UPDATE: Binker talks to Neal.

Binker takes issue with Jim Neal's remarks in the Village Voice, and with the Voice's view of our fair state.

Subtract about 7,500 seriousness points for the fact that the item was written by Michael Musto and that it runs beneath a report of semi-witty banter with Mo Rocca, and give Musto credit for the phrase "wacky, multi-textured North Carolina," and grow a freaking sense of humor, and it's still not Neal's finest moment as a candidate.

Comments

[Patrick]

Binker writes like a high school sophomore who's president of the Citizenship Club. He should do more reporting and less commenting.

[Roch101]

Ouch, Patrick. Binker's a wonk whose opinions are informed by a deep immersion in his subject matter. I enjoy reading his opinion, even if I don't always agree.

[Patrick]

Well, maybe I wish I hadn't said that, but Binker belongs to two groups that annoy me to distraction: people from the hinterlands who cover politics in Raleigh, and homers who work for the N&R.

[Ed Cone]

"...people from the hinterlands who cover politics in Raleigh."

Huh. At least until quite recently, Raleigh has looked like the hinterlands when viewed from GSO.

Seems to me that if our tax money is good enough to go to suburban Cary, then our local newspaper reporters are, too. Binker seems to be pretty well-respected by his peers, for what that's worth.

None of which has much to do with Neal and Musto...

[Patrick]

"At least until quite recently, Raleigh has looked like the hinterlands when viewed from GSO."

Huh. Not THAT recently, I guess.

Neal and Musto was nothing. What I thought was interesting about your post was the provincial back getting all up--"taking issue", as you had it. Didn't realize we were to be limited to the merits of the original piece.

[Ed Cone]

Limits? Merits? Such things are not considered in these threads.

I thought Neal was trying a little too hard, and Binker captured that pretty well. I've been impressed by the way Neal presents himself, so it stood out. As my post says, recognizing the source and having a sense of humor are helpful in this case.

My lack of concern over snark about life in the provinces extends to New York and down I40; it is merely stating the facts to say Raleigh was dullsville until about five minutes ago, and that for all its new wealth and Best Places to Live lists it still lacks GSO's soul.

[Joe Killian]

I'm not sure why covering politics in Raleigh is something we shouldn't do. That's where...you know...the politics are. Binker is a first rate political reporter, well regarded by both his colleagues and readers. He doesn't cover Raleigh politics from here -- he does it from there, for a paper here.

He can also write his ass off, incidentally.

[Patrick]

See, with all the passion and flair you bring to your boosterism, I can't understand why the N&R hasn't brought you on full time, instead of just that freelance gig.

[Joe Killian]

I've been a full time reporter at the N&R for more than a year now.

[Samuel Spagnola]

Raleigh was dullsville? More so than Greensboro? Wow, you missed the music scene there in the 90's along with all the creative energy of the tech industry.

Meanwhile we have... a few clubs downtown...a civil rights museum in waiting that will never be complete...and...a new half complete outer loop...and...no branding identity...and...?

Greensboro isn't as dull as it used to be, but far more excitement is generated in Raleigh than here and that isn't a recent development.

[Ed Cone]

The Civil Rights museum will be completed, and it will be good.

It's a reasonable place to start this conversation, too, because it commemorates the differentiator I had in mind -- native culture. GSO has one. Raleigh, for much of its history, did not.

Our recent spate of nightclubs, or Raleigh's decidedly hinterlandish tech industry of the '90s, aren't really the point -- nor is GSO's real decline in many, many ways relative to its sister cities.

GSO has a soul. It's a real place. Raleigh was the seat of state government, a place you sent kids to college, but not particularly vibrant city in its own right. GSO had better restaurants, people in Raleigh went to Chapel Hill. GSO had Matisses and a de Kooning, Raleigh had a musty state-owned museum. GSO had hippies and poets, Raleigh had bureaucrats.

Again, much has changed in both cities, but the provincial capital remains in the provinces.

[Billy The Blogging Poet]

Those who haven't been in Greensboro or Raleigh very long have no memory of how Raleigh was once a hick town half the size of Greensboro and was even looked down upon by High Point.

These relative newcomers don't realize that Raleigh was built at the expense of other NC cities including GSO, Charlotte, Asheville, High Point, Wilmington, Winston-Salem and Fayetteville which were all bigger and more vibrant than Raleigh before the funneling of state transportation dollars began.

For example: When the loop was built around Raleigh traffic in Raleigh was 1/2 the traffic in Greensboro and 1/3 the traffic in Charlotte and neither Greensboro nor Charlotte has a completed loop. Then take a look at things like the walls that are built along the Interstates as noise barriers: Not only did Raleigh get them first but Raleigh got the far more attractive and much more expensive hand laid brick walls while every other city in the state got and continues to get cheap, ugly, gray concrete walls.

And state transportation dollars weren't the only funds denied the rest of NC for that RDU could be crowned.

Yeah, Raleigh is a great place today but only because the rest of North Carolina suffered to make it that way.

[Ed Cone]

Transportation matters, although I don't know it's quite the morality tale Billy presents. A lot of folks west of Raleigh were pretty damn happy to get to the beach without driving through the city...

RTP, its eponymous region, and the growth of state government all factored into Raleigh's rise.

[Mark Binker]

Follow up with Neal from a conversation Thursday: http://tinyurl.com/3yrnf6

[Billy The Blogging Poet]

Ed,
If a better route to the beaches had been a consideration a far shorter route could have been followed than the current path taken by I-40 and at well over 1 million dollars per mile of asphalt the savings would have been enormous.

[Ed Cone]

Wasn't Wilmington to Raleigh to GSO to Albuquerque drawn up in the Eisenhower era?