27 Reasons We Love the Triangle Right Now

There's a lot that's screwed up about the world right now. No getting around that. Our president, after all, is basically a YouTube comment in corporeal form. And there's plenty amiss about this state, too. No getting around that, either. For example, HB 2 is still a thing. But that's not what we want to talk about now. This week, with Valentine's Day nigh, we wanted to compose a love letter to this place we call home, a list of reasons we wouldn't want to live anywhere else. So pour yourself a brandy, have a seat by the fire, and enjoy. —Jeffrey C. Billman

1. Because we bring the world to North Carolina

We love the landscape, and some of the culture, of rural North Carolina. But there's a reason we live here in the Triangle rather than out among those bucolic fields: we also love the rest of the world, and the Triangle, aside from places like Charlotte and Asheville, is the main portal through which the world comes in and out of our state. The arts are key in this exchange: Full Frame brings international documentarians to Durham and gives local filmmakers a point of pride to sell to the rest of the world. The American Dance Festival does the same thing for the dance community. Hopscotch and Moogfest keep us in the rotation in the national music scene. Duke Performances and Carolina Performing Arts frequently put us on world-class tour schedules that include venues like the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Carnegie Hall. (How many midsize markets do you think get two weeks of Philip Glass?) Top it off with the high concentration of universities here, which draw people from around the globe, and it's plain to see what's so great about the Triangle: the Southern comforts of home in a rich, improving dialogue with the big, wide world. —Brian Howe

2. Because our activists are loud and proud

Last March, responding to the nonexistent threat of cross-dressing creeps hanging out in the women's restroom to assault little girls (or something), the legislature passed, and then-governor Pat McCrory signed, the infamous HB 2, a law that overrode local antidiscrimination ordinances and barred transgender individuals from using public restrooms that conform to their gender identity. It was an act of cruelty that embarrassed North Carolina on the national stage, costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity. But we didn't just sit back and take it. That law gave rise to a wave of activism—including dozens, sometimes hundreds of protesters who, every Wednesday, gathered in front of the Executive Mansion to blow air horns at the governor—that built off the Moral Monday movement, which itself was a response to reactionary measures taken by the newly unified Republican government in 2013. The best part? Even though fellow Republican Donald Trump won North Carolina with relative ease in November, McCrory lost. —Jeffrey C. Billman

3. Because we get three cities (actually more) in one

The Triangle isn't one thing; it's a lot of things, many of them contradictory. Raleigh is the big city waiting to break out—think Austin Jr.—but still beholden to small-town charms. Durham is more like Little Oakland, grittier and more aggressively progressive in its politics, but arguably the cultural hub of the region. Chapel Hill is the kind of college town you'd find in bucolic New England, but quaint and Southern in its own right (adjacent Carrboro is its grungy little sister). Even the Cary-Morrisville-Apex axis, about as suburban as suburban gets, has its own virtues, if you know where to look (see, for example, number 9). These are all very different places, but that's one of the unique pleasures of living here. Within a thirty-minute drive of wherever you are lies several distinct microcultures, each with its own tempos and peculiarities to explore. Not many metros in the country can offer that. —JCB

4. Because our restaurants are making national noise

Our food scene is no secret—not to us and not to the countless admirers (tourists, restaurant critics, television producers) from afar. Restaurant culture is a draw here, and we're lucky enough to eat it up every day if we choose. Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and their environs offer you anything: our comfort food is diverse and beautiful, rooted in both historic tradition and a new South. We know how to do down-home (whether it's collard greens, tamales, or dosas), and we can get deliciously bougie, too. (With stand-out places like Chapel Hill's Lantern, Hillsborough's Panciuto, and Raleigh's Poole's Diner, it's a comforting sort of classy.) —Victoria Bouloubasis

