by Leo Suarez

17 Years Ago, A Connoisseur Was Born

Wasn’t 2007 a fantastic year? We saw the iPhone. Netflix starting streaming. The Raleigh Connoisseur starts publishing blog posts. All of these things are changing the world and today is a day to celebrate one of them in particular. With 1,527 posts logged, I’m happy to report that I’m still here.

We have our community, our meetup, and this space here of course for various topics around urban planning, transit, developments, and a little food and drink. There’s so much to talk about if you follow what’s going on in Raleigh and I’m happy to keep putting these thoughts out there where I hope it fosters good discussion and makes all readers stop and think.

If you find any value at all in this work, it would be great for you to donate to the cause. I only ask once per year and any donations help cover maintenance and upkeep. With enough donations, we can do some extras like buying treats from downtown businesses for our in-person meetups. I try and keep it as local as possible. Please consider a small contribution through my Paypal or connect with me directly, @DTRaleigh on Venmo. Suggested amount is currently at $17 so get it in now before it’s $18 next year.

I typically use these posts to reflect but I’m in a futures kind of mood so let’s talk about what I think is coming up.

I gave a somewhat “state of things” recently so I won’t repeat what’s going on there but if you remember, transit is top of mind these days. What I will be repeating are some of my thoughts on Transit-Oriented Development, written about here, and how that could pave the way for a higher uptick in transit use across our city. I truly think that this Bus-Rapid Transit project, with construction about to start, is a really big deal for Raleigh. More to come on that as we start to see it take place along New Bern Avenue.

Related to transit use, downtown Raleigh has some challenges ahead. These include:

  • Continuing to address the crime issues in select areas.
  • Transitioning to a new office dynamic in a world where almost a quarter of Raleighites work from home.
  • Revitalizing Fayetteville Street
  • Equity around housing especially with investments being made at Dix Park and New Bern Avenue

I look forward to these conversations ahead and thank you all for keeping up with the blog.

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