Raleigh’s is a low-key city. Now the challenge is to keep it that way.

If the Rip Van Winkle story was set in Raleigh, Rip wouldn’t have had to sleep for 20 years to awaken to a place transformed.

In Raleigh, 10 years would do it.

North Carolina’s capital city is at the center of the second-fastest growing metropolitan area in the nation.

Now a post-pandemic development surge is accelerating change as apartment buildings multiply, office towers rise and home prices and rents soar.

The change has also brought regret for lost landmarks and nostalgia for a Raleigh that is disappearing beneath the construction cranes.

The neighborhood group Livable Raleigh is pushing against the rapid development that its members think is changing the city’s character for the worse.

Stef Mendel, a former Raleigh City Council member and a leader of Livable Raleigh, said the city’s culture is breaking down as development intrudes into established neighborhoods and gentrification renders parts of the city too expensive for low- and middle-income people.

“It’s harder to have that community feeling when you start building high-rises everywhere that are for wealthy people,” she said. “It’s becoming an enclave for the very wealthy and that’s sad to me. It’s just not friendly the way it used to be.”

But Livable Raleigh’s concern raises a question: What exactly was – or is – Raleigh’s character? Did it ever have one to lose?

When I presented this question to Dudley Price, a Raleigh native now retired after a long career as a News & Observer reporter, he suggested a lead sentence for a column about Raleigh’s character: “This is for all you insomniacs out there.”

“Raleigh’s always been boring,” he said.

But that may be its charm. Raleigh is safe, predictable and still – at least for some newcomers – affordable.

A 2015 Charlotte Observer column by Mark Washburn made light of Raleigh’s supposed dullness, calling it “a suburb of Cary.”

That dig prompted a response from people who like the city’s lack of drama.

John Pugh, owner of House of Swank, a store selling “southern-themed T-shirts,” made one that played on a slogan popular in Texas’s capital: “Keep Austin Weird.” Pugh’s version reads: “Keep Raleigh boring.” They go for $25.

“We sold a ton of them when they first came out,” Pugh said. “They’ve been consistent sellers for years.”

Smedes York, a former Raleigh mayor who wrote the book “Growing Up With Raleigh,” said his hometown isn’t boring. “I think I would describe Raleigh as upbeat, friendly and successful.” He said it’s a place where strangers still say hello when they pass on the street. “It’s a culture we have and it’s a vital culture to protect,” he said.

Growth is surely transforming Raleigh. In 2000, its population was 276,000. Today it’s approaching 500,000 and the growth momentum, largely fueled by expansion of tech industries, is getting stronger.

Patrick Young, Raleigh’s planning director, said, “Since the pandemic, we’re seeing global capital flooding the market.”

Young said the average home price has climbed from $155,000 in 2017 to $276,000 in 2022, an almost 80 percent increase in just five years.

Raleigh’s growth in the early 2000s was on its margins and not as noticeable. Now it’s happening at its core.

A dozen office towers are eligible to be built in Raleigh’s downtown and its North Hills section. More than 11,700 apartments are in the development pipeline. Raleigh’s downtown, once mostly empty after office hours, has a residential population of 12,000, a number that is expected to double in the next decade.

Young said growth is changing the city, but restricting it would drive up land prices and housing costs even faster. The trick is to let Raleigh grow without outgrowing the qualities that make it appealing.

“We’ve got to do this in a way that preserves the quality of life and the character that people moved here for,” he said. “It’s a delicate and difficult balance.”

There’s plenty to be excited about in Raleigh – especially how to keep it boring.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@ newsobserver.com