5. Because our dramatic artists know theater is politics

In the fifth century BCE, the theater was already giving citizens of ancient Greece a place to gather and deliberate their culture's most intractable problems. What happens when duties to faith, family, and country conflict? See Antigone. How much hubris is appropriate for elected officials? Ask Oedipus Rex. So as inauguration day approached this year, it was gratifying to see regional theater rise up in response. Jospeh Megel and Dreaming America reprised their staged reading of Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here, a political drama in which a democratically elected president ushers in a fascist takeover of the United States. Elsewhere, artists and citizens gathered at dusk at Raleigh's Sonorous Road and Chapel Hill's PlayMakers Rep to join the nationwide Ghostlight Project, pledging to keep a light on for all people regardless of race, class, religion, immigration status, gender idenity, or country of origin. And three women contemplated a makeover of our constitutional government when Bare Theatre staged a political farce, The Taming, to benefit the ACLU. These weren't isolated gestures: this week, Sonorous Road probes the separation of church and state in The God Game, while UNC's Process Series hosts a festival of social-justice-themed spoken word. Why do I love regional theater? Because it's thoughtful, resilient, and responsive to the challenges and needs of our time. It's looking out for neighbors down the block and around the globe. And it's not afraid to speak and act on their behalf. —Byron Woods

6. Because our visual artists are collaborative, not competitive

My pickup truck just moved to Philadelphia.

Well, not mine per se. For years, whenever I've needed to haul a sheet of plywood or a curb-found piano, I knew I could borrow my friend's truck at a moment's notice. But she just moved to Philly. We all have friends like this in the Triangle arts community. It's like a message-in-a-bottle system but sped way up. If you need some device, service, or expertise to make your work, just mention it in public and someone will say, "I just saw one of those at the Scrap Exchange" or "My friend just got one, let me text her real quick." Around here, we aren't out for domination—we share our stuff, spaces, and time. Because this isn't an infinite city like New York or Los Angeles, where the arts infrastructure is well established, we've had to be resourceful and cooperative, which fosters community. We don't go home at five. We make dinner and work together. We sit in someone's yard around a fire pit at 1:11 a.m., talking art. When friends from New York or the Bay Area visit, they're jealous of this.

I value our arts institutions and organizations, and I love so much of the work made by artists here. But most of all I love the artists themselves and their uncommon generosity of spirit. Speaking of which, anyone want to loan me their truck? —Chris Vitiello

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7. Because we bounce back

In the development roundelay of recent years, we've lost some valuable institutions, from Nice Price Books and Chapel Hill Comics to Deep Dish Theater Company and Common Ground Theatre. But the picture looks a lot rosier when you consider the much greater number of institutions that faced such challenges and bounced back because they filled a genunine desire or need in their community. The Carrack Modern Art fled construction on Parrish Street, only to vitalize a new district near Golden Belt, in Alicia Lange's new Torus Building. Adam Cave Fine Art and Lee Hansley gallery similarly turned lemons into lemonade in Raleigh. Unexposed Microcinema recently ended its valorous yearlong experiment in providing a fixed venue for experimental film, but rather than folding, the invaluable series will continue in a freer fashion. Horse & Buggy Press, also squeezed out of downtown Durham, will continue its two-decade story on Broad Street next month. Rather than shuttering when it needed to move, the venerable Quail Ridge Books landed itself a fine new spot in Raleigh, while Kelly McChesney heroically sacrificed her own Flanders Gallery to keep a crucial Raleigh art node, Lump, alive. And new players are cropping up all the time, from the Center for the Arts in Pittsboro to the upcoming Core@Carolina, from Ward Theatre to the Women's Theatre Festival. In short, rumors of our art scene's development-driven demise have been greatly exaggerated; our artists are too resourceful and too necessary for that. —BH

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9. Because you can get killer samosas in the suburbs (and elsewhere)

Around Cary and Morrisville, you'll find a trove of excellent Asian restaurants and grocery stores, thanks in large part to the area's significant population of people of Southeast Asian descent. In the small Chatham Square shopping center alone, you can find Korean, Indian, and Nepalese restaurants, plus an Iraqi bakery and a Japanese grocery. Cary is home to the massive Grand Asia Market, Durham has Li Ming's, and you can find more specifically Indo-Pak grocery stores dotted all over the area. And in December, Cary welcomed a brand-new H Mart, a well-reputed chain of Korean grocery stores. It's easy to stock your kitchen cupboards with food from all over the world without having to drive more than an hour. —Allison Hussey

10. Because we have a (formerly championship) hockey team you don't pay attention to

Does the name Eric Staal* sound familiar? How about Cam Ward? For most Triangle residents, the answer is likely no. And that's part of the beauty of our little slice of America. There's so much going on that the Triangle is largely indifferent to the fact that those two men were the stars of the 2006 Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. Which might be something else you didn't know: the state of North Carolina has claimed a Stanley Cup. As in hockey.

