Falls Lake to the north, Jordan Lake to the west, and the city's Lake Wheeler to the south.
     Raleigh is governed by an eight-member City Council, including a mayor with fairly weak powers. All members are elected every two years. Raleigh's City Manager runs day-to-day affairs with a staff of 2,700.
     While Raleigh keeps growing outward, the revitalization of old downtown property continues at a modest pace, turning warehouses into restaurants and condos in several places along railroad tracks. A few new residential projects are popping up downtown, too.
     Raleigh and the state are making long-range plans for a new train station and a resurgence in passenger train traffic from Raleigh west through the Piedmont to Charlotte, plus a possible tourist train to Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Future routes may go east from Raleigh to the coast.