Anyone attend the TOD Southern Corridor meeting this evening? TODally forgot 
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I was there for a part of it. It didn’t have any new information about rezoning proposals or specific corridors, though. The event just involved city planners explaining what the TOD overlay is and how rezoning works in the city.
Translation!
Several residents in low-income communities (including one Black woman living paycheck-to-paycheck in Heritage Park) made vaguely related comments about how they’re scared of being displaced, to poor results. The unfortunate white dude fielding questions for the city just responded by explaining more policy assumptions about market expectations for TODs and density bonuses. What he said was obviously true and relevant, but it was just so jargony and abstract that I think it made the people asking questions more confused and frustrated than anything else…
I was going to have it on for background noise as I worked remotely, but I had to close out that tab since it got too cringey. I decided against speaking up and rephrasing the staffer’s answer for the confused residents since it seemed out of line, but maybe I should have spoken up after all? 
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A similar thing happened in the last new Bern station area meeting and I also didn’t speak up, so don’t feel too bad. Next time I probably will though, it’s confusing how no one seemed to understand the goal is to prevent displacement.
How long have they been getting community feedback on the Western BRT? The one constant in community feedback seems to be that people always feel like they didn’t have an opportunity to learn about it right at the end of a lot of feedback. I personally didn’t expect the Western BRT to have the most push back like this.
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Oh hey, that’s where I lived during university! During Ramadan in the evening, Atwater street was essentially impossible to drive on, because it was completely filled with cars. Sure would be nice to be able to get to the mosque on a bus…
As important as the discussion on gentrification is, at what point does it just become a NIMBY talking point to detract from things that would benefit the city as a whole? One of the interviewees talks about how the BRT would only affect their one neighborhood, without realizing how many people it can actually connect and lives can be made so much easier by using this system.
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Something feels NIMBY to me.
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It’s a delicate line. I mean, we’re pretty plugged in but others, it’s just not on their radar. Therefore, I think it’s typical to think that you weren’t included.
I do think that being a citizen, there’s SOME level, a really low level but it’s not nothing, of expectation to be “paying attention”. I mean, as the city plans stuff, we need to meet them in the middle here.
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I think you have to draw the line between those saying
“You need to take our community into account when planning this, we’re concerned about displacement”
(Which seems like a genuine concern: Method is a longstanding minority community in a part of the city that has long been in the crosshairs as a target for densification.)
And
“You are trying to sneak this BRT by us and then ram it down our throats to erase our community! We don’t want it, you racists!”
(Which strikes me as hyperbolic political posturing, trying to score points for an upcoming election)
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It’s like - if there’s somewhere in town where a NCOD might be actually warranted, it’s this sort of place - not (for example) the leafy, wealthy, overwhelmingly white area next to North Hills.
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I am not certain what the percentage of owner occupied housing is vs. rentals in Method, but I suspect that gentrification could eventually come to the area regardless of the BRT project. In the meantime, can the proposed route just skip the neighborhood until concerns are allayed or addressed? It’s not like a stop can’t be added in the future.
As for immediate gentrification, Method doesn’t seem to have the sort of walkable bones that would put it near the top of any near term list of gentrifying targets.
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Although it doesn’t necessarily look it, this is one of the densest neighborhoods Raleigh with tons of duplexes and small apartment buildings. I’ve seen a lot of talk about BRT being a “vanity” project, and if that’s a concern the last thing we want to be doing is skipping building a stop here due to a few sound bites given by “community activists” to a bored local reporter.
Not to mention that one of the biggest TOD opportunities on the line is the adjacent Food Lion site.
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BRT Extensions - Major Investment Study
CAMPO is conducting a Major Investment Study of Rapid Bus extensions of the Wake BRT Southern Route (from Garner to Clayton) and the Wake BRT Western Route (from Cary to RTP). This Rapid Bus service would have many of the features of BRT but not all, or not for the full route. Since “BRT” has a Federal definition CAMPO is calling it Rapid Bus, not BRT. These Rapid Bus extensions are viewed by the planners as complementary to the Commuter Rail Line which will run close to these alternatives. The thinking is that Commuter Rail will take riders faster and farther. Riders will choose Rapid Bus for frequent and fast service to more localized job centers, education and other community destinations. You will find the proposed Commuter Rail stations on the maps for these Rapid Bus alternatives.
They are running these as two separate studies and the comment period on the proposed Alternatives opens April 5 and closes April 30.
Here is the project website: https://wakebrtextensionsstudy.com
Please take a look at this project website and the Virtual Open House there. I am interested in the opinion of those on this forum so please reply with your thoughts and ideas. Also, please take the survey for each project and pass this information along to your networks.
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It’s awesome that CAMPO added an option for the western route that goes through Davis Dr. rather than NC54! That route would give better access to lots of Asian communities and gathering places (especially H-Mart), so in my totally-not-biased view, I’m glad that’s being given serious consideration. Not to mention potential opportunities for denser housing and to make Park West Village more transit-oriented, if Morrisville and Cary take it in those directions.
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It’s interesting you focused on that alternative. It seems the consulting group is very focused on destinations and not so much origins, as you did. Also, there is an interesting interplay between this Rapid Bus extension and the Commuter Rail Line. There was some concern that the Davis Drive alternative would not connect with the Morrisville Commuter Rail Station (even thought the two are less than 1.5 miles apart). Any thoughts about that?
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The beauty about BRT is that, unlike a subway system, a stop can be added at a later date. Call the bluff and keep moving forward.
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Davis Drive does need a bus line. It had a crappy peak-only, hourly (IIRC) route from about 2002-2007. It was cancelled due to the impending disruption from the widening of Davis, and never revisited because the ridership was crap.
The area has definitely grown up a lot since then. But even given that, I’m not sure this is the right place for BRT.
My unconstrained opinion is that the train should run and stop frequently enough (every 15 minutes; every 1.5-2 miles) so that BRT on NC54 itself is unnecessary. This would mean this should go on Davis, so the needed Davis Drive bus route can be as good as possible- but a scope change to the Commuter Rail project like that is really unlikely at this point (it would basically require electrification) so I’m left wondering what the right course is.
If we’re really going to run the commuter rail on the 8-2-8-2 schedule, with lumbering locomotive-hauled coaches, and without level boarding, then this BRT will basically function as the train’s (sadly, more dependable) little brother, and should probably stick to the straight shot up NC54. A regular GoCary route would then be in order for Davis, and in that case they could run it all the way down to High House (where H-Mart is) instead of cutting over to NC54 on Morrisville Parkway.
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Also FWIW, H-Mart already has a GoCary bus (the 4-High House) every 30 minutes all day.
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From what I can tell, the assumptions about Commuter Rail stops are more like 5 miles apart (i.e. Cary Depot to McCrimmon Pkwy & NC 54 in Morrisville). So if I understand your logic, because the Commuter Rail stops are too far apart, the Rapid Bus service essentially on the same route on 54 is the best solution (to make up for the deficiency of the Rail design). Did I get that right? And if so, local bus service along Davis Drive can be adequate, although not as good as a Rapid Bus, solution.
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That’s the gist of it. Frequency is the other part. If the rail will run very infrequently, then this BRT (which, presumably, will run more frequently) should take the most direct route, and also one that serves the same stops, to provide a reasonable “backup option” with a respectable end-to-end trip time for when the train isn’t running a convenient schedule.
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