I find it all interesting with Kane as to how his effect has evolved. First, it was all of the Tax Increment Financing requests that he was asking for, and threatening that NH East was doomed without it.
There was even the zoning request for the pedestrian bridge over Six Forks. I still wonder whatever happened with that.
I’m not saying it didn’t happen this way, but in the replies to the thread, someone asked Mann what his source was for this information, and he says, “You know, it’s kind of a well known story in Raleigh real estate circle of a certain generation.” So I think the original sourcing problem still stands. It seems really incongruous to think that this was “the most important store” in the whole JCP chain and that “this one store accounted for several percentage points of companywide profits” (which seems like things that Raleigh area real estate folks would be in a poor position to know much about) and yet JCP managed to f*** that up with such a grossly incompetent and unforced error.
I poked around on Google and couldn’t find a reputable source backing up the urban legend, which doesn’t prove that it didn’t happen, but suggests that we probably need to treat this old tale with a dose of healthy skepticism.
I hope this post is in the spirit of this thread.
Here’s an interesting article on the urbanizing of the area of Raleigh around Duke Raleigh Hospital around I-440 and on south along Wake Forest Rd to where it branches off of Capital Blvd.
The author describes several new major uplifts for the area, including a 6 story hotel, a 5 story residential (including a rezone of the old Sears property to support up to 12 stories). The project at the Raleigh Ironworks seems particularly interesting with the warehouse buildings being reno’d into 400K sqft of new multi use space.
This area will eventually connect to a planned North Hills expansion east all the way to Wake Forrest Rd. (There’s a shot somewhere on the internet of the people mover system going all the way from the current North Hills area to the Duke Raleigh Hospital).
The south end of this area abuts the northern end of downtown. Lots of changes coming to the area…
I used to work right over near there. This is an area that would do great with some more density and upzoning. There are already a lot of apartments in that area some which I imagine are pretty affordable. I don’t know if there is a plan for a Falls/Wake Forest BRT or additional transit solutions but if there are it’s a fairly quick skip hop and a jump into downtown.
I think it’s pipe dream. But interesting proposal none the less.
Good find. Here’s the shot showing the PRT connecting to the Light Rail line.
Of course this is pie in the sky. But it’s fun to imagine!
PRT? Meh. If we had infinity dollars, I could go for a monorail along the entire beltline though.
In the real world, BRT along the shoulders of 440 would be a good idea. This was mentioned in the Midtown / St Albans area plan.
Would love a BRT along I-440. I could hop on in NH, ride it west towards fairgrounds, hop on the always 10 years away commuter rial to RTP for work.
No more stuck on I-40 commute.
Now, if Kane was doing this privately, within his properties (mostly), then doesnt it obviate the usual approval processes?
The American experience with this kind of circulation system is mixed…
Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit
And, let’s not forget …
I rode the system in Morgantown back in the early 90’s. I wondered if it was an actual PRT system. I thought is was great. It seemed to work well since the WVU campus is spread out among clusters and there’s some topography and a river to deal with when figuring out how to get people around.
I would use the Duke PRT when I did my postdoctoral work in the early 90’s. Kinda miss it, but being an Otis prototype system, getting replacement parts became a real challenge.
It got ripped out when the latest round of expansions occurred between Duke Hospital and Duke Clinic in 2009. That being said, I always thought that they made a mistake by taking it out, instead of expanding it northward to the Ambulatory Surgery Center .
I always thought that would have been a solution to the RTP issue with regional rail since most of those suburban office campus complexes were nowhere near the planned station stops.
Midtown: It’s like Downtown but for people who like to drive everywhere.
While Midtown is a trumped up nomenclature, it’s true that this area is middle ground for the next phase. There’s plenty that wish it were different. But, call a spade a spade.
Maybe you should try to walk somewhere in this area before you layer your snark on the choices made due to built environment…?
Well, yeah, I actually have walked the area. I’ve walked all over it as a matter of fact. I’ve even walked from the neighborhoods off of St. Albans to NHE. I’ve walked from NHE to NHW, and I’ve walked from the two sides of Lassiter Mill to each other. Sorry that you didn’t like what I wrote, but I stand by it. It’s like a downtown for people who want to drive everywhere.
I’ve not noticed, but are electric scooters (Lime, Bird, Gotcha) Or Citrix bikes being used much at NH?
Miami still uses this type of system throughout its downtown and Brickell (their downtown south). It’s actually quite effective and well utilized now that DT has a tens of thousands of new residents in the last 20 years.
I think Miami May be the only success story for this type of transportation. Jacksonville has one too, I believe, but the jury is still out as far as its success is.
