Hillsborough St died a slow death when the drinking age moved from 18 to 21 in the mid-1980s. 40,000 students and most of them can’t drink until their halfway through their senior year. But given our car culture maybe not a topic that will be address anytime soon.
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This is what I never understood. If I was a student at State, I would want Hillsborough to be the main ‘going out’ street. Glenwood seems too far from campus. Why did they shut down bars on Hillsborough?
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It wasn’t anything intentional or some policy change, the area was “redeveloped” and sky-high rent prices are hard to justify for cheap beer bars. (RIP Pantana Bob, east village, farmhouse, katmandu, sadlacks, western lanes. etc) It’s amazing what a different college experience I had compared to the current class.
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Hillsborough St was still really popular in the 90’s. Some of the most popular bars had huge parking lots and people from all around and of various age groups came there to party. The real demise of Hillsborough St was the selling of those bars and building student housing in my opinion. And no longer any real place to park for those of us who didn’t live nearby. Eventually the party scene shifted to Glenwood South.
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Yup. Every good city has a party street. Or several. The zoomers need somewhere to go wild. Many fall in love with the place because of crazy nights out on Glenwood.
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Residences definitely would help, but the cancellation of Crunkleton, closing of New Anthem, and closing of J.Lights makes me question how much the rental rates have to do with it. I’m sure the federal interest rates are also affecting as well since it will be more expensive to open stores or remain open. Competition would be another thing. There’s a high density of bars, breweries (although that is changing), and restaurants already in the area. With the closing of Little City Brewing (yawn), New Anthem (RIP), and surprisingly Clouds, I’m hoping that Incendiary is able to stay open.
In my opinion, Glenwood South has been a selling point where people have wanted to move. A lot of people want to be close to the action. If Glenwood South is where the partying is happening, then it would be nice to go out, drink, and be able to walk home afterwards. I would consider it to be a tourist draw as well. Granted it might not be as great as other big city party places, but family and friends who have visited from California always liked that it felt like a busy place on the weekends.
It could also be that many people move to this area as it’s one of the fewer places close downtown where apartments are located. So I’ll keep the open mind that people mainly wanted to be close to downtown and not as much as wanting to be near the party street. When I moved here, seeing that Raleigh had a party street was a draw for me at the time (10 years ago).
In general, I don’t blame Glenwood South as being the reason why Crunkleton didn’t work. The area is one of the more successful/active places in Raleigh.
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Do you live in Glenwood South? I do.
I did NOT move to Glenwood be near the action. When I bought my condo, places like Cornerstone, The Avenue, Alchemy, Devolve, Teets, etc. weren’t there and there was a better balance of businesses than there are today. I invested in downtown because I supported (and continue to support) the vision of walkable communities replete with resources in support of walkable communities. The current mix of businesses in Glenwood South (arguably the city district with the most walking potential) works against it fulfilling its potential and being a model of how more walkable urban areas can be created in the city.
Like in the past, my take on this issue is nuanced. I am not interested in eliminating all fun on Glenwood; I’m just looking for balance beyond the district being “designated” Raleigh’s drinking/party scene. If the district does not mature beyond being a weekly Spring Break, it will never realize what the district could be: a place where folks could live more of their lives without a car. Ironically, it’s become somewhat of the opposite: a place that people drive to to party.
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I started going to bars half way through my senior year…of high school.
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Well yeah but look how you turned out…
(kidding)
Meanwhile I didn’t turn 21 until my senior year. And have been trying to make up for that ever since.
Bars - yes, half way through Senior year of HS - Zac’s for dime buckets!!!
Drinking - well that started a good deal earlier. Someone always had an id, and we did a lot of house parties.
We had the luxury of living on the Canadian Border where the drinking age is 19. Also, Yongue St in Toronto used to be a pretty good place to find well, anything illegal such as fake IDs, bootlegged Nirvana albums, cuban cigars, crack rocks…
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This is the story of every college strip in the Southeast. National brands and generic retail come through and price out the college bars under the guise of redevelopment.
A college town is not really a sustainable business model. Only a few survive intact. Same thing on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Or Cumberland Ave in Knoxville. Charlottesville is maybe the exception…
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I do not live in Glenwood South; Mainly because I’m 10 years older than when I moved here 
. My priorities have changed.
While I would like to live in Glenwood South or downtown, I believe I have a steal at a pretty good spot that is pretty much right along the greenway and the rent isn’t too high (although I will still complain when the greenway is closed at 440). If DTR had shopping from major retailers or a greenway system that connected GWS, then it might be a different story since I also work downtown. Although I use the bike lanes downtown for commuting, they are not good at all for leisure social rides. I consider myself to be quite experienced with biking so I am pretty comfortable with it. With others, it’s a bit of a different story save for riding on the Crank Arm rides.
I do understand where you are looking to have a more balanced district. This does make sense given the number of apartments nearby and would hopefully bring amenities that I mentioned above. I’m all for having neighborhood where people can live the majority of their lives without a car so I’m all for it. I just wanted to point out that having a good active night life street is beneficial for Raleigh and is something that I was happy to see when I was moving here.
I still don’t blame GWS for Crunkleton for closing. I think business can move to the area as is. Although I’ve never been there, there is an Orthodontics business shown in the same building as Burger Village. There’s a Sports Cards store over on West St (again never been there personally). There’s a couple of hair salons in the area, nail salons, and bridal stores. There are other stores that are not simply bars or restaurants. What kind of businesses are you hoping to come to the area?
If I lived in the area, I’d be looking for a sporting goods store and clothing stores where the prices are “reasonable”. Also a Target, I won’t lie. I also enjoy the REI, Macys, Belk, Express, North Face, etc. Of course those are national retailers. Considering they do have those store at the mall or North Hills, there isn’t a high probability they will go near GWS for reasons other than GSW being a party street. Seeing that The Village was able to get a Barnes & Noble, I can see them pulling in national retailers. The problem is that it’s not GSW. Now residents could get to The Village if there were comfortable for all ages biking infrastructure. On a non-electric bike, the bike ride would be about 7/8 mins according to Google. The Target on Hillsborough would be about 10-11 mins. On the eastern side, Ace Hardware for other needs. My main thing here is that the area is already in a position to be a car free area including elementary, middle, high school, and college but it’s not because of missing stores; It’s because of missing infrastructure. You did explain you didn’t want to eliminate all fun so it does clarify a bit of the expectation.
I mainly wanted to chime in for the current reasons as to why I don’t live in the area and what would make me want to live in the area (or closer to DTR) more. I did consider the neighborhood in part due to the party street, but again life priorities changed. It wasn’t a bigger house haha but more based off amenities.
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Drunktown kind of has to be somewhere, right? Raleigh in some form has had it for many many years. i guess it has moved around a bit.
This didn’t age well. Finally something to cheer about.
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15 posts were merged into an existing topic: General Raleigh History
A picture I took 6 years ago today. Honestly wouldn’t have believed we’d still be trying to fill retail in Phase 2, but it does look better now at least.
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. Love that a Diner is going in. Downtown needs more breakfast spots.
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Wow. Super hyped about the diner concept!
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The story made it seem like Crunkleton isn’t dead yet.