I remember when this block was being touted as the next high-rise district. Sort of a suburban downtown. Then Service Merchandise, Target etc showed up and here we are. Still could be decent since the roads are laid out well around it and #1 bus has frequent service adjacent to it.
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Is this where the Mini City moniker comes from?
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I think this block’s original intent was part of an earlier push to make this area urban-ish. I think even the Food Lion and Winn-Dixie blocks were supposed to be proper urban and didn’t happen, then it ended as sort of a lets try again thing with perhaps a decade in between the two sets of developments. The east side of Capital (Food Lion/Winn Dixie) were already developed when I moved here in 1987 but the Lowes side was later, like 90-91 or so (not 100% sure on the date).
I think I mentioned before I was playing soccer on those acreage in the 70s. There was nothing out there then. The roads were paved and curbed, but desolate. It was a haul back into town just to get a snack after games.
From that areal shot @ADUsSomeday posted, I can really envision a truly urban node. That traffic circle is screaming for a monument or a great fountain!! 
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I played a single game there before WRAL took over. Everything was so shiny new then. The ring of suburban decay between 440 and 540 is something I never could have imagined back then. I hope that decent road network gets used for some better stuff soon.
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here is a repost of a post I did about a month ago on the name “mini city”
FYI – The official Mini City Project was the area around what is now intersection of US 1 and Millbrook/New Hope. There was a HUGE mall planned in SW counter of intersection where the big box stores are now. As I recall was going to be X shaped with an amphitheater in center area of X and twice the size of Crabtree. There were plans for office buildings and lot’s of apartments. Not sure if detail plans where made public, I saw them while working a summer job between HS and University for survey company while we there surveying the area laying out streets and such in 1970. About only thing that got build, of original plan, was some of the apartments along New Hope RD east of US 1.
The area around where TTC is was thought of as being way out in country side and do not think what is now 540 was even in anyone’s dream. Heck the southern part of inter beltway was just a line of planning maps.
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540 was, long, long in the planning and my father often dreamed of its reality as he was commuting from North Ridge to RTP the old fashioned way, snaking long Strickland Rd and whatnot to get to US 70 and then up 70 to once again snake his way to IBM. Of course, the useful stretch of 540 for him reached Falls of Neuse just in time for his retirement.
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https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/07/startup-cities-public-transportation-new-business-development/594286/
Here’s an article about startups seeking cities with good transit.
I’m posting this in reference to my earlier post where I state that Raleigh needs both an excellent city center and excellent suburbs. I can argue that it’s done a much better job assuring excellence in its burbs than it has in its city center for decades. Even within in the city limits itself, the city is filled with some pretty excellent suburban living with a system of distributed parks, an excellent greenway system, lots of retail, some really beautiful neighborhoods, etc. The suburban areas of the city even have the state fairgrounds, a gigantic state park, the city’s largest stadium & arena, and the state’s art museum, Heck, the suburbs even how their own sanitized downtownish area in North Hills. And, despite the fears of some, nobody is coming for your cars or 1/4 acre lots. It’s all stable with teardowns in a growing number of neighborhoods that only validates the health and desirablity of them.
It’s more than time to focus on the city center if we want to keep staying at/near the top of the list of desirable places to live.
On a side note, while I usually agree with much of the theory that Richard Florida professes, I also think that he carefully chooses which cities to highlight his opinions. This means that he nearly always excludes Raleigh because it doesn’t fit neatly into his full narrative. This is even the case when he publishes something on a topic where I KNOW Raleigh excels. While this might not seem like a big deal to each and every one of us individually because we know what’s going on in the city of Raleigh, it does matter because he’s a very strong voice. He’s an academic who travels and speaks globally and people listen to him. He’s the sort of voice that can elevate you or, in the case of Raleigh oftentimes, ignore you.
Raleigh is on the cusp of some new great DT experiences and the energy seems to be building. I have hopes that BRT will only be the first step to proving the validity of Triangle transit that centers on Raleigh as both the capital city and the largest city in the region.
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It’s somewhat peculiar to so easily imagine redeveloping acres of commercial property while struggling with the idea of incrementally changing our residential areas to meet the needs of our growing urbanized area.
We live in cities (and towns) because of the access it provides. Density is a key part of urbanization. A strict protection of SFH is one way that this natural progression has been restricted. However, there is also low connectivity, separation of uses, and lack of mobility options that contribute to less access for everyone.
