by Leo Suarez

Winter 2013 Restaurant Roundup

Bad Daddy's Burger Bar

Happy New Year readers!

In an attempt to test, or fuel, your commitment to any eating related resolutions in 2013, I’m dropping the restaurant roundup this week. The DT Eats list keeps growing as it’s constantly updated.

  • Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar is now open in the newly renovated retail spaces along Seaboard Avenue.
  • Within the same spaces at Seaboard Station, work appears to be continuing on a new coffee shop, Blend and Grind. However, it’s been awhile and their Facebook page is very quiet.
  • Dos Taquitos Xoco, pronounced similar to “Show-Co”, is a new Mexican restaurant in Glenwood South and will open very soon. Check out a picture of the bar below from their Twitter.

  • The renovation work on one of the houses at the northern end of Glenwood South has finished and View Bar is now open.
  • On the same 600 block of Glenwood, another house renovation project is done and Cornerstone Tavern is now open. Make plans to hit this one up in the Spring as the outdoor seating is plentiful.
  • Krave, located in the 510 building in Glenwood South, is getting a remake and is now called Myst.
  • Bolt Bistro and Bar is now open on Fayetteville Street in the space formerly occupied by The Mint.
  • Fiction Kitchen, a 100% vegetarian restaurant on Dawson Street, will open very soon.
  • The Royal James Lounge joins the cluster of bars on the 100 block of East Hargett Street and is now open.
  • A new bar, with an 80’s theme, had a New Year’s Eve opening on the 200 block of Fayetteville Street. Coglin’s is run by the guys behind Isaac Hunter’s Oak City Tavern.
  • The Warhol, a new LGBT friendly bar has opened in The Dawson’s retail space right next to The Borough.
  • The Port City Java previously located at the corner of Fayetteville and Martin Street is now a Subway.

by Leo Suarez

Downtown Raleigh Lecture Videos For Erasing Any Holiday Boredom

Bored over the holidays? Here’s a video that should get all Downtown Raleigh fans excited. It’s part of the Urban Design Center’s education forums titled, “Raleigh’s Identity -What’s Downtown Got to Do With It?”

This is the first video of eight planned lectures. It’s very interesting to see the different downtown plans, with some going as far back as the 1950s.

Enjoy!

by Leo Suarez

Looking Back Through Downtown Raleigh In 2012

Sidewalk of Fayetteville Street

2012 wasn’t the most exciting year for Downtown Raleigh in my opinion. When looking back, there were no signature moments that really made 2012 stand out. The only fireworks were over Fayetteville Street on July 4th and on the internet the day after.

I will say that 2012 was the year of the Resident. Residential plans and new development boomed in relative terms this year. Several new projects broke ground or were approved targeting the hot rental market. Developers are responding with more apartment complexes in the rest of the city but in downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, construction has begun on a dense, more urban product.

Union Station took its largest step forward this year, with an announcement of the project being fully funded. Plans are to have the new train station up and running around 2016/2017 time frame.

In 2012, we also saw the city sign a 75-year lease on the Dorothea Dix property to the southeast of downtown. The city plans to turn that into a signature park.

Honorable mentions this year also go out to these stories:

Residential Projects

Increasing the foot traffic in downtown is one of the best ways to bring on the “urban” in Raleigh. It’s great to see these residential projects moving foward, creating neighborhoods, and spurring businesses to pop up along the sidewalks.

The most dramatic announcement in 2012 was probably Skyhouse Apartments, which plans to bring 320 apartments to Martin Street near City Market. The tower will be 264 feet in height and be one of the densest buildings in the city. The plans for the building are not unique though as Atlanta currently has the exact same building.

Glenwood South has been busy building new apartments with the 425 Boylan and St. Mary’s Square projects. These two structures will provide around 400 apartments about two blocks from the Glenwood South strip. That’s a nice injection of residents for those businesses there.

Crane at the future site of 425 Boylan

The one project I’m rooting for is The L Building, the once planned office tower on McDowell Street that has been stalled for years. Now turned residential, the project may have some legs and we’ll finally cover up the hole it has left around the Wake County Parking deck.

2012 had great news for the residents at the West at North condo tower on West Street as the building is sold out. There was also news of a seven-story apartment tower planned for the surface parking lot right next door. Add that to Glenwood South’s rise in being a future neighborhood hangout versus entertainment district.

Union Station Funded

To re-live the Union Station announcement in 2012, watch the video below.

