I have a tractor with a front end loader and box blade. I bet we could cover the cost of mulch or gravel if we all pitched in. Could be installed in a day.
That said, I’m not willing to go to jail over this.
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They make temporary sidewalks and I saw them up around the Quorom Center this summer. Just big slabs of rubber I’m sure the city could install those with a minimal cost/effort and be able to reuse them in the future.
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I can round up a bunch of OSHA grade reflector vests and we can all head up there and start cutting down fence. Everyone bring your wire cutters and hack saws and it’ll down in an hour. Shovels to dig out the concrete might take longer but it’ll get done too.
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Downtown Raleigh community, I come one last time asking assistance on behalf of Dix park.
Just as we all like to dive into the plans of developments around downtown Raleigh, we need to dive into the Dix master plan and provide comment on it for the planners and landscape architect consultants. There is a swath of negativity on the public forum that is all being recorded and will be used to scale back the master plan. This appears to be a classic case of nimbyism, as many people are emotionally abhorring all “private development” in the park.
Personally, I would like to see new development along Lake Wheeler corridor (at least the option in future), restaurants, museum(s), coworking space (lease by the desk), a cool hotel or museum or combination of services in old hospital space, red hat amphitheater relocated into the park, art galleries, maker spaces, and other unique spaces that the free market doesn’t always create without a lil help from big brother.
I’m not crazy about the event hub, parking spoke area, but otherwise I’m pretty down with the plan as it stands. Will you take a moment to express your support for the development opportunities within the master plan? If nothing else, to help fund the landscaped aspects of the park without massive public tax or bonds.
There are two more days for public comment via the forum before the Feb. 6th public meeting.
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Thanks for the reminder.
I can’t remember if I have done it already or just thought about it so much that I thought that I had.
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Evan - thanks for the nudge. I’d been putting this off but just responded to one of your comments.
People are reacting to the idea of public-private partnerships as if the park is going to have a swath of used car dealerships, a super Walmart, and a Chuck E. Cheese’s. I don’t think they get that we’re talking about a park of 300+ acres and the need to fund its operations indefinitely - as in long after we’re all dead.
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Thank you Brian!
Negative commenters are also instilling this idea that any development in the park will inherently “line the pockets of the wealthy” and only provide services for the socio-economic elite. Yes, developers in Dix will have to make money in order for it to be an attractive business venture, but the city will set the ground lease rates, micro “zoning”, and approve proposed land use plans and building rehabs via the lens of the parks core values, which is something like working from what’s there and equal opportunity and enjoyment for all. Many, many people not understanding the opportunity we have with Dix…
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A park with no business activation creates exactly zero tax revenue. Now, I’m not saying to turn the entire thing into a mixed use development, I am just trying to be a bit provocative.
If the park could generate enough revenue to offset a good chunk of the ongoing operating costs of the park, that would seem to me to be a win-win.
A park with no activation, because there isn’t any revenue, is not a park; it’s just nature. The trouble we have today is that low taxes are the presumed end in itself, to which everything else must conform. If we are unwilling as a society to pay for what we get, we either have to do without or find more creative funding opportunities.
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I have been hearing of Dix for several years now and yet… Nothing. With all the planning and talking and more planning, this " Park " that everyone is calling it should of been developed a long time ago and generating some kind of revenue. Yes…lets focus a bit on Dix for a minute, Since 2005 I have been hearing about Dorothea Dix becoming a Park, and yet nothing, not even Construction to transform the 305 acre " Park " as folks keep calling it. I have clicked on the video to see what Dix will become and it is awesome, and yet it will takes years to complete. if there is no activity there is no park…if there is no commitment…there is no park…if there is progress…there is no park. Not to rush, a plan of this scale is massive to say the least, but I have to fully agree with John has posted…If we as a Community and as a society are not willing then we are not willing to have Dix Park. If there is No effort then why bother. it’s just me i guess, scratching my head going…WTF !!!
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Completely agree. Every time I see something about light rail, BRT, commuter rail, etc. or Dix Park, I just feel like it’s a bunch of talk, planning, feedback, more talk, some funding secured, and more talk. Occasionally some setback, and then more talk. I’m going to be in a retirement home (hopefully Sir Walter) before any of this happens. The biggest component missing to all of this is money, and without it, it’s just chatter. I don’t care if they build a Walmart in the middle of the park if it would get it going.
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not a Walmart, a Winn-DIXie…
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Lol that would be fine
Let this article serve a lesson about how a few dissenting voices can tank a plan by the city, even if said plan was approved and been in works for years.
Dix needs vocal proponents.
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Stef Mendell is terrible is what I am gathering.
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I demand a Piggly Wiggly!
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Hey everybody … Tomorrow, Friday Jan 18th is the last day for public comment. I would personally appreciate it if you took a few minutes this week to review the plan, and offer a comment of support if you see fit: Dorothea Dix Park Master Plan - Draft Master Plan.
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All joking aside, the Dix end of town could really use a grocery store. I’m really hoping there’s a small market or something coming in the S. Saunders development. If not I am all for an old A & P going in the middle of Dix.
You know there used to be one on Cutler St.
You’re right though - what’s the closest one? HT in Cameron Village?
I split my time with Miami Beach, and this very thing happens there too. In the case of MB, the city went through years of public input and design sessions with residents about a pedestrian bridge across a small canal that would link an expanding bay walk to its adjacent neighborhood. After years of work on the project, dozens of community meetings, and even a final participants’ vote on the design options, a few people tried to kill it (of course after not participating at all up to that point). The footings for the bridge on either side of the canal have been in place for two years now; they were poured as part of the sea wall reconstruction project. That’s how confident everyone was that the bridge was going to happen. But, it still took a fight.
Luckily, those of us who had worked hard to get this project to that point didn’t relent or walk away. We were diligent and kept up to date on what was going on. Yesterday, the city commission finally voted to fund the project, and we should have the footbridge within 90 days of the city signing the contract for its offsite construction.
Moral of the story is that you have to stay constantly engaged because it’s often the person/group with the last say that has the voice that is heard. Just because you make it past a first hurdle means nothing if you don’t stay on top of it.
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Cameron Village or the Food Lion on Western and there’s a Food Lion on Avent Ferry/Gorman but both of those seem stocked mainly for college kids.