I think it was closer to $.88 but I digress. HSR will be cool, but it’s still so far away. It’s gonna be the train from nowhere to nowhere for quite a while. I have higher hopes for the LA to Vegas Brightline than I do the HSR.
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That the entire thing was built atop 2-3 levels of underground parking garage makes the small blocks and ground-floor pedestrian scale possible. But it’s also why it had to be built in two giant phases by a single developer rather than block-by-block (it’s effectively 12 blocks long), and why it cost $3.6 billion.
I live around the corner, and many times when I mention it to locals (and most certainly online!) I see a lot of wrinkled noses – usual complaints that everything is overpriced (not any worse than any other new stuff elsewhere) or that “it feels fake,” which is the usual attack on everything new.
But they don’t get to appreciate things like the riverwalk as residents – I effectively live in a “post-car superblock” with cars at the edge and pedestrian space in the middle. I don’t have to cross any streets to go out for dinner, or a drugstore, or books, and that’s immeasurably better than having those things closer but having to deal with lots of dangerous crossings.
What did you think of the bike infrastructure? The sidewalk-level Maine Ave cycletrack flummoxes people all the time, but there really aren’t any better options for handling that – and since the project was planned pre-Uber, they couldn’t really have predicted that thousands of people would show up there stumbling around like dazed amnesiacs. (While you can control pickup locations, there doesn’t seem to be any way to control dropoffs.) The “shared space” just beyond was such a big deal in 2014 that I wrote it up for Streetsblog USA, but mostly seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of fully pedestrianizing Wharf St (the riverwalk), Pearl St, and some of the plazas. The post-2020 demand for more outdoor dining space played a role in that.
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The state capital up the road just opened a new neoclassical high-rise legislative office building behind the state Capitol:
It’s not especially tall (about 200’, 14 stories) but it’s certainly taller than NC’s legislative building!
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I saw it last year and even under construction felt that it’s a lovely building to look at. In general, it feels like there’s been an increase in the amount of (neo-)Neo-Classical high-rise construction in the past decade as a backlash to the endless blue glass and plastic panel new builds, and I am very much here for it.
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I am opposed, ideologically, to legislatures having plush offices. They need to do the people’s business and go home. Comfy office space encourages hanging about and meddling in affairs they have no business in. My first reform for the Federal government is to remove all the a/c units from the capitol and congressional offices. If the congresscritters can’t get the required business done, they can darn well sweat it out in discomfort.
Still - this looks like a very nice, well done building that will hold up over time.
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Wouldn’t having uncomfortable offices encourage them to do their work in shadowy back rooms, clubs, and houses where we can’t see any of them and they’ll never interact with legislators and petitioners from other parties and income levels?
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I don’t think comfy offices keeps them from doing that now.
Make them all sit at their desks!!
Interacting with the people and petitioners is a fair point. But that is why you get done and go home and get around the folks you represent.
I’ve seen my congressmen here in town (he lives just outside of town) exactly 1 in 18 years. He was picking up chicken wings, so was I. Said hello and did not mention his very nice toupe.
Happy Birthday @OakCityDylan
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My absolute favorite thing about living in North Carolina: the proximity to the most beautiful, ancient mountains you could ask for.
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Easy. Let’s dig a giant canal to reroute the Neuse river through downtown and use the dug up dirt to build a mountain!
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My favorite thing about where we live is how close to Chatham County it is.
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If Miami could dig out its bay for a port and then build islands, I don’t see why not. I vote for a ski mountain so that we can have an attraction too. It could be a ski mountain for those couple of weeks a year that it’s actually cold enough, and then be a mountain roller coaster ride during the warm months.
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Something near and dear to this board’s heart - Salt Lake City sped up approvals and fixed its zoning code and now has more downtown activity than it did in 2019.
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Raleigh: “Best I can do is 10 more years of studies and neighborhood meetings.”
It would have been nice if the article gave us details of what SLC actually did to increase their housing. The story is very short on details to emulate.
I’m sorry for your loss and welcome to the club. 
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Thank you for the welcome and condolences!
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