Other Notables

In addition to a great new site re-design, that I had way too much fun building by the way, here are two more articles that I liked posted this year.

Cheers, 2012!

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Wilmington Street, December 9, 2012 in Downtown Raleigh

This weekend, crews tore up this building at the corner of Wilmington and Martin Streets. The building was deteriorating and because of safety, the owner took this route. Sad to lose it but what can you do if no one is willing to step up and save these structures that are now unsafe to be in.

The building row here is part of the future Edison project, a cluster of buildings around the parking deck on the same block. Skyhouse Apartments, a 264 foot tower, is planned to be built on the same block but at the corner of Martin and Blount Streets.

by Leo Suarez

My New Column at The Raleigh Public Record

I have been invited to write a column over at the Raleigh Public Record about urban issues in Raleigh. I plan to elaborate more on some of the thoughts that make it here on the blog and others that don’t. I’m hoping this challenge will push me to get out more, gather more data, and talk to more people in order to inform and get people thinking.

In the first article, I talk about historic preservation and what citizens can do to preserve buildings threatened by “progress.”

Whether you know it or not, citizens can nominate structures and work with the commission in order to seek approval for historic designation. This action could possibly save a building from the wrecking ball. Landmarked structures qualify for preservation review and some can be protected.

*To Protect and to Preserve, Saving Historic Structures in Raleigh

by Leo Suarez

What A Destination Park on the Dix Campus Means to Downtown

View of Downtown Raleigh from the Dorothea Dix Campus

There was a lot of news last week on the future of the Dorothea Dix campus, located southwest of downtown, and how our state governor is making moves to turn it into a destination park. The controversy here is how best to use the 306 acres of undeveloped, state-owned land. Park land, sell it off, or some combination of both?

Talks have been going on for close to a decade here and now with real action taking place by the city and the governor, the politics show up.

This is a billion-dollar giveaway of taxpayer resources to Raleigh elites for another state taxpayer funded cultural amenity.

*Governor Perdue’s Dorothea Dix Giveaway Bad for Taxpayers [UPDATE 4-15-14: Broken Link]

Raleigh readers, we’re elitists apparently for wanting the campus to be a park.

We’re elitists because we’ve proved that parks are important to citizens through the voter approval of multiple bonds over the last few decades. That’s clear that using the Dix property as a park is a waste.

Opponents to the park have floated around the idea of selling the property to private developers to build new and allow more businesses to come in, creating jobs. It’s possible that incentives could be used to lure companies to this location.

At a time when results from state incentives are unchecked, what’s the cost of losing the land once it’s gone? How many times does a section of a city go from developed to park land? Is it really worth it to use incentives on businesses to set up here with this “zero-sum game?”

In my opinion in this age of the automobile, companies can set up in different locations. I can point you to Research Triangle Park for the best example. Why sell off valuable land, at a time when Raleigh is trying to build density, that will only dilute development even more?

An interesting thing to consider in this controversy is the urban versus rural politics topic. It is clear that this country, North Carolina is no exception, is becoming divided along urban/rural lines. In this great post on The Atlantic Cities:

This divide between blue city and red countryside has been growing for some time. Since 1984, more and more of America’s major cities have voted blue each year, culminating in 2012, when 27 out of the nation’s 30 most populous cities voted Democratic.

*Why the Urban-Rural Voting Divide Matters

So calling us “Raleigh elites” is clearly a jab at us city folk. I’ve driven and biked through the neighborhoods around the Dix property and there is nothing elitist about it. The neighborhoods are modest and middle-class.

But enough of the politics. For Downtown Raleighites and density fans, if 306 acres are made into park land, it helps urbanity in and around the city center.

I would imagine that to a developer, the Dix campus has a big question mark over it and there’s too much risk to develop around it. The future isn’t certain. If made into a park, the path that the land and the surrounding properties will take is more predictable and that is something businesses and developers respond too.

You could compare it to the rail versus bus comparison in terms of development. Would you rather invest close to a rail stop or a bus stop?

A park at Dix would be a huge shot in the arm for urban fans in Raleigh as resulting development around the park, therefore adjacent to downtown, would be denser. This results in more walkable, bikable neighborhoods and more Raleighites thinking more on their feet than within their car.

The NC Council of State is planning to discuss a vote whether to enter into a lease agreement with Raleigh for the property tomorrow, Tuesday December 4. Stay tuned as I think this is a big one.