And an EPIC Amusement park they can’t leave all that space behind.
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Look I want you guys’ opinion Raleigh needs an amusement park in or near the city or in a suburb of the city in the metro area. That would be the best attraction, not everyone is gonna drive everywhere so the traditional sense is a very shitty campaign in my opinion. For example, Orlando likes that but has Disney World there gotta be something for a demographic of Raleigh tut can’t g so far, or when their boring weekend kids can do something. I don’t like people on this forum’s attitude and Raleigh’s contempt for what you guys call “attractions”.
Your definition of attraction seems very cliche given the fact almost every average large city has an amusement park which wouldn’t make Raleigh any more interesting. They all have the same rides and rollercoasters. Disney World, Disney Land, Universal are the only parks that draw in worldwide attention. Raleigh needs to stand out and not be average, that’s my opinion.
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Or maybe a Kalahari Resorts which is one of the nation’s largest indoor water parks. It like a great wolf lodge Raleigh could for that and promote itself as the place for that in the southeast. Round Rock, Texas a suburb of Austin has that.
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Being average is not attractive.
Charlotte has a Great Wolf Lodge. Greensboro has a water park. Indoor water parks (or water parks in general) aren’t the most impressive attractions in my opinion. If they built one in Garner or way out in the burbs, then I wouldn’t be against it; It will not be a defining thing for Raleigh. If we want super touristy stuff, I’d opt for a “Broadway at the beach” type thing at Lake Crabtree.
I think we missed out on some major big attractions such as baseball or Broadway shows (which Durham was able to grab). NW Cary got the Improv comedy club.
I mentioned some projects Raleigh has in an earlier post. There’s a project listed for Falls Whitewater Park: Falls Whitewater Park | Raleighnc.gov
Again Central Park in NYC is a huge attraction. I think Dorothea Dix can become a major attraction as well. The other option Raleigh would have for a major attraction is to build some big random sculpture or building (archway in St. Louis, Space Needle in Seattle, the bean in Chicago, the Statue of Liberty in NYC). It would give something to associate Raleigh with.
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Gondola
(drops mic for extra characters)
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While not necessarily all attractions, here are things that Atlanta has that I miss (some not so much) that draw people in and how we could implement them here.
Piedmont Park | Dix / Chavis / Devereaux should have us covered here!
Sugarloaf Mills | Won’t be popular but it is a draw for people from out of town since it’s so massive (same as Concord Mills / Opry Mills)
Ponce City Market + Rooftop Carnival | I think @OakCityDylan has pointed out a spot where we could get something like this going.
Centennial Park District (Arena, Stadium, Farris Wheel, Aquarium, CF HOF, World of Coke, Civil Rights Museum etc) | This one is the hardest but we need something that’s the bulls-eye of sort for where out of towners would come. As someone pointed out, there should be a College Basketball museum or something here. Some more museums / attractions could lively up the museum area where it is now.
The Beltline | @orulz this one is self exclamatory. Y’all should hop on and help us make the Artery happen!
Point being, looks like we have a good amount of these covered and hopefully within the next 10 years we’ll have things that actually do draw people in!
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Add in some dedicated bike and pedestrian corridors to connect it to Chavis, Pullen, Deveraux, Dix, & St. Agnes and put an observation tower at each park. Each observation tower could have some kind of visitors center at the base for history exhibit or neighborhood specific info. Bike share stations for visitors, etc. See if any overlap with the BBQ trail?
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I agree with everyone who says NO on an amusement park and agree with Dix needing to be a centerpiece for Raleigh. We have the Raulston arboretum but it is not nearly as nice as Duke Gardens so perhaps that could get some love as well. And while I don’t eat red meat, and apparently it will be outlawed for the environment one day, I can see support for pushing the BBQ angle - but also the food scene generally. We need things that attract smart, educated people - outdoorsy people being a bonus since the weather is fairly decent year round.
