I did business administration when I was at NC State and knew a bunch of kids doing accounting. Some of them got their MACs (Masters of Accounting) through NC State and got to go to Prague too as part of their MAC degree.
@Francisco NC State has a whole webpage to it. It’s called their European Center in Prague.
It’s literally just a 30 second walk from the famous Prague Astronomical Clock and see tens thousands of tourists walk past it every day. Quite the location.
The college of design has a study abroad program in Prague, and I think it predates the European Center.
Study Abroad | College of Design.
After looking at the European Center webpage, they confirm that the whole Prague thing started with the College of Design.
Yeah the friends I had who studied abroad in Prague through State had a blast of a time for sure. Lots of beer drinking and partying and not a lot of studying 
NC State civil engineering also had a summer program in Prague. The professors travel over there with the students.
Annyone else see this making the rounds recently? I’m not an engineering expert but saw this and think this looks highly difficult and out of this world expensive. Saudi Arabia is building a 100+ mile long city that looks like it’s out of some sci-fi Westworld/The Expanse fantasy land.
it’s a giant cruise ship in the desert that doesn’t move.
Yeah I’m not holding my breath here, I think this is all PR. The other big Saudi engineering project I can think off is the Jeddah Tower, that was supposed to be taller than the Burj Khalifa. Think they’ve been working on it for years and just stopped in 2020 so I’m not full of confidence this thing will ever happen.
The Soviets put forward a version of this in Magnitogorsk - an infinitely linear city. Not exactly a garden spot, but an interesting case study:
Honestly, Saudi Arabia/Dubai is a disgusting cesspool of excess and greed. Building unreasonably tall buildings for the hell of it and tropical island-like resorts in the middle of the fucking desert, while 90% of their people live in squalor and filth. Like the whole country is Las Vegas or something. Fuck this shit.
Masdar City is the most similar, if more realistic. Also the World and Palm Jebel Ali archipelagos. None of those have been close to the initial plan. I doubt the project even gets started the way it’s scoped now. Maybe they’ll reduce the scope and build something.
I do wish there was more demand for spectacle or truly novel ideas like this in the West. But I think it’s just so difficult to justify the cost when there are so many other uses for the money.
Here’s a story about a sister city and its own highway widening issues. The more I hear about cities like this, the happier I am that 40 isn’t closer to downtown.
My first visit to Atlanta in my adult life (visited once in high school, which barely counts).
Positives:
Negatives:
Overall, it’s really like a Raleigh on steroids. There’s a lot of examples of how to blend new development in with established neighborhoods, and having something like the Beltline would be aspirational. However, I think we’re far ahead on bike and ped infrastructure, believe it or not.
Pretty spot on analysis for an outsider. There’s a huge push to add housing and more vibe to downtown itself with Centennial Yards and the Stitch.
Also voters just approved a huge allotment of money for infrastructure mostly bike / ped / safety.
Thanks! Means a lot coming from our ATL transplant.
I also made it out to Truist Park/The Battery last night. Great ballpark and very cool atmosphere in The Battery, but the location (and the politics that went along with it) still leave a bad taste in my mouth. Ironically, Cobb Galleria was where I stayed during my first ATL visit way back when, and it certainly is just as hostile to pedestrians as it was in 2001. Even the presence of the new Braves stadium didn’t change things much overall.
The battery is amazing! Once you’re in there. Getting there is hell though. The ped bridge helps some from Cumberland and Galleria and there’s some great circulator trails. The ones by the river have some of the coolest vistas I’ve seen. That area is deceivingly hilly.
The Cumberland CID also has some pretty big plans for autonomous shuttle and improved town center developments of the mall itself along with continued Bike / Ped improvements. The one thing ATL has going for it is that the CIDs get insane amounts of corporate donations, they’re forward thinking and unlike NCDOT, GDOT only owns the roads that have actual route shields on them so they can change a lot more roads.
I used to wish that 40 was closer to downtown. After some years have passed, I’ve come to love that it isn’t. When I lived in a suburb of San Francisco 10 years ago, I wrecked my car. Instead of buying a new one right away, I started to use public transit and started biking to work. After I bought my new car, public transit went out the window and I started driving again; I also moved to a different part of the area where there were no buses.
When I moved to NC, I was used to driving again and wanted 40 to go downtown. After learning how to use the bus system out here (which is workable depending on where people live), I’ve gotten used to using the bus system again (mainly during commuting). Now that I live near Crabtree (I was near RTP before), I got tired of walking 10 minutes to the bus, 30 minutes downtown, then 10 minutes to walk to work (frequency issues and buses not showing up were another thing). Saying that, I’m back on my bike again but will sometimes still use the bus.
Long story short: I understand why people want there to be a freeway near the city but it’s only because driving is all they know. Once driving becomes inconvenient, then things will change. This means I’m hoping they don’t increase any more lanes within Raleigh itself including Glenwood, Six Forks, etc. I understand some arteries, but 3 lanes should be the limit for arteries since bigger cities have 3 lanes as well in some of their busy sections.
Edit to change “freeway near the bus” to “freeway near the city” . Not sure what I was thinking.
I’ve really cut down my driving over the years and it’s becoming easier and easier to have less dependency on a car. I can’t say that I’ve completely given up on driving but the amount of driving I do is ridiculously low now. It also doesn’t hurt that I have gamified walking and look for reasons to walk every day toward my 5+ mile goal daily that is now an uninterrupted streak that goes back to last September.
I agree that I don’t want to see lanes added to main arteries, and frankly there really haven’t been many lanes added downtown or near it for quite some time. The rebuilding of the Capital bridge over Peace may have added a lane, but it also re-routed that entire intersection that required a turn lane on the square loop exit. If anything, there have actually been road diets that have narrowed lanes and eliminated lanes as the population of downtown has accelerated.
I admire your commitment to alternative transportation including that which is powered by your own body!
So I’d actually never been to Parlour, so I tried it before going to DPAC last night - Honestly, I was pretty excited, I like ice cream.
Nobody in our group was particularly happy with theirs. The actual ice cream is good quality but honey lavender tasted like Fruity Pebbles and the peach barely had any peachiness to it. Might have just been a bad day at the office for them, but Two Roosters and Howling Cow are consistently a few steps up from what we had.
DPAC is a lovely venue though. Kind of fun to have the symphony/opera/ballet in Raleigh and the big touring Broadway shows in Durham, gives you a reason to bounce between both.
I gravitate to salted caramel, coffee, and mint sorts of flavors, which they nail.
