The Glenwood South Carolina Ale House. Finally

For months (years?) there was a sign on the door at 500 Glenwood Avenue promoting the future site of a Carolina Ale House, but there never seemed to be any progress, so people began to doubt it would ever happen. (And then, for a while at least, even that paper sign was gone.)

Well, the site plans for construction of the restaurant (yes, at that site) have been submitted. It will be a three-story restaurant with a rooftap bar. No word on when it is slated to be completed.

In other retail news, Papa Murphy's, a pizza chain, is slated to renovate a 1,500-plus space at 1028-226 Oberlin Road -- aka, Oberlin Court. Papa Murphy's is based out of Washington state.

The location of the former ESS Lounge is about to get sweet. The Videri Chocolate Factory will be moving in to 327 W. Davie St. The chocolate shop is slated to open in either late November or December.

And, finally, Locopops is renovating its space at 2604 Hillsborough Street.

A stadium for St. Aug's

It looks like the new football stadium for St. Augustine's College is a "go," according to WRAL.

For the first time in its 144-year history, the football and track teams at St. Augustine's College will have a stadium to call their own.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, Raleigh City Council approved plans to build a 2,500-seat stadium around the college's track and field. About 100 students took buses to attend the meeting, where they cheered college president Dianne Boardley Suber's presentation to the council.

"We have a world-class track, world-class football field, a nice scoreboard, two perfectly straight goal posts and no place for anybody to sit and see them," Suber said.

The college had previously asked for 5,000 seats but scaled back after neighbors voiced concerns about traffic, noise and parking.

"Lights will be shining and they'll have three entrances for them to go in... There's no way it can keep off from our place," said neighbor Sarah Olive. "My street will not be affected, so they say, but I'm sure they'll be parking on it."

Mayor Charles Meeker mandated that the stadium have 50 feet of landscaping buffer around it, no concerts, no lighting higher than 80 feet and no more than 15 events per year. He is also requiring the college to offer free parking at the stadium to deter students and fans from parking on neighboring streets to avoid paying.

Didn't the college discuss a stadium before? Why, yes, they did. (In fact, one discussion had Shaw and St. Aug's sharing a facility on Glascock Avenue.)

This is the second time in seven years that St. Augustine's has asked the city to build a stadium. In 2004, Suber asked the council to approve a 5,000-seat stadium, but agreed to a downsized, 2,500-seat version of the proposal. A location change, however, sent that plan back to the drawing board.

I'm a State grad, but I love having St. Aug's just a few blocks away. I'm excited the possibilities of a new stadium.

The end of the suburbs?

The Atlantic has posed that very question in this piece.

In the years following World War II, the United States experienced an unprecedented consumption boom. Anything you could measure was growing. A Rhode Island-sized chunk of land was bulldozed to make new suburbs every single year for decades. America rounded into its present-day shape.

Along the way, there were three inexorable trends at the base of the societal pyramid. First, we plowed more energy into our homes each and every year. We cooled and heated our houses more (sometimes wastefully, sometimes not), brought in more and more appliances, added televisions and computers and phones. Per capita electricity shot up from about 4,000 kilowatt-hours per US resident to over 13,000 kilowatt-hours by the 2000s. Second, we needed more electricity because our houses got huge. The median home size shot up from about 1,500 square feet in the early 1970s to more than 2,200 square feet in the mid-200s. Third, we drove more and more miles every year to get around and between our sprawled-out cities. Back in 1960, Americans drove 0.72 trillion miles. By 2000, that number had reached 2.75 trillion miles. In 2007, vehicle miles traveled hit 3.02 trillion.

Now, though, the relentless growth in those figures is coming to an end. The AP's Jonathan Fahey reported last week that the utility company research consortium, the Electric Power Research Institute, projected that residential electricity demand would drop over the next ten years. ...

Meanwhile, the number of miles that Americans drive fell in 2008 and 2009 -- even as gas prices fell off their highs. In 2010, Americans drove a little more, but so far in 2011, we're driving less. In other words, the growth in total vehicle miles traveled has stalled. And if you look at vehicle miles traveled per person, the picture is even more clear. On a per capita basis, people have been driving less for almost a decade. Now, with gas prices creeping back toward record high territory, we can expect the new downward trends to continue.

Taken together, the end of growth in residential electricity consumption and vehicle miles traveled form a momentous signal. The United States we all grew up with is changing, or rather, it's changed and the numbers are beginning to reflect that. The growth in housing size, electricity demand and miles traveled were the hallmarks of the suburban/exurban era. They were the statistics of sprawl -- but also of economic growth. ...

For what it's worth, I think there was a movement "back" to more compact living before the Recession.

Nonetheless, we have touched on that concept in the past (or, at the very least, the idea of people moving back to cities). As much as the facts show that MORE people are moving to cities and that more and more areas are becoming "urban" in nature, I do think there is an inherent American "pioneer" spirit that results in probably seven out of every 10 Americans pining for wide open spaces. It's not for me, so to speak, but for the majority of my friends, they like the idea of at least an acre of land and a two-car garage with a bonus room. It's not for me, but I don't fault them for it. To each his own.

Reckless rickshaws?

The other night, my buddy, Troy, was lamenting the fact that he has -- on apparently more than one occasion -- been almost run down by rickshaws in Downtown Raleigh -- while he was simply walking on a sidewalk. Troy and his wife have played "chicken" with rickshaws while walking down the sidewalks of DTR, and, in one instance, he described having to run defense so that a pedicab didn't run over his wife.

*Is this an issue? Have others had problems with Raleigh rickshaws seemingly having no regard for others? Are they allowed on sidewalks? Should they be allowed on sidewalks? Or is this a non-issue, and maybe the riders just have it out for Troy?

*Full disclaimer: I've never personally witnessed rickshaws riding on the sidewalk and have nothing but great experiences with them, but Troy is not the type to just make something up. Unless it involves shark bites.

Carolina RailHawks: Your regular season NASL champs

This is how dominant the Carolina RailHawks have been this season: they lost on Wednesday night and STILL won the regular season NASL title.

Let's go to the official release:

The Carolina RailHawks clinched the NASL Regular Season Championship and the No. 1 seed in the NASL Playoffs Wednesday night. While they suffered a 1-0 loss at Ft. Lauderdale, they cemented their place at the top of the table by virtue of Puerto Rico’s 1-1 home tie against Montreal. The RailHawks (17-4-4) are eight points clear and have a game in hand on Puerto Rico, which has two games remaining on its calendar. “It’s a big, big achievement for us,” said RailHawks coach Martin Rennie after Wednesday's match. “It was a goal for the season and we’re satisfied we’ve achieved it. To be the top team in the NASL is something the club can build on and it’s a reward for everybody’s hard work and the quality the entire organization has produced this season.” The RailHawks have been at the top of the table since late April, and they saw their lead balloon to as many as 16 points over the course of their landmark season. Clinching their first piece of silverware adds to the list of club records the RailHawks have already set or are closing in on as the regular season draws to a close. “Now we have to be the team to finish strong and accomplish our other goal, which is to win in the playoffs,” said Rennie, whose team will begin postseason play with a bye to the semifinals.

Super congrats to the 'Hawks. Here's to hoping they are equally dominant in the playoffs.

Faces Lounge/Round Midnight coming to S. Salisbury

Faces Lounge/Round Midnight, a new bar/restaurant, is slated for 126 S. Salisbury Street (Suite 102) in Downtown Raleigh. According to sources, the space will take up more than 4,000 square feet.

No word yet on when it is slated to open.