And that folks is in the second largest city and metro in the country. It’s clear to me that USA generally doesn’t give a shit about transit.
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I hope everyone can open this. It’s an interesting viewpoint on city planning over the ages.
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Looks like the guys from ParTee Shack in Raleigh are opening up a supersized version in Greensboro. Personally always thought a venue with other attractions besides eating and drinking would bring foot traffic to Fayetteville Street. Not saying something like this would work on Fayetteville but wouldn’t be the worst idea for DTR.
The ParTee Shack at Holden Crossing Shopping Center on Holden Avenue near the Business 85 exchange will feature a two-story race track made in Italy with go-karts from France that top out at more than 55 mph plus two 18-hole “ultimate mini-golf” courses with ziplines, rockets, dodgeball, pool shots, plinko boards, basketball hoops, a super hero and a school bus.
Throw in 50 arcade games, a pizzeria and two party rooms, and the 45,000 square feet that Berger and Garcia are leasing in a former Winn-Dixie is all spoken for.
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This place got started because of cheap and vacant rent. Everywhere on Fayetteville unfortunately charges unreasonably high rent that’s difficult to justify unless your already an established name.
The biggest thing from this announcement is the addition of another indoor karting track. That’ll be 3 of the best indoor tracks under 1 hour from each other. From the Addretti Track in Durham, RushHour 2 track near the Airport and now this track in Greensboro. I can’t wait, the Rushhour track opening date has now been pushed back 3 times, and I may or may not have already driven by twice and looked in the window.
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This is a really cool looking design/archtecture.
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a greensboro company, Blue Ridge Companies, apparently that develops housing complexes has taken an old convention center/hotel in Roanoke, VA and made 350 units. this is the densenst, largest complex to have been built here for many years. they have kept part of the original structures for a more high-rise feeling. some will have nice views of surrounding hills.
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Almost $1 billion new bridge in LA.
Raleigh doesnt need to do these mega projects yet we have no money for anything. 
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Miami is doing a similar but more dramatic bridge in its downtown.
It’s under construction. I expect it to be finished about 10 years after I die.
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LA urbanists are pissed about this thing, namely because they could have built the bike separation into the bridge itself (behind the concrete barriers), but instead it looks like an afterthought. Also, as I’m sure you can tell, it quickly became a hotspot for street racing, burnouts, and so on.
Still would like to see it though. Apparently has a great view of downtown.
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Yeah they have really high road bumps on the median now to discourage burnouts.
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Those renderings look stunning. Wish we could get something that beautiful architecturally in Raleigh.
Don’t want to be a pessimist, but realistically, Vinfast (and Arrival, and Canoo, and Lordstown, and almost every other EV startup) is DOA barring a miracle. We’re not in 2012 anymore when basically nobody except Tesla was producing electric cars. Despite inconsistent build quality, constant missed deadlines/broken promises, and premium pricing, Tesla was able to not just survive but thrive, mainly due to being the first player in that segment and building out its own charging network. Legacy automakers are only now releasing a wave of EVs after years and years of development, and once their production facilities get ramped up, the window of opportunity for startups will slam shut. Tesla isn’t going anywhere, and Lucid and Rivian may survive, but I feel like there is widespread denial of the fact that it is nearly impossible to break into a multi trillion-dollar worldwide industry from scratch. It’s likely that we will instead see the opposite occur (automakers shut down/be absorbed by larger companies) due to a number of factors…
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Depends on how much the Vietnamese government wants to support this. Sure some vanity is at play here. Vinfast is a huge conglomerate. Could burn money for a long time.
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I have followed cars obsessively for a long long time (@Christopher can back me up on this) and have a very good understanding of the industry. Honestly, many of the people involved in the operations at Vinfast are solid, but the execution is not. The company’s business strategy has abruptly changed multiple times in its five years of existence, and leads to a big issue because (as you eluded to) the main goal seems to be to sell a car in America instead of actually building a quality one. Vinfast’s previous models were all reskinned BMWs and Chevys, and while that strategy can be successful in emerging markets, it won’t be in developed ones at this point. This leads to a likely issue, which is that Vinfast’s EVs are its first cars actually designed and developed in-house. If you are a brand new company from a developing market that has aspirations of selling $50k+ cars in fully developed and saturated markets like America, those cars need to be damn near flawless right out of the gate (or have some monumental breakthrough feature not yet seen in the industry). But the handful of unbiased reviews I have seen of the VF8 SUV indicate that it drives very poorly, with substantially overhyped range and performance. To be fair, all automakers continuously refine their models throughout production cycles, and electric cars in particular can receive over-the-air updates (such as one pedal driving) that would be much more complicated to implement in an ICE car. But Vinfast reps seemed adamant that the handful of cars that have actually been allowed to be driven by the automotive media are what America is going to get, and I wonder if they are aware of how different the expectations are of typical American buyers compared to buyers in Vietnam. The other big issues that Vinfast faces are its sales structure and its name. For the sales structure, Vinfast initially announced that would sell the cars, but the actual battery packs would be leased. Removing the price of the battery allowed the company to advertise a compelling base price that undercut basically every other EV available in America, and due to that low price would also probably give Vinfast some leeway for any production or quality issues. Buuuut then the automotive press figured out their strategy, so Vinfast responded by declaring that customers will have the option to eventually buy the battery packs, which increases the price of the VF8 by about $15k. At its expected $42k base price, the VF8 noticeably undercuts the Model Y as well as a handful of ICE/hybrid CUVs. At $57k, it prices itself out of contention. And the last issue…Vinfast is not a good name, at least for the American market. Tesla? Cool name. Lucid? Cool name. Rivian? Cool name. Vinfast? That sounds like some scammy fake Carfax ripoff.
I probably sound like I’m looking for reasons to dump on Vinfast, but I do hope they succeed. Vietnam, and North Carolina, would both benefit. But Fisker couldn’t stay afloat, the Chinese still haven’t managed to sell a Chinese-branded car in America after decades of attempts, and even comeback efforts from legendary automakers (looking at you Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and Maserati) are badly floundering in America. Hyundai and Kia have been the only import volume automakers to succeed in America since the mid-80s, and Kia would not have survived without merging with Hyundai, plus Hyundai and Kia made their attempts at a time when American carbuyers were not nearly as demanding as they are now.
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Maybe this goes under another thread (small a-ffordable, perhaps) but thought this interesting amidst the discussion of ‘quality’ development…
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Love this!!! The shared fire-escape/stairwell in the center is super cool
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Awesome! How about at this site in the Village District… does PNC Bank really need these 14 parking spaces (of 26 total)?
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Too bad that the site doesn’t include floorplans of the units. I’d love to see what they are doing for affordability.
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