They mentioned they’re being courted by locations that don’t have these problems. Considering the evidence, if their numbers continued to suffer it would be a bad business decision not to move. Additionally, I doubt they’re all collectively bluffing about the numbers. It’s something very easy for the city to look up considering the fact that they pay tax on their business. Unless you also think they’re also all collectively committing tax fraud.
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Several of the business owners commenting at the meeting have owned businesses at those locations for more than a decade. They’ve seen a lot downtown and are the ones who made downtown vibrant and worth coming to before it was the place to be. They are champions of downtown and want people to spend time there. I mean, they own businesses that profit from the growth and vibrancy of the area, so they want it to succeed.
I’ve also lived downtown for 16 years, the first five in Glenwood South. Things have changed recently in the wrong direction. Even in my own neighborhood I’ve noticed more vandalism than there ever used to be, with busted out windows and non-stop graffiti on empty buildings waiting for redevelopment. Is it a post apocalyptic hellscape? No, but being a safe and friendly downtown was one of Raleigh’s biggest draws. We need to nip this stuff in the bud.
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I have also noticed an uptick myself fairly recently. Let’s just say that most everybody has been surprised by this happening here in Raleigh. My only real concern today is what they do going forward to fix the situation. I would not be surprised if the elected officials don’t have the will and backbone to fix the problem moving forward. Most of us knows what it would take to make it safer again. They know what it would take to resolve this problem. But, will they actually do what is needed? I have my doubts.
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Re graffiti: Has anyone else noticed how much graffiti there is on the portion of the Beltline that is currently under construction. They are literally still building it and it is all tagged up. Tho not in DTR, it is not a good look for the City as a whole.
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Mild complaint about this, as I’ve also noticed this squad car parked there. I tried using that crosswalk one morning last week, pressed the button to activate the beacon, then had to wait while a driver (who had plenty of time to stop) absolutely blew through the crosswalk and completely ignored me. Hoped maybe the cop would do something about it, only to discover that the car was… empty. And the next time I saw it, same thing.
Plus, come on y’all, that’s pedestrian space. Park on the street.
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State law prohibits restaurants and bars from purchasing liquor from retail stores. They must place orders through a web portal and must pickup at a central warehouse that handles the tax stamping (food & beverage businesses pay an extra $3.75 per bottle in taxes). Ours is located on Wicker Drive near the new Iron Works development.
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Downtown Raleigh Revitalization
CHAPTER 13:
Crime
As someone who has been living downtown since before the revitalization, I never wanted a jam-packed city with rising crime rates and a growing homeless problem. I viewed Raleigh as the next generation of cities that would have to opportunity to do things differently.
Its coming of age coincided with the tech boom and big-data era. I believed we had the chance to build this city the right way, learning form mistakes made by the big legacy cities and even the new-age trailblazers like Portland & Austin.
I, for one, never wanted another Austin or another New York. I wanted Raleigh to be something different. I wanted it be able to stay family-friendly, clean, while still able to deal with density and growth.
If you’re saying that we have to accept rising crime and homelessness with growth, then I’d reject that. If you’re saying that’s inevitable, then I’d rather have less growth than more of these types of problems.
But I think if you just bend the knee and accept that, then I’d suggest that you’re part of the problem. I think Raleigh should be innovative with their solutions and I, for one, am for taking a tougher stance on crime in the city to get it under control before we get to a point of no return (or in your words, ‘a growing-vibrant downtown.’)
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We need better city councilors and other city officials. There are many solutions that have been used in bigger cities that have faced the same issues.
This is one study regarding the correlation between through-traffic and crime ridden streets:
Edit: here is another study done in London:
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Sorry but I’m calling bull on this.
There is nothing vibrant about crime and feeling unsafe. When there are real or perceived safety issues, many folks will simply not come downtown past dark. Restaurants will suffer and eventually close. New businesses will look elsewhere to establish. More fake downtowns like North Hills, Fenton, and Downtown South will rise because we’ve decided that only late night drunken partiers matter.
