I imagine this was partly influenced by his time as mayor of Charlotte. I’d love to see more state level leadership that has city leadership experience.
Unfortunately we probably won’t see that anytime soon. The Dems have: Cooper, Stein, Jeff Jackson?, all coming through the AG role. The GOP has Dan Bishop and Mark Robinson. Who knows, primaries for state level races always a crapshoot but I don’t see any major metropolitan area politician representation in the field.
Aren’t there rumors that Baldwin is trying for a state level office at some point?
Baldwin is reversing course and planning to run for another term (for Raleigh mayor). Her public perception is so dismal though, I don’t think it’s as much of a slam dunk this time around. State office? She’d be insane to try at this point. I voted for her (and may again if there truly aren’t any worthy opponents I think could actually win), and I generally agree with her policies and philosophy of growth - but she is an absolute dogsh*t politician, if I’m being brutally honest. When she was on the City Council way back when, she seemed to have some swagger- an ounce of charisma goes a long way - but these days she just doesn’t seem to even BOTHER trying to appear likeable and welcoming to her constituents. While I personally ignore that, because I know her qualifications and general policy principles, most of Joe Public doesn’t, nor will do any deep research to find out. They just see what they see, and hear what they hear, and to most - what they see and hear is someone who is almost apathetic to the general public she serves. I think she has an uphill battle this election, and one that I’m not nearly as confident she’ll overcome. I can absolutely see Corey Branch - who has officially announced his run - winning over her, and a completely dead City Council where nothing gets done for years.
Yeah I had heard that she is intending to run for Mayor again, but thought the rumor was a state-level office at some point for her.
But yeah, agree with you on all points. Her public image is pretty much in the toilet at this point. I voted for her for much of the same reasons, her and the last council’s track record on growth and development is very strong. But she does a terrible job of acting like she cares. Running for a state-level office at this point would be misguided as I don’t think she’d get much pull from Raleigh.
One pro of the weak-mayor system Raleigh has is that a NIMBY mayor doesn’t have much power to effect outcomes if the rest of the council is YIMBY. Though, have been disappointed with the newcomers to the current council…
A new “education campus” to house the headquarters of the UNC System, N.C. Community College System and the Department of Public Instruction. The Department of Commerce will also be under the same roof. To make room for the new building, the state plans to demolish the Administration Building (above).
The Bath Building on Wilmington Street, a former state health lab, will be demolished in 2024. It used to house state health labs and will be replaced by open space (above).
Lawmakers tasked Legislative Services Officer Paul Coble — a former Raleigh mayor — with overseeing the construction projects. One thing you won’t see in the new state government buildings: Privately owned shops and restaurants. That was a goal of former Gov. Pat McCrory, who proposed mixed-use buildings to house state offices as part of his “Project Phoenix” initiative. Coble sees things differently. “Our job is to be the government, and so that’s what we need to be doing, not worrying about, ‘is there a Chick-fil-A on the ground floor, and is it doing well or not?’” he said.
The Administration Building will prove challenging because it once housed the governor’s emergency shelter. It’s also directly across the street from the glass windows of the Museum of Natural Sciences. “It’ll be a deconstruction not an implosion,” Coble said. “Again, because of how it’s built, you just aren’t going to knock it down, you’re going to have to kind of deconstruct it as you go through.”
Once that’s done, construction can begin on the education campus. Coble is working with the architecture firm LS3P on designing a seven- or eight-story building atop underground parking facing the corner of McDowell and Lane streets. “We’re pretty close to having everything (designed) to where we can show it,” he said.
The site of the building has some unusual challenges. “Downtown Raleigh really sits on top of about three or four underground rivers, and they all seem to go through this area,” Coble said. That could limit how deep construction crews can dig.
The education building will be finished in 2026. But it’s far from the only major downtown Raleigh construction project in the planning pipeline. The governor’s office will eventually move to a new building on a site that’s currently a parking lot next to the governor’s mansion. Coble says he wants a place that can host visiting dignitaries and business leaders. “You make it a small, really nice looking building, so when somebody comes, you’ve got something to really show them and impress them,” he said.
Also in the works: A major renovation of the Education Building on Halifax Mall, and a new parking deck for state workers across from it on Wilmington Street.
State leaders are still considering demolishing the Archdale Building, an office tower across Halifax Mall from the legislature that’s often the subject of architectural criticism.
The building that currently houses the community college system on Jones Street could be demolished along with some of its neighbors. That block of downtown Raleigh was once Caswell Square — one of the five park-like squares when the city was first built as the state capital. “We want to take everything off and return it to a park condition,” Coble said. “We’ll keep the Old Health Building (which has historic status). We hadn’t figured out what to do with it yet. But that could be any number of things.”
Major League Soccer was a great example of that. Go see what’s happening in Austin same stuff Republicans don’t care about the capitals they are located in.
I swear I hate this man, and I wasn’t even born during most of his term. He’s a menace imo. I don’t like a lot of people but he’s definitely on the list of people I don’t like that I don’t know. Chick-fil-A would’ve benefitted state employees no one wants state run lunch or boring government food, it’s good but not everyday.
Good riddance destroy that building.
This campus could modernize this part of downtown, but without retail it’s a dumpster fire, I wouldn’t want to work at a place without good restaurants and retail.
The State Government own oceans of surface parking lots and instead of building on them, they’re demolishing some pretty decent Brutalist structures and in the Bath Building’s case expanding the DTR/Oakwood moat. Sigh.
ugh I hate this stupid, short sighted stance so much. Yeah, this is the gov’t district… in a damn CITY. Why the hell is he so stupid to ignore the fact that both public services and private businesses can co-exist in a damn city??? At least commit to reserving some of the open/available land around this area for private development. There is absolutely zero reason this ENTIRE area NEEDS to remain a dead zone for the rest of history.
Dignitaries and business leaders: “Wow, this small, really nice looking building is small and really nice looking, I’m impressed. It’s too bad the rest of this area f**king sucks.” LMAO
Man. This is all GREAT news except – and this is apparently an unpopular opinion – I love the Archdale building. It’s unique. Looks like a PS2. I’ll miss it.
Not clear from this description whether the lot would be the 100 or 200 block of E Jones street. 200 is directly adjacent but 100 is catty corner and I was under the impression that that the 2022 budget allocated funds to study or design a Council of State building on the 100 block.
For some of us long term Raleigh folks (my family just passed 50 years in Raleigh), both the Archdale Building and Holiday Inn are iconic Raleigh skyline buildings.
What state level office would there be? I don’t see MAB fitting in the currently resurgent and youth filled Dems, even if the Wake Dems haven’t had their own youth movement take hold. Anything involving an election could backfire given how there’s a charisma drain in this city and past attempts (Deborah Ross for Senate/Vyonne Lewis Holley for Lt. Governor) fell like lead balloons.
Typically I’d suggest even a GA run, she’d show more of a pulse than Abe Jones has done, but thats kicking the can further.
Archdale is still active—they’re actually moving people INTO it as we speak. How long? I dunno. But I’m happy to keep it for now, if only for the fact it’s literally the only building in the state-owned blocks that’s over 12 stories.
I was down at NCDEQ (Green Square) twice on Monday, and it looked like some of the offices were still occupied from the street.
