Yes it’s basically like the Atlanta Beltline. It goes through downtown, some warehouses and neighborhoods. I really see the warehouse area transforming into Beltline facing bars and restaurants like Atlanta. Will definitely be a cool vibe. Just more inspiration for our Artery plan.
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I remember reading the master plan for this project a while ago and saw that they were pulling inspiration from the NYC High Line and the Atlanta Beltline, among other similar examples. It looks really promising and has the potential to be one of the main attractions in Durham, if they do it right!
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Very Seattle of them!
San Diego, Little Italy
If we moved towards a pedestrian mall model again for Fayetteville, it wouldn’t have to be ALL of Fayetteville. East/West Streets could still be through ways. It’s not 100% disruptive to traffic yet opens all kinds of more ped friendly options.
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Fayetteville had the east/west streets open back then. 
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My last race trip of 2021 was this weekend to Tulsa, OK. My first impression was Oklahoma is pretty flat. haha… Seriously, my first impression of downtown Tulsa what that it reminded me a lot of Charlotte (minus all the bank towers). There were several Art Deco buildings, and a handful of boxy towers. The downtown area was completely ringed by freeways. There was quite a bit of residential development going up near the baseball stadium. The river was just to the west of downtown, but with all the freeways, there was really no good way to access the river (and River Front Park) directly from downtown.
There was a single story drive through restaurant sitting right in downtown Tulsa across the street from a 30 story building (made me think of our lovely McDonalds on Wilmington Street…) There was also a large suburban style Home Depot within the downtown ring of highways.
I attempted to go the The Gathering Place (https://www.gatheringplace.org/) to get an idea of what we may eventually see at Dix Park. From what I could see it looked incredible. HOWEVER, there was one street going into the park (and one way in/out). It was a nice Saturday afternoon and it took me 45 minutes to drive in/out with ZERO parking available. It reminded me of people stalking parking spots at the mall at Christmas. I didn’t have the patience to loop around and try a second time to find a parking spot. During the race on Sunday morning, we did run several miles along Riverside Drive including beside/under The Gathering Place. There were smaller areas along the river with basketball and tennis courts and a few smaller parking areas. Another place along the river had a few cafes right on the water front. The thing that made me laugh tho, was directly across from this great riverside park was a power plant on the western side of the river.
The icing on the cake of the trip/race was running on Route 66 (hence, Route 66 Marathon). It was pretty cool and they had some signs for old motor lodges and roadside restaurants. I never actually saw the buildings, but I assume they had to be there somewhere. haha
Next up is Fabulous Las Vegas, NV in February for my midway point of hitting my goal. State #25.
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Your post prompted me to explore Tulsa on Google maps. The city looks even more car dependent than Raleigh. In addition to the ring of freeways encircling downtown, the roads downtown look extra wide at the expense of pedestrians and trees. Those roads look like the do their job of sucking the energy out of the city center. While we may lament the lack of towers in downtown Raleigh, I think that we are doing a much better job with sidewalk and people oriented experiences in our city center. When more towers come, folks unfamiliar with Raleigh are going to be taken aback.
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Very true… I also noted that a lot of their roads/streets were paved with concrete rather than asphalt. I’m not sure why, but I wonder it if has something to do with their hot/cold weather extremes.
My flights connected through Dallas. While we were landing/taking off I’m sure my jaw dropped seeing how incredibly sprawled out the Metroplex is. Maybe the Triangle hides it better with our abundance of trees/vegetation here… but it was sickening to see how car dependent sprawl just kept going out to the horizon.
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I put this in the category of ‘take it with a grain of salt.’ Local CBS article is claiming the Greensboro area is about to land a massive Toyota factory, but fails to give any specifics. Looks like part of the new budget the state government just passed left a specific amount for the Greensboro Megasite for these types of investments. Who knows if it’ll happen, but something to keep your eyes on.
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But did you stop and see their Boxyard? Apparently the inspiration for our BoxyardRTP. 
No, I had no idea it was there. Honestly, I was there for just over 24 hours, including running a race and sleeping. I didn’t do a lot aside from driving around downtown and unsuccessfully trying to go to the Gathering Place. My main objective was to check off another state on my race list. haha
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Also when you look at aerials on google maps, there are tons of surface parking lots in Tulsa. I’ll take downtown Raleigh every day of the week!
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Lol I wouldn’t expect you’d make a special trip to see it even if you knew about it. I just remember talking to someone when BoxyardRTP was getting started and they said the original was in Tulsa. I was like…wow, there’s something interesting in Oklahoma?! Who knew?
It’s supposed to be a new battery manufacturing plant for Toyota electric vehicles.
Yep, did a little more digging and found that this morning after I posted it. Looks like it would be a collaboration with Panasonic at this site. This gives me hope that the megasite down in Sanford could hopefully follow suit and bring something of this scale too.
And now, two national publications are reporting that company is likely a new Toyota venture: a massive battery plant for the company’s electric vehicles.
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ATC expansion in Durham is attempting to court a movie theater or life-style retailer with similar retail space needs, this is not including the space reserved for a small grocery store. If only the Nexus project in Raleigh had similar ambitions. I would love an Alamo Drafthouse or AMC Dine-In in DTR.
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I’d like to see this happen at SH3 or possibly SH4.
IMO, putting a multiscreen cinema up against Capital is a perfect location because you don’t have to worry about road noise for that space type, and folks who drive to it can come directly off Capital and park.
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is this name that town? some building look familiar, but all that water … and where do you land so close to town??
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San Diego Calif. Busiest single runway airport in the US, and one of the more challenging approaches due to a friggin’ skyline in the way. Fun useless fact, the FAA has placed a 500’ limit on all buildings downtown due to the proximity of the airport. Kind of a bummer, but the tacos make up for it.
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