The municipal complex is next to a park. I personally prefer a tasteful urban contrast with the nature in the park. So I would pass, actually.
Buildings like that would be great in Glenwood South or near Transfer Co, though.
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And get the person who does Fran’s voice from Higglytown Hereo’s to do the voice! Awww sucks, that accent sounds like the squirrel is from Fargo ND. Never mind.
I think that is too cool for Raleigh. Too mod, too hip, too now.
I don’t think that’s in the budget lol
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How bout we give them $1.25 to plant an oak sapling on the roof?
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Lol perfect! We can crowdsource this
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I spent last weekend in Nashville with my wife and 4-year old. It was a random reason to get away and see a city we’d never been too. Also, got to teach the kiddo how to travel!
Expectations were low cause we had short legs with us but all around, we enjoyed seeing the few sites we did and just seeing a different environment. Yes, from what you read, Nashville is booming and there are plenty of cranes put to work right now. You can also spot new developments if you are paying attention and know “that look.” Apartment buildings looked the same as ours but maybe with a different paint job. There was a also a skyhouse, just like Raleigh. (and lots of other cities)
That’s 4 cranes that you can see when walking down Broadway.
Nashville makes me want Raleigh to have a little bit more tourism here as it is a nice fuel to the streetlife fire. At the same time, one observation I made is that there are very little residential buildings near all this activity in the core downtown. The residents almost step back a little. With the Bridgestone Arena, Country Music Hall of Fame, and all the bars, you have office towers and hotels that fill in the gaps.
I saw lots of growth around The Gulch and that seems to be quickly becoming a spot on to its own. I don’t know what was there before but it looks like it is completely turned over. Everything is new in this photo.
The downtown, in every part I saw, is still littered with surface parking. I didn’t really leave the downtown area so didn’t see what the traffic was like but you can tell that this is still a predominantly car-driven city. Some sidewalks were being widened but Raleigh has more bike lanes than Nashville from what I saw.
We used transit a bit to get around and the free downtown circuits were helpful. Other routes were VERY infrequent and if everything stays the same, I feel Raleigh’s transit may provide more value than Nashville’s, again from my POV. We used the bus from the airport to downtown and while it was very convenient point-to-point, the timetables were odd and routes different in both directions.
Nashville felt cool cause it oozed that music city vibe, murals everywhere, art, and while I’m not at all a country music fan, I could get into hitting the Honky Tonk with some friends for a good time. When in Rome, right? 
At the same time, it was hard to tell where the locals were. The Gulch maybe? Still, it had a lot of tourists. While Broadway was packed with bar hoppers, the riverwalk area was deserted. No locals going for a stroll there. These buildings face the river and while they technically are the loading side for the businesses facing 2nd ave, the wide sidewalk here was dead when I walked down it.
Nashville might be a good peer city for Raleigh to look towards on some things. At the same time, it has a lot more building stock, pre-WWII, to work with while Raleigh does not. This is a major factor, I think, in a city’s look and feel. Raleigh and Nashville both have good bones it’s just that Nashville has a lot more of it.
Raleigh probably needs to start activating more areas for urban development. With the Penmarc stadium being worked on, downtown should stretch to the south towards it. At the same time, it should move north along the capital blvd corridor. That’ll make the city feel bigger.
I’d love to go back with friends or when the kid is older, can stay out longer but I enjoyed the visit. That’s my quick take, would love for those with Nashville experience to chime in.
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I took a photo of Austin’s Skyhouse.
For reference to hyper-development killing the local culture. This Skyhouse is in Rainey Street Historic District. Which from what I saw is almost completely wiped out of all its historic nature for a bunch of Skyhouse-like development with a like bit of Cornerstone-ish Glenwood South vibes still hanging on.
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I went to Nashville for a bachelor party last year and agree with everything you said. The traffic there is horrendous. I don’t drive much in Raleigh traffic though so I can’t compare. Broadway street is not where the locals go. Idk where they go but it’s obvious they avoid broadway. I’d like to see Glenwood South turn into our “party street” which would help attract tourism. We stayed 4 miles south of the city and when the bars closed at night, so many people were trying to gets Uber’s it ended up costing around $100. Luckily we split it 4 ways to make it not as painful. Going back to Nashville in June for a wedding and planning to stay downtown this time so hopefully I can add more then.
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I was in Nashville last summer and we stayed and hung out in East Nashville which seemed to be where more locals would hang out compared to Broadway. We also went to a street festival in their Five Points area that reminded me a lot of things we have here in Raleigh.
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I have traveled to Nashville a lot for work in the past few years (I think I am at 15 trips now). Traffic is horrible, gridlock at times. Given the nature of my job, we stayed in the burbs (Mt. Juliet) and commuted 30 minutes away from the city to our job site. But even at 530 when I left the hotel every morning, the traffic was already building heading west into downtown.
From the local folks I worked with, several lived in East Nashville and love it. Officially our office is in Franklin, TN (south of Nashville) and the folks that lived down there said it took them between 1.5 and 2 hours to get to the jobsite each way. (The project site is about 40ish miles northeast of town).
The times I ventured into downtown solo, I always parked at Nissan Stadium and came over the pedestrian bridge and would spend hours wandering around town. I really loved the old train station/hotel near the Gulch. I think that is the general area where Amazon is heading. In the summer there were concerts along the riverfront and it was packed down there. One time there was a speedboat competition on the river with lots of folks around for that too.
Nashville has a lot going on, but on my last trip out (February) it took me over an hour to go 26 miles across town on I-40, and not during rush hour 
Nashville has a lot more density than Raleigh, they really need to get some transit plans rolling.
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I love this idea! 
Partner with CAM or Artspace and have these little squirrels decorated/painted differently around town. 
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I put these in the light rail thread as well but meant to (couldn’t find this one) put into this thread. Jealous of CLT’s transit.
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Or just do it guerilla style. Spraypaint some squirrel figurines, put something like “___ out of 12” on the bottom of them, and hide them around downtown.
To be especially cheeky, only make 10 of them but say there are 12.
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Streets of Charleston, SC
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Super old picture of Charlotte
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Yeah that’s an ancient picture of Charlotte.
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