Raleigh needs more nightlife if it wants to keep attracting newcomers
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The lure of losing a housing bargain
The Triangle housing market is setting price records every month. But it still looks like a good buy to people moving from other places along the East and West coasts. How does the Triangle’s record-high median home price look like a “deal” to so many migrants? This is The N&O’s special report.
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The Triangle housing bargain: Record home prices look like a deal from the West Coast
North Carolina has good home prices but low inventory — even when you can afford to compete
Raleigh needs more nightlife if it wants to keep attracting newcomers
An entrepreneur placed a help-wanted ad in the Triangle. Applicants convinced him to move
Growing up in Raleigh, Cedric Watkins always craved the lifestyle that was available in big cities.
So after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill, he took off for New York City and eventually Los Angeles.
But during the pandemic, the 44-year-old Watkins found himself gravitating back toward Raleigh, where his mother still lives, and focusing on the flaws of L.A.
“I was tired of being in that L.A. traffic,” Watkins said. “The pandemic made me realize that I don’t have to be in just one geography, (and) here it is more stable. There’s better quality of life.”
Last winter, he decided to move back to Raleigh temporarily, renting a place in the Brier Creek area, and began contemplating what a long-term return to the Raleigh area would mean for him.
The Raleigh he returned to had changed dramatically since he last lived here 20 years ago. Downtown has prospered and the economy has momentum. But despite a restaurant scene that has blossomed, he said, there are still few entertainment options for those over the age of 25.
“If we want to keep attracting professionals to the city and keep them here,” he said, “You have to have options to host and entertain.”
Watkins, who calls himself a social entrepreneur, now seems motivated to be part of the solution. He’s taking meetings with development companies and hopes to partner with them to design a space downtown that could offer the entertainment many of the area’s newcomers might have had in a bigger city. He notes a potential hotel on Hillsborough Street could be a perfect location, and the fact that the city of Raleigh has practically begged developers to build more hotels around downtown.
“That’s the opportunity,” he said. “Something like a hotel with a live entertainment venue and a cultural focus. Some place locals can show someone a good time or for business travelers that are used to experience and luxury.”
But even if he’s not the one to help create it, Watkins said things are destined to change across the Triangle as more people move here.
“We have been experiencing growth for like a decade,” he said. “But I don’t even think we have seen what is about to happen. It will be interesting to see if it can hold on to the attributes we like, and avoid the ones we have seen in others, like a housing crisis.”
A $1,600-a-month apartment might not shock someone from the North, he said, but to anyone from the Triangle that is something new.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
