Keynote Address at the 39th Annual North Carolina Planning Conference and Robert and Helen Siler Lecture

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Peirce, Neal R.
- Other Affiliation: Columnist, The Washington Post Writers Group

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Of course I was immensely pleased when my old friend and colleague Bob Siler asked if I would be willing to give this address, the first in a series of what are to be regular Siler Lectures. My family and I lived across the street from Bob and Helen Siler in Washington for many years, enjoying many good times together. Bob and I even accompanied each other on the first big trip of American city planners to China in 1979. He always knew something of value about every city in America, and I am pleased that our relationship continues. When Bob called, my first reaction was that I would talk about the two recent so-called "Peirce Reports," which my colleague Curtis Johnson and I have done in North Carolina. The first, entitled "Triangle Needs a New Vision for the '90s," was published by the Raleigh News & Observer in September 1993. The second, "Shaping A Shared Future," appeared in the Charlotte Observer early last autumn. But then it struck me how odd it is to talk about urban regions in North Carolina. Back in the early 1970s, when I was preparing the North Carolina chapter of my book, The Border South States, the story was quite different. The narrative was not of sparkling cities on hills, or even great historic seaports, but of waves of hardy yeomen struggling to farm tobacco or being drawn into one-industry towns to make textiles or furniture.

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