People who live in, visited or flew over North Carolina are bound to notice the greens and the lakes in the state. It makes me feel good whenever we fly home to RDU airport. Presence of three reserach orientated Universities (Duke, UNC and NS State) and of Research Triangle Park has led to a large influx of people and jobs in the area. There has been a lot of construction going on even while the real state market is slowing down. Houses in our neighhood are being sold in 3-6 weeks. New shopping malls are coming up.

Since February two housing communities have come up within two miles of RTP and now a huge area (4 blocks* 4blocks) have been cleared of all trees to build a Lowe's complex. It hurts not to see the big patch of trees that greeted us on our commute everyday.

What do you do when this happens. How do people deal with such issues elsewhere.

Personally I would much rather have trees than yet another Lowe's (we have two Home Depot and two Lowe's at 5 and 8 miles distance)