I just thought of another point, with the lack of traffic in mind that @dtraleigh brought up, this would be a perfect time to close the street. I’m assuming the city would barely receive backlash from people living in the surrounding area, given the new social district status. That’s just a thought though, I’m sure there would still be backlash but probably not from people living in the district. Suburbanites seem to be the NIMBYs in terms of street parking.
Fayetteville St already has super wide sidewalks. I like the cars parked there; it feels like a buffer from the people driving when I’m walking or sitting outside on the sidewalks.
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State St. in Madison, WI is an interesting comparison for Raleigh. Like Fayetteville St. it dies into their capitol building on one end. Unlike Fayetteville St., it doesn’t have any street parking and the whole corridor is narrower. I also think that they limit the types of vehicles that use the street, though I’m not sure if that is still the case. If Raleigh were to eliminate the street parking save for a few handicap spots and possibly some drop off zones for taxis/uber, I think that we’d have an opportunity for a really special experience. Imagine a series of dual fountains running down the street at an interval and the sort of really cool light and water experiences that could be created by that? Imagine more robust hardscapes and planters that could shape al fresco dining and hang out spaces that could be leased to adjacent businesses to expand their effective footprints. This would be bring life to the street without sacrificing pedestrian access by using the existing parallel parking spaces.
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Feels like you could accomplish that more aesthetically with more/better planters and greenery. Parked cars aren’t great to look at by themselves.
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Relevant video from City Beautiful:
The biggest problem with Fayetteville street is it’s the civic center of downtown. That needs to change before a pedestrian mall would succeed. I would argue there are much better candidates in the city for pedestrianization. (Car-free Glenwood South on the weekends?)
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Depends on the car… Maybe we need to only allow cool car parking!
It also makes it more convenient for people visiting to be able to park at their destination. And Fayetteville St needs more visitors currently!
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Looking at pictures from the 40’s and 50’s, Fayetteville St sidewalks were even wider than they are now. The streets were always crowded with people mainly because it was the main shopping area before shopping centers.
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The biggest problem with Glenwood (south) is that it’s not flat, and this is something that Fayetteville offers in spades.
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On second through, forget the pedestrian mall on Fayetteville, Let’s go straight for a Tram line and no cars.
Zurich, Switzerland Banhoffstrasse.
Pipe dream perhaps - But look at the populations, pretty close to Raleigh Metro… why not dream big?
The current metro area population of Zurich in 2022 is 1,420,000
The current metro area population of Raleigh in 2022 is 1,547,000
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I don’t think that it’s because it’s the civic center of downtown; I think it’s all about foot traffic. The reason why Glenwood South has been transforming from just a weekend party street to a 7 day a week neighborhood is all of the new residents. If we want Fayetteville St. to succeed, we need to increase the foot traffic, and for Raleigh that’s going to mean more residences. The Warehouse District is following in the footsteps of Glenwood South with more and more residents, and that’s going to further activate the district in years to come. We need to get more residential supply within a two block distance to Fayetteville, and we’ll have the formula for street activation.
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Oh yeah, definitely - but I think the lack of residents is because it’s the civic center, all the development was focused on a very narrow idea of what the street was, rather than what it could be. I said it needs to change from being the civic center, but I think I should have said that it needs to be more than just the civic center for a pedestrian mall to succeed.
Residents first, then street activation, then pedestrianization.
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Well, to a certain extent, the city has put a good first step forward regarding pedestrian infrastructure. It’s just that folks like me always want more of that! Yeah, I’m selfish that way.
There really is tons of opportunity to bring thousands of residents into the Fayetteville St fold along with hotel rooms for the Conv. Ctr. Both will bring foot traffic. I don’t think that it’s an unreasonable goal, and I think it could turn around within the decade.
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The problem is they picked the wrong street for the mall. I think in the long term… 20 years from now maybe… either West or Harrinton would be the best candidate. These streets are longer and span the whole downtown connecting multiple districts. Being next to each other means one of them could be taken out of service for traffic with minimal distruption.
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i have read here that dt raleigh is at a density of 6500 people per square mile…and likely growing? with a network of dt-core transit options, and gosh, with bikes, a few blocks to get to a ‘mall’ seems a piece of cake and desirable with proper tenants…open air mingling amongst the buildings without worry of cars or confined to a sidewalk with tree limbs in my face blocking my view.
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This report says that nearly 11,000 live downtown. DT proper is 1.18 square miles.
10877/1.18 = 9,218 ppl/m2
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It’s official! (Edit: just realized I stole their caption 
)
https://www.instagram.com/p/ChS3pHdJERc/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Also, is that another @OakCityDylan sighting?
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There is no missing “The Beard” ™. The R hat also tends to be a dead give away.
Day Drinking for a good cause. That is like one of the best things ever!!
Let’s hope they don’t end up like the Drunktown guy by the end of the day.
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As a reflection on recently finishing Walkable City by Jeff Speck, I think the greatest improvement that could be made on Fayetteville Street is to make it feel less wide by creating more extensions of the businesses into the sidewalk and expanding the sidewalk further into the parking. Right now it feels like crossing Fayetteville Street is more of a chore than it should feel. It needs to feel more like an outdoor living room. Although the sidewalks are large, compared to the building heights and the overall right of way, they are proportionately small, IMO
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