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There was an amusement boom in the 1960s-1970s, when local amusement parks consolidated into regional theme parks. But more competition, easier long-distance travel, and ever-higher construction costs mean even large theme parks turn out to be only marginally profitable, unless they draw national (aka Disney-sized) crowds. Hence, the amusement-park map (sorta like the MLB map!) still has a northeastern tilt that largely reflects the nation’s population distribution circa 1980 or so.
Lake Crabtree would be enhanced by some restaurants overlooking the lake near the Metlife/Verizon buildings
The state’s 50’ Neuse River riparian buffer requirement is a boon to local water quality. But it does make it nearly impossible to have a waterfront restaurant.
It’s a shame that the Umstead Hotel is where it is, vs. at the west end of the Weston Lakeside apartments or the Verizon building – their elevation above the lake surface also helps ensure some actual water views through the trees. Similarly, StateView could’ve been built on the slope below Hunt Library; having 30’ of additional elevation over Lake Raleigh, and an already-thinned tree buffer where the existing boat ramp parking is, would have meant better over-the-trees lake views. (There’s still potential for a building there, per the recent Centennial Campus zoning filing.)
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Not sure if Raleigh is artsy or touristy enough. But Raleigh could attract Meow Wolf’s first east coast location. Meow Wolf Locations
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I think Raleigh is artsy enough, we need more art exhibits and art scapes around town.
I wonder if we could just build upon Pullen Park to add more attractions? It already has the foundation of an amazing park, but there’s still room to improve it in my opinion. Imagine an observation tower poking out of the tree tops there in it upper section with a spectacular view of downtown, NC State, Midtown, ITB neighborhoods, the Fairgrounds, etc.
A “water” type attraction could be added as well (maybe not the full extent of an actual water amusement park) as well as a skate park, and other attractions to make the park a more robust experience. I’d even support a food truck rodeo type scene surrounding an outdoor community dining plaza replete with strung lights crisscrossing the outdoor space (RFD be damned!).
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I have always wanted a sky lift of some sort. Possibly atop the new convention center expansion and going to Dix Park. Tie downtown to Dix Park with something unique but also provides a transportation mode.
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Not to beat a dead horse, but I’ll say it again. I would love to see a monorail system in Raleigh. It would function as both an attraction for visitors as well as practically to offer another mode of transit in the city. I know, I know CO$T!!! But why couldn’t the parts and pieces for a monorail system built offsite in a factory somewhere, kinda like they do for parking decks. It is basically a bunch of the same part over and over and over again. We know how to mass produce goods, so just apply it to transit. (Hell China is building modular highrises that are assembled onsite a breakneck speeds!!) I think it would portray Raleigh as a “City of the Future” while also filling in a much needed gap for transit. But alas, there is so much redtape in the US, it will never happen. Oh well.
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I never liked the idea of turning the Dix property into exclusively a park. I think we should turn 100 acres at the NE corner of the property into a park and use the other 200 acres to develop some the great ideas in this discussion. I always thought a city zoo would be a great idea, or an aquarium. Maybe even buy the rights to the college basketball experience/HOF from Kansas City eventually and build something spectacular like that there (or all 3).
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I love waterfront restaurants, but I also like clean water and seafood. Lake Crabtree and all water courses, determined to be a stream and water bodies in the Neuse River basin must have the 50’ Riparian Buffer and disallows all hardscape, vegetation only. When a new road/ bridge goes through a buffer, restitution (another site restored or a pay in to a trust fund) is exchanged for those disturbances. Oysters, shrimp yum!
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I swear this topic (tourism/attractions) comes up so many times, and every time I always say we need something like Meow Wolf. I’d go a step further and say instead of “Meow Wolf’s first east coast location” - why not just create our very own, original art experience?? Maybe with our tech scene, virtual reality could be included in some capacity.
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Perhaps we could connect Dix to DTR to DoSo with…
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