Category / New Projects

by Leo Suarez

Public Wifi And Its Potential Impact

Recently, the Raleigh city council has gone ahead and given the OK for public wifi in the downtown area. According to the N&O, the area bounded by Person, Morgan, South and West streets will have free access to the internet over the wifi network. Spending the money for a free service does come with its criticisms as many people are nervous about the economy these days. As a big internet user and downtown resident, this makes my life better, as well as my options for ‘geeking out‘ around downtown. However, the service is not aimed for residents but more for visitors and, as the city’s website states, to:

…support downtown revitalization efforts, including the reopening of Fayetteville Street to vehicular traffic, the opening of the Raleigh Convention Center and the highly anticipated opening of City Plaza in the fall.”

I’m not sure I agree with this wording because vehicular traffic and wifi are not a great match but that is just me being snarky. Anyway, I have never had the experience of using free public wifi even though it is a growing trend in many cities across the nation. I would imagine that wifi makes sense because of the increasing amounts of internet capable devices people are buying. Also, I’m sure it is safe to assume that many of the Raleigh Convention Center’s visitors are from out of town. The laptop is such a common device that many have with them while traveling for business. So does easier access for visitors make a difference? We’ll have to find out on our own but I looked at the City of Seattle to see what they have been doing with their now four year public wifi experiment.

Seattle has a very informative website that talks about the wifi situation in the city. Some of the items they list are its affects on businesses, usage numbers, and future plans for the network. One section, that should be read by anyone interested, is titled “Evaluation: Does It Make A Difference?”. It looks like there was a positive impact and as the website briefly states:

In short, there was an economic benefit seen by about a quarter of the businesses, and users found a great deal of benefit through cost and transportation savings and convenience for personal and business uses.

There is a very thorough 32 page report (pdf) for you to peruse through but I’ll stick to the three page summary for now. Here are some key facts taken from this report:

  • One-quarter of businesses surveyed have seen a positive impact on revenues and customer numbers.
  • It is not viewed as a significant competitor to those who already had wi-fi, and is seen as overall beneficial to the district.
  • Two-thirds [of users] said yes when asked whether Seattle Wi-Fi contributed to their coming to the area today. Three-quarters said that Seattle Wi-Fi encouraged them to go into a business in the area.
  • Over half the users in the survey (53.3%) answered that the presence of Seattle Wi-Fi had saved them driving.
  • Seattle Wi-Fi increased the use of Seattle.gov

It looks like Seattle saw mostly positive signs from the wifi in the specific areas that had it. This is just one example out of the many areas around the country that have public wifi so whether the benefits will be the same in Raleigh will have to be seen in a few years. Comparing Seattle to Raleigh is tough but it is good to see other cities having success with their wifi projects. It could be one more benefit to doing business and spending money in the downtown area, where the tax revenue is felt by the entire city. If usage is high once the network goes up this fall, there is the oppurtunity to create revenue from the service in order to possibly pay for itself and future upgrades.

Maybe Raleighwifi.org will get a makeover once the network is up and running.

by Leo Suarez

Should City Market Be Pedestrian Only?

Plans for any of this are not in the works to my knowledge so this discussion is purely speculative but what if cars were not allowed on the stone streets of City Market? I thought about this recently while I was walking down the skinny sidewalk on Blake St. (some of you know what I’m talking about) and was maneuvering through parked cars in order to get around. Granted, I could have just walked in the road since traffic is always light but it is still a road and cars have 24 hour access here. Would the shops in City Market benefit if cars were taken out of the picture?

City Market only occupies about a half block of space so we are not talking about a huge area. The parking lot to the east provides plenty of space for cars any time. What hasn’t been available before that is now is the parking deck across Blount St. There are over 1,000 spaces here and even on this month’s busy First Friday, there was a ton of room available here. (I know because we went up to the ninth floor to take pictures, great view)

So if the cars are gone, we would need to make the area more pedestrian friendly. One idea would be to make the sidewalks flush with the street. That way, pedestrians have plenty of room to walk and are not confined to a four or five foot sidewalk. Next, more trees would be needed for shade during the summer months. There are already some so a few more would make the area cozier, especially if more outdoor seating was offered. And as for the larger lot on Wolfe St., a public plaza could go here. Events are already held in Moore Square, and in the future City Plaza, so I think a larger gathering space would be appropriate. (maybe some public art?)