Raleigh is certainly not like Detroit, where if you ask residents to start naming Red Wings, people can recite the entire roster. It's not Canada, where one of your first post-birth outfits is a baby-size hockey uniform. Maybe it's the weather that triggers our indifference, or the fact that the Hurricanes—formerly the Hartford Whalers—only moved here in 1997. But whatever it is, with a few exceptions, you just don't care. The Hurricanes have the lowest attendance in the NHL. It probably doesn't help that the Hurricanes are, as of this writing, in the midst of a mediocre season, third from the cellar of the Eastern Conference's Metropolitan Division. —Ken Fine

11. Because UNC started the college basketball TV love-fest when it beat Kansas in 1957

According to hoops scribe Art Chansky, Greensboro businessman C.D. Chesley kicked off no-sound broadcasts—viewers listened to the radio for play-by-play—on five television stations across North Carolina even before the climactic NCAA championship between the Frank McGuire-led Tar Heels and the Jayhawks, powered by legendary, skyscraping center Wilt Chamberlain. But when fans saw Carolina defeat Kansas in triple overtime on March 23, 1957, to complete a 32–0 season, it was the end of any Saturday afternoons spent shelling peas and studying up for Sunday school. Add the infamous 1961 UNC-Duke fistfight game to the attraction, and TV and Atlantic Coast Conference hoops—Dean Smith, Coach K, Michael Jordan, Jimmy V—became a staple of life in the Triangle, and far beyond. —Thomas Goldsmith

12. Because the stuff you love all started here

Here is an abbreviated list of the internationally acclaimed artists who have Triangle ties: Elizabeth Cotten. Superchunk. Merge Records. Yep Roc Records. Ben Folds Five. Squirrel Nut Zippers. Southern Culture on the Skids. Daniel Wallace. David Sedaris. Amy Sedaris. Evan Rachel Wood. Whiskeytown. Tift Merritt. Petey Pablo. Lee Smith. Corrosion of Conformity. Zach Galifianakis. Nnenna Freelon. Blind Boy Fuller. Timothy Tyson. 9th Wonder. Phonte. The Carolina Chocolate Drops. James Taylor. Future Islands. Archers of Loaf. —AH

13. Because one of the highest U.S. concentrations of mid-mod homes is here

According to the nonprofit North Carolina Modernist Homes, our state has the third largest inventory of the inventive, eye-catching houses known to fans as mid-mod, many of them in the Triangle. Partly because of the presence of the architects and designers at the N.C. State design school, such as George Matsumoto, James Fitzgibbon, Henry Kamphoefner, Duncan Stuart, and G. Milton Small, a drive down a West Raleigh side street like Runnymede can bring the visual reward of a simple, mind-altering treasure of a home. —TG

14. Because Duke gave you Tim Cook and Charlie Rose (sorry about Richard Nixon)

Duke is a polarizing place. Its basketball team is lauded by some but hated by just about everyone else. Similarly, its student body is lauded by the left and condemned by the right. Even the school's alumni add fuel to the fire. You might see a friend wearing an Apple Watch and strike up the "you know, Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, went to Duke" deal. Or maybe you see a cousin post about a Charlie Rose interview and note that the acclaimed TV news personality was a Blue Devil. But if you're being transparent, you might also say sorry every now and then. Duke did, after all, give the world one of the most hated basketball players in the history of the sport (sorry, Christian Laettner), and now Grayson Allen (not so sorry), not to mention Richard Nixon, who until last month was America's most notorious president, as well the current notorious president's adviser, Stephen Miller (who once claimed that Maya Angelou suffered from "racial paranoia"), and Jew-hating, Nazi-saluting alt-right honcho Richard Spencer. —KF

*The original version of this story incorrectly identified Eric Staal as his brother, Jordan. The INDY regrets the error.

