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City should give artist free range over two or three acres of Dix Park to do whatever art work they feel they want to display. It can be an art walk park section.
As long as itās not some BS family friendly type of deal. Art like the Big Bad Boy in Helsinki would never get approve here if that was the case.
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Yes. I do like the DoSo idea too. I have also mentioned this before a while back:
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I was looking to see where the Gondola thing came from (in context of Raleigh) and it seems it was part of the proposal concepts for Dix back in 2018. I know MAB has mentioned them as well but perhaps from the same source?
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Meow Wolf has announced installation plans alongside a new childrenās museum in NE Washington DC. Museums cluster around existing visitor flows, just like any other business ā see Hotellingās Law for why ā so when new VR art experiences arise, like Artechouse, they end up where art visitors already go, namely DC, NYC, and Miami.
Any business needs customers, and that means getting some combination of locals who visit frequently + out-of-towners who visit infrequently. Again, easier long-distance travel (particularly cheap airfare) means that people will travel further for more-diverse/higher-quality experiences, rather than settling for smaller/closer attractions ā so the bar to attract out-of-towners has gotten higher.
Raleigh has a large but not huge local market, so it canāt rely on locals alone to sustain a big attraction. (If the Houston and Phoenix metros canāt sustain big theme parks, how could Raleigh?) Itās surrounded by other areas (e.g., Asheville, Myrtle Beach, Williamsburg) with better-established tourist offerings, which both divert local spending and compete for visitors and new attractions. Lately, it seems like new tourist offerings like Great Wolf are taking an outlet-mall approach to locations and gravitating towards roadside locations between multiple metros.
(FWIW, Iām not anti-river-buffer, just trying to identify water views that maintain the buffers. I even wrote this LEED credit language about wetland buffers ā which recognizes the worthy trade-off between greater density closer to water, and reduced impervious footprint beyond.)
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I am so with you with the family friendly BS. I feel like, because Raleigh/Triangle has been touted as such a āBest Place to Raise a Familyā so often, almost everything around here thatās proposed seems to only be whitebread, family-friendly BS. RALEIGH NEEDS MORE WEIRD ART.
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Ok - Iāll be the one to ask the dumb question. What is Meow Wolf?
Cāmon man the name is self-explanatory.
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I assumed it was something pet related until I googled it. But Iām still not quite clear on the concept.
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I think out of all of the ideas listed, a VR park is the most logical, feasible, and attractive. Without googling, I wonder what already exists in this realm. I know of VR bar in Virginia Highlands in
Atlanta but of course drinking is the main attraction there.
Aside from that I really question the drawing power of a small to mid sized zoo or aquarium. Extremely expensive to maintain and presumably something you only need to see once.
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I think this is it: About | Meow Wolf
" Meow Wolf creates immersive and interactive experiences that transport audiences of all ages into fantastic realms of story and exploration. This includes art installations, video and music production, and extended reality content."
I think this seems like a really neat place. Full immersed experiences are quite nice. The NC Natural Science Museum has the Living Conservatory which is a really cool immersive experience. I also liked the NC Zooās Aviary and indoor desert area. The Meow Wolf seems like it would give a really cool artistic type interaction.
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Iām not sure if you are talking about Revery. I searched this to see what a VR park is.
Iām not sure if itās similar, but VR Junkies is at Crabtree. The main difference is that I donāt think VR Junkies serves alcohol. Frankieās up in Brier Creek advertises Hologate which is a VR attraction. Iām assuming they also donāt serve alcohol.
I donāt know what the point of having a virtual experience attraction. For me, thatās an oxymoron. I can get behind some sort of technology enabled attraction that one can experience with others. In my mind, Iām thinking about the āattractionā of just going up the elevators at 1 World Trade Center. That sort of technology experience is cool in the same way that going through holiday lights displays is cool. Itās something to experience.
Additionally, when I think of attractions, I get sort of nervous about that because most attractions rely on a constant stream of tourists that Raleigh neither has, nor will likely have in the future. Instead, why not focus on giving both tourists and residents something to do that they would enjoy repeating over and over and over again? This is why parks are so popular; people like going to them. People like bustling urban neighborhoods with lots of places to visit/explore/dine/shop, and just be with people. Frankly, this is why malls became so popular for many decades following the rapid suburbanization of America. Americans were hungry for that social space that they lost when they moved out of cities. This is also why places like North HIlls perform well as gathering spaces. It fills a void.
Successful cities donāt necessarily need an attraction, they are the attraction. Improving upon and building upon the emerging downtown districts will become all the attraction that the city needs for ongoing positive experiences of both residents and visitors. Give people more variety in things to do and places to go both day and night, weekday and weekends, and then keep sprinkling in festivals and special events.
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Something I caught looking up āMeow Wolfā was how the name came to be. That helped me realize the name has nothing to do with what āitā is. Essentially there was a gathering of these artists and 2 words were pulled from a hat/box and they were Meow and Wolf.
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Thatās a hilarious naming exercise that Iām sure confuses the heck of out people.
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Rome IT has a couple virtual reality experiences in ruins. You put on the glasses and you see the place in its prime. It was really really cool, lol. There were no locals in my group, lol.
I like this idea the most. Pullen park is prime for a major attraction. There is plenty of space there to add restaurants. Skating area, arcade area etc. with string lights like Spruce Street harbor in philly. If you never been look it up its magical 
! Pullen park has old rides I think adding more carnival like rides and entertainment there could be a major draw for tourists and local alike.
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- 1000 ft Observation Tower with restaurant.
- Move the ACC offices and all related ACC museums and shops from Greensboring to downtown Raleigh. Add a separate Tobacco Road Museum featuring State, UNC, Duke, and Wake hoops.
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