I live in this “vibrancy” and one dimensional “entertainment” that increasingly only means late night weekend drinking by a mostly rowdy twenty-something crowd that gets out of hand is not vibrant. It’s one dimensional and shortsighted. Vibrant would mean that all hours of the day see activity and action on the sidewalks, and that more needs of the community are provided in a walkable neighborhood. That’s not what we have. What we do have is a few businesses struggling to survive because they are increasingly surrounded by late night venues that are closed up during the day and contributing nothing to the neighborhood vibe in service of the late night weekend scene. Why would someone make an effort to come to Glenwood South during the day? It certainly isn’t for the vibrancy.
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Too late on the “less growth” - it’s happening, been happening, will continue to happen. And yep, with more people will come more crime, homelessness, drunken fights, street activity (good and bad), events (yay!), traffic (boooo!), etc etc etc … it’s pretty normal and usual for a city (any city) lmao
There are cities that Raleigh can look to as a model for excellence in dealing with growth + all the possible negative outcomes. We have examples of growth such as Greenville, SC that can be great opportunities to be proactive and build a city that doesn’t have to accept the ‘ah well we are growing so we should accept it’ mindset. We can be better. The obvious challenge is implementing measures that will handle the negative issues and these are not comfortable and can suppress a segment of the population, but do we let a small segment of the population destroy a great downtown?
I want to live downtown, spend money downtown, support events and attend City of Raleigh functions that help foster the vibrant community we long for. Not putting measures in place to ensure I can because of concern for leaving out a specific group is effectively pushing everything I want to do for the downtown aside. We can’t make everyone happy, but we should focus on what the downtown and City of Raleigh need and ensure we are fostering an environment to get there.
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This is what I was trying to say. Thanks for laying it out in a better way.
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I was just piggybacking 
onto your comments. It will be interesting to see if the City of Raleigh can get off its hands and do something. Big pressure getting applied to MAB and the police chief, so hopefully they can do something. I do fear that the private security with no real enforcement authority (no arresting/ armed) that has been proposed will be just another downtown ambassador program that gets steamrolled by the current crowd.
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The city of Raleigh keeps posting these negative anecdotal statistics again to stir up emotions from people who frequent this forum and residents who are just speaking out of emotions, right?
19% increase in Aggravated assaults (Since 2019)
48% increase in Homicides (since 2019)
I think population increase needs to be taken into consideration to provide context. I wouldn’t expect it to be completely linear, but certainly the larger we are, the more X we have.
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Population in Raleigh grew about 1.9% between 2020 and 2022 while most of these statistics grew about 20% and homicides grew over 50% (5.6 per 100,000 to 8.9 per 100,000). You’re right, the more people we have the more crime we’ll have but crime is grossly outpacing our population growth.
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Quick off-topic PSA for anyone who cares: DON’T LEAVE VALUABLE THINGS IN YOUR CAR. Running inside to grab a quick coffee? Take your laptop bag with you. And if you’re parking overnight, even in your own driveway, empty the whole thing out. The more visible stuff there is in your car, the more of a target it is. And for the love of all things good and beautiful, lock your doors. An empty car and locked doors are two simplest ways for you to deter break-ins.
And come on y’all, don’t store unsecured guns in your car. Or anywhere, for that matter. Guns belong in a safe.
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Saw a few cops patrolling via an electric motorbike on Crabtree Creek Trail and Anderson Dr yesterday. It was a welcome sight. I typically feel safe on all the greenway sections I’ve been on, but it’s nice to see that safety isn’t overlooked on the greenway. I normally don’t see a lot of cops on the greenway. I will see them every once in a while, but I was surprised that I ended up seeing 2 in this section about 45 mins apart.
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What crime do I have to commit to have him come arrest me??
Jokes aside, this is actually pretty cool. Dogs are the best.
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