I think this is a super fun idea! Though sadly our city doesn’t have enough creativity/vision to ever pursue a creative idea like this.
as a former raleigh native/resident i would certainly travel from sw virginia to see a completed dix park and ride on cycling improvements along lake wheeler. i have done this in the past when heading there for usta events that I participated in. if I lost in the early rounds I just would go on bike rides in town and get beer at crankarm for the rest of the weekend.
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Since you have people skydiving off a crane next to the Police HQ perhaps Raleigh needs an iFLY like Concord and Wilmington have. Indoor skydiving center.
https://www.iflyworld.com/
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I considered trying the Urban Air Indoor Skydiving, but found that it appears to be way smaller than iFLY. So we held off.
Ive been to IFLY its pretty cool I got a certificate from there.
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Looking at @BlakeB pic of the acorn hanging from a crane, I wonder if there we could do something fun and permanent with it that would be an attraction, all set up for NYE.
How about a tower with the days marked and that the acorn climbs till on NYE is drops back down. There could be a couple squirrels taking turns pushing it up. A glockenspeil of days rather than hours. NYE, that years squirrels get victory caps, the corn drops, and NYD two new squirrels, in disntinctive jerseys or outfits, appear at the bottom to begin their journey.
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I love the idea of something more permanent for the Acorn drop! It could be a sculpture for the remainder of the year!
Did everyone know that Raleigh was incorporated on NYE 1792 and chartered on NYE 1794? I’d love to see Raleigh combine NYE with a day long birthday party for the city while it’s already celebrating!
@JonathanMelton
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Probably too late for something like this, but I would have liked to see a roundabout put in at Lenoir and Fayetteville as part of the development of the two parking lots into towers. The center of that roundabout would have been prime position for a legacy public art piece, such as a tower with the acorn atop it that it can also traverse its way down on New Years.
I feel like city center roundabouts with shops and cafes surrounding it are so common in other larger, often international cities. Would be cool to see something like that here.
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I love that idea! We need to find a way to make that happen!
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Fantastic idea!! I agree with @John , we need to try and make thia happen.
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They are building an iFly off of Page road where the TopGolf is
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thanks I thought I read about one being built and maybe this will keep your crane skydivers off the cranes.
Potentially huge news for a Raleigh attraction:
The whitewater center in Charlotte is considering a Raleigh expansion! It would be part of a $350 million development.
The one on Charlotte had over a million visitors in 2023.
I wonder if this has something to do with the falls of neuse park. That was my first thought, but the $350 million development made me wonder if it is something else.
https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2025/01/17/whitewater-center-eyes-raleigh-expansion.html
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if this comes to fruition, it’d be an AMAZING addition to the area. I’ve been to the CLT version a couple times and it’s tons of fun. Chances are we would get an improved version with lessons learned from what they built to our South 20 years ago. Would be yet ANOTHER outdoor recreation attraction to the local area (if it’s built close to Raleigh). according to this, They (as of 2022) planned 3 other sites with the “Whitewater” brand: Southern VA, Pisgah near Asheville, and one in SC.
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Sounds like the Falls of the Neuse whitewater park is completely separate. But it is interesting timing with the RDU Lake Crabtree land popping up in the news again…
First I want to say I hate RDU developing the Lake Crabtree land - especially for the inevitable 1 story warehouse buildings, empty mid-rise office buildings, and surface parking.
Buuuut, if they could consolidate development into a dense node around a whitewater center at the west end and leave the rest of the park and trails alone, I feel like that could be a compromise and would provide an amenity that the region would actually care about?
Idea:
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My god imagine if they added an indoor artificial ski slope to this project, Whitewater and Winter Sports Center? One could dream.
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That would be more fun that waiting for 3 years for a little snow and skiing down Wade Ave.
#sharetheroad
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Once again I am requesting that you overthrow Raleigh’s government and become our local Dictator. I trust in your judgment and ideas for any and all decisions made.
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We need a dictator in Raleigh someone who has a finger and says this is gonna happen.
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