The only reason why I would go to Glenwood South back in the 80s was to go to John Askew for design school supplies. Then, in the 90s, I would sometimes go to Duncan Parnell for production blueprint sets.
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Planning commission recommends approval for this.
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Why couldnāt they recommend approval for the original 40-story request 
I donāt think it got that far?
No brainer. Nothing notable in the assemblage, and the district has outgrown whatās there.
Well, IT SHOULD HAVE!
I spoke with a City Council member about closing Glenwood Ave every weekend. Heās fully on board and has tried to push this previously but Police, Fire Department, other members and more are against it.
The assumption by the nay-sayers is that it will just cause more rowdiness.
My pushback to that is that if you give more space, it will actually reduce rowdiness due to the space being more formalized. You will also eliminate the crowding on sidewalks, reduce the pass-through traffic just showing off their mufflers, attract more leisure visitors to the restaurants, create a safer environment, enable easier crowd control.
Hereās the proposed compromise I brought up. Close between Jones and Johnson from Fridayās at 7 to Sunday Midnight - but leave the cross streets open. That should help with the FD pushback on access.
It was recommended that I get anyone who is on board to also reach out to Council Members or even sign up to speak at a meeting to show how the positives would outweigh the negatives. Also I think we have a great base here who could get together to try to present a unified case for it.
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I think this is the best chance we have at piloting a pedestrian street, be it Glenwood or Fayetteville. Keeping the cross sections open still makes this very accessible for emergency services. Their argument is kind of stupid anyway: people can move out of the way of an ambulance much more easily than cars can.
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If the businesses can also support it, I think itāll fly through.
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I feel like Iāve seen in many cities exactly this, leaving the cross streets open. I hope they do this! Thanks for reaching out and starting the conversation on this.
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My gut is I like the idea, but Iām not sure I know enough about the cons to say itās a great idea. The Glenwood South Collaborative would be a good ally in this proposal if they support it. Also the Downtown Living Advocates.
https://twitter.com/Glenwood_South
https://twitter.com/RaleighDLA
Some afterthoughts:
Whatās the effort to do this every weekend?
Whatās the cost? Whoās paying it?
If weāre doing it here, should we consider it on Fayetteville as well?
Are there any businesses that this would cripple based on available street parking/accessibility? I think most businesses would very much support this.
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Few responses to your thoughts IMO (probably over simplifying)
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Minimal effort if standard road closed signs are used - if it really catches on retractable bollards could be used. Iāll do some research to see what Atlanta does with Edgewood, Tampa with Ybor, etc etc
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Cost should be low if just using barricades. Cops are already stationed there almost all weekend.
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Fayetteville probably does it 1 weekend a month on average for festivals
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All the businesses in this stretch have access to their respective lots from the side roads. Pickup zones would suffer some but you could put auxiliary ones at where the cross-streets cross Glenwood for the weekends. Street parking is a drawback but in terms of street parking vs deck parking weāre probably talking 100 spaces on street vs 1000s in deck.
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While we walk, can we also chew gum?
What I mean by that is, can we also address other vehicle issues at the same time while we pursue eliminating cars on Glenwood during weekends? Those issues are the noise coming from some of the cars and the motorcycles, and the mini racing behavior that comes from the overly loud and souped up cars.
As for the motorcycles, some of them have sound systems that are so loud that you can hear their music from several blocks away (and Iām not exaggerating). I was walking Glenwood this past weekend and one of the bikers stopped in the parking lot next to the Armadillo Grill and just kept his sound system blasting like it was an outdoor nightclub. It was way over the line of what would be considered appropriate level of sound, even in a party district. I get it. I know that people will have music in their cars, but some of it is now beyond ridiculous.
As for the souped up cars, they are both loud in an overly amplified way and some of their behaviors are incredibly dangerous. I see them race from stop light to stop light when there are two of them at the same location, and I see them peel out and speed often to just get attention.
If we canāt get those issues under control, the amplified noise and dangerous driving behaviors are just going to get pushed to parallel streets like St. Marys, Boylan, West and Harrington.
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I have to say, most of those people are doing all that for attention in front of the establishments.
If they canāt drive on Glenwood, I donāt think theyād do it on the parallel streets because they wouldnāt get the attention they seek. Of course some would but Iād be willing to bet it would cut down on it drastically.
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I think youāre right. While some of that might move to adjacent streets, it would be reduced and easier to enforce.
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Well, one might think that, but Iāve seen them race all over the area and blast their music no matter where they are. If they canāt go down Glenwood, they will just move one street over and the other streets in the neighborhood will just have even more noise.
The city needs to address the noise issue and enforce whatever they land on, and the police need to address the wreckless driving behaviors before someone gets hurt or dies.
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You know if they just tried it out, they could find out very quick if itās a good idea or bad idea.
Iād love to see it happen.
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They did it a few weekends last year but had the cross streets closed too so I think access was an issue
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I get what youāre saying, but Iām inclined to think that the primary draw is Glenwood. Naturally, they need to go down other streets to get there, but Glenwood is the main spot for cruising currently. When they get tired of going back and forth on Glenwood, or if thereās an abnormal amount of congestion due to, say, police activity, then they shift to side streets. But no one is going to cruise St. Maryās for two hoursā¦ thatās just not going to get you the type of attention that cruisers are obviously looking for.
Iād be willing to bet that, if you disable the spot thatās most appealing, it will ultimately cut down on the behavior as a whole. A cultural shift, if you will.
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Limited access road. Only emergency vehicles and some hotel guest cars/residents allowed during the street āclosureā. Very common in Europe.
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