Can a region be a home?

We identify with our hometowns, but we also live in a vast, interconnected region

Let's talk about something we all know but can't quite grasp.

The Triangle.

Yes, the place where we live. Or rather, the name for the collection of places where we live. We hear the term a dozen times a day, in our news, sports, weather and traffic -- especially the traffic.

We see it plastered across the signs of businesses and organizations: Triangle Bank, Triangle Brick Co., Triangle Helicopter, Triangle Baptist Church, Triangle United Way.

The term is so common we rarely stop to ask, What exactly is the Triangle? Is it a place or an idea?

A recent News & Observer poll suggests the latter. When people from this region are traveling and are asked where they live, only 1 percent say the Triangle (the vast majority mention their home city or county). Apparently there are precious few Trianglites -- Triangelenos? Trianglinians? Triangulators? -- in the Triangle.

"Home is where the heart is," said Harry Watson, a professor of history at UNC-Chapel Hill. "And nobody's heart is in the Triangle."

Perhaps, but here's the rub: As our communities continue to grow and bump against one another, the lines that separate them are blurring. Each of us might call Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill or Cary home. But every sprouting subdivision and business reinforces the fact that we all live in a vast, interconnected region that shares a wealth of assets and a host of challenges. Wherever else we hang our hats, we also live in the Triangle.

That growing interdependence is transforming many quality-of-life issues from purely local to regional matters. These include having enough water, a transportation system that does not consign us to gridlock on Interstate 40, clean air, affordable housing and effective social services.

Business and political leaders have formed groups to address such wide-ranging issues. They recognize that this cannot be just a top-down process.

"If we want to control our future, we need to help people understand that they live in a region as well as a town and neighborhood," said Harvey Schmitt, CEO and president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.

Forging a regional identity isn't a new goal. Leaders have been focusing on it at least since 1993, when a study by Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson commissioned by The News & Observer described the Triangle as a "dysfunctional family" composed of towns "that seem so separate and relate so poorly."

Since 2003, civic business and elected leaders have tried to inspire "regional pride" through an ad campaign titled "The Triangle: A Family of Communities." Nevertheless, a poll of 625 registered voters in Wake, Durham, Orange and Johnston counties conducted Oct. 20 to 23 for The News & Observer highlights the challenges that remain.

On the one hand, almost all respondents indicated they were familiar with the concept of the Triangle, and 65 percent said they travel to another county in the region at least once a month to shop or dine, or for entertainment. On the other hand, 57 percent defined it as "a loose collection of individual cities, suburbs and towns," while only 39 percent consider it "one metropolitan region."

In follow-up interviews, survey respondents defined the Triangle in contrary ways.

Pat Dalbo, 71, a retiree from Cary, said the Triangle is "a very successful place, upscale, that does a good job of developing a sense of community."

Regina Stephens, 45, a lawyer from Apex, sees it as a "smart and exciting, forward-looking and liberal area of constant progress."

But for Jimmy Horton, 53, a retiree who lives outside Zebulon, the Triangle is "too real."