Quote :

" ************************************************** Raleigh to begin charging $5 minimum for night/weekend parking! **************************************************** Now I know what you're going to say, and I agree. Five dollars is not nearly enough. But you have to realize that it's always best to start a tax at the lowest rate and increase it steadily over several years. The drunks probably won't even notice. $20 per car is very reasonable for a night on the town, and would serve to offset the ridiculous portion of the city's budget wasted on downtown leisure infrastructure and help combat the spectre of drunk driving that downtown businesses unleash upon the city every night. "

Quote :

" "Yeah, this would encourage drunk driving." "

People will always drive drunk. It's important to be able to properly pay overtime for the extra police needed to handle the situation. Checkpoints every single night at every city street exit will be a welcome solution to the problem.

In addition, $20/car fees will drastically increase carpooling and the need for designated drivers. Good for the environment, good for people. Might even increase bicycling to and from bars at night. How European!

[Edited on June 3, 2014 at 1:31 PM. Reason : .]

6/3/2014 1:28:19 PM

go away, troll

6/3/2014 1:44:55 PM

The only other option is to raise property taxes on downtown businesses, and that's certainly not fair.

Even now the city is moving to close down an establishment they consider undesirable, even though no actual crimes have been committed there.
http://www.wral.com/city-attorney-to-review-complaints-about-club-bodi/13695571/

It's not fair to target legitimate businesses like this. Requiring payment for entry to downtown and a employing a massive police presence targets the problem directly at the source...the clientele.

6/3/2014 1:54:54 PM

Quote :

"Might even increase bicycling to and from bars at night."

you can get a DWI on a bike just as easily as a car. in NC it's anything that assists your motion. hell, even those stupid Heelies shoes could fall under that

[Edited on June 3, 2014 at 3:52 PM. Reason : .]

6/3/2014 3:51:54 PM

Went to downtown for lunch today. It looks better than last time.

6/6/2014 6:02:32 PM

Are the parking decks really at its fullest from 10PM to closing time? I mean, I can understand that for Glenwood South maybe, but down in the Financial District and in other areas, I don't see any reason why the decks would be that full.

6/6/2014 11:37:53 PM

^ Tonight was First Friday. Therefore yes they would be full that late. Normally no, place is a ghosttown after 6-7pm.

6/7/2014 2:06:18 AM

where exactly is the "financial district"?

6/7/2014 11:56:50 AM

you know, where bofa, wells fargo, bbt and pnc have the buildings that largely make up our entire skyline.

6/7/2014 12:35:38 PM

oh, so the place everyone else refers to as Fayetteville Street

6/7/2014 12:45:37 PM

I thought that was called the Fayetteville District? Or the area East of the Warehouse district.

6/7/2014 2:12:03 PM

Fayetteville street is not called the financial district, it's just called Fayetteville Street or the Fayetteville Street District.

6/7/2014 4:44:09 PM

yeah, definitely just called fayettville street. but spencer should definitely been able to deduce what the other poster meant.

6/7/2014 5:11:34 PM

oh, you mean the Fayetteville Street Mall?

6/8/2014 11:43:22 AM

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2014/06/16/downtown-raleigh-preps-for-new-six-story-apartment.html

6/17/2014 11:59:06 AM

Quote :

