Good people of Cary,

I hope you have stocked up on your allergy medication, because we are deep into The Pollening™.

Cary’s been busy. One of the new parking decks opened last week downtown, our trees are nearly fully bloomed, and lots of events are starting to spring up.

As always, thank you for reading The Cary Report. We are on our third week of our fastest growth for both the newsletter (that you’re currently reading) and social media accounts. Thank you so much for all of your support. It truly means the world to me.

Anyway, let’s get to it.
James

Cary just got a lot more options for parking!

Around 300 new free public parking spaces are located inside of the new Cedar Street Parking Deck (right next to Taipei 101).

Eight handicap spots will be available, as well as 22 EV charging stations.

Why it matters:

Parking is a common complaint about downtown Cary (though I will die on the hill that we have plenty of parking spaces on a typical day). However, parking can be very tricky during big events and for those with accessibility challenges, and these ~300 spaces will certainly help with that.

It is also great for all of the local businesses located on that side of downtown. Di Fara, Taipei 101, Graffiti, Lawrence BBQ, and more are all located right next to the parking deck.

It will certainly make doing quick pickup orders a heck of a lot easier.

A second brand new parking deck holding around 200 public spaces is also scheduled to be completed this spring.

Additional reading: Town of Cary

Cary-based Epic Games announced today that it is cutting over 1,000 jobs across the company. CEO Tim Sweeney said that a downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 has the company spending significantly more than it is making. On top of the layoffs, Epic is looking for over $500 million in additional savings through cuts to contracting, marketing, and open roles.

If this sounds familiar, it is. This is Epic's second mass layoff in three years.

Back in September 2023, they cut 830 employees, including 170 in the Triangle. It is not yet clear how many of today's cuts will affect workers here locally, but multiple Triangle-based employees had already posted on LinkedIn by Tuesday afternoon confirming they were let go.

Why it matters:

Epic Games is one of the biggest private employers in Cary. They bought the former Cary Towne Center mall for a future headquarters that has yet to materialize, and their presence in the area has been a major point of pride for the local tech scene. A cut this size is going to be felt across the Triangle.

To make things worse, this comes just days after another Cary-based game developer, Red Storm Entertainment (owned by Ubisoft), announced it would cut 105 jobs and stop developing games entirely. Not a great week for the gaming industry in Cary.

Laid-off employees will receive at least four months of base pay, six months of paid healthcare (in the U.S.), and accelerated stock option vesting.

Additional reading: Epic Games Blog, WRAL, Axios Raleigh

If you’ve been outside this week, you may have noticed a thick yellow haze over…everything. Locals know what this is, but if you were somehow unaware, let it be known that you are experiencing The Pollening™.

Every spring, North Carolina's trees decide to absolutely unload on us. And right now, we are in the thick of it. Cars are yellow. Sidewalks are yellow. Your dog? Yellow.

The main culprit behind the visible yellow blanket is pine pollen. Our pine trees release massive amounts of it each spring, and because the grains are so large and light, they travel everywhere.

Upon researching pollen for this segment, I learned something pretty interesting. The yellow pine pollen that you can see? That is actually not the stuff making you sneeze. Pine pollen grains are too large to be highly allergenic. The real troublemakers are the smaller, invisible pollen grains from hardwood trees like oak, maple, and hickory that are releasing at the same time.

So while pine pollen is ruining your car's paint job, oak pollen is ruining your sinuses.

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranked the Raleigh metro area as the 7th most challenging city in the U.S. for allergy sufferers this year.

The peak of pine pollen typically lasts about three weeks, so we are right in the middle of it. Tree pollen overall usually peaks from late March into early April.

You can check daily pollen reports from the NC Department of Environmental Quality or sign up for their daily email updates.

Hang in there, Cary.

Interested in partnering with us? Reach out at [email protected] and let's find something that works for you.

Surprise! No events this week. I am working on revamping this section to be more useful.

If you’re looking for stuff to do in the area, I recommend checking the following:

Triangle on the Cheap

Downtown Cary Park’s Calender

Town of Cary’s Calendar

Hopefully by next week, I will have the new and improved events section up. Stay tuned!

Each week, I highlight a spot in Cary that I think you should check out. This week, we're heading to the most obvious place that I somehow haven’t covered.

I know, I know. You have probably been to Downtown Cary Park. Instead of telling you the same things that every other publication would print, I thought it would be more fun to show you my favorite parts of the park that might not be as obvious.

First off, if you’re looking for a quiet space to relax, you should try to find a seat in the botanical garden overlooking the pond and under the sky bridge.

There is a lot of shade and empty seats here, plus it is tucked away from all of the action, which makes it a nice area to get some work done. I am in this area writing this very newsletter fairly often, so make sure you say hi if you see me!

The playground has a name, which may sound pretentious, but it is an award-winning playground, so we will let it slide. The Nest has two giant cardinal play structures which you’ve surely seen, but it also has a splash pad (and a second splash pad near the market above it), a smaller playground for the little ones, and giant metal slides with built-in heat detectors. Only in Cary.

The Skywalk is an elevated walkway that puts you 17 feet above the park, right into the tree canopy. At night, the “Light Passage” art installation wraps around it with lights inspired by tree branches and bird nests. It looks cool during the day, but you really have to see this at night if you haven’t already.

Park Street Courts (the area to the left of the Bark Bar) has table tennis, foosball, (sometimes) volleyball, and a putting green. It is free and almost always available. This is a great way to spend some time with friends without having to spend any money.

If you have a dog, you should know that there is an open-air beer/wine bar called the Bark Bar, which is right next to the Barkyard dog park where you can grab a craft beer, wine, or a non-alcoholic drink and some snacks while hanging out with your pup. There are a lot of people that don’t have a dog that come to just watch them run around while enjoying a beverage (and who can blame them?).

Market 317 near the entrance has grab-and-go meals, coffee, pastries, and NC-based products. There are a lot more locally-based goods in here than people realize, and it is a legitimate option if you’re looking for a quick lunch.

The park is open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Visit their website.

Thanks for reading! If you liked or disliked this issue, feel free to reply and let me know! I love hearing from you.

P.S.

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