Yeah, I love that. Kind of like tactical urbanism: pilot it first and on the cheap, then get your feedback. Especially useful for minor things that are controversial when proposed but tend to be popular when implemented (like pedestrian-only streets or curbside pickup zones, both of which the City just kind of did without asking early in the pandemic). This is how the Boston area has managed to drop so many bus lanes in the past couple of years: they just started setting up cones and being like “let’s see how people react.”
Agreed though, bigger projects like new rapid transit lines deserve a lot more thought and process so we get it right in round one.
You know, that actually reminds me of a counter-argument to the “move fast, break things” approach recommended above. The city did just that with the planting of large buried trash cans on Wilmington near Raleigh Times to reduce the multitude of stinky pedestrian blocking rolling carts and was forced (not sure by who) to tear them up within a few weeks. Should this have been studied more? Who could say.
they weren’t forced, it was basically coercion by the M&F Bank that is close to the sidewalk that the trashcans were buried next to, claiming racism, basically… While I am all for racial equity, this one was… frankly, B.S.
How about we test those next to the Dillon on West St.? There are WAY too many bins of all sizes littering the sidewalk and spilling into the bike lane there.
Yeah, the mistake was to not implement them in a better location. My vote goes towards outside the DGX along Blount Street. We have a thread on the Moloks here.
Yes. Raleigh mural project on Instagram was posting stuff this week. They didn’t say what it will be, as far as I saw, but they hinted about being Canes related.
Some sort of dessert food truck event? They have Hungarian funnel cake desserts and all. This should be every weekend of this section of Fayetteville Street. City Council is so out of touch.
Problem is that one of the city council members Knight opposes this in the last meeting about the Social Districts. Thinks it will take away from the local businesses. This opinion is just straight up dumb but no one spoke out against this notion. Having food trucks on Fayetteville will generate more foot traffic to Fayetteville Street and thus more business to the local places.
Think about it, why would anyone just go to Fayetteville Street right now on the weekend? There’s almost zero reason at the moment. If you had food trucks all the time people will consider going to Fayetteville Street just to check it out and these people might prefer to go to a sit down restaurant instead of eating at a food truck.
Zero Foot Traffic === Zero Additional Business
Active Foot Traffic === Increase Visibility of Business === More business.
Here’s Knight’s comments:
I mean you can have food trucks and just not allow them to serve alcohol so that people have to go into the local business to grab drinks.
Raleigh Urban Projects Group presentation from CC yesterday. Five key points to undertake in the next five years to attain more livable streets. Glad to know Fayetteville Street is up there.
Edit: I feel silly and slightly duped by the City of Raleigh. May I redirect attention to the funding Convention Center and Hotel instead
