Nope, hadn’t heard about it until now!
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I think that you’ll start to see more of this in Raleigh’s future. It’s an exciting time to be part of Raleigh’s growth. You were smart to buy RE while you had the chance to do it.
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Hey man, I feel ya. Getting my MBA in two months as well!
Couldn’t agree more with this. My hope for the BRT is it spurs new mixed-use development (on an appropriate scale) along the routes. The area between MLK and 40 (and the area between 40 and Tryon) have A LOT of prime spots to redevelop.
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Are you in the part time program at State too?
So, full disclosure, I actually don’t live in NC at the moment. I’ve been on this forum for years and am kind of addicted, but my wife and I moved to MA in 2017.
But no, I go to Boston University.
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Glad to hear others “abroad” are keeping in touch. We need that outside perspective.
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Jeff, originally from Scranton, PA. Came to Raleigh temporarily from Los Angeles about 6 years ago and ended up staying. I work as a Civil/Structural Engineer downtown after graduating from Lehigh (We beat Duke 
) and USC.
What I think DTR is missing is condos instead of apartments, but this appears to be slowly changing. What I love about DTR is it’s a perfect human scaled downtown, clean, and inviting to be a pedestrian. I’m not so obsessed with height as most on here, as I’m afraid it will change DTR human scale and comfort for pedestrians, but I strongly believe in more density and expanding the limits of DTR.
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Charlie - 32, Moved to Raleigh in 1995 and grew up here. As a young adult, I lived in Northern VA, Santa Cruz/Bay Area, Melbourne, Australia, and NYC, and spent the better part of a year in Denver and Austin. I went to undergrad at UNC and spent many years in Carrboro. I never thought I would find myself back in Raleigh, but I’ve realized that this is home, and I plan to stay.
It’s been incredible watching downtown transform over the past 20 years. I remember Fayetteville Street Mall and how DTR felt barren. One thing I want to see more of as we develop larger buildings is consideration of the scale of people on the street. Big buildings should be inviting for people walking by, and not have the same facade on the street that they do in the sky.
I’m passionate about transit oriented development. After living in cities like New York and Melbourne, I’ve experienced the best in transit and want to see Raleigh lay the groundwork so that we can scale our city healthily. BRT will be a good start, and denser development along those corridors is essential. Hopefully, we can maintain the political will needed to continue to drive public transportation as a priority. It will be foundational for our success as a city long term.
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(I can’t seem to figure out how to post without replying!)
Hello all,
I’ve never formally introduced myself and felt it was about time. I’m Patrick. I grew up in North Raleigh, went to Appalachian State University, and moved away to Los Angeles for 8ish years. Loved and hated LA. When I decided to leave California it was 2011, and decided the changes in downtown Raleigh were just too exciting! I live outside downtown near Wade/Dixie Trl close to the #4 Rex bus line. I used to be involved in CityCampNC, Rgreenway, and other community projects but not lately. I’m part of the Wade CAC and try to go regularly. I also keep up with City Council. I find this blog and the bloggers amazing! The conversation is great! I really appreciate the thought-provoking discussion. It’s hard to keep up!
You can find me on twitter @pgravinese. Factoid: The background image on my twitter account is the 101 freeway at Ventura Blvd. in Los Angeles when there used to be a trolley car system. The bridge is Barham Blvd. looking out over the San Fernando Valley when it was nothing but farmland. The road to the left is Ventura Blvd. Check out the intersection today in google maps to see the old on/off ramps no longer used.
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Just click the blue REPLY at bottom of screen, guess it should say POST, which it looks like you did.
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I am 69 and from Raleigh area, attended NCSU in Architecture and Engineering for a couple of years before dropping out and going into Computers (guess was a little ahead of time for that trend). I have lived in a number of other places, if count being somewhere for more than 6 months, Lumberton, NC, Wilmington, NC, Washington DC area, Toronto, Greenville SC, Suzhou, and now in Boone area; but keep coming back to NC. Moved to Boone area around 35 years ago, as I have always liked the mountains. Live in house on top of a mountain that I built (as in I did a large mount of the work) 30 years ago. May sale out and move back to Raleigh area in a few years but not sure. May just go live in different cities around word for a few months at a time for a few years. I still tell people I’m from Raleigh.
Have been in computers since 1973 (I know dino) and spent most of time doing consulting in various forms, systems support and custom programming mainly along the east coast from Florida to Toronto. Even sold hardware as part of some projects for a few years. Still working cause it keeps me mentally active but planing on officially retiring next July 4th 2020.
Maybe I will add more later.
Picture I just added to replace the big “S”, is of a Buddhist temple I took in Tibet near the China/India border in 2007. I think is neat as on top of a mountain in center of a valley. It also has holes in the walls from where the British (for some reason guess have to be British to understand) tried to invade China from India through the Himalaya’s in 1903. Seems someone forgot to tell Brits that the Buddhist in Tibet maintained standing army’s - lol. While they managed to get by the Buddhist, they ran into a Chinese army just out side of Lhasa.
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We must be neighbors. I also live near Wade/Dixie and take route 4 to work.