" RALEIGH — Two-way traffic will soon return to several east-west streets in downtown Raleigh – ending commuter-focused one-way patterns as the city center evolves into a visitor- and pedestrian-friendly destination. The Raleigh City Council on Tuesday signed off on designs for two-way conversions on South and Lenoir streets between Boylan Heights and Shaw University. And the budget approved this month includes $1 million to make the same change on Jones and Lane streets, which connect the Oakwood neighborhood to the state legislature and Glenwood South. “It’s one of the fundamental things you do in revitalizing a downtown,” said David Diaz, who heads the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. “It’s more conducive to building on both sides of the street and slowing down traffic so that potential customers can look around and see a restaurant, a bar, a hotel or a retail shop.” Downtown had a different role in the 1960s and ’70s when city planners converted nearly every downtown street to one-way traffic. Back then, hardly anyone lived around Fayetteville Street and most businesses shut down around 5 p.m. “Downtowns only functioned as employment centers, 9 to 5,” Diaz said. “Transportation planners made it very easy to get in and leave downtown as quickly as possible.” The convenience came at the expense of neighborhoods bordering downtown. In Boylan Heights and around Shaw University, Lenoir and South streets carried commuters from the west and east until Western Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard were completed in the 1990s. The blocks inside Boylan Heights returned to slow two-way traffic when Western opened. Today, only one section of South Street still looks like a three-lane racetrack. That will change next summer when city crews build a tree-lined median and on-street parking, allowing westbound traffic to return. The plans are welcome news to Sam Kirkpatrick, who recently opened Boulted Bread in a cluster of storefronts at the corner of South and Saunders. The bakery is just three blocks from the Red Hat Amphitheater, but customers from downtown have to circle the block to get a loaf of bread. “People do get confused,” he said. “It’s really exciting that people will be able to come from downtown.” East of the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, the city will convert the remainder of South and Lenoir streets to two-way traffic. Those blocks are beginning to see revitalization with several townhome developments in the works. The traffic shift is expected to slow traffic, in part because three unneeded stoplights will be replaced by four-way stop signs. The changes, which will cost $2.66 million, should be complete in 2015. South and Lenoir are the second pair of one-way streets to be converted. Two-way traffic returned to Hargett and Martin streets when Fayetteville Street reopened to traffic in 2006. That change has been largely successful, according to Eric Lamb, the city’s transportation planning manager. “There’s a smidge of congestion” around rush hour as cars stop to turn left, Lamb said, but “that’s really the exception.” Raleigh’s decade-old “Livable Streets” plan called for converting six one-way streets, but funding had stalled for several of the projects. The final two-way switch – Lane and Jones streets – secured funding this month, although construction is at least a year or two away. While the one-way portions of Jones and Lane don’t have much room for development, city leaders and businesses hope the change will make for smoother connections between Glenwood South, Oakwood and the state museums. “It will be easy for people to hop from one place to the other,” said Samad Hachby, whose Babylon Moroccan restaurant is surrounded by one-way streets, including Lane. “It’s easier for traffic, it’s safer and it’s better.” Downtown’s other one-way streets will stay put for now. But there’s talk of making Person and Blount streets – and perhaps even Edenton and New Bern – into two-way streets, possibly starting at the north end of Person where a thriving retail district has emerged. But Lamb said at least two streets will always stay one-way – McDowell and Dawson. The speedy connection between South Saunders Street and Capital Boulevard carries 50,000 cars a day. Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/17/3944306/two-way-traffic-coming-to-4-downtown.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy"

6/18/2014 7:19:59 AM

Not exactly downtown, but does anybody know when that brewery back in five points is supposed to open? In the neighborhood beside the old Bicket Gallery?

6/23/2014 10:01:38 AM

Sub Noir is open right? I thought Nickel Point was too

6/23/2014 10:19:44 AM

6 weeks out according to facebook

[Edited on June 23, 2014 at 10:20 AM. Reason : nickel point]

6/23/2014 10:20:38 AM

Nice 2014 DTR Restaurant/Beer/Coffee update from: http://dtraleigh.com/

Quote :

