Talk:Raleigh, North Carolina

Research Triangle v. Research Triangle Park?

Which is more correct? I realize that RTP proper is a small district of some type -- don't know how it's governed -- but from outside the region, we always called the three-city area "RTP" rather than "RT". Howard C. Berkowitz 17:19, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

Right, the RTP is a delimited area of land (7,000 acres) in the middle of the couple-of-hundred-square-mile triangle with the 3 cities at its vertices. There is a nonprofit foundation, formed in 1959 by governments, businesses, and universities, that either sells or leases (I'm not sure which) parcels of the Park's land to businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations for research and light-manufacturing purposes.

But the foundation is not an unit of civil government; it's just a landlord or the commercial equivalent of a condo association. The land itself is still under the legal jurisdiction of whichever county or town it happens to lie in. The foundation deals with parceling out the property rights, enforcing environmental and aesthetic standards, maintaining the common areas and green space, and otherwise promoting the mission of the RTP.

So the correct term for the larger area comprising Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and nearby towns (Carrboro, Cary, Morrisville, etc.) and unincorporated areas is "the Research Triangle" or, alternatively, "the Triangle Area." But as you say, actual usage doesn't necessarily follow the logical rules. Still, I think most people who actually live in the region do make the distinction.

None of these are to be confused with the [Piedmont] Triad (Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, and vicinity)! Bruce M. Tindall 17:38, 24 November 2010 (UTC)