It's appropriate and fun (or, at least, instructive) to look back. Two stories in this week's section do that: an update on the biggest North Raleigh stories of 2004, and a quiz on some of the "mysteries" we solved in our "What's up with that?" feature.

It's also wise to look ahead. But I thought the best way to do that was in this column since any look at the future is, necessarily, speculative. This is just my opinion, but it's food for thought.

So, without further adieu, here are my official Questions That Loom Large in 2005:

* How will the new North Hills shopping center fare? Its renovation is supposed to make it better able to compete with North Raleigh's newer, bigger shopping centers, and those centers just keep improving. And that's not to mention competition from the shopping centers in the works (notably Plantation Point, which will replace Plantation Inn).

Clearly, there's some tough competition going on for your shopping dollar in North Raleigh, and some kind of shake-out is going to occur.

* Will North Raleigh be able to mount a serious effort to bring in low-cost housing? It doesn't take a genius to see that the new homes popping up tend to be big and expensive. One of the driving forces for that is the high cost of land. A developer is not going to put up shacks on land for which he coughed up $50,000 an acre.

The day care employees, busboys, lawn maintenance workers, etc. needed to serve all of the new residents can't afford to buy a garage in many of the new subdivisions.

It's not just a matter of fairness; In other communities, the courts have stepped in to mandate affordable housing when governments have failed to act. Judges, insulated from political pressure, can sometimes make very wise decisions. And sometimes they can make very burdensome rulings.

There's more, so I'll have to continue next week. Meanwhile, have a happy New Year!