Triangle Residents See Reasons to be Optimistic About Our Future. But Achieving A Shared Vision for 2040 Will Require Bold Action in 2020.
A lot can change over the course of 20 years. Back in 2000, you might have come across this post in your inbox after connecting to the internet via a dial-up modem (using a telephone landline!) and hearing a cheery computerized male voice say, “You’ve got mail.”
Over the past 20 years, Wake County has seen our own share of tremendous change. As we look forward to a new year — and a new decade — it’s more or less a guarantee that change will continue. By the year 2040, official projections are that Wake County’s population will reach an astounding 1.45 million people.
So what might the future hold for our region exactly? The INDY Week recently asked a diverse group of policy experts, academics, journalists, activists, and politicians from across the region to imagine what the Triangle will look like in the year 2040.
Friends and supporters of WakeUP contributed essays, including James Demby, a member of WakeUP’s Transportation, Land Use, & Housing Committee; Carly Jones, a singer, theater artist, and arts advocate; Harry Johnson, an attorney and local franchise specialist for Google Fiber; and Nathan Spencer, our Associate Director.
Below is a brief recap of what they imagine the future holds for issues concerning transportation, housing, and land use.
What Will Triangle Housing Look Like in 2040?
James Demby, a member of WakeUP’s Transportation, Land Use, & Housing Committee, outlines what he sees as two major housing trends in the Triangle’s future: continued suburban sprawl and increased urban density in the form of tall buildings in and near walkable downtowns.
With BRT, Raleigh, Cary, and Garner will have a chance to get people out of cars if they allow dense development near transit stops. Compared to sprawl, this won’t be as big a housing trend over the next twenty years, but I am optimistic that we will start to see denser housing with less parking and the things people need to live their lives all around BRT lines. If everything goes just right for commuter rail, we will even see the stations in Garner and RTP build up like small city centers.
James also recently started a project tracking all of the new housing being built throughout Raleigh on his website, whatisraleighbuilding.com.
What Will Triangle Transit Look Like in 2040?
Nathan Spencer, Associate Director for WakeUP, sees enormous potential for non-automobile-centric forms of transportation, including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Commuter Rail, and micro-transit options such as e-scooters, provided we remain open to increased residential density and adapting our lifestyles and habits to accommodate growth.
By 2040, we’ll have a complete and connected transportation network. Local buses will have dedicated lanes and signal priority at traffic lights. Commuter rail will get you to any number of points between Johnston County and Wake Forest. BRT will run from Knightdale to RTP and from Triangle Town Center to Garner, both stopping in downtown Raleigh.
In order for this to succeed, though, we need to think beyond just building transit lines. We need to consider how we live in our communities and start making changes immediately. We need residential density, like multifamily, multistory homes and sharing lots to break out of the one-family, one-home, one-lot cycle. Walking and biking are forms of public transit as well, and we should be building services—coffee shops, grocery stores, schools—within walking and biking distance of highly populated residential areas. We must find smart ways to use the space we already occupy instead of sprawling outward.
In 2020, WakeUP is Getting to Work to Ensure A Bright Future
The INDY’s essays make clear that big change looms on the horizon for our region. But realizing that potential will not necessarily be easy. To achieve the most promising aspects of these visions for the future — and to avoid accompanying problems and pitfalls — thoughtful planning and grassroots efforts are needed to mobilize action TODAY. This is the reason why WakeUP Wake County’s work on growth issues is so important.
WakeUP is ready to kick off the new decade with a strong start to 2020, and we’ve got a lot of programs and activities planned for the new year to help turn these optimistic visions for our future into reality.
Soon we’ll announce details of our annual spring forum, which will focus on climate change and climate equity. In the months ahead, we’ll also be doing engagement work out in the community, visiting Wake County municipalities for direct, face-to-face conversations with residents. And later this month we plan to launch our new Community Spotlight series, where each month we’ll choose one of Wake County’s twelve municipalities and highlight some of the great work being done there on challenges related to growth and sustainability. You should also look out for many more posts on our blog and on social media about our core issues of transportation, land use, clean water, and schools.
Of course, even though there are reasons to be optimistic about what the future holds — in her essay for the INDY Week, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin described her vision for the city’s future as one of vibrancy, innovation, collaborative partnerships, and investments in people above all else — it’s important to recognize, as Southeast Raleigh community leader Octavia Rainey points out, that the Triangle region still faces enormous challenges heading into the new decade. And chief among those challenges are gentrification, resident displacement, poverty, and racial inequality and inequity.
Moving forward, we plan to do much more grassroots organizing work on these critical issues, especially now that Raleigh’s new City Council has begun discussing details of its “moonshot” affordable housing plan.
Donate Today
We’re especially proud to have been included on the INDY Week Press Club’s 2019 List of Nonprofits You Should Know.
You can support WakeUP’s work today to help mobilize grassroots efforts on issues related to growth and sustainability and ensure a bright future for Wake County in 2040. Your generous contribution will help support future programming and projects and help us to make sure that local actions and policies necessary for smart growth happen TODAY.
Click here to become a sustainer, and click here to make a one-time donation.
How You Can Get Involved
Join one of WakeUP’s Committees, volunteer, or find out what is happening in your community by visiting our Keeping you Connected page.