On the bright side, at least the Virginia government is investing in new and renovated buildings in their capital city. They’re currently building a new building for the General Assembly as well. Since McCrory’s “Project Phoenix” doesn’t seem to be very important to the current administration we haven’t seen very much in terms of downtown development for NC. The trend seems to be decentralization instead.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens regarding the proposed new minor league ballpark that Richmond is trying to build. The Diamond is not in good shape and both Richmond and the Nationals have more or less said that if a new park is built that the Nats would try their hardest to get an AAA team there with them the parent.
Building sports venues in Virginia is a difficult task because of two things: The Independent City structure which pits cities versus suburbs (or in Hampton Roads, cities against one another) and that the Commonwealth is barred from funding such venues. This means older venues - The Diamond, Richmond Coliseum, Norfolk Scope, et Al - last much longer than they should at the detriment of meeting facility standards for minor leagues yet alone getting major pro team.
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That’s an interesting point I hadn’t realized. I don’t think the entire state of Virginia has a state of the art arena (the Richmond coliseum is a relic just like the Norfolk Scope). The FredNats ballpark is also the only baseball stadium that could be considered up-to-date, unless Harbor Park in Norfolk has gotten some upgrades.
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John Paul Jones Arena at UVa is just a few years old, I believe.
But the fact that we can name 1 probably proves the point of how difficult it is to build these in the commonwealth.
JPJ is about 15 years old, but it is a really nice facility.
You would think Richmond would have nicer sport facilities than it does.
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And getting that built was both an achievement and a byproduct of how weirdly things move in Virginia. Fredericksburg pounced on how Prince William County could never solidify a deal for a new park on the PNats. That the PNats played in an 80s vintage park that barely met 1990s MiLB standards as late as 2019 was shameful in itself.
At least The Diamond went through renovations in its fallow year between the departure of the RBraves for Gwinnett County and the arrival of the Flying Squirrels from Connecticut. The issues the PNats had festered for well over a decade, it cost them a stop in Bryce Harper’s development because Scott Boras had an issue with their field quality.
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MLS, Ikea, light rail, a legacy air carrier hub, civic cohesion, motivated billionaires, Charlotte seems to have all. What are we doing wrong that we are doing right.
Similarly, besides Wegmans and Torchy’s what do we have to offer that they don’t?
Alexa, play the Gin Blossoms…
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Don’t forget, they also have the NFL, the NBA, and one of the very best minor league baseball stadiums in the country! Charlotte’s got a lot of pro sports!
Quite simply, I’ve lived here for some time and been there a bunch.
They don’t have anything better IMO.
I’m in on the combination of things that the Triangle provides, notwithstanding its tribal nature with three areas of Foci. I actually believe our distinct areas are of benefit to the region more than detriment.
Charlotte has its eyes on Atlanta, something it will never be.
We shouldn’t follow suit.
We have a LOT of positives going on right now, right here and I appreciate the way that it seems Raleigh looks outward to find inspiration but is working on using those in a recipe to keep our concoction unique. ‘To Be, Rather Than Seem’
Now - Downtown South — I hear there might be a stadium down there for all of the sportsball fanatics in the region but more importantly, there could be a massively successful development on fallow ground with mixed use and a grand park-in-the-midst-of-all that-going-on…All for that!
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I’m jealous of their skyline and having pro teams but that’s about it. Coming from Atlanta, they’re basically Atlanta Junior. Quality of life, and much more just feels so much better here. I also like the feel of our downtown and the flow of our development much better.
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Ikea is overrated. Torchy’s was also meh when I went.
Where did Raleigh go wrong? They tried to keep density low and stick to the single family suburban housing. I’m interested to see what happens over the next year to see if density increases with the missing middle house change. I think this could cause nice cool smaller neighborhoods that have small businesses/shops similar to Adam’s Morgan or Columbia Heights in DC.
I’m still saying they are going wrong with making Six Forks 6 lanes. They also really need to improve walkability.
I prefer Raleigh’s location over Charlotte as it is closer to the beach and DC/rest of the NE.
In the end, Charlotte is bigger and when Raleigh gets to be the same size I would expect transit to be significantly better than it is now. We still have college sports and the Hurricanes. I really wish we had baseball. Transit to the Bulls Game is far from great.
I’m excited for the train station to finish in downtown Charlotte. It would be nice to take the train down to Charlotte for a day or two. I also think the high speed rail would help between Raleigh/Richmond/DC.
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I would vote for the first politician who would govern under the mantra to make us more like Charlotte. Charlotte seems to rarely make poor decisions and comes off as a very well governed place with a ton of foresight. Heck, no pro sports league has ever wanted to come here, unlike Charlotte.
You’re terrible at trolling
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Not trolling. Just jealous that we can’t seem to get any traction to move forward while smaller cities take us to the woodshed.
Yeah same here. It’s not like I couldn’t have moved to Charlotte instead of Raleigh. Nothing about that city appeals to me to live in. I would’ve just moved to Atlanta if I wanted that sort of thing.
What Charlotte has that Raleigh doesn’t is a bunch more people and a bunch of bank HQs with tall buildings. That’s about it. I like to take the train down there once a year now that the brewery scene and the smaller neighborhood stuff has gotten better, but I had almost no interest in that place until recently.
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Totally with you, @wanderer. To be fair, though, both my current and future careers don’t have much of a presence in Charlotte, so Boston, DC, and maybe New York are the only places I’d seriously weigh against the Triangle. With that said,…
I wouldn’t do take that offer, either. If I lived in Charlotte, I’d still have to remind my family and friends abroad where North Carolina is; both cities are equally (ir)relevant to non-Americans. In that light, I really wouldn’t gain much from Charlotte’s brand.
Off the top of my head, there’s:
- CATS’ drama with Norfolk Southern over the Red Line
- Planning troubles over their comprehensive transit plan
- Geographic scars from historical redlining that’s on par with Durham
- Awkward compromises in establishing TODs near the airport, and making half-assed attempts at value capture
- Struggling to establish its own medical school, having to rely on Wake Forest after botching a potential merger with UNC Health
I think Charlotte has its strengths like pro sports and the South End’s restaurants; I’d happily take day trips to the Queen City once Covid’s endemic and the Gateway Station’s complete. But just like Raleigh and any other city in the world, I wouldn’t say it’s perfect.
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I don’t necessarily envy Charlotte (having light rail and a bigger skyline would be nice) but it’s very easy to have transformational projects when your region is focused on one major city. Being completely honest, there is a bit of parochialism here in the Triangle, and I’m not just talking about college basketball. All corners are affected: Orange County’s growth boundary is the epitome of progressive NIMBYism and has led to much of Chapel Hill’s working class being shoved out to Chatham County or worse, Burlington (not even in the Raleigh-Durham CSA!). Durham has a lot of arts and culture but is both helped and held hostage by a university that sometimes wants nothing to do with the city it resides in. Meanwhile Raleigh and Wake County probably have the most unified regional vision, but ask the planners trying to do transit or affordable housing: every municipality wants “mine, mine, mine” even at the expense of Raleigh, a top 40 city in the U.S. by every measure. There’s just no ability or mechanism to wrangle these disparate parts of the area together to create a cohesive, well-planned vision of our future. This has been one of GoTriangle’s major problems for years: they have to keep multiple groups happy when the multiple groups are often at loggerheads with each other.
As for why our billionaires don’t get into the pro sports game, well, you’ll have to ask them. They’re mostly tech guys, maybe their leisure pursuits are nerdier than football or baseball 
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3000 jobs coming with Apple at an average salary of $187,000.
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Exactly! I love that idea 