I have lived at Bloomsbury for 10 years and the fees are not what you would pay for a mortgage.
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This should be interesting to watch. Council meeting on Tuesday, 5/11.
http://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=C2NK7D4F2450
City Council has requested to hear from downtown business operators and residents on the subject of “Reopening Downtown”. As public health metrics and statistics associated with COVID-19 pandemic continue to show improvement, Council would like to hear from downtown stakeholders about ways to reinvigorate the downtown.
During the meeting, staff with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance will briefly review existing efforts and programs designed to assist businesses throughout the course of the public health pandemic; following this overview Council will hear from stakeholders and members of the public that have registered to participate in this listening session and are willing to share concepts and ideas.
The listening session will be conducted via remote electronic format for public health and safety. Advance registration is required; the speaker registration period will run from Noon, Friday, May 7 to Noon, Tuesday, May 11.
Stakeholders interested in participating should follow this link for information and to register to speak:
https://raleighnc.gov/events/city-council-work-session-1
Included with the agenda materials is an update on City-sponsored support of the downtown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“Remote electronic format”. In other words, Zoom but without seeming to endorse a brand.
Edit: More importantly, it will definitely be interesting to hear their ideas. I saw an article today that a bill is being considered to allow “social districts” where people can walk around with open containers and take them into shops and what not (but not bars). I generally like that idea, but places like Glenwood South already a seem pretty darn party-y on some nights, so… IDK. I personally would enjoy ambulating the Moore square area drink in hand, but I don’t want to have to watch people puking on every corner either.
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I’d like to see some proof of vaccination opportunities downtown for those of us who aren’t idiots, to maybe help incentivize the other half that is refusing. The best thing to help revitalize downtown is to be able to reopen normally (but safely), and the same people who have been calling for reopening (unsafely) for the last year are the ones who won’t take the simple step to get us there. As someone who has tried for a year to support our local small businesses during these difficult times, it’s incredibly frustrating.
Sorry if this was too snarky or confrontational. Not trying to hijack this thread. If anyone is passionately anti-vaccine and feels this needs more discussion, please just message me privately.
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Well said, please get vaccinated the probability of you dying or getting blood clots from it is less than 1% (15 people out of 6+ million people had blood clots). The chances of dying or having lifelong problems from covid are a lot higher.
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Maybe if Cornerstone could run a, “Get a shot, Take a shot” campaign, your worries would be solved in a week.
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FYFI - And I think that’s only the rate for J&J. If you count Pfizer and Moderna, it’s way less than that even.
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That’s not a bad idea. Partner with bars and nightclubs to get these bar hopping Zoomers vaccinated. Send nurses out to ‘da clubs’ and do shot for shots.
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But seriously. Do we think it’s a covid concern, hesitancy to coming to downtown? Or have folks found other hobbies or ways to spend their time? Or both?
Honestly, I haven’t been out much on the weekends but the few times I was downtown in the afternoon and weekend nights, I’m not seeing any issues with vibrancy here. I feel like it’s naturally coming back. Any other perspectives?
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Obviously I’ve only seen downtown during covid times so far, but every time I go downtown on the weekend it feels very vibrant and almost “normal” to an outsider.
Also a lot of these colleges requiring the vaccine will help things a lot. College students are pretty much driving the spread right now.
Also, trying to say this as politically correct as possible…many of the people who are refusing to get vaccinated aren’t the type of people who would generally come downtown anyway.
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Square burger was offering free burgers for a shot.
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It’s got to be a bit of both right? I mean we all changed our habits and routines for over a year, so it will take time for them to change back, and I doubt they go back to completely the same.
It’s also just weird being out and about again. I’ve had to be around people this whole time because of work, but some people never really left their house and even if they are vaccinated it just feels weird. It’s almost like we have to ease everyone back into society 
But yes I agree that it seems to be naturally coming back as well.
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True. That’s why I’m interested to hear this discussion planned for next week. What are the business owners thinking? I mean, I had my first draft beer in a long time just a few weeks ago. It was wonderful! However, I still know people who are fully vaccinated but just still not comfortable, for a variety of reasons. I say just let people take their time.
In the mean time, businesses could maybe get some relief in some ways. Continue running the curbside pickup until the end of the year. Continue doing outdoor events, close streets at night. Hopefully the city doesn’t have picnic tables sitting in storage. Drop them all around downtown so people can get to-go food and find a place to sit. I’m sure those owners can think of more and we should help them by being flexible.
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At this point short of the sub 18 crowd (forgive me if that actual age is not correct but getting my point across) everyone has had a chance to at least get their first shot. I’m less worried about those refusing to get a shot and more worried about businesses getting back…to business. If giving a burger 
or shot 
is what it takes, great. My health and life is worth it for me. I spoke last night on a panel to the DRA about the temp sidewalk/parking space dining considerations and what the city should do “post COVID”. I think businesses need all the help they can get and I love the shift from car-centric to support local businesses. There are PLENTY of parking spots downtown. Support businesses expanding their services. If you aren’t going to get a vaccine, why should that stop the economy from getting back on it’s feet? Let’s right the ship already!
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A really big issue is not just the recreational, after-work resiliency, it’s the absence of office workers that drive a lot of the lunchtime and after-work crowds. And those are slowly coming back but I know where I work would have us back a lot sooner if there wasn’t such a wall we’ve hit with the unvaccinated. This also goes for any indoor concerts and events. I’ve eaten inside Transfer and a couple other places but I (personally) don’t feel comfortable yet spending too much time indoors, especially with (my) teenagers that haven’t been Vaxxed yet. I agree with some of the temporary fixes - outdoor events, etc. But unfortnaltey there are still a lot of the non-vaxx types that come downtown so we’ll still be walking that line for a while with indoor events.
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I’m with you but what worries me with the approach of just being okay with the non-vaxed people is the longer this spreads, the higher chance of a variant developing that alludes the vaccine becomes higher and higher. Then we’re back at square one.
I think the in-street dining, curbside pick-up zones and whatever else street programs we have should always be a thing.
Nothing wrong with sacrificing a few on-street parking spots and walking a block from an actual parking deck.
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It would be interesting to see if businesses bring up things they started doing during COVID and want to be able to continue to do. For me, I really like eating outside COVID or not. I would love to see the expanded outdoor dining continue on but I would imagine there would need to be some more permanent changes to support that.
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Agree 100%
In addition to purely outdoor space, I wonder if we’ll see more spaces that are convertible between indoor and semi-outdoor/open space a la Whiskey Kitchen, Mofu, Vita Vite, etc. It seems like the places that do have it are usually pretty popular. It makes me wonder why we haven’t seen this very much in newly built ground-floor retail spaces in mixed-use developments. It seems like it’s mostly only happening in renovated spaces.
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I will say - one of the corner retail/restaurant spots in the new Two Glenwood (Bloc 83) building has 2-3 large glass garage doors that are clearly meant to be opened!!!
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