Yea I agree as far as talk solutions, I hesitated to write this, feel free to delete it haha!
I will have to ck out the gladiators stuff, I love that!!
Is it just me, or does it feel like the city sort of half-assed getting parking spots removed for outdoor dining? I’ve traveled a bit the past month and both Philly and Asheville just have blocks upon blocks of parking spaces removed for outdoor seating, and it’s absolutely beautiful. Downtown Raleigh doesn’t lack for establishments that can make this work. I also feel like the additional “eyes on the street” would’ve possibly defused some of the protests that got rowdy. Just my two cents, and it seems like the city has absolutely no plan for reactivating downtown.
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they truly need to copy what those other cities are doing, agree. We have beautiful weather here, much better than philly, so we can do this even more
I’m in Breckinridge and they have closed part of Main Street and put tables there. It’s snowing now, but it was great yesterday when it was 80.
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Looks like PNC building was boarding up this morning. One of the few buildings that did not board up last week.
When I was in Montreal a few years ago, they had entire streets that looked like this. It was fantastic.
@jnl111 I can attest to lots of activity in the warehouse district over the weekend. Yesterday was pretty quiet, but not all that unusual for a Tuesday under current circumstances.
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Same with DC. They covered an entire parking lot with tents at a popular Mexican restaurant and filled it with spaced out seating. Seems like an easy solution as opposed to letting everything but Glenwood south die out
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No plywood in warehouse district. Do we finally see a common denominator here?
There were a number of people at Hargett & Wilmington places this weekend. So…no.
The bickering over plywood, while I enjoyed it earlier 
, is getting a bit tired now. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter either because if plywood over windows is in fact affecting businesses, knowing this isn’t helping at all.
Should we ban landlords from boarding up as we must adhere to some HOA-like aesthetic in downtown? Nope, doesn’t work that way.
Let’s talk solutions. If dining inside a boarded up space is not ideal, it’s time to rethink the use of space until confidence rises and businesses can open their windows. We have Fall just around the corner where Raleigh shines, in my opinion.
The city has made installing parklets much easier so perhaps more needs to be done. What ideas do people have?
- parking ideas
- popup spaces
- rooftop ideas
- on-street ideas
- financial aid ideas
- socially distant event ideas
Let’s hear them.
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First ban nighttime protests. That will in itself solve plywood issues.
City needs to invest in park let infrastructure. Construction barriers are not inviting.
Some sort of matching funds for street furniture, decent umbrellas. Flyan Mayan outdoor space looks horrible, no one there as opposed to Bittersweet, where some effort was forthtaken.
Close some streets. They do for protests, why not for the restaurants. Offer free parking during the evening and weekends.
Treat downtown like the private sector does North Hills, at least for awhile. Free parking, attractive and inviting. Suburbanites do not like grit, downtown needs their money right now.
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I tend to agree with everything you suggested. Playing devil’s advocate for a little bit on your first point, how exactly does the city enforce the ban on nighttime protests? A curfew doesn’t help downtown businesses because everyone shuts down early for their employees to get home. There also seems like a lot of grey area about protesting vs walking on public streets if we’re talking about restricting just protests, not to mention Constitutional issues. Even if there is a way to do this, the enforcement becomes key. Tear gas and riot police didn’t help before, and if anything just makes it worse, especially the news footage of it connecting riots and looting to downtown in every potential visitor’s mind.
I share your frustration about the state of downtown at the moment. I’ve also given a lot of thought to the protests and the few times some people have taken advantage of them to damage and destroy stuff downtown. I don’t know if there’s an easy answer. I’m hoping this isn’t the new normal for the next few years, though. Definitely happy I chose Raleigh over Portland though (which had been my original choice when I moved from MA).
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Resources related to street closures, parklets, etc.
DRA - Ways to Add/Expand Outdoor Dining During COVID-19 - A Guide for DTR Businesses
City - Economic, Business, and Employment COVID-19 Resources
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Was downtown this morning riding through with my daughter - Morning Times / Raleigh Times and Sitti all have plywood down.
On the solutions front - I think we all need to stop and reflect that if there was not systemic injustice and inequality oppressing our neighbors, there would be a lot more “peace” and “prosperity”. Hard stop.
Secondarily, I think DRA is doing a grant this fall for $3,000 toward parklet installs or dining furniture, which is great. It is critical to activate our spaces downtown and plywood definitely does send the wrong signal - if anything it can be confusing externally to if a place is even open (IMO). I think if there was outdoor dining en-masse, this would create a more people oriented place and it would be great for small businesses throughout the fall. 
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Yeah, let’s ban freedom of speech. That should resolve everything (sarcasm).
I do agree with your other points. The city needs to allow restaurants/bars more outdoor space. To be honest this should have been the case even pre corona.
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Banning protests sounds like a pretty authoritarian way of solving the plywood issue. I think meaningfully addressing the issues people are protesting about is probably a better bet.
Your other ideas are good ones, most of which are being implemented, though maybe not enough.
Parklet infrastructure—YES!! I don’t know what the City’s budget is looking like, but it seems like there should be some investment here.
Closing streets—The Pit is doing this already (Commerce has been closed for outdoor dining for a few months it seems), so it seems like the city is open to it. I’m sure there are other areas where it could be done.
North Hills is a completely different beast, and I personally don’t want to see downtown become a replica of it. People happily came to the warehouse district, Moore Squre, etc. despite vacant warehouses and run-down buildings before (way more than there are now), so I don’t think downtown’s grittiness is what is keeping people away right now. I think it’s probably the fact that we’re still in a pandemic.
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great point re: not forgetting about systemic injustice!
I also wonder if the absence of bars in this area of downtown is playing a big role in its relative emptiness. Though Glenwood south has a number of bar-only venues that haven’t reopened, many of the establishments serve both food and liquor and, thus, have been able to reopen. Meanwhile, I can think of at least 8 establishments off the top of my head near fayettteville st/moore sq that have not reopened bc of COVID restrictions. That’s a good deal of foot traffic that’s missing, particularly in the evening and on weekends. If we move to phase 3 and traffic is still seemingly stunted, it may then be cause for more concern.
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Not banning freedom of speech. Cities have limited resources. Like it or not, protests put pressure on resources. Schedule them when protection of property is easier. I know there are just few independents on this board, outnumbered by the left. Just being practical not political.
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My semi-hot take - there’s going to be a bloodbath of the remaining retail in Jan-Feb. None of the larger landlords (Empire, Landmark, etc) have budged on rents aside for deferrals that’ll just raise rents in 6 months, and it’s going to kill it off. I talk to everyone, and I do mean everyone. The general consensus is that the city has effectively abandoned DTR and are basically looking at a huge reset starting next summer. Most of the restaurants will probably make it. I can easily see half the bars and 75% of retail going under in the next 4-6 months. I have no idea how some of these folks have made it so far, plywood or not.
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That’s a dose of reality.
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