"If you want to see examples of virtually every demographic challenge facing the United States," writes Scott Huler on page 1 of On the Grid, "come to Raleigh." Regular Independent Weekly readers will recognize immediately the ways in which Raleigh's rapid growth in recent decades has begun to strain its infrastructure:
"All those people leaving the Northeast and Midwest for the Sun Belt? They're landing right here in Raleigh. All those miles of roads being built to forestall traffic jams? Raleigh is building them. Those strip shopping centers filled with big box retailers that function for a decade or so and then wither and die, replaced five miles further out with the same center, only newer? That's Raleigh. New development going up without a clear sense of who's going to pay for the sewers, the roads, the schools—and whether there will be, say, enough water for the new folks to drink? Welcome to Raleigh."
Hits home. Read more at Indyweek.com's Canavan-penned review of On the Grid.
