The Links
When the Research Triangle Park was created in 1959, the town that benefitted most was Cary, NC. It was the closest farming community to the new high tech center, so it had the most land available to develop. As the town grew, it got all the new stuff - like sidewalks, parks, and street lights. As more firms moved to RTP, real estate investors bought up the farms and turned them into neighborhoods. In an effort to attract more affluent residents, each new development offered larger homes and more amenities. When executives were looking for a place to relocate they considered Raleigh, cramped and dated; Durham, dirty and dangerous; and then logically settled on Cary. Citizens of other cities said the name was actually an acronym that stood for Containment Area of Relocated Yankees. They probably did have the largest percentage of northern transplants, but it was also likely there little bit of jealously associated with the joke. By 1988, developers stitched together sever...