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| Feature |
Urban Champions
Elizabeth Harris and Emily DeNitto
05/01/2007
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Broad says he ignores such disparagement. "I was very proud of
the fact that we created KB Home and built hundreds of thousands of homes where
people wanted to buy them—which was not downtown."
Today, visiting the area, it is apparent how much the existing
attractions want for context. The park and greens will connect landmark
buildings with an aim of weaving together commercial and residential uses.
The February 14 front page of the Los Angeles Times
announcing the nearly unanimous votes featured a large photo of Broad and
councilman Bill Rosendahl celebrating six years of hard work building a
coalition, under a banner headline: "Grand Avenue Project Passes Go."
"I envision it as a place where people from all parts of the community—whether west side, east side, south side, the Valley—will feel
comfortable being with each other, which is what we need," Broad
says.
Ann Goodnight and her husband, Jim, confront issues in the Research Triangle.
Ann Goodnight and her husband, Jim, both graduates of North Carolina State University, were college
sweethearts in the 1960s when the state’s Research Triangle was beginning to
show promise. Ann studied political science, while Jim eyed a future in
technology. He received a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics in
1965 and joined NASA’s Apollo program for a year before returning home to earn
his doctorate. In 1976, he launched a software company, SAS Institute, in an era
when tech behemoths—including Cisco Systems, IBM and Nortel Networks—were moving
into the area.
 | | (Photograph by David Sciabarasi.) |
"We really owe our state," Ann says. She is fully aware that as
Jim and she benefited from the technology boom and an influx of affluent new
residents, North Carolina was simultaneously experiencing economic
upheaval—losing its traditional furniture, textile and tobacco industries and
seeing nearly 13 percent of its residents slip below the poverty line, according
to state government statistics. The Goodnights, whose net worth is estimated at
$4.1 billion to $4.5 billion, according to Forbes’ latest tally, are uncontested
as the richest people in the state.
Their home and SAS headquarters are both located in Cary, the
Raleigh suburb known for having more PhDs per capita than any American city with
a population of at least 75,000. In recent years, the name Cary has inspired a
local joke; it’s an acronym for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees.
‘‘ We really owe our state.’’ |
Ann is quick to point out that in the Research Triangle and to
the area to its north, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure have not
quite caught up with the ongoing population boom. For their part, the Goodnights
have contributed time and money aimed at upgrading the public schools. They have
become alarmed by statistics showing that 37 percent of North Carolina high
school students drop out before graduation. This school year saw an influx of
nearly 8,000 new students in the Wake County public school system. Because Ann
had spoken out for increased school funding in the past and had founded a
high-tech private school, Cary Academy, she was not surprised when she received
a call last year before the start of the fall semester from the county
commissioner. He asked her to help sponsor a school construction bond proposal
that would fund 17 new schools, along with renovations and repairs for 113
others. As cochair of Friends of Wake County, a group formed to push for the
measure, Ann helped lead a successful effort to pass the $970 million
plan—supported by 53 percent of voters last November. Jim backed the proposal as
well, emailing 4,000 SAS employees urging them to vote yes.
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