I remember being excited about having a greenway between downtown Cary and the subdivision where I grew up (and beyond to Lake Johnson, NC State University, and Downtown Raleigh) back when I first saw it in a town parks plan in the library — in the 1980s, when I was a child. My parents went to some public meeting in the 1990s that they said was discouraging, and for decades I have regretted that I wasn’t there to speak up for the project then.

So here I am, several decades later, to say that this should be completed posthaste. And speaking as a planner, public engagement should include the voices of people who will benefit, far beyond those abutting the project boundary and far beyond today.

(The above is an email I sent to Cary’s parks planner upon finding out that the trail project is being actively studied again. If only it had been done, decades of development alongside it like Fenton could’ve tied into an existing transportation facility — but instead, no, instead the future trail is fronted by parking lots.)