"Summer nights in Raleigh are good for sweets and ales. Maybe not at the same time but if you happen to like a beer after a sweet treat, this season’s eats news has you covered. For a complete list of eats, drinks, and coffees in and around downtown, make sure to bookmark the DT Eats page. Try something new! We’re still waiting on the newest Ashley Christensen restaurant, Death & Taxes, to open at the corner of Salisbury and Hargett Street. Fancy signs are up covering the windows. Oooooooo. Nearby along Fayetteville Street, Happy and Hale has opened in one of the city plaza kiosks. Their salads and juices look pretty tasty. The dessert and cocktail bar, Bittersweet, has opened in PNC Plaza along Martin Street. After closing down Isaac Hunter’s Oak City Tavern at 112 Fayetteville Street, the guys behind the outfit have opened a Roaring Twenties themed bar called Common 414 at 414 Fayetteville Street. They officially open in less than two weeks. Meanwhile back at 112 Fayetteville, someone else has put some work into the space and is opening up another bar. No official word is out there about it but I heard they have had a soft opening and should be open soon. [UPDATE: Just learned today that the place is called Capital City Tavern and they are indeed open. A small shop, Harvest Sundries & Deli, has opened in the Progress Energy building. Sounds like a good place for a cheap breakfast or lunch. The people behind Tasty 8's Hot Dogs is doing a big renovation job at the space where Spize Cafe used to be and I think it looks great. Gourmet hot dogs are in our future. Lucettegrace is a bakery that’s “Coming Soon” according to their website. They plan to be on Salisbury Street kind of behind Capital Club 16. A new coffee shop is coming to Seaboard Station. Brew plans to open in the row of shops along Seaboard Avenue and they are crushing their kickstarter! Raleighites love their coffee. Also in Seaboard Station, Night Kitchen Bakehouse and Cafe will be opening in October, according to a TBJ article. The bakery will have “breads, pastries, sandwiches and salads” and be open for lunch and breakfast. A bread shop, Boulted Bread, has opened on South Street. You can find their goods at the shop or at the Wednesday afternoon Farmer’s Market at City Market each week. Work is slow but progressing on the empty space between Second Empire and the Holiday Inn, future home of Taverna Agora. The restaurant is relocating from Glenwood Avenue to this space on Hillsborough Street. Their website says they will move this winter. Chef Scott Crawford has, or is, leaving his spot at Herons, the fine-dining restaurant at Cary’s Umstead Hotel. He is taking on two new projects in downtown Raleigh. First, is Standard Foods, a grocery and restaurant in Person Street Plaza. Crawford’s second project is Nash Tavern, a classic American style tavern, in one of the buildings on the south side of Nash Square. A lot of planning is going into this one so it most likely will be a 2015 project. In Glenwood South, DeMo’s Pizzeria & Deli has opened in the 222 Glenwood building. Clouds Brewing, formerly called Storm Clouds Brewing, in the old Napper Tandy’s space near Powerhouse Plaza is looking close to opening. There are some construction photos on their Facebook and the TBJ has a nice article about them, saying they will open next month. you’ll be able to pay when you enter, receive a bracelet and pour your own beer from 40 different taps. *Hey Triangle: Order your fall beers from Facebook Visible work hasn’t yet started on the Raleigh Beer Garden or the 100 taps that will be inside this place. We’ve watched construction on the building at the corner of Tucker Street and Glenwood Avenue, planning to house a Carolina Ale house, all year. I read awhile ago that they planned to have the Ale House open before football season so there really isn’t much time left. Will they make it? Not sure."

7/27/2014 5:04:26 PM

Anyone applied/interviewed at Citrix? They were buying people free beers at Saucer this weekend, pretty cool way to get into the good graces of the community.

8/12/2014 2:39:35 PM

Had a few former neighbors (when we lived on Hargett St.) that worked there and loved it. When does the new building officially open?

8/13/2014 7:46:52 AM

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/morning_call/2014/08/city-of-raleigh-in-talks-to-buy-flood-prone-motel.html

Capital Blvd. entrance to downtown could use a spit shine. COR already owns the former capital lanes property, and this acquisition would help to tie together that area.


And it looks like Boulted Bread is finally open on the back side of Boylan Heights: http://www.boultedbread.com/

Quote :

"? Happy to announce that Boulted Bread, downtown Raleigh’s newest bakery, is officially open for business. They are located at 614 W. South Street. Congratulations to Fulton Forde, Sam Kirkpatrick, and Joshua Bellamy."

8/15/2014 4:08:15 PM

A bunch of people had to be be rescued from the Milner Inn, Capital Inn and Foxey Lady Tuesday night because of flooding.

