Is that right across from Automatic Seafood? Those apartments look suspiciously familiar.
Good location for another brewery, close to Back 40 and Ghost Train, plus Pepper Place and Rodney Scott’s whole hog bbq!!
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You are spot on! The funniest part of that development is a “lazy river” and Koi Pond in front of it… for some reason.
Ok, so that is cra-cra, as the kids use to say. I will have to walk around it next time I am there. Seems the biggest ammenity is a Beard Award winner across the street at Automatic!
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I spent the weekend in Charlotte and it makes me want to vote for whatever mayor who would do all in their power to make Raleigh the next Charlotte. With what Charlotte has over Raleigh - MiLB downtown, MLS, IKEA, light rail and a beefier bus system, even a generally dense downtown and actual tourist attractions - it feels like Raleigh is the eternal bridesmaid city of this state.
For a city with no highways truly cutting through downtown it feels like that Raleigh is a lot less cohesive than Charlotte is. Where’s our NoDa for one? Are we always doomed to be 20 years behind Charlotte?
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Charlotte USA sux. Panthers suck, Hornets suck. Tepper sux. Nice bait post I responded.
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I’m with you. It’s probably the most tiresome topic on all of the Internet in NC.
Time to travel more @jdb820. 
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I’ve traveled. Many places. I’ve lived in cities Charlotte would be in envy of.
That Raleigh seems to love being The Bridesmaid and permanent beta should have all y’all on notice. What really separates us from a Richmond or Columbia or Providence or Hartford or even Albany at this point. This city needs to punch up, not down.
I don’t hate Charlotte! It’s got some great architecture, a few cool spots I like to hit whenever I’m there (Common Market, Crispy Banh Mi)… and it has the GREATEST ROLLER COASTER ON PLANET EARTH. What’s not to like?
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I think part of the discrepancy you are trying to highlight is whether Raleigh is a great city for people visiting or just for people that live here. Personally I would rather visit Charlotte and live in Raleigh than live in Charlotte. As a resident I don’t particularly need more tourist attractions or big city bling.
NoDa is cool, but it’s not in The city center. As Raleigh grows we will continue to have our own little arts districts coalesce, But you got to admit it’s nice that we have things like art space, the pour house music hall, c Grace, CAM, etc. In the heart of the city.
I think we’re all prone to looking at the positives of another city in comparing them to the negatives of our own. Raleigh’s got some things going for it that Charlotte can’t replicate because they’ve already sold out their entire city center to corporations
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I’ve never been to Charlotte so I can’t speak to the on-th-ground experience, and I’m not touching the sports teams hand grenade, but most of the rest seems to basically stem from the fact that the Charlotte metro area is basically the same size as the Triangle but only has one downtown and one set of regional authorities, so all the investment goes into one area and it’s much easier to coordinate.
If you combined DTR, Downtown Durham, and Chapel Hill into a single CBD it’d feel more appropriate to our size, but it also wouldn’t feel like the Triangle anymore if that makes sense.
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Don’t hate it. Enjoy visits. Don’t wanna live there.
Charlotte’s got a lot and it’s different - heck, they’ve got an uptown, ya’know…?
Sibling rivalry - always gonna be a thing.
Raleigh doesn’t have to BE Charlotte but there are things to learn from both positive and negative. Where’s our NoDA ? No two places are the same…It takes about 5 mins more to get from Uptown to NoDA than it takes to get from DTR to Durm. Charlotte’s got nothing like Durm. Much less Chapel Hill as OCY suggests above. Where’s the North Hills facsimile in Charlotte ? Where’s the RTP? The Cary?
If local leaders maintain a desire to keep pushing for more / better along with a healthy dose of perspective, Raleigh and the region on the whole will be fine in its own skin.
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IKEA? 
I needed that laugh.
The cultural shift from needing to be entertained from manifesting your own entertainment is accelerating.
The only thing Charlotte has over Raleigh is being closer to the NC mountains and only 30 minutes closer to the beast of the east Snowshoe, WV.
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IMO, Raleigh’s NoDa is N.Person St., only our “NoDa” is actually walkable to the center of the city.
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Well, they do have UNC-Ikea.
In all seriousness, their named university is as far from the center of Charlotte as Triangle Town Center is from the center of Raleigh. No wait! TTC is actually closer to downtown Raleigh.
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The only reason to go to IKEA are the meatballs and honestly my meatballs are better.
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Ikea sells a mean vegetable peeler. seriously.
It’s among the best 5 or 6 bucks that I’d ever spent.
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Jdb , a troll amongst us. Worse, a Charlotte troll . Banished to the blocked dungeon. Back to topic now.
Spent a marvelous weekend in RVA a couple weeks ago - it’s a city that feels like the yin to Raleigh’s yang. Wonderful to have it so close.
It’s got some amazing things Raleigh pretty much can never have: Beautiful historic urban townhouse districts (The Fan, Church Hill), stunning civic architecture (The whole capital complex, both historic train station buildings), all of the river activities and parks, an art museum with the kind of collection you can only have when your city was big and rich in the Gilded Age.
Raleigh’s absolutely got it beat on some other areas though - RVA’s central CBD is so sleepy it makes Fayetteville Street feel like Glenwood South on a Saturday, we have thriving cities to visit within an hour radius, and honestly just that vibe you get in a fast growing city that things are moving. Richmond’s on the up, but definitely not at the same pace Raleigh is.
3 things I think Raleigh could pick up on:
It feels like Hillsborough Street, Five Points, or Person Street could become as fun as Carytown. They just need more development, connectivity and independent shops.
More neighborhoods with townhouses and corner stores and restaurants. Our little South Street district by Boylan Heights is getting there, and more and more townhouse developments seem to be popping up, but the commercial spots layered into the neighborhood is so crucial to making it feel urban in a good, lively way - places like Kuba Kuba, Proper Pies, Alewife (I’m more of an eater than a shopper, clearly).
We all want this one - connection between the brewery and fun stuff node around Lynnwood to make it cohesive. The positive feedback loop they have going in Scott’s Addition is fun to see, and it feels like we have the basics already in place or under construction. I didn’t take a picture of all the construction, but here’s my lunch at ZZQ because it was divine.
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one of my favorite cities in the south. as a kid, i was always amazed at the skyline when you would drive past on 95 on the way to DC. many friends have moved there, and i think if I were to leave Raleigh but stay in the south, this is my first choice. i’ve heard people say Richmond is what Durham thinks it is haha
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I love visiting Charlotte, Richmond, Asheville, etc. But they’re different places from Raleigh and it’s not a competition. If someone prefers one of them to Raleigh, to the point that it makes living in Raleigh unpleasant, I would suggest moving to that city. And maybe joining a message board for that city.
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