Last week, Leigh Tauss wrote some spicy takes, including one on the mythical locale of Raleigh-Durham appearing in the No. 2 spot on the U.S. News and World Report’s list of best places to live in the country. Our readers had a lot of thoughts on her thoughts. 

“Is it the affordable housing? The excellent public transportation? The abundance of jobs?,” quipped Facebook commenter Greg Barbera.

“Now if I could only afford to buy a house here when I ALREADY LIVE HERE,” added commenter Jen Darragh.

“It’s best for upper middle class white people. The rest of us are struggling just to exist here,” writes commenter Morgan Edwards.

“Everybody that whines about Raleigh actually isn’t from here, it seems. Anybody else born out on wade avenue is chill af & we want our city back lol,” writes commenter Karla Anne Lineback.

On Twitter, the critiques of Tauss’s piece were a little more pointed.

“Who is Indy Week calling a NIMBY?,” tweeted Yolanda Taylor. “Is this a terminology flip taken out of the playbook of conservatives known for flipping terminology and narratives on people experiencing oppression? Inquiring minds need to know.

I ask because there are lower wealth and black and brown people fighting development that displaces them from their long time neighborhoods,” Yolanda continues. “This article ignores the impact of rising housing costs occurring statewide in historically underinvested neighborhoods.”

In print last week, our intern Ellie Heffernan wrote about the proposed Triangle Bikeway that could see a 17-mile greenway for cyclists and pedestrians built to run parallel to I-40. 

“This project is fighting a headwind of increased telecommuting. But it’s a great idea,” writes Facebook commenter Mike Ivanitch.

“Making a bike/ped path parallel to 40 and hitting all the high points+ wide-scale e-bike adoption= gamechanger for sprawling areas like the Triangle that still need help,” tweeted reader Kristen Jeffers, MPA.

We think so, too!

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