I think a gondola would be great with the family fun party and hopefully an amusement park someday, with Dreamville. I’ll give up a nicer version of Central Park.
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Their generic image shows the gondola car as enclosed, which prevents people from throwing things from it. So now I support this idea.
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I don’t think the city would have the money for such a project it will be need to funded privately and a money loser–so basically it needs a large private donation. However if done right it can be popular, especially with events like Dreamville.
The Dix Park Conservancy is car-focussed so not much you will get out of them other than a desire to have a lot of asphalt.
Interesting article I found about how much these systems cost:
The problem will be finding a place in downtown where this system can start. Maybe it’s time to look at the future of MLK blvd? Maybe the area behind the performance art center should not be “Behind” anymore. Maybe that area should be a new focal point in downtown–especially with the university property rezoning. Or maybe the gondola should be somehow connected to the BRT system at that point?
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I rode the Disney Skyliner last March. It was incredible. If we get one, I hope it’s as nice as this one was.
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The trouble is that the NIMBYs will argue that you can’t possibly put density and tall buildings next to a park! They’ll want a long suburban transition perimeter around each park.
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And this transition area is a parking lot 
Wonder if you could convert the roof of an existing parking deck?
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The problem with a cable car is it takes you from one singular point to another singular point, where most people enter and leave urban areas through multiple points. And cable cars are typically used in places that have significant geographic barrier to overcome (bodies of water or mountains), or amusement parks or resorts. We have a connectivity problem to Dix Park due to Western Blvd and S Saunders. Doing the hard work to slow traffic, increase pedestrian connectivity, and add bike, transit routes, and density between Downtown and Dix isn’t flashy, but it’s by far more effective. But if we’re going to go for it, why not go all the way with a monorail?
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Gotta have the multi-modal accessibility to DTR…
AND, the gondola could be a nice amusement / draw to get folks up above one of our nicest amenities - that gorgeous canopy everyone talks about…!
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Cities don’t really seem to build things that are intentionally iconic anymore. Your best bet is some skyscraper that someone goes out of the box on. While I think the gondala would be somewhat useful to me the primary purpose is to be something unique and iconic.
As a side note it’s wild how many “iconic” things like this were built for the world’s fair.
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Unless you host a world’s fair or an olympics, then you get some sort of iconic, white elephant that you hope is a tourist draw. Think more Space Needle and less Sun Sphere.
I’m from Knoxville so don’t appreciate the Sun Sphere catching a stray 
Concert halls, museums, and libraries seem to be where we still occasionally get dramatic placemaking architecture - Seattle Central Library, Schermerhorn Hall in Nashville, Harold Washington Library in Chicago, Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth.
In the absence of much momentum for a dramatic central library in Raleigh, I’d hope we can do something really interesting in Dix Park beyond the existing (quite nice) plan.
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Sorry my Knoxvillian friend. I am thinking the trouble they’ve had finding something to do with that beautiful globe of shinny yellow material. I am sure the sun sphere is lovely once you get to know it.
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Even the Olympics aren’t inspiring great architecture in the USA anymore.
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Can’t find a news link, but RALtoday mentioned in their newsletter today that Dix will be getting two 73 foot sunflower sculptures (converted power poles) from private donation. Thomas Sayre will be doing them.
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The Duke Energy ‘SunPower’ entry into the Gipson Plaza + Play…
Not a grand leap to see how this ‘art-itechture’ could morph into future gondola infrastructure 
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Once got stuck on the Skyway gondola at Magic Kingdom. We were over cement, but the 20000 leagues lagoon was just over yonder. 6-year old me brainstormed before telling my parents we were going to swing the car into the water if a cable snapped. I then spent 30 minutes tensed on one side so I could get a running start for momentum. Fun times.
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