Invite him to our meetup. If the timing matched up.
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You might be onto something with that. Maybe we could adjust the meetup around his schedule if he decided to come? Beers on the patio at Flying Saucer in June isnāt the most terrible thing Iāve ever done.
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Also, Leo has done extra meetup type events for various things in the past as well. I actually donāt know who this person is (mostly donāt use YouTube) but Iād be interested. Iām sure others on here would be.
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Unrelated, the real-life house from Up (Geer Street Garden in Durham) now has this great view from their patio dining. Reminds me of the parking deck for Bloc83ā¦
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Heās a professional urban planner who now creates YouTube content for a living. But his videos get like a quarter million views so heās a big player. He made a good video on Charlotte last year highlighting the good and the bad.
I think we should lobby him to make a Raleigh video. His takes are not always kind but usually pretty fair. Iām sure heād want to take some pot shots at Kane but probably well deservedā¦
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Ugh, Iād hate a CityNerd video about Raleigh. If he somehow stumbles on this thread, Ray Delahanty, my man, letās please talk first before you experience Raleigh. 
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Iāll yield to the wisdom of the elders ā not trying to make trouble. But fwiw, he found some nice things to say about Charlotte (alongside the usual snark) ā I donāt think Raleigh is that much worseā¦
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From Ray (CityNerd). āOh I love lists like this! I donāt have an itinerary yet, but I donāt have too much time so weāll see!ā
If anyone wants to shoot him a message, hereās his email. thecitynerd@nebula.tv
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There was one at the Publix in Sunset Harbor in Miami Beach until just recently. They removed it and are in the process of replacing it with one thatās like the escalator/cart escalator like at Wegmanās in Raleigh or coming out of the Target in North Hills.
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He already made a video about state capital cities and wasnāt very nice to Raleigh. He is clearly transit forward in his opinions. If you donāt have transit, he thinks your city is shit.
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Glad he doesnāt have to live here. As someone who does (and likes it), Iām happy to hear him out and have a lovely discourse. I assume others here are as well. If he isnāt disposed to that, heās free to continue sharing his thoughts in the virtual realm. But Iām always up to hear different and similar opinions. Itās not like Raleighās shortcomings are because of my policies, so I wouldnāt take it too personally.
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Heās actually going to be in Durham on June 10th! Heās in Winston-Salem on the 8th I believe and wants to check out the Triangle afterwards. Heās taking the Piedmont over too.
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True, but heās a smart guy who knows something about policy and history and doesnāt expect everywhere to turn into Amsterdam overnight. cough I donāt think heād show up as an invited guest just to do a hit job or take down piece.
As far as the big picture, Raleigh is hamstrung by bad decisions that were made a generation or two ago and still has a very small and underdeveloped downtown footprint relative to the size of its metro. Thatās obvious to anyone. But things are basically headed in the right direction, even if a lot of the projects we talk about in this forum never get off the ground. I think hed want to highlight the overall upward trajectory, not shame us for mistakes of the pastā¦
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One would hope that would be the case, but Iām not holding my breath.
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Ha, I can not imagine riding my bike to the airport, lol. Maybe if I was going to work at the airport, certainly not traveling. And that is before the hellscape of trying to get into RDU, or BHM, by bike! But I like options! More power to Hamburg!
If you donāt have transit, he thinks your city is shit.
Whereās the lie?
CityNerd has a very balanced perspective. He said good things about Raleigh in the Union Station top 10 (ours got an honorable mention).
Raleigh has some challenges that are greater than Charlotteās but also some advantages over Charlotte. Itās clear he doesnāt know much about NC other than Charlotte, which he explored in a fantastic video last year.
The car dependency and transit ridership is worse, in a category beyond anything he ranked. The multicore layout of the metro with one core being an unfixable sprawlfest is a huge albatross for the region.
On the other hand, I think downtown Raleigh would exceed his expectations. It has more flavor than Charlotte. It feels like a real city that grew and evolved over the centuries instead of a 1980s office park LARPing as a city. The universities nearby add a lot to the social fabric. It has relatively light freeway intrusion compared to most US cities. Itās an aesthetically good-looking city.
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YES you hit the nail on the head!!! Itās THE differentiator in Raleigh. We donāt have less highway intrusion than most. We have zero highway intrusion, while every other city our size or larger in the US does (and many smaller cities too). We have the biggest advantage, not having to undo generations of damage caused by interstates dissecting downtowns literally everywhere else. Unfortunately red lining still occurred and resulted in under-investment in parts of the city that we are actively combatting today. But the destruction from the Hammond/Oakwood freeway would have positioned this city completely differently for the next 60 years had it actually happened. FYI council at the time voted unanimously not to build it. They must have been the only council brave enough at the time, and Iād love to learn more if anyone has details about how that all went down.
A few exceptional cities with this problem today are covering sunken highways with cap/topper parks and replacing elevated thoroughfares with tunnels (where are your plans Durham?!). Still most are just widening them (Houston) or making them prettier (Columbus), and theyāll continue to deal with the consequences for generations.
Segregation by Design on IG is an incredible account that documents highway destruction with undeniable imagery. Highly recommend.
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I would actually argue that Charlotte is the aesthetically good-looking city, while Raleigh is pretty bland and boring looking but ultimately more fun and diverse, overall.
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