Imagine Cary - or imagine what Cary could become if we let
the new-urbanists ruin it. That was my take from the Summit on the Future event
held at Embassy Suites.
The Summit was our first crack at gathering community input
as we work towards the new Cary Community Plan.
Somebody thought it would be a good idea to invite Mr. Chris
Leinberger to serve as the keynote speaker of the event. Mr. Leinberger, a Brookings Fellow, is a
developer who specializes in progressive, high density, transit oriented new-urbanism
development. Mr. Leinberger also serves as the President of LOCUS. LOCUS is a
national coalition of real estate developers and investors whose job it is to
lobby federal and state governments for policies that support sustainable,
walkable, transit oriented urban development. In a nutshell, Mr. Leinbergermakes his living off of the development of high density new-urban communities. Sounds
just like Cary right?
On three separate occasions, Mr. Leinberger presented his
vision to approximately 750 members of our community. Needless to say it was an incredibly biased and one sided vision. Following each
presentation participants were then push-polled regarding a number of topics to
include growth, taxes, transit, affordable housing and density. I have a hard time putting much faith in the data collected given the manner in
which we collected that information.
During one of Mr. Leinberger’s presentations he actually
compared suburbia (74% of Cary housing BTW) to an X-rated movie theater.
Seriously.
What angers me the most about Mr. Leinberger’s presentation
is that from the beginning of this process I have made it crystal clear to town
staff and the consultant team that I expect balance in any information we disseminate
to the public. I stated on numerous occasions that if we have someone speak to
the benefits of, say, transit for example, we also discuss the negatives such
as cost implications or change in character of the community. We got none of
that. All we got was, “all the cool kids are doing rail so you have to do rail
also.”
They didn’t listen. So now the council has asked for a
worksession with staff and the consultant team to discuss and iron out our
concerns prior to continuing with the process.
It’s a shame. But other than the Leinberger disaster the
event was very well done. Ms. Leigh Ann King’s presentation regarding the
demographics and trends in Cary was very informative. I even learned a few
things I didn’t already know; such as more Cary residents travel to Raleigh for
work than RTP or that more people come to Cary for their job than leave Cary.
Interesting stuff. We needed more of that and a lot less Leinberger.
Another fun topic of discussion this week was the firesculpture at the corner of Academy and Dry/Kildaire across from the Cary Arts
Center.
It’s the thing that looks like an old burnt up out-building
with a gaping crack down its side.
While the weeklong process to construct and ultimately fire the
sculpture was a wonderful community event, that event ended months ago and we
are now left with a “sculpture” that is entirely out of place at its current
location.
The piece also sits on what will be Cary’s future town
square once the downtown park is constructed – which leads one to question why
a permanent installation of this magnitude was recommended at this location to
begin with.
The council voted 6-1 to direct staff to relocate the piece
to a more suitable location.
And speaking of the downtown park, the council has also
asked for another worksession on the topic to further discuss our intentions
and vision for the park prior to awarding any contract for design and
construction services.
I continue to support the public library and seven acre park
concept as originally approved by council in 2009. This concept honors the
intent of a large central park in Cary’s downtown while also providing for
public uses that will compliment and add value to the surrounding community. It
indicated a town square, water features and an outdoor amphitheater area along
with areas for public art… temporary of course.
National Night Out and National Train Day in downtown were
both a huge success and thank goodness the weather cooperated. Hopefully it
does the same for next weekend’s Wheels on Academy Car Show. Now thats my kind of art. See you there!