If the site breaks out threads for other Triangle downtowns, I BEG Of you to not combine cities as different as Durham and Cary in one thread. Might as well combine Garner with Wake Forest. Just completely different places.
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I just found this interesting. Even NYC has NIMBYs and zoning issues. Imagine the reactions if someone here built a building too tall and then were told they have to unbuild the taller floors.
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Itâs nice to keep things in perspective, I guess 
Just to make it clear, though: NIMBYism is absolutely not an isolated problem in Raleigh. It happens everywhere, is not a new phenomenon (even if the word is), and is a bipartisan fault line in American politics.
Greensboro has an impressive paddle sports shop called Get:Outdoors Paddle Shop. The whole of the Triangle has zilch other than general outdoor shops. Not a good place to shop for kayaks for example.
For an area that is really âhealthyâ and outdoorsy we really need to have a nice paddle shop. Either by Lake Wheeler or even Lake Johnson or Falls Lake. Heck even close to downtownâif Park City South actually improves and expands the creek so that clients can demo kayaks before they buy.
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I want to see a concerted effort to rehabilitate Crabtree Creek. It could be a solid kayaking run, but itâs plagued with blowdowns and trash.
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I saw someone kayaking on it once a few years back. I was impressed with their bravery.
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Ever heard of REI lol? We have a couple locations lol. JK of course.
âEven Greensboroâ has one.
too bad we canât get an REI like the flagship REI in Denver with whitewater park to demo kayaks and mountain bike test track out front. Hey maybe that can replace Wegmans at Fenton!
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Yeah REI Cary has like 3 kayaks on display. Great Outdoors Provisions in The Village has 8-ishâmostly fishing kayaks. If you want a kayak from these shops in Raleigh all you can do is ask them to place an order and hope the kayak you ordered works out. Get:Outdoors Paddle Shop has hundreds of kayaks on-site that you can compare and try. Thatâs actually useful.
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The Platte River and Cherry Creek in Denver do a lot for the city. Itâs quite the urban playground. I have grand delusions of turning Pigeon House Branch into a nice long park strategically on the edge of downtown, but thatâs a long way off. The amount of work needed to fix that creek is pretty severe. Stretches of Capital Boulevard would have to be rebuilt probably.
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Great Outdoor Provision Company has a couple local shops and a few across NC - great selection of boats and other general outdoor gear. Local to boot⌠
REI flagship store is worth a visit while in Denver to anyone whoâs never been. Amazing place.
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We need these lights or some sort of display on some street other than the City Market.
Oh man, Iâm really digging downtown Greensboro itâs really nice now. It a bigger, less pretentious Durham.
Elm Street is one of the best streets in North Carolina.
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Kane wanted to do this across Hargett between his two sections of The Dillon, but the city wouldnât allow it.
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This city needs better leadership. The current city council is great I hope we get more direct investment in the city in the form of better city laws and rules.
Greensboro with the help of their business leaders. Directly investing in their downtown with a new Performance Arts Center.
Itâs small though. Thought it would be bigger.
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I used to live near Greensboro as a kid (which, to be fair, was well over a decade ago), and went downtown often for some events. And with Greensboroâs car culture, it doesnât surprise me that that new performance arts center didnât give off such an imposing presence.
Despite lots of new sidewalks and buildings, I never felt a sense of soul or humanity in Greensboroâs streets or restaurants; even after I learned that the row of restaurants around where the sit-ins happened still exists, I rarely ever saw anyone going there. Rather, every parent in my swim team seemed to care for nothing more than to just whisk us in and out of our pool, without so much as glancing at all the life and fun that couldâve been right outside. Maybe things are different now, over a decade later, but the cancerous outgrowth of interstates 840 and 73 donât exactly give me any hope.
As for more optimistic news? @atl_transplant, you may really be hyped about this:
MARTA, Atlantaâs main transit agency, has historically struggled to keep itself funded (let alone pay for much-needed upgrades) until it finally decided to play political hardball. Even though they didnât have their own transit-specific tax until last year (where Wake Countyâs had one since 2016!), the state of Georgia went a step further and unanimously established a Transit Trust Fund!
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Wow. Iâm shocked. The current regime has pretty much been stripping the Atlanta metro of a lot of funding to âfocus on the rural areasâ I canât believe they actually pushed something for MARTA.
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It may be small but they get the good travelling Broadway shows. I loved seeing Anastasia at DPAC. We also saw Aladdin.
Certainly the nicest and largest collection of historic city buildings in North Carolina. Greensboro and W-S were the only real early boomtown in North Carolina and the architecture reflects that in tiny parts of their cities. Thereâs some cool stores here and there and of course Raleigh-owned restaurants and such have Greensboro locations now. This is why I wanted Downtown South to have a party street since Glenwood South is a terrible party street dimensionally and streetscrape design.
The rest of Greensboro outside of that street looks pretty bleak however.
Maybe the city can be smart enough and build a âhigh streetâ connecting downtown to downtown south in the future.
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Maybe the city will just work with the streets that they already have and make some decisions to improve upon them. If parking were eliminated on Glenwood, the entire experience could be improved including more sidewalk dining, more trees, and chill spaces with benches, etc. IMO, what hurts Glenwoodâs potential is its narrow sidewalks.
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