Fair enough! I had an astounding meal at Bida Manda earlier this year with one of the most knowledgeable and gracious servers I’ve ever encountered that has worked there for 5+ years. It’s too bad there’s a cloud over the restaurant because of Van’s terrible behavior. I hope he’s seeked personal betterment/help.
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there has been some good college/itf tennis at the site in cary and i think a primo tennis center is coming to raleigh?
You know what we could about it
- Stop being dependent on GoTriangle
- Focus on Raleigh alone
- Notice GoTriangle if this fails the commuter rail, it won’t really affect Raleigh.
- We need to stop having a regional focus unless it combining Raleigh-Cary MSA with the Durham-Chapel Hill MSA
- The BRT could bring jobs to Raleigh like an amazon, or Apple if wed stop looking at regional
- We could build light rail without GOTriangle disastrous approach
the way we plan BRT and are making more progress faster than commuter rail we can have light rail in no time and these lines could be very much converted into that in the future, Houston, Texas is taking that route right now. - We need to separate GoRaleigh as it own from GOTriangle just like BART is regional BAY AREA, Muni is San Fransisco municipal could literally do it own tax incentive yes, it exclude the county but still.
- Bottom line focus on Raleigh, only regional when combined Raleigh-Cary Metro with the Durham-Chapel Hill metros or when bidding for MLB TO Raleigh or a Political Convention. Uses the suburbs as a piece of a the cake.
- Got it
Architecturally, pre-1960, I give the nod to Raleigh. Anything more recent than that is Charlotte by a landslide imo. Almost every post-1960 tower in Raleigh is a tall box with few distinguishing features or crowns. Nothing ugly but nothing that really stands out (I think the Wells Fargo tower is the most aesthetically-pleasing tower in Raleigh). In comparison, Charlotte has a couple misses (Ellis, arguably BOAT) but BOACC, Truist, former Duke Energy (now Wells Fargo), Barrings, Jukebox (Wells Fargo), and a number of other towers that I can’t remember the names of are all iconic designs that would stand out in almost any city. Not a huge fan of modernist design personally but I am seeing more and more modernist homes throughout the city, although I am sure proportionally Raleigh has us beat.
If we’re going by national recognition, food, Raleigh wins, beer, Charlotte wins. Musically, Charlotte gets much bigger shows especially now that BofA Stadium is better equipped for that. For smaller shows I guess Raleigh wins by association…and where’s Raleigh’s Carowinds, Whitewater Center, light rail, etc.
Charlotte has historically been extremely lucky to have the right people in positions of influence at the right times. Bankers who jumped on branch banking and gobbled up tons of other southeastern banks. People like who McColl who were behind what became the first nationwide bank and managed to keep the HQ in Charlotte. Richardson who brought football to the Carolinas. So on and so forth. It doesn’t feel like Raleigh has ever really had those kinds of people, and until very recently had been further hampered by a generally anti-development mindset that may be coming back around to bottleneck future progress.
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Charlotte architecture stands out for all the wrong reasons; it’s a joke in the architecture world. Most of its distinct towers are post-modernist mistakes that already looked dated upon completion, and I think many of the ones you listed are generic or clunky. The one exception of lasting architectural distinction there is Cesar Pelli’s tower.
But more broadly, good architecture in my view is about more than designing a distinct silhouette or crown that looks cool from a distance. It’s about creating a rich spatial experience, thoughtfully responding to context, using materials in elegant or unique ways, creating a textured and appropriately-scaled pedestrian experience, displaying craft and intention, among many other things. I think Charlotte architecture sucks because it’s surface-level glitz without much substance, and I find Uptown soulless. This is not to say Raleigh has great skyscrapers either, but I don’t really care much about impressive skylines. I care about what it’s like to actually experience a city.
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I really like Hannover II. I feel like this should be pretty uncontroversial. It has the most character of Raleigh’s tall buildings and it’s the most recognizably “Raleigh” building. The way it lights up at night carries the city. It is my favorite highrise in NC outside Charlotte.
I don’t think Raleigh’s architecture is bad. We need to step back and look at the blandness of Richmond’s tall buildings, the plasticness of Orlando, the garishness of Las Vegas, the massive highway scars so many US cities have in their cores, to remember it can get worse. The problem the skyline has always had is a lack of harmony. It’s gone up in a scattered, random sort of way with huge gaps and weird height clumpings. The individual buildings are fine but the city has always looked unfinished and off-kilter. Winston-Salem with half the buildings achieves really nice harmony with what it has because they’re arranged much better, for instance.
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Raleigh is fine, but overwhelmingly suburban. Charlotte is also fine, but also overwhelmingly suburban. That is all.
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Imagine being a genius billionaire hedge fund manager and investor, and this is what you’re ultimately remembered for by an entire (banking) city and state of people 
Also, glad to see my ultimate evil plan has worked: argue about Charlotte in another, unrelated thread enough to get someone to finally create a Raleigh vs Charlotte thread to move all those dumb arguments over to!!! MWA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA 
I just want everyone to notice that Leo made a new tag for threads (just like for AMA events or for live-chat events that never took off), but this thread is the only one of its kind:
Congrats on giving birth to the “dumpster fire” tag.
That’s all I have to say lol
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im not sure of the data but do most raleigh commutes that leave the city limits go to RTP?
We’re betting on Urban area, the commuter dats isn’t in our favor.
First thing I noticed; it’s what inspired me to chime in!
But I’m bummed edits are disabled. I was going to temper my previous dumpster fire of a comment with a disclaimer:
I think it’s worth acknowledging that Charlotte’s best buildings are not its tall ones imo. It does actually have some notable work other than Pelli’s tower, like Freelon’s Harvey Gantt Center, Machado Silvetti’s Mint Museum, Botta’s Bechtler, and Kieran Timberlake’s building at UNCC.
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Yes re Swing Racquet Club. And it will be able to host tournaments.
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Oh boy, not even Charlotte’s from-scratch light rail will have a direct airport connection but a mile away. Also it will bypass the downtown and take 20 years to build and there’s no funding.
Ive been reading up on Charlotte’s future and current transit and its a mess only rivaled by GoTriangle.
I think the only hope for real decent transit in NC is for a major shift in State Government.
Charlotte’s leadership legitimately sucks, to an extent that would have been unthinkable not even a decade ago. No more Harvey Gantts, Hugh McColls, etc. Just a bunch of transplant politicians mailing it in until they find a bigger role elsewhere, and business execs who have no connection to the city anymore.
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Speaking of the Gold Line. Does anyone have a factual tally of state funding of road and rail transportation between Charlotte, Triad, and the Triangle? Seems like that news article about transportation in Charlotte has stirred up some complaints that Raleigh gets all that state money (where did it all go? 
).
I would imagine the Triad, and specifically Greensboro gets a larger share of road funding per capita than any other NC city. I agree with Francisco it’d be neat to see a historical tally of the funding levels.
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Can confirm. Greensboro has the best roads than just about anywhere. Infrastructure top notch,
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Would that combine city be greater than the ATL? Similar metro population