I would love to see that happen on that block as the centerpiece of a comprehensive full block, mixed height, mixed use redevelopment. As someone who lives on the block just north of that block, I’d be happy to live in that shadow. A project such as that could give the greater Glenwood South/Smoky Hollow neighborhood a 3rd distinct pedestrian experience. The first is Smoky Hollow, and the second is The Creamery. Just imagine a mid-block pedestrian pathway and plaza along the creek! Imagine that creek opened from Glenwood to St. Mary’s with various mid-rise buildings fronting Johnson St. for the entire stretch with outdoor activation on both the street side and the creek side. Then imagine a high-rise on the north side of the creek fronting Tucker. However, the city’s recent actions with their parcels for public housing don’t give me any confidence that they’d even sell that valuable block and relocate elsewhere. What we are more likely to get is another one of their pathetic projects on this very valuable block in downtown.
@John. These are really valid points and such a struggle when we want to keep character and advance our city. Both have importance and you did an excellent job of laying out the core areas and challenges we face as a city. I am encouraged to see more voices that are not a “NO” to everything but more balanced in how we approach development. Nothing ever happens fast enough. Developers don’t always do the right thing and the NIBYs often hurt their own interest just to prove a point. Thanks for the well thought out overview.
as an addendum to your comment from 150 miles a way…a boutige hotel and event space and euro-spanish restaraunt (tapa?) in the works in Roanoke, VA. some legacy buildings have more traction than others maybe. https://thepromissoryhotel.com/
lilly tomlin showed up there
Miami Beach has implemented a new & free water taxi from Sunset Harbor to where downtown Miami meets the Edgewater neighborhood across Biscayne Bay in ~20 minutes. From its docking in Miami, it’s less than a 10 minute walk to the MetroMover autonomous people mover that runs all over downtown and Brickell. This gives Miami Beach residents a way to commute to their jobs downtown for free.
Well with Tim Moore already indicating he’ll likely fight any light rail/commuter rail expansion in Charlotte because “not enough funding is going to roads”, I hope we can at least get new interchanges at I-85/I-77 and I-77/John Belk Freeway. Imo those are the two worst interchanges in NC by a considerable margin…it’s almost unfathomable how the NCDOT looked at these back in the day and were like “yeah, that’ll work”
Pics don’t convey how egregiously bad these are. Traffic merging from I-85 S onto I-77 S has two exit lanes that curve sharply to the left, only to reduce down to one lane prior to merging with I-77, which for some reason then feeds in as the leftmost lane on 77 (and exit ramp traffic is usually at a crawl at this point, which requires essentially a full-throttle sprint to get up to speed on 77). The guardrail along the outside of the curve is always littered with debris and usually under repair from drivers crashing into it.
The set of exit ramps at John Belk Freeway from I-77 S is arguably worse, as the exits are all separated from general traffic lanes, but all three exit ramps and two on-ramps are crammed into a very small area, and almost all of them have shockingly short merge lanes/exit only lanes that clog up the entire corridor almost immediately once someone hits their brakes.
That guy’s a fucking douche. Can’t wait till we can take this state back
I mean it’s still in downtown Durham, which isn’t exactly a playground for the super rich, but 5M isn’t that insane for a nice house these days. And I bet it’s a pretty sweet place with an amazing view.
It’s probably also pretty freaking large.
5484 ft2
Something like this probably already exists, but I’ve been working on a statewide greenway map in my free time over the past few weeks. Thought it would be cool to quickly bounce around between cities and see how each network compares to each other. Obviously still a work in progress as I have just started to delve into the Triangle. What’s interesting so far is that the Triad seems to focus on key corridors by building relatively long greenway segments, then extending/branching off of established greenways as funding allows. None of the Triad cities have a ton of greenway mileage, but what they have built is pretty useful due to connectivity. By contrast, Charlotte has a bunch of greenway sections scattered across the city, but connectivity is lacking (although as the network has steadily expanded over the past few years at ~8 miles a year, this is improving considerably). Idk thought some on here might enjoy. I should have most of Raleigh/Cary’s greenways mapped out by the end of this week.
https://i.imgur.com/WJWcyuy.jpeg - panorama version
Durham is not finished building dense lowrise apartments. This is 3 different projects. “The Vanguard”, “Dillard St Apartments”, and “Commerce St Apartments” bringing over 400 units in between them.
This brand was just launched by Hilton and has two open locations worldwide: one in downtown Raleigh and the other in Pigeon Forge. Yet there are already two others proposed in suburban Raleigh: one in Brier Creek and another in Apex (at Veridea). Just… odd.
It is kinda odd to walk out of a trendy “lifestyle” hotel (Tempo or Aloft or AC) and into a decidedly un-vibrant suburban office park setting like Brier Creek.
I think all these hotels in Brier Creek just serve either airport or business travelers to RTP. No one visiting either Raleigh or Durham proper would chose to stay in Brier Creek.
It sounds like a flight crew hotel.
I often stay in the Brier Creek area as I like the convenience of it. Durham hotels because they don’t have as many are usually priced higher so I back myself up to Brier Creek. I just told one of my friends from Charleston to stay in that area and she loved it. She was heading to Roxboro. The restaurants and shopping nearby is great. But I do stay there when I am visiting Raleigh it is easy for me to get downtown too.
7 story apartment building called the Flat Iron, with a ground floor restaurant, is coming to downtown Cary near Vicious Fishes by the roundabout, where the gas station used to be.
For those of us who visit the area with some regularity, it’s nice to see the density expanding a little, especially when filling in a gravel lot. For those who don’t care about downtown Cary, please continue on with your day. 
Of course I’ve also seen comments calling this a tower, and bemoaning the lack of parking and ruining of the charm (of a gravel lot).
https://www.connectcre.com/stories/kane-proposing-cary-mixed-use-project/
