The Skyhouse construction site towers over the buildings of Wilmington Street. Hopefully by now, everyone has noticed that this thing is being built quite quickly as it broke ground this past December.
The plans are to have new residents moving in by this December.
Coming up at the end of this month is the fourth annual CityCamp NC, a civic unconference that brings people and technology together to try and solve issues that our local governments are facing. I’m playing a role as an organizer this year and couldn’t be more excited to help make CityCamp great while downtown Raleigh hosts the event.
Any readers that are involved in civic organizations, non-profits, technology, and various community advocates should take a few minutes and look into what CityCamp is. The unconference format allows for attendants to create the schedule, taken straight from your ideas pitched during the event. After participants vote on the best ideas, teams will start to form to discuss and perhaps tackle these ideas head on.
What’s always fascinating to watch is seeing someone pitch an idea and having a prototype built by the end of the weekend. An example that I keep going back to is RGreenway, a greenway navigation smartphone app that was born from a CityCamp weekend.
There’s also the possibility to walk away with some prize money. The team that submits the best idea and pitch will win $3,000.
Register for your spot as seats are limited.
Date/Time: May 29-31
Register Here
Construction fencing is up at the future site of The Lincoln, a 224 unit apartment building going on an empty lot to the east of downtown Raleigh’s Moore Square. With over a year of planning, equipment has rolled in and the entire block has been fenced off.
The lone house along Martin Street still stands however. I guess there’s plenty of room to start construction while the fate of the house is determined. The developer was making moves to buy a nearby plot of city-owned land in order to have it moved. If the city voted to sell the property to them, perhaps the house can be rolled off The Lincoln site rather than be demolished.
With Skyhouse apartments and very positive talks of funding for the Moore Square redesign recently, east-side downtown may be a growing hot spot.
Video link – Leading Pedestrian Interval in downtown Raleigh via YouTube.
Some may be noticing a slight change when walking along Fayetteville Street. Last week, I saw that some of the pedestrian walk signals were signaling the ‘Walk’ sign a few seconds before the vehicle traffic signal turned green. It’s not a lag in the system. It’s called Leading Pedestrian Interval (LPI) and it helps increase pedestrian awareness to nearby vehicles.
The quick video above shows one cycle at the intersection of Hargett and Fayetteville Streets. More are running up and down Fayetteville last I checked. There are plenty of intersections that could use this, especially along the busy McDowell and Dawson streets.
For a more in-depth look at LPI, here’s a video from Streetfilms showing them in operation in New York.
Leading Pedestrian Intervals (or LPIs) are a traffic signalization strategy that assigns pedestrians an exclusive 3 to 5 second signal (in some cases much longer) to begin crossing the street before cars get a green light. Consequently, they are also known by their sassier nickname, Pedestrian Head Start. But in my view the best variation on what LPI stands for comes from Christine Berthet of the Hells Kitchen Neighborhood Association who proposes: “Life Preserving Interval”. That’s what it is.
*LPI – Leading Pedestrian Interval
Video link – LPI – Leading Pedestrian Interval via Vimeo
State of Downtown Raleigh 2014 – video link
Note: I hope the video works for you as Granicus didn’t have a download option and their embedded video isn’t the greatest out there.
In the video above you can watch this year’s State of Downtown Raleigh. There’s a good panel discussion that includes O’Hara Macken from Ipreo, Andy Andrews from Dominion Realty Partners (Charter Square), James Sauls, Raleigh’s economic development manager, and Mitchell Silver, our former Chief Planning Officer.
There’s a lot to celebrate with regards to what has been accomplished over the last 15 or so years. One underlying point that I’m hearing in watching this video is that we still need to continue to grow, compete, and keep that quality of life factor high. Great spaces and places, the Dorothea Dix park, and creative energy are the big things being talked about in this video.
Enjoy.
The Boylan Pearce building on Fayetteville Street is getting a makeover. Out front, the renovation includes a new awning and a good cleaning of the front facade. You’ll notice the white paint has been stripped off giving it a darker, bolder look.
The 200 block of Fayetteville Street continues to make the case for being the heart of downtown Raleigh. For a comparison, here is a photo from July, 2012.
Hopefully soon, news comes out about possible tenants for the Boylan Pearce Building.
In April 2014, Raleigh’s premier bicycle festival, Oaks and Spokes, took place. The week long event combined community rides, cycling education, and a public forum that all focused around the idea of spreading the love of cycling culture in the city. Between the fun events and public information that took place that week, I had a thought about where we are heading with regards to bicycle infrastructure.
Are we spreading ourselves too thin with mediocre (at best) bike infrastructure here in Raleigh? Are bike lanes and sharrows really spreading the cycling culture throughout our city?
In my opinion, it almost feels like the efforts we’ve made are a bit timid while a lot of other cities are really cranking up the bicycle lanes, making them protected, scenic, and comfortable to use.
