Omg can we build it now!!! I’ve been living off lake wheeler for 5 years waiting for any street improvement!!
3 Likes
“Lake Willer”. I love how he keeps saying it that way in the video.
1 Like
I noticed that too, lol.
These are not my pictures, but here are a couple early installations for WRAL night of lights in DIX park.
13 Likes
Incredible shot from Dix of DTR
21 Likes
This really oughta be the new “Money Shot” - I really don’t get the love for the shot from S. Saunders, it’s mostly road/overpass with a slight view of some of downtown’s buildings. This view is so much more flattering.
12 Likes
Next Tuesday the City will consider a proposal to rename the Plaza and Play part of Dix Park to the “Gipson Play Plaza,” following a $10,000,000 gift toward the project from Pat and Tom Gipson:
https://raleighnc.gov/news/2021-11-26-city-consider-naming-opportunity-play-plaza-dorothea-dix-park
24 Likes
That’s awesome that the Gipsons have donated $10 million!!
People are often asking why our wealthy citizens don’t contribute more, this is a fantastic gift to the entire city/region.
22 Likes
Since I am sure I am not the only one wondering – Gipson was a very successful luxury home builder. But more importantly was a major force in making Habitat for Humanity more aggressive. He’s the one that came up with the Builder Blitz idea.
I saw all of this in a 2007 TBJ article. I just skimmed it, so don’t quote me on any of this.
Thanks to the TBJ.
11 Likes
The name in appreciation of the Gipsons donation was approved!
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article256402696.html
6 Likes
There is a construction entrance, tree protection fencing, and silt fencing around the healing transitions property at Dix Park off Lake Wheeler. Anyone know what this current activity is for? The construction drive location makes it seem like they are starting the plaza and play construction.
10 Likes
Healing transitions is expanding.
2 Likes
4 Likes
Spent a good time there the last 2 weekends, I didn’t see the part that was already under construction lol
1 Like
Dog park I guess, they finished the chapel not too long ago.
2 Likes
What’s it been 6+ years and all they have done is build a church–like we don’t have enough of those here already. I thought we were building a park?
6 Likes
2 outta the top 50 cities for green space ain’t too shabby…#21 RAL and #27 our frenemies in CLT 
#LongLiveListicles
6 Likes
It certainly hasn’t been 6 years since the master plan was adopted. To be fair the all-faiths chapel is a well-built building with nice architecture, and it didn’t take a whole lot of planning to renovate it, so that was low hanging fruit to make use of one of the better structures on the property. I am looking forward to them breaking ground on the plaza and play area. It would be fantastic if they started with the pedestrian facilities and created a temporary intersection with the construction entrance so that citizens could enjoy the increased connectivity along Lake Wheeler for several years before they finish that first phase
15 Likes
And before anyone asks about the bigger picture, it’s obviously going to take more than three years to fully implement the master plan (approved Feb. 2019).
For comparison, Central Park started construction in 1857 and didn’t officially finish until 19 years later. But even then, that project had it easier than we do, and I think it’s fairer to say Central Park had to undergo roughly eight decades of development to become what it is today.
Click here to see what I mean.
The original park had far fewer amenities than we do today, and didn’t bother to avoid taking the lands of 1,600 people. Public works projects back then could also get away without:
- minimum wages and other worker protections (which were the norm until the Progressive Era in the early 1900s)
- cost-benefit analyses (not in economic literature until at least the Depression), and;
- public reviews (which is a reaction to the Robert Moses era of thee 1960s).
Also, it seems like there were also two distinct 30-year-ish periods when it was renovated and upgraded. The first started with the City Beautiful movement that lined up with FDR’s New Deal, and the other began when the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit fundraiser that still runs the park today, was founded in 1980.
Add those 60 years of (re)development, plus the additional costs of risk management.
The first of four phases for Dix Park’s master plan is expected to take about a decade to realize. With that in mind, I think we’re doing pretty well.
12 Likes
I wonder what’s up with Dreamville Fest this year? They’re slated to have the festival the first weekend of April. But tickets and the lineup have yet to be released. Usually festival lineups and ticket sales are released/opened 6-10 months in advance of the festival.
They haven’t tweeted anything out since October.
1 Like