RTP is the place to be even when you're not.

Mayor Nick Tennyson understands why some companies based in southeastern Durham are reluctant to say so. Downtown is four miles away. Research Triangle Park, recognized worldwide as a hot spot for business, is nearer and, as an address, much dearer.

When he moved to Durham 20 years ago, Tennyson opened a post-office box in RTP for the construction business he owned. "I don't disagree with that as a tactic," admits his honor, now executive officer of the Homebuilders Association of Durham and Orange Counties. "I just hope people will, from time to time, mention that they're in Durham."

Many don't. Companies clustered along the city limits often ignore their hometown on letterhead and in press releases, preferring to tout their RTP P.O. boxes. Some are vague, saying they're based near RTP -- as Quintiles Transnational Corp., a contract-research organization, does. Some are, at best, confused. Icagen Inc., a drug company whose headquarters is on Emperor Boulevard in Durham, claims it is "based in Research Triangle Park."

Even Holiday Inn disses Durham, listing its hotels there under Raleigh because the capital comes first in the name of Raleigh-Durham International Airport, says Reyn Bowman, president of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau. The Postal Service adds to the confusion, doling out addresses not by their location but that of the station serving them. Tennyson, for example, lives in Durham but has a Chapel Hill mailing address.

A CVB survey shows 26% of Raleigh residents think RTP, most of which lies in Durham County, is in Raleigh. In the late '80s, 60% thought that. Durham has itself to blame, Bowman believes. Local folks were too polite to correct such mistakes as RTP was developed, starting in the late '50s.

Since the '80s survey, Bowman and others have been trying informally to set the record straight. He figures it will take 10 to 15 more years. The reason? Politeness, again.