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15. Because Raleigh was literally founded on booze

In 1788, the General Assembly declared that the state's "unalterable seat of government" must be located no further than ten miles from Isaac Hunter's Tavern, a watering hole where many politicos of the day liked to knock back a few. And so, Raleigh was born. (Yes, that's a simplified retelling of history. Roll with it.) —JCB

16. Because Raleigh reclaimed its downtown by ripping out its main-street mall

Raleigh started tearing up Fayetteville Street in August 1975, spending seven years and $2.8 million to try to lure businesses to a downtown scene that had been bustling until Cameron Village and the malls stole customers in the fifties and sixties. Good idea? No—unequivocally, absolutely not. Over the next three decades, the downtown "mall" fell into somnolence and disuse. In the mid-2000s, city parents, led by then-mayor Charles Meeker (disclosure: the brother of the INDY's co-owner, Charles Meeker) to reopen Fayetteville Street once again—and once again, the good times began to roll. —TG

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18. Because of the state's progressive history

In the age of HB 2, it can be hard to imagine that North Carolina once held a reputation as the South's most progressive state. True, our record is far from spotless, from the state's long-standing eugenics program to the legislature's 2013 assault on voter rights. But amid the many blemishes on its history, North Carolina has also strived to advance public health, education, economic opportunity, and civil rights.

Some examples: The Triangle is home to the country's first state art museum, state symphony, and public university (this last one is disputed, but we're claiming it anyway). In the early 1900s, legislators invested heavily in education, creating a boom of new public schools. At the same time, Black Wall Street became a center for African-American-owned businesses in Durham. In 1937, North Carolina became the first state to incorporate birth control into its health programs. At the height of the civil rights movement, Governor Terry Sanford pushed for desegregation. Research Triangle Park harnessed the brainpower of the Triangle's universities to boost North Carolina's per capita income. More recently, North Carolinians—from Moral Monday protesters to the Air Horn Orchestra—have shown they aren't going let Tar Heel progressivism die without a fight. —Sarah Willets

19. Because SNCC was born on the Shaw campus

North Carolina, though planted in the segregated South, made a home for some notable developments in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Months after the historic Greensboro sit-ins of February 1960, some two hundred students gathered on the downtown Raleigh campus of Shaw University to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Veteran organizer Ella Baker spearheaded the movement, but students took the lead as SNCC helped drive the national struggle through the Freedom Rides, Deep South registration efforts, and the 1963 March on Washington. SNCC chairman John Lewis, later a U.S. representative from Georgia and still a national voice of conscience, gave a heat-generating speech at the march alongside the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. —TG

20. Because when it snows, the whole damn place shuts down

With the now viral "snowpocalypse" photo showing a tableau of weather-related havoc of almost Breughel-like complexity on a Raleigh highway, the school closings fueled by the mere rumor of a flake, not to mention the constant stream of anti-South commentary from Northerners and others who assure us that they know what a cold, snowy winter is, and this ain't it—one can easily lose sight of the wonderful other side of our ill-preparedness. That is, when it snows down here—really snows—the world shuts down. Why is that good? When this happens, we are forced to confront a world newly muffled, of muted light, where mere comings and goings we normally take for granted become fraught affairs that force you to choose what is truly important in your life. You think about necessities: food, water, flashlights if the power goes out. Maybe you do something you never do anymore, like break out a board game, or do something completely frivolous, like alphabetize your record collection. You can spend the day sledding down the middle of the street because you know damn well there are no cars about. And soup never tastes better than on a snow day. —DK

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21. Because our tech start-ups are changing the world

Last week, revelers (including a woman on stilts) celebrated the grand opening of the long-awaited Google Fiber space on Glenwood South. The tech giant is one of a burgeoning number of companies putting the Triangle on the (geo)map. Thanks to its forward-thinking research community, Raleigh-Durham has become a hot spot for tech companies and start-ups. Some even call it "The Silicon Valley of the South."

Veterans of the Bay Area might scoff. But the Triangle's synergy has paved the way for a thriving start-up culture. Durham, recently named a top city to found a start-up, is home to The American Underground, a start-up incubator with the goal of diversifying the famously homogenous industry. So far, it seems to be working: 29 percent of its businesses are led by women, and 22 percent by minorities—well above the national averages. Raleigh, meanwhile, currently boasts at least 635 start-ups, with more than 300 in the technology sector alone. —Erica Hellerstein