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My turn. I’m 55 years old and grew up in North Raleigh. Went to Appalachian State as well @Patrick. Except for a stint in Orlando for three years after college building rocket parts (well at least counting how many pennies it cost to build them), I have lived in Raleigh my whole adult life (and most of my youth). In 2003 I [thankfully] moved from North Raleigh to the outskirts of downtown (Five Points and Pilot Mill) and in 2016 I moved into a condo at The West.
So, I have seen them close Fayetteville Street in the 70’s to make a Pedestrian Mall to then open it back up as our Main Street. I was at Crabtree Valley Mall on opening day (held against my will by my mother and sister 
). I have seen a lot of very positive changes in Raleigh and enjoy this forum. Lots of very good input and opinions.
I love growth and I am disturbed by our current City Council’s cold molasses approach to not only approving growth, but their failure to promote it. Hopefully this forum will continue to encourage sharing our feedback with our city leadership.
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Hi! I’m 37 so on the borderline between Gen X/Millenial. Programmer by trade. Grew up in Asheville, went to NC State and have lived my entire adult life (save for one year, more on that later) in the Triangle, including stints in Raleigh, Morrisville, Chapel Hill, and now Cary. I’m a family guy with a wife and three kids and I am really concerned to make sure that my kids inherit a Raleigh that is prosperous, exciting, equitable, accessible, and environmentally responsible.
I started engaging in urbanist social media on urbanplanet.org in 2005, when I was 23. Wow it’s been a long time. I spent my 4th year of college on a study abroad program in Japan, from September 2003 to August 2004 and that just blew my mind wide open. I was in Hiroshima, which is not really even renowned among Japanese cities for being especially transit oriented, and is much more car friendly than Tokyo or Osaka for example - but being able to get so many places so easily by foot, bike, bus, streetcar, or train, was such an awesome experience that I thought it would be nice to do something to try to bring a bit of that lifestyle here. Regrettably though, I don’t have as much time to participate in public engagement here as I would like anymore. So social media it is, for now.
I am a big supporter of transit and love cycling and use both as a part of an unconventional commute to my job near the airport.
I am oevans82 on Twitter.
BTW the chicken avatar is because I unironically love chickens. They are such interesting creatures and so much fun to watch!
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Since we are experiencing a flurry here, I’ll pile on! I turn 54 next week, I grew up a block from the Rose Garden/Little Theater in Fairmount. Attended Olds/Martin/Broughton before I went to and graduated from App State. (that is at least 3 of us on here! lol) After undegrad I bounced around a fair bit, out to the west coast and back to Raleigh before going to grad school at Mississippi. Since then I’ve lived in Lubbock Tx, Tuscon Az and now Jacksonville AL. Jacksonville is just about to surpass Raleigh as the longest place I’ve ever lived. I still consider Raleigh my hometown - even though I was born in Lincoln NE!! Growing up I was fascinated by Raleigh’s history (I worked on restoring the Pullen Carousal in middle school) the downtown lay out and its potential - which in the late 70s & 80s could be hard to see. I enjoy black capped chickadees and spicy tamales. (full points to anyone who recognizes that line.)
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We used to have a few hens in our backyard! We kept them for the eggs, as well as the pest control (they will eat anything). Unfortunately, the last one died a year ago, and we decided not to adopt any more.
They’re interesting creatures. 
When I was around 12, for a 4-H project raised around 25 chicken. After they were grown I started noticing about once a week there would be one missing. Did not take long to put together the fact that when I noticed one missing we would have fried chicken for dinner.
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I’m 32. I was born in Raleigh and went to NCSU but live in Chapel Hill currently. Like some other people here I started getting interested in urban issues in 2005 on Urban Planet.
DTR and the urban spokes leading to it should have 10x the residential population, mostly middle class, with a strong transit system and all the types of retail and services you’d expect for a self-sufficient environment.
There are pet issues for me. Raleigh has an excellent greenway system but I’d like to see a branch of it fully bisect downtown without touching any street at grade, linking with the Crabtree Creek section and Rocky Branch section. A large section of this would be a park along Capital Boulevard, some would follow a daylighted section of creek into Glenwood South, and some would have to share the rail corridor, most likely. I’ve also mentioned my desire to cultivate and restore funky and unique places, like the Village Subway, as well as some kind of alternative art exhibit like Meow Wolf. A final Christmas wish which will never happen, I suppose, is a tram connecting NCSU’s central campus and Centennial campus. No… not EcoPRT… that strikes me as a waste of time. For the geography and the task a tram is a perfect cost-effective solution, from where I’m sitting.
What do I enjoy most? Hmm… it’s irrational really. I just have a strong emotional attachment to the city and want to see it improve. There are plenty restaurants and bars that I like, and the science museum is a great asset.
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If I remember correctly from my new student orientation at NCSU (circa 1998) I swear they mentioned plans for a monorail connecting the two campi (is that correct?). At the time, there were only 3 buildings on Centennial.
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If you look at the NC State master plan, which was updated in 2014, it shows a tram connecting the two campuses.
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