“I know there are cities in the midwest and northeast that have a inner ring of “suburban decay” . . . This left these areas as less desirable, so a lot of the buildings were left abandoned. I hope this doesn’t happen to Raleigh as we have seen evidence of sprawl.”

I think it already has. When I was growing up in Raleigh, Capital Boulevard, then “North” Boulevard, from Wake Forest Road to the Beltline was a happening place: Johnny’s Motor Lodge and Supper Club, Shoney’s, Hill’s Sporting Goods, Dunkin’ Donuts, the Milner Inn (when it was nice), Bobby Murray Chevrolet, Arlen’s Department Store, grocery stores, KFC, banks, the bowling alley, Homewood Furniture, Hardees, Amburn Pontiac, the offices of Norfolk Southern RR and IBM and I could go on and on. That area now is a shell of its former self.

You may be on onto something with the inward migration trend these days with the pontential of creating ghost towns of the burbs. I know there are cities in the midwest and northeast that have a inner ring of “suburban decay” where people have moved out of the older suburbs to the newer suburbs further out, this trend going back to the ’60′s. This left these areas as less desirable, so a lot of the buildings were left abandoned. I hope this doesn’t happen to Raleigh as we have seen evidence of sprawl.

Sorry to go long winded off topic ;)