22. Because we'll give you polio to shrink your brain tumor

The next time you're hung over, you can thank pharmacists Germain Bernard and Commodore Council, both of Durham, for a quick fix: BC Headache Powder. Invented in 1906, the magic substance is just one of the Triangle's many contributions to the world of medicine. Thanks in large part to Research Triangle Park, the University of North Carolina, and Duke University, seventeen Nobel Prize winners have North Carolina ties, and major research-drivers like Glaxo, Merck, and Bayer have set up shop here. Triangle researchers have pioneered treatments for HIV and cancer and are illuminating the unknowns of autism and Alzheimer's. Among the madder science to come out of the Triangle: UNC researchers found a way to turn heart failure patients' scar tissue into heart muscle and use light to precisely activate medicine stored in blood cells. Duke researchers earned acclaim for using polio to shrink a brain tumor and developed the first lab-grown muscle to contract and respond just like human muscle. The only downside to all this innovation? The blow to your self-esteem when you realize your best invention involved tater tots and nacho cheese. —SW

23. Because we say local and we mean it

North Carolina has a centuries-long agricultural history, and now that means that we can reap the benefits of locally sourced foods and goods easier than ever before. You can get milk from Hillsborough's Maple View Farm in local groceries, and in most places in the Triangle you can keep chickens and enjoy eggs from your own backyard. Small local restaurants are able to get many of their ingredients from local farms and suppliers, and even a regional fast-food chain like Biscuitville sources most of its ingredients, including its flour, from within state lines. Outside of the food world, the state has a similarly significant history in the world of textiles—look to Raleigh Denim, the high-end retail operation that gets its cotton and even its zippers in the state. —AH

24. Because our farmers markets stay fresh

North Carolina's growing season is generous, allowing for nearly thirty farmers markets throughout the Triangle, each with a distinct neighborhood vibe. With that, of course, comes a bounty of gluttonous proportions with food grown or crafted in our own backyards. Nationally recognized cheeses, pickles, and chocolate, more types of kale than you know what to toss or juice with, and the most delicious (and humanely raised) meats. Plus, the essence of community can be distilled in a place like a farmers market, where hardworking people are selling what nourishes you. So honor your farmers on Saturday mornings (or Wednesday evenings): they've got a tough gig feeding all of us. —VB

25. Because we have lots of stuff for kids

Want to know why the Triangle is a hit with parents? It's not because of the solid schools or the abundance of healthy food options (although those are certainly perks). Believe it or not, the Triangle is special because it keeps us sane. We breeders know that the choice of venue at which to spend our Saturday is critical, that a weekend can be made or broken with a wrong decision. Little Johnny had fun, but his sister hated it. Little Cindy was into it, but Little Johnny is bored. That sort of deal. But the Triangle has both an incredible quantity and quality of family-friendly entertainment destinations. And the majority of them are affordable and educational—and even offer things that are fun for us old people. From Raleigh's Pullen Park (really cool train, old-school carousel, and freakin' paddle boats) and Marbles Kids Museum (puppets, crafts, a surfing simulation, and LEGOs!) to Durham's Museum of Life and Science (butterflies, bugs, live animals, dinosaurs, and a wicked playground) to Chapel Hill's Morehead Planetarium (stars, a rose garden, and a giant, awesome sundial), this area has the goods. —KF

26. Because we've produced a boatload of top-shelf novelists

Just Needham Broughton, the old Raleigh high school that newcomers soon tire of hearing about, produced Anne Tyler, the Pulitzer*-winning author of The Accidental Tourist and many more; Reynolds Price, noted author of A Long and Happy Life and a long-tenured Duke professor; and Armistead Maupin, author of the popular, remade-for-TV Tales of the City series. That's not even mentioning such extended-Triangle notables as Lee Smith, Jill McCorkle, Allan Gurganus, and the ghost of Thomas Wolfe. —TG

27. Because we can still define ourselves

We have our old traditions, sure, from barbecue to basketball, but the Triangle, with its doors flung wide open for innovators, start-ups, young families, and recent college graduates, is still very much finding its identity. It's a true melting pot of cultures and ideologies—and, most important, it embraces those differences. We can be activists one day and organic farmers the next. We fight back against exclusion and wrap our arms around those whom others view as potential disruptions to the status quo. Our local chefs, authors, filmmakers, artists, and musicians create by building on relationships that could only be forged in a place that isn't bound by the way things have always been or that is wary of new faces. And that might just be what we love the most about this slice of North Carolina: we push each other to be better, more forward-thinking, and progressive. As apartment buildings go up and crumbling neighborhoods are restored, we should remain committed to protecting that identity—to be an example of a new South that is not tied to old stereotypes. —KF

*The original version of this story incorrectly said that Anne Tyler won the Nobel Prize. She won the Pulitzer.