I drove by the other day and it looked like a bunch of those business around there were flooded out. Supposedly the Milner Inn may be condemned.

[Edited on August 15, 2014 at 4:30 PM. Reason : ]

8/15/2014 4:20:05 PM

I thought the city already owned that property and had shut it down to make room for road improvements and open space. I was surprised to see it still full of people when the news covered the 'flood'

On another note, and related to outside downtown, but why does it seem that Raleigh has an aversion to open space? Everywhere you look, any open space is being developed. Why not build taller buildings and preserve open space for park use? We have seen this before, there is a mad rush to sell and develop for a quick buck and then years later, everyone wants to know where the green space went.

8/24/2014 8:18:52 PM

The Skyhouse apartments are really coming along. Although the building isn't really that tall, it does fill in the skyline a bit from some vantage points.

8/24/2014 9:07:21 PM

^^that's a good point, and I have no answer to that.

8/25/2014 8:42:06 AM

well I was more referring to a particular business park that is going up near me (I'm in Raleigh) There were 5 good size open lots (10 acres or more each) and slowly the development company has built three 5 story office buildings and an attached parking garage. There is a 4th building going up as we speak. The 5th lot is for sale and will soon be gone. All of the buildings look the same and were built/developed by the same company. Now its all stone, pavement, and concrete. Why not build two 20 story buildings and have 20 or 30 acres of prime, flat, green space that could be enjoyed by the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods and the people that work in the buildings. The area is growing crazy fast with new homes, so there will be a lot more people looking to use the outside space, but there will be none if the developers have their way. This is extremely obvious in Cary as well.

8/25/2014 6:40:06 PM

[Edited on August 25, 2014 at 10:52 PM. Reason : move along, nothing to see here.]

8/25/2014 10:51:37 PM

Not downtwon, but has anybody been to the Nicklepoint Brewery in Five Points yet? I think they opened last week and are having food trucks there frequently.

9/9/2014 2:37:56 PM

Haven't been yet, but its walkable....so I am looking forward to it. Not much happened on the outside of the warehouse building over the last few months, so I am guessing it will be a rustic tap room connected to the main brewing area. Hope it expands over time and adds permanent food eventually.

9/9/2014 2:59:24 PM

The City of Raleigh has released a new "10 year vision" for downtown:

http://www.raleighnc.gov/content/PlanUrbanDesign/Documents/Downtown/DTPRaleighDraftPlan.pdf

I like the proposals to extend West St over the railroad tracks and convert several downtown streets to two-way. Also there's a proposal for a massive green area between Glenwood South and Capital Blvd called Glenwood Green (dumb name).

Generally though, the city seems to be focusing on revitalizing the Nash Square and Moore Square areas. Hopefully they can get the ball rolling on this soon.

9/13/2014 3:11:01 AM

i thought i read a few weeks ago they were converting one way streets to two way downtown.

9/13/2014 10:26:26 AM

Does anyone know if they're gonna take the power lines down in front of the new buildings on Oberlin at Cameron Village? It just looks silly with all those new lamp posts there.

9/18/2014 7:45:19 AM

some streets are being converted to 2 way, not all streets

9/18/2014 9:19:11 AM

Is the Capital City Bikefest too noisy for downtown Raleigh?http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/23/4176409_is-the-capital-city-bikefest-too.html?sp=/99/100/&rh=1

Quote :