I really do not see taking the cars off the streets to have a negative impact on the businesses in City Market. In most cases, people do not come to a shop in City Market because they noticed it while driving by. This is because those short streets do not really take you anywhere so it is not a route many drive through. If City Market was marketed more as a place to stroll around with cool shops, places to eat and hang out then I think it would get a nice boost. Right now, the R-Line stop helps pour more pedestrians into this area so getting rid of the cars can make things easier and more inviting. And if anything, this might help land a solid tenant in the empty historic City Market building.

by Leo Suarez

“The City of Raleigh Information Technology Department has issued a request-for-proposals for the…”

“The City of Raleigh Information Technology Department has issued a request-for-proposals for the design and installation of a WiFi network in Downtown Raleigh. The goal of the project is to offer free, outdoor public WiFi access in the downtown area bordered by South Street, West Street, Morgan Street, and Person Street.”

– City of Raleigh | City Initiates Effort To Bring Free Wi-Fi Network To Downtown

“The City of Raleigh Information Technology Department has issued a request-for-proposals for the design and installation of a WiFi network in Downtown Raleigh. The goal of the project is to offer free, outdoor public WiFi access in the downtown area bordered by South Street, West Street, Morgan Street, and Person Street.”

– City of Raleigh | City Initiates Effort To Bring Free Wi-Fi Network To Downtown

by Leo Suarez

Collaborate and Work, Coworking in Downtown Raleigh

I recently attended the last Triangle Tweetup, pictured above, that was held right here in downtown Raleigh at Edge Office. This “tweetup” is a gathering of local individuals that interact on the internet through the service called Twitter. Twitter + meetup = tweetup, get it? Anyway, there were over 100 people at Edge, all with a common interest in socializing and putting faces to the internet avatars that each person has on Twitter. I have been using Twitter for almost a year now and I can say the local community is growing very fast. With this service, I have been able to meet and contact people for information or possibly collaborate on new projects. I also use it just for socializing; my twitter name is DTRaleigh. I recommend anyone that is interested to jump on the service and start interacting with local people (or “tweeple” as some like to say).

I open up this discussion with Twitter because I feel it is the most powerful tool to organize, market, and network with others that have similar interests as you. While Twitter lives and breathes on the internet, all the local users are still working, living, and playing individually around Raleigh. But what if there was a place for this community to collaborate, meetup, and work? What if there was a dedicated space for ANYONE that was interested in working with other people, sharing their ideas, and meeting others that can help them create those ideas? This is a slight introduction to the concept of coworking and a space for this is in talks for downtown Raleigh.

A good friend of mine, Jason DiMambro, has been leading the way on organizing the Raleigh community and is working with Empire Properties to set up a coworking space. At the recent tweetup on January 29th, Ben Steel from Empire gave a short speech about coworking and how Empire is very interested in providing a space for people to work in. Ben was pretty vague but looking at Empire’s track record, you can bet this will be a great looking, renovated space with a lot of character. If you pair this up with some great office furniture then this will be one of the best workspaces in the city.

The use of the space will range from the casual visitor to the dedicated worker. If your work requires you to be at the office then you will probably only visit a few times; to check e-mail after hours or to focus on a project when working from home is to distracting. Also anyone that works for themselves, out of coffee shops, their houses, on the phone or on their laptops, can use the space. Desks and tables will be set up for anyone to use at any time of the day, and night. For me, I can’t use the space for doing work because of my job but I would love to get out of the apartment and focus on the blog as well as the other projects I have in mind. The uses are very fluid and vary between everyone’s situation.

Coworking is a community driven concept where people that work for themselves, whether it is for money or yourself, can interact with others and share ideas. The coworking space will be the focal point of this community and while working on your own project, you can tap your creative side and give feedback to others on their ideas. I’m excited about this concept coming to Raleigh and the creative community will really embrace it.

If you are already on Twitter and would like to follow the progress of this space, follow CoworkRaleigh.

[Update: CoworkRaleigh twitter account has been disabled.]


Citizen Space, a coworking space, in San Francisco. Picture via Flickr: jaygoldman