I’ll pick on one of the city’s currently ongoing bicycle projects. Through a $1.1 million grant, the city will install “27 miles of marked, on-road bicycle facilities.” This project has been mentioned on the blog before and the post lists several streets in and around downtown Raleigh that will get these bicycle facilities. The rest of the city is getting some bicycle love as well so it’s important to note that this is a city-wide effort.
The project page on the city’s website has now been updated with draft plans for each street. Take a look and get your feedback to the city before May 9.
Click for larger
For downtown, the proposed bike facilities include bike lanes on Wilmington and Salisbury between Peace Street and MLK Boulevard. Also, sharrows will be added to Hillsborough and Cabarrus Streets under the current draft. This is just a small piece of the larger network that is being built across the city.
Dedicated lanes and sharrows might be just paint on the road but it is a step towards creating that bicycle-friendly city. Certainly there is room for improvement on what’s being installed but $1.1 million can only do so much.
Is this a quantity (coverage) versus quality (safety) situation?
Certainly more miles of “marked, on-road bicycle facilities” sounds better than less but let’s discuss an alternative approach. If you think about other forms of transit, rail lines connect major areas to each other and then over time, new lines link up to that and form a network. Highways connect cities and over time have formed their own quality network. Just like them, one mega-bicycle project could be a success in Raleigh, sacrificing total coverage but being of a much higher quality.
Instead of 27 miles of paint for bike lanes and sharrows, what if we could get 5 miles of cycle tracks and/or protected lanes? A 5 mile direct route like this could really connect places, for example:
Granted, these are highly simplistic ideas making a lot of assumptions and not taking into account a mountain of factors. However, if major connections are made between these centers of activity with high-quality bicycle facilities there may be more chances of cycle adoption, increased bicycle use in the city, and possibly giving more political backing for future projects just like it.
The Network
Mega-projects don’t just happen though. Our bicycle network, at least up until a few years ago, has been implemented from almost nothing in the city budget and some creative thinking from city planners. This includes adding bike lanes or sharrows when a road is due to be repaved, taking advantage of the need to re-stripe the street anyway.
What the city is doing to deliver our bicycle network is subtle and can be described as a slow boil. Just like the greenway network, which started being built in the 1970s, the bicycle network is being put together in any way that it can be, piece by piece.
When you look at the greenways, it is only recently that the they have really been making major connections to form that comprehensive network across the city.
So while huge projects can be fun and exciting, working towards that day when the bicycle network all comes together could be even more magical. That is one way to make Raleigh, from downtown to the outskirts, a complete bicycle friendly city.
[Today’s post comes from Lauren Pritchett, a Triangle native and resident of Cameron Park, a surrounding downtown neighborhood. Lauren has helped bring the locally led walking tours of Jane’s Walk to Raleigh. You can follow her through her blog or Twitter, @hilgspritch. (Leo)]
“Raleigh’s Second Renaissance” has been a wildly trending phrase since the DRA’s 2014 State of Downtown in mid-April. Raleigh is indeed experiencing a new chapter of development. As much excitement that a renaissance can bring, it can be equally as daunting. We must make decisions that will affect our overall quality of life.
On May 3rd and 4th, Raleigh will be celebrating its inaugural Jane’s Walk to encourage open conversations about the city’s development. Jane’s Walk is a global initiative honoring urban activist Jane Jacobs’ birthday. It is designed to promote urban literacy through locally lead neighborhood walking tours, each focusing on a different theme. As part of the event, I will be facilitating the DTR History of Commerce Tour. We will stop at 10 different landmarks starting at the COR Museum on May 3rd at noon.
I’ve found that evidence of Raleigh’s resilience in the face of challenges can be extrapolated from our commercial architecture. One fundamental example of this is Fayetteville Street’s beloved Briggs Hardware Building. Thomas Briggs inspired our young epicenter during the Reconstruction Era by opening up the city’s first skyscraper for his shop in 1874. The subtle Art Deco style that The Raleigh Building features remind us of our ability to overcome the Great Depression. Soon, SkyHouse will be erected on the corner of Martin and Blount Streets as a symbol of Raleigh’s Second Renaissance!
During my free time, I jot down thoughts about my concerned citizenship on my blog. Usually, my curiosity leads me to wanting to know more about what came before us. What I’ve learned from researching downtown’s history is that we have endured a lot! Since becoming the capital of the “Rip Van Winkle State”, Raleigh has survived population growth spurts, wars, economic downfalls, and civil rights movements. For a small, often overshadowed, Southern city, I’m intrigued with how these milestones affect the wax and wane of Raleigh’s development.
Please join me in discussing examples of our resilience and transformation during Jane’s Walk. Our outgoing Chief Planning & Development Officer, Mitchell Silver, will also be leading a walk starting in Nash Square at 1:30pm. On Sunday, May 4th at 2pm, I invite you to follow urban instigator, Matt Tomasulo, as he explores the opportunities of Dix Park. Jane’s Walk is coming to our city at the perfect time and is sure to be full of inspiration.