"‘Locals stay away’ Not every festival has the same economic boost for downtown businesses. An event such as SparkCon or World of Bluegrass can increase restaurant sales by 30 percent to 40 percent, Hatem said. Bikefest, on the other hand, causes a drop of about 25 percent, he said. “The folks that come in don’t generally support the local businesses – they’re just looking at bikes,” he said. “A lot of the locals stay away. People just don’t want to sit outside.” Cheetie Kumar’s global cuisine restaurant, Garland, will be closed Friday and Saturday. “I know that we would lose so much money if we stayed open,” she said. “Last year ... we did literally 20 percent of our normal business during Bikefest. I think it’s just a little bit of a cultural mismatch.” Some shops also suffered. Deco Raleigh owner Pam Blondin said sales were down more than 50 percent. “It was my worst weekend of the year,” she said. “I sent my staff home because people had wretched headaches” from the noise. Downtown Raleigh Alliance President David Diaz says he has heard concerns from residents. “We’ve received complaints from daytime, 9-to-5 office businesses as well,” because the festivities begin on Friday, he said. Diaz said the city is reviewing all downtown events, but he’s hopeful the Bikefest gripes can be resolved without moving the festival. City Councilwoman Mary-Ann Baldwin has a similar view. “We can’t forget that they were a part of the effort to revitalize downtown,” she said. “Our first step should be to work with them to reduce impacts and/or work with them on a new, mutually beneficial location for next year.” Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/23/4176409_is-the-capital-city-bikefest-too.html?sp=/99/100/&rh=1#storylink=cpy"

[Edited on September 24, 2014 at 11:59 AM. Reason : .]

9/24/2014 11:59:42 AM

9/24/2014 12:02:43 PM

^^I once was written a noise ordinance ticket by RPD for my radio being too loud. It was a STOCK RADIO AND STOCK SPEAKERS. A STOCK FUCKING RADIO!!! Never understood why loud pipes were always legal but "loud music", even if it includes subwoofers can get you a ticket.

9/24/2014 1:26:38 PM

I don't know about the noise, but that Bikefest certainly brings a drunk, asshole-ish crowd downtown every year

saw a drunk group of 3 bikers curse out a waiter at Garland over the portions being too small last year

9/24/2014 1:33:25 PM

Modern Oakwood Asshole Neighbor Lady now calling the cops on people who have construction dumpsters in front of houses in the middle of renovations

[Edited on September 25, 2014 at 10:27 PM. Reason : just an awful human]

9/25/2014 10:26:32 PM

her name is Gale Weisner, she has some sour grapes

pro-tip top avoid problem: show dumpster location on site plan when getting your permits

[Edited on September 26, 2014 at 9:28 AM. Reason : .]

9/26/2014 9:22:50 AM

http://www.wral.com/city-of-raleigh-buys-capital-boulevard-property/14019551/

not downtown, but close enough.

9/26/2014 8:23:51 PM

If I was mayor of Raleigh, I'd be strongly considering walking away from the Dix deal at this point. I haven't followed the negotiations super closely, but the state's goalposts just keep moving around like crazy and every time they move the deal gets more terrible for the city. Aren't there recreation/park bonds on the ballot soon or did we already pass those?

10/3/2014 8:47:19 AM

on the ballot soon.

10/3/2014 8:56:44 AM

Gotta admit, I'm contemplating voting no, I just don't think Raleigh is getting a fair deal in this.

10/3/2014 9:01:09 AM

i'm not sure if the dix deal is part of the current bond referendum or not.

10/3/2014 9:52:34 AM

what's unfair about the dix deal?



[Edited on October 3, 2014 at 10:22 AM. Reason : ^5 umop-apisdn spotting in the comments]

10/3/2014 10:20:05 AM

The state scrapped the previous lease because it didn't "reflect the market value." Raleigh was going to lease the land for like $1 a year. Now the state wants to sell the land to Raleigh for $52 million, but lease the DHHS office out to the state, indefinitely, for ...... $1 per year, as well as, snipe land from centennial campus that NCSU all ready had plans for.

The state is asking for almost the same deal from the city that they just said was too generous. And on top of that it just seems like negotiations are dragging on and on because the state keeps moving the goalposts. The state just doesn't seem to be acting in good faith, I say walk away and see what kind of political pressure that puts on them.

10/3/2014 11:14:18 AM

I haven't seen anything written on it, but I'm fairly certain the lights on top of the PNC tower have changed

anybody else noticed?

10/7/2014 1:39:57 PM

^I, too, noticed this

10/7/2014 2:38:07 PM