As we get closer to Raleigh Wide Open 4," now is as good a time as any to reflect on just how far Downtown Raleigh has come in the past few years. "RWO4" is a great time to reflect on what all has been accomplished in a relatively short amount of time:
-Renaissance of Fayetteville Street
-New Convention Center
-Shimmer Wall
-Raleigh Rickshaws
-The R Line
-City Plaza (almost finished)
I'm sure I'm forgetting others. Throw in the new free, downtown WiFi, an outdoor, holiday-themed skating rink and more and more nightlife and you've got a pretty darn good downtown.
(One other thing about the Winterfest ice skating rink: How much cooler would it be if there were still a department store nearby? It is images like this that make me really want more retail options downtown.)
But the renaissance is not quite complete.
Leo over at
The Raleigh Connoisseur recently brought up the point that while DTR has "livable streets," there is still much work to be done. First and foremost, there needs to be more retail - something many who are passionate about DTR have harped on for some time. It's also key to have people actually living downtown.
"If you want that dense, tall tower or that twenty-four hour diner or lots of shopping in downtown, it starts with getting people to live their lives in and around the area, OUTSIDE of their cars," wrote Leo.
The latest cover story from
The Independent Weekly is on
Dan Douglas' vision for Raleigh. The basis of Douglas' idea is for a "nonprofit development corporation similar to the one that created the Research Triangle Park a half century ago" aimed "at making North Carolina's capital city the equal of any in the world for economic innovation and quality of life.
The state would be a partner in the corporation, as would the city, Wake County, Progress Energy and Public Service of North Carolina; also, the CSX, Norfolk Southern and North Carolina Railroad companies and Triangle Transit.
Combined, Douglas says, these partners own 120 acres of vacant or underutilized land in the prime railroad corridor that runs through the heart of the city and up Capital Boulevard to Atlantic Avenue. The partners would donate their land to the corporation, which Douglas calls Capital City Partners, giving it an enormous asset with which to leverage private and public development—commercial, residential and cultural—on a grand scale.
The corporation would then hold an international competition to produce the best possible master plan for downtown development. This could include new public squares, transit stations, high-tech businesses, high-density housing—a significant amount of it, affordable—arts and cultural hubs: All this, to create a bustling, vibrant, walkable and green downtown.
By following the plan, the corporation and private developers would be drawn to the "transformative investments" needed for a great center city to emerge, generating new taxes for the government partners, new business for the railroads and utilities, and new revenues for the corporation to continue its work.
The number of jobs in downtown Raleigh, now about 40,000, could be doubled in the next two decades, Douglas estimates, and the number of people living downtown could increase from fewer than 3,000 to between 25,000 and 30,000.
Among Douglas' grand ideas (view the map here) are:
-Nine new public squares "including two that would double as green roofs on top of parking decks";
-six green streets where "cars would be allowed, but bikes and walkers would be given priority";
-a transit hub;
-a downtown Wake Tech campus;
-a new sports arena; and
-an African-American Cultural Center.
Also in the mix is the idea of turning Dix Hill into a "Chatauqua"-type center.
Douglas came with these ideas after seeing how it's done in some of the world's great cities like Barcelona, Madrid and Paris. (He is a former Eisenhower Fellow.)
"When Dougla
s returned [from his fellowship], the bottom fell out of the U.S. economy, stalling Raleigh's boom and giving it, as Mayor Charles Meeker says, some breathing room to plan for the next big wave of growth. Douglas used the time to consult with colleagues, refine his plan and crystallize the one big idea that could bring the rest of it to fruition.
"Raleigh would go, as he foresees it, from languishing among the worst cities in the country in terms of wasted land and energy—a city built on sprawl—to being the greenest city in the Southeast and among the greenest in the world. It would be transit-oriented, not just car-dependent. It would be the kind of creative city that drives and thrives in the world economy."
When Douglas thinks of Raleigh's economy, he sees a wobbly-legged stool. For companies that still prefer a campus atmosphere, we have the Research Triangle Park. Those seeking an educational campus can choose NCSU's Centennial Campus, which is going strong. But when it comes to attracting the creative types who want to work in a vibrant city, what's Raleigh's strategy? Douglas's answer: "We got nuthin'."
Well, not nothing. Raleigh has enormous assets, Douglas argues, "if we put them together and use them" to chart a different path for growth.
"It's not going to be easy, the good things never are," he says, his cadence racing. "I mean, if it were, everybody would be doing it. But it's the cities that say, 'This is hard, but we're going to actually do it,' that are going to leapfrog ahead of all the other ones."
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New Raleigh is reporting that Mema's Biscuits (more commonly known as the Biscuit Station) is closing its doors on Saturday, October 31. So if you want to enjoy the type of food that makes you want to nap the rest of the day, then get over there fast. (And trust me: That previous sentence is a compliment.)
