by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Montford Hall

The newest owners of the 1850s mansion in Boylan Heights are making moves to turn it into a boutique hotel. Located at the edge of the neighborhood at Boylan and Mountford Avenue, the hotel is in a great location and offers a unique stay.

The owners are currently going through the rezoning process and if that goes as planned, renovation work will take place after that. What a great way to save some of Raleigh’s historic houses on the edge of downtown. I’m excited to see it finished one day.

Follow the progress and see some great photos of the interior on their Instagram page.

by Leo Suarez

11 Years Later From the Boylan Avenue Bridge

View of the Raleigh Skyline in September 2007 and September 2018.

Click for larger

It’s starting to get fun when you build a catalog of photos over a long time.

The two photos above are from the Boylan Avenue Bridge with one photo taken in September 2007 and another September 2018. Over 11 years, things have filled in just a bit.

In the foreground, Raleigh Union Station has really made the Boylan Wye look cleaner with a lot of that overgrowth being pulled out. With such an odd space to develop, I’m hoping for the day that new streets and buildings can just be built on top of all these railroads tracks to create new downtown spaces.

The Dillon is front and center no doubt when seen from the Boylan Avenue bridge. Around it, Citrix really presents a new view of the warehouse district from the bridge.

In the distance, the southern end of Fayetteville Street is mostly the same as the Marriott Hotel, while still under construction, was topped off in 2007. One exception might be the Residence Inn and the Justice Center is there but can be easily missed.

It’s fun to look but a well-formed skyline isn’t at the top of my list, sidewalk experiences are my numero uno, but it’s fun to take a look at how our downtown core is changing in its built form. Enjoy the photos and come chat about it on our community.

by Leo Suarez

Lime Scooters Deploy in Raleigh

Lime scooters in front of the Raleigh Convention Center

A second dockless scooter company is now operating in Raleigh. Lime has brought their electric scooters to the area and just like Bird have them concentrated in the downtown area.

Lime technically gets the award for the first dockless provider in Raleigh with the launch of their bikes around the NC State area. You might occasionally see them downtown but not reliably from my experience. That’s kind of by design since they were launched in a partnership with the university and not the city.

This makes two scooter companies operating in the area which expands the overall number of vehicles, providing more choice to the end user. As of this writing, the city is drafting dockless scooter regulations so the drama over this new form of transportation may not be over.

by Leo Suarez

DTRaleigh Blog Has New Look and Possible Super Powers

Welcome to the newest version of the blog!

By my count, this would be the fourth major overhaul (and cleanup) of this site. Yes, I’m still running on WordPress but I’ve retired the custom theme that I have been using since 2012. With a strong affinity for web development, I wanted to run my own theme on this blog but just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. With that, I’m going with this cleaner, simpler look that’s modern under-the-covers.

The blog will always be about trying to tell stories with photos and text and I think this new look still captures that. As expected, the blog works on all devices so you can read and search the site wherever you are with whatever you have. Make sure to sign up for emails in case that’s your preferred method of staying in touch.

New or veteran, I thank you for visiting the site especially my core group who have been emailing me as the new site has been coming online over the past few days.

by Leo Suarez

The Next Reader Meetup is on October 3, 2018!

It’s meetup time! Come join us for our fourth reader/listener meetup!

This is a casual, social event where you can chitchat about downtown Raleigh, transit, development and more. Each time we’ll choose a slightly different mix of area bloggers/podcasters related to Raleigh. We have a lot of fun conversation with amazing people doing cool things in Raleigh!

In addition to yours truly, come meet the people behind:

And maybe more?

Reader Meetup

Date/Time: Wed., Oct. 3 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
London Bridge Pub

by Leo Suarez

The Three-Speed City

Bird scooter parked at a bike rack on Fayetteville Street.

Ever since the electric scooter company, Bird, deployed in Raleigh everyone seems to have an opinion on this new form of personal mobility. Raleighites seem to be all over the spectrum but a recent survey run by the Raleigh DLA shows strong evidence that a majority of downtown residents and workers support e-scooters in downtown Raleigh but with some type of new regulation.

You can dive into those results here.

Mobility within Raleigh’s downtown has seen so much change since this whole revitalization thing started. I wonder if we’re getting closer to getting it right or still struggling with it.

Downtown Raleigh is too small to drive from one place to another yet big enough that walking from district to district feels far. (at least for most people I think) This presents a great opportunity for short-trip mobility services such as bikeshare, electric scooters, rickshaws, rideshare, and the R-Line circulator.

Personally, I love the plethora of options to move around. If I need to get from Seaboard Station to the southern end of Fayetteville Street, I could easily walk if it’s a nice day and I have the time, ride the R-Line for free and get there a little faster, ride a scooter for cheap and get there even faster, or request a ride in a car and be there quickly.

My impression of Raleigh right now is that no one is against having options. What the DLA survey suggests is that problems are arising when these options are conflicting with each other. It seems we have a city built for two speeds with a third speed emerging as a popular option and this new speed is struggling to find it’s space.

Generally speaking, pedestrians are annoyed by scooters on the sidewalk. Sure, it’s illegal and Bird informs users to use the street, a bike lane if available, but personal comfort levels vary widely. Not everyone is comfortable on the street so the sidewalk is a natural “safe” place. You become the dominant user on the sidewalk versus the pushover on the street.

A combination of education and safer streets are probably the cure for this rising middle speed. Also, a part of me thinks that over time users will become used to using scooters that they’ll be more confident on the streets. (I’ve seen some very nervous looking scooter riders out there!)

The quick adoption of scooters in downtown Raleigh is what bicycle advocates have been waiting for. It’s brought the conversation for safer streets for middle speed users front and center. How our city responds will be telling as trends point to more and more of this coming.

The day of the bike lane is over. It needs a new name.

There’s lot of chatter about dockless scooter in Raleigh on the DTRaleigh Community.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

107 West Hargett demolition. September 2018.

The building at 107 West Hargett Street is being partially demolished. Covered in detail here, we can see that the rear, one-story section has been removed and will now have a five-story building that incorporates the brick, street-facing building that sits on the same property.

I’m a big fan of this project and would love to see more reuses of older Raleigh while still adding density to our downtown.

by Leo Suarez

Waiting on the Blount and Person Street Phase I Makeover

Blount Street. September 2018.

Blount Street. September 2018. A bike lane is planned to be installed this Fall.

With planning going back to 2013, the first phase of the makeover for the Blount and Person Street duo should be starting soon. Design work for Phase 1 of the corridor has been completed and last I heard, the construction bids are out now.

The project can be summed up according to this excerpt from a City Manager’s Weekly Report:

The design of the Phase I Implementation of the Blount Street – Person Street Corridor Study is complete. The project will reconfigure pavement markings and install a continuous bike lane on both streets from Hoke Street to Old Louisburg Road. North of Edenton Street, the streets will be resurfaced and curb ramps will be upgraded. The design of the project will reconfigure Blount Street and Person Street to both have two consistent lanes of standard width. It will also reconfigure Wake Forest Road as a three-lane avenue, with one travel lane in each direction, a center turn lane, and bike lanes.

That’s a pretty nice and lengthy bike lane as Hoke to Old Louisburg is almost three miles. Bonus that both streets are getting a lane which offers long rides in each direction.

The project should wrap up by the end of the year and then start moving on towards more aspects of the Blount Street – Person Street Corridor Plan.

We’re tracking this and other bike lanes on the DTRaleigh community. Join the conversation.