Build a new Red Hat with the concept of Red Rock, but in our case, not surrounded by rocks, sounded by OAK’s!!
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There should be absolutely NO SURFACE PARKING IN DIX Park, are they kidding!
Build a parking deck in a mixed use project with towers on outer edges of Park like Centrsl Park NYC has done.
Matter of fact, develop all around the park and extend it to southern downtown, this is so simple, develop around the whole perimeter of Dix with park in middle.
We already have an outdoor amphitheater with grass seating and a big parking lot … Walnut Creek. Red Hat can be accessed by foot or bike or scooter or uber or car. And you can grab a great dinner before the show and go to bars after the show.
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Walnut Creek is 100% car dependent. these comments are getting thrown around as if Dix Park where in Johnston County. I can bike to Dick’s Park in 10 minutes from my house outside the Beltline. I love the location of Red Hat Amphitheater, but in reality it is a terrible Concert Experience. It is totally exposed to the elements and gets battered by the sun absorbing thermal Mass all day and radiating heat up into the crowd all night after the sun is gone down. The sound ricochets and slaps off the convention center, and the whole place is a giant flat parking lot with chairs in it.
And you have to see the value of building roads and parking in Dix Park. It’s 300 + Acres with most of the planned Civic development happening toward the center. The park would be very underutilized if you couldn’t drive and drop someone off, or take an Uber or bus, into the heart of the park. Central Park is elongated, so there is no point in Central Park where you are more isolated from motorized transportation than half the width of the park.
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An aphitheatre in Dix Park certainly makes some sense but IMO it would be a real shame to lose Red Hat Amphitheater. It is one of the few walkable amenities in Raleigh. As nice as I hope Dix Park will be, it is not really walkable. You can’t have dinner, walk to a concert, then walk somewhere afterwards to get a drink at Dix Park. Losing that would be a significant loss for Raleigh. We should be adding more amenities to downtown not taking them away.
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A Waste…such a waste. folks say that Raleigh is growing with such new development. " WHERE ??? Ok you got Glenwood #1 and #2 the Dillion…Raleigh Union Station and FNB Tower. With such growth where are these new developments ? why stop at building at 10 stories tall. where are these so- called tourist that everyone is talking about ? the infrastructure here alone “Sucks”. Transit…well don’t get me started. such talk of smart planning and study, but it has been Years now, when are these Projects going to get built. Red Tape…nothing more than red tape, and a lot of cheap talk.
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It would be cool if raleigh could build mix use 2-3 story buildings along lake wheeler across from Dix Park. Resteraunts on the bottom floors and apartments on top.
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I Live along Lake Wheeler Road, so I often walk to farmers market on Saturdays, so a good walk to Dix Park would be even better, and having 2 to 3 story apartment with storefronts would be really Cool, I live there myself and be minutes away to DTR.
The design team has designated lake wheeler Rd as the Downtown Gateway with most new mixed use development planned for that area - of course that is only on park land though, across the street will take some other development.
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I think PNC is just fine where it is. Aside from NC State (15 ish basketball games and a handful of other events) and the Hurricanes (41 home games), PNC hosts on average about six events a month. A downtown arena might get marginally more events, but not significantly more. (There just aren’t that many acts that can fill an arena that size, regardless of where you put it.) So you’d be talking about a building that monopolizes a giant amount of land downtown but would be totally empty most days of the year.
The better idea, I think it is to try to better integrate that area with downtown. Improved transit linkage is the most important aspect of that, and there are some parts of that area that could be much better developed. But, and I asked this in another thread, I wonder how much longer it will make sense to have the NC State Fairgrounds in the middle of a highly dense urban area.
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Tranferring people via some sort of light transit from DT, through NC State and to PNC is a perfect example of how to leverage a light rail, free trolley, or other type of non-commuter oriented system.
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This is a regular argument of mine also against stadiums right in the center of a downtown. They are mostly dead zones. I am ok with them on the edges of a downtown, perhaps in a dying industrial area, but taking up important commercial, office and residential areas is a complete waste. Generally I think this thought (putting them right in the CBD or near it) comes from people who live outside of downtown and think of downtown as some sort of uber playground.
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I completely agree. Use sport stadiums and other destinations to expand downtown. Raleigh’s opportunities to do so exist on its southern border. Dix Park already gives us a reason to expand, and a sporting venue in that general direction will only encourage it more.
Interestingly, the proposed soccer stadium seems to be an exception. The proposed location near the train tracks on the northwest corner of the state government complex seems to me to be one of the core locations that I’d support because it’s a total dead zone, and it’s walkable to various residential districts within the city that are only getting denser and more vibrant.
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I would like to see The Cargill Site become a sports stadium ! This is a 10 acre track & The City owns 5 acres touching the Cargill track ! Combine this with affordable housing , restaurants , retail , would really kick start southeast Raleigh ! Great access for traffic from I- 440 !
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NC State already provides a shuttle from campus to PNC for basketball games. I can’t find a map of the route, but I’d be shocked if it didn’t already go right past where a station for the new commuter rail would go. I’m sure that could route could be expanded to include other events at PNC too.
If that area is activated as an urban node, it would need persistent transportation options, not just during events.
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Hey everyone, we’re starting a grassroots MLB-to-Raleigh fan group! If you’re on twitter, check us out @OakCityBaseball. The twitter account just started up, but we’ll be posting ideas, population stats, maybe even some renderings (I know how this forum loves some renderings)!!
Follow us and we’ll follow back. Let’s get this thing going, and if you’ve got any billionaire buddies, we’d be verrrrryyyyy interested in talking!
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This is great! Is there a way I can get involved beyond just following on Twitter?
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Thanks Kevin! @Loup20 and I have been talking about this for a while, and he’s got some other folks involved too. We haven’t had any meetings set up just yet, but hope to soon.
For now, a great way to help would be to post any data you come across (with a link/citation) showing Raleigh’s/Triangle’s growth numbers, population data showing our comparability to other existing MLB markets, or anything else that could support our case. It’s important to have links/citations supporting the claims for credibility’s sake.
Feel free to post here and I’ll tweet it out, or tag @oakcitybaseball on twitter and I’ll retweet it.
Started an Instagram account, same name: oakcitybaseball. Now I just need to get the hang of Instagram ha!