The Triangle won’t be alone if grappling with how to manage our version of growth and change. Raleigh can certainly be a leader as we push forward with increased transit options, major redevelopment projects, signature parks, growing universities, and a whole bunch of in between places.
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The vast majority of our suburban SFH built environment doesn’t lend itself to major (likely transit) corridor access by foot. Much of our SFH stock in the city is buried deep into low walkscore tracts that can’t tell a convincing story for densification within them right now. Certainly the suburban edges near the corridors have opportunities for rezoning, but there’s already significant opportunities on the corridors themselves that are development low-hanging fruit.
When the city gets serious about rail transit and establishes specific station locations, walk sheds to those stations can be established that may include a small amount of SFH locations on the edges. We can then look specifically at those locations for rezoning and those homeowners can reap the rewards of their increased property values.
Lastly, I don’t know that I understand how densifying single family homes in much of our city contributes to meeting the needs of our growing urbanized areas. Our growing urbanized areas are fueled by further densifying them with more options and experiences, and have no dependency on what happens in the suburban residential parts of the city. Of course, I could be convinced that urbanizing specific neighborhoods adjacent to Raleigh’s core will contribute to meeting the needs of our growing urbanized areas, but these neighborhoods tend to be historic and/or protected. Even then, there’s still a ton of low hanging fruit in Raleigh’s core and on its edges for that issue to not even be a top priority for the city’s sake. Individual homeowners may have a personal stake in making the property more financially productive for themselves, but is there a city urgency attached to it? I don’t think so.
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Three of the largest spines of through traffic in the 'Burbs will never be (rapid) transit friendly : Glenwood, Six Forks and Wake Forest / FoN. It’s too bad. I truly hope BRT warps the reality of Capital Boully, but I wager I won’t see that in my lifetime.
Still, any web gets built from its core and needs outerlying stablizers. #NetWebBuilding…
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Except for downtown, most of Raleigh is single family homes in a suburban setting. Oakwood, King Charles, 5 points, Boylan Heights, Hillsborough St, St Mary’s, Oberlin - the only things they are not is brand spanken new but definitely all low-density and suburban in nature.
Yes. But the point being made was that Raleigh is slowing down in population growth the past five years while a lot of other Wake County towns are growing pretty fast. I simply speculated that was probably because Raleigh is now building very little NEW suburban type neighborhoods while everybody else is building almost nothing but suburban type neighborhoods. Which means that is what people want and are moving into the suburbs like crazy.
I would argue that if we had the vision to build a proper neighborhood albeit low-density and suburban in nature like Boylan or Oberlin or any of Raleigh’s older neighborhoods - People would rather live in them. Instead, we are stuck with the vapid, intention-less, 100% car dependent response to the demand that is the hell scape of Cary North Carolina. The entire place literally makes me barf every time I have the misfortune of crossing its borders.
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Raleigh’s future growth is mostly centered around future multi-family options. IMO, the whole point of this community is to look at that growth cohesively and build a city in which people will choose to live in that housing stock because of the unique experiences that they can only have in an urban environment. When the city drags its feet on issues that will improve those experiences, they are ultimately slowing down the city’s growth.
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That’s an enormous leap in logic there.
Why do you assume people are moving to the suburbs because they want to be there, and not because of a lack of affordable options in walkable areas closer to the core? Surveys on housing preference back this up.
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This is so true. We have been in a codependent suburban culture for much more than a half century, and it’s becoming difficult to really understand which people are choosing suburbia because they prefer it, and which people are choosing it because it’s what’s offered, or what they can afford.
It’s not that simple.
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You actually made a point that strengthens my point. The lack of affordable options in Raleigh (especially downtown Raleigh) makes people want to move to the suburbs. Obviously there are a lot of reasons for wanting to move to the suburbs but price is definitely one of the big reasons.
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That doesn’t necessarily mean they want to be in the suburbs, just that they’re forced to by real estate prices. It’s telling that dense, walkable neighborhoods tend to carry a significant price premium in places like Raleigh.
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You’re being disingenuous in the way you’re framing your argument then. Saying “I can’t afford to live where I want, so I’ll move to the suburbs” is entirely different than “I’m moving to the suburbs because I want to live there.”
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