Hey it’s technically in Durham so until 4 years ago they’d be the tallest in the city!
2 Likes
There are awesome greenways on the east and south shores of Lake Crabtree.
The trail along the west shore is a “hiking trail” that is only marginally passable, even on the best of days.
Lake Crabtree Park has some fantastic trails, except that they wind up getting closed outright for almost the entire winter due to muddy conditions. I get the concerns; they are popular among mountain bikers, and heavy MTB use on muddy days would tear it up. But why not still allow hiking?
I definitely agree that the development along the lake’s shore is a missed opportunity. It could be the Triangle’s waterfront; instead it’s a row of fortress-like office parks.
2 Likes
Definitely some nice trails! I just chicken out going after January because I hate even the sight of snakes haha
Also seems kind of silly that there’s nothing but massive factories on the SW corner of the lake. They probably don’t even have any windows to enjoy the view.
1 Like
Snakes are honestly my least favorite thing about living here, but I’ve rarely encountered them. We were actually just at Lake Crabtree Sunday, and mentioned how we didn’t want to take the unpaved trails in the woods for just that reason. Didn’t spot any on the paved trails, but man was it hot and sunny (the 3 course brunch and 3 drinks at Soca directly beforehand didn’t help)…
3 Likes
I’ve run into one at the unpaved Crabtree trail. Walked right by a black snake. My friend saw it but I didn’t.
I also saw one at Lake Johnson last year on the paved trail and a few at Shelley Lake as well. They definitely are out towards the evening.
Black snakes are harmless, except to your blood pressure. 
They eat mostly rodents and other small animals. Neither is it out to hurt you — they’re only around because there’s food nearby, and that food isn’t you.
6 Likes
If you see a black snake you should breathe a sigh of relief. Black snakes and copperheads compete for territory and if you see a black snake it means you’re less likely to see a copperhead. Basically, you’re in Safe Snek Land.
On the other hand, I live in the Danger Snek Zone. I had to deal with at least five or six copperheads in my backyard (where my kids play) last year. Ran over one (but didn’t hit it and luckily didn’t get bit) while cutting the grass, and another one was curled up underneath the trash can and tried to strike at me when I tried to wheel the can to the curb. Last week, I saw the first one of 2021, right where my 5 year old was standing not 2 minutes before.
I’ve never seen even a single black snake in my neighborhood.
But watch out, I’ve heard copperheads love to eat cicadas, and this year is supposed to be a big one
10 Likes
Fixed lol. I don’t know what I was thinking.
1 Like
I think a lot of the BIG tech companies like to have “campuses” not urban dense locations.
The model seems to be multiple buildings with space to walk around outdoors in a natural attractive setting, lots of trees maybe some water.
That’s not downtown Durham or downtown Raleigh. That’s places around the Lake Crabtree in Cary and its RTP.
If Amazon did come to the Triangle they will likely pick an urban local. They did with their huge Nashville site. Who knows they may still set up an office here one day. Commuter Rail and BRT will help bring in urban oriented companies.
7 Likes
This is where Centennial Campus could come into play. A campus located there would be both close to downtown and a campus type environment that these companies seem to like. It’s too bad that Centennial couldn’t land Apple.
8 Likes
Would have been nice
Was centennial campus what the Triangle proposal was to get Apple?
I don’t know I thought it was just the whole triangle area… wherever Apple wanted to come, build to suit, And I assumed it would have been most likely RTP.
I’m pretty sure the main location Amazon was looking at in Raleigh was the land East of centennial parkway and west of Dix park.
1 Like
Big Tech offices vary by company. Amazon prefers urban, Apple prefers suburban, Microsoft is usually suburban, Facebook and Google will do either. The locations are almost entirely about making things convenient for employees. In this region, an RTP location is easier than DTR for commuters from Durham, Chapel Hill, and Western/Northern Wake. Downtown Durham is closer to that middle, too.
These are companies that happily pay top dollar for the world’s choicest real estate; the marginal cost of downtown isn’t a factor, but the speed of getting something done might be. Luckily for Durham, there are fairly big office buildings already in the pipeline at Durham.ID and ATC2.
8 Likes
Downtown Raleigh would be more of a factor if it had better freeway or transit access.
As for downtown freeways: In a significant way, I think this is a big part of:
- The explanation for why North Hills is going like gangbusters in terms of getting big office buildings built, while Downtown seems to be moving at a walking pace
- The motivation behind Downtown South.
- The reason that it seems Downtown Durham sometimes “eats our lunch” in terms of winning major tenants, especially tech firms.
However, as we’ve also discussed, the lack of downtown freeways is a benefit to downtown Raleigh in many ways as well, so I don’t think I’d change that even if I could, even if I knew it would land some more major office tenants downtown.
As for transit access, this is the solution we should look to. We just have to quit piddling around. Build it, build it right, build it soon.
9 Likes
Spring Hill Precinct between Centennial and Dix is our corporate relocation “Megasite”. Don’t want to waste it on an insular “campus” though.
3 Likes
Downtown Connector on Wilmington street from 40 to MLK
No ROW needed, no other interchanges needed, saves S Saunders and Hammond
3 Likes
Yeah, so your suggestion for the north-of-downtown corridor is really exciting to me. One of several things holding back the Capital Blvd corridor that connects downtown to Midtown, is the lack of local streets. The West Street extension combined with punching Wake Forest Road through along the rail line seems like it might work? It could dovetail with redevelopment of the entire CSX corridor along with the S-line purchase and SEHSR. Good call on that concept.
I’m less sure how I feel about the S Wilmington Street idea. NCDOT does have S Wilmington earmarked as a spot for a HOV-only interchange, if they ever get around to building the multi-billion dollar managed lanes on I-40 they like to talk about. But since the city has decided on S Wilmington as the BRT route (I preferred Saunders), doing something to add rather a lot of cars to Wilmington seems like the wrong way forward. If they were going to put BRT on Saunders, then yeah, opening up Wilmington makes sense.
6 Likes
For those who have no idea what we’re talking about.
It’s my hope that the Railroads realize just how much money they can make by selling off those massive rail yards and building them further out, or realizing they don’t even need that many yards anymore.
Good points here. My thinking and hope that is if you do two lanes and keep a bus-only lane north of 40 or maybe even just a queue jump approaching MLK things should be fine. I can’t imagine there being delays on the connector, if we put half of Saunders / Hammond on to Wilmington we’re looking at maybe 50K per day which at limited access, two lanes can handle perfectly.
I’d also argue with the new neighborhood feel of Saunders this would create, it makes 100xs more sense to use that as the BRT corridor. With Downtown South, it seems kind of silly that they wouldn’t have the BRT go past that, right? Unless their singular goal is to move as many people coming from Garner / Fuquay to Downtown.
But tying back to this actual topic of making Downtown a more viable office spot, I think something does need to be done access wise from all four approaches. But first and foremost BRT and Commuter rail should be implemented ASAP.
4 Likes