A leading Smart Growth advocate is visiting the Triangle today to speak on lessons in “Livability” for the 21st Century. Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Portland says he’s impressed with urban revitalization projects like the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham. But he says planners and politicians are running out of time if they want to develop mass transit to maintain the Triangle’s current quality of life.
Earl Blumenauer: The challenge here in the Triangle is looking at a million people coming in the next 20 years drawn by the quality of life and the intellectual vitality, the universities. How do you allow that type of growth and still be able to maintain the thing that makes people want to come here.
Blumenauer is joining Democratic Congressman David Price at tonight’s “Designing a 21st Century City” lecture series in Raleigh.