To followup on the “city in a forest” idea:
Frank E. Evans was inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame last year as the first director of the Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department. He arrived in Raleigh in 1969 by plane and designated “Raleigh - the park with a city in it”. He subsequently went on to establish the city’s focus on building and creating parks all over the city. Under his leadership Raleigh established over 1170 acres of parks and over 900 acres of greenways.
Raleigh - The Park with a City in it! I like it
I had a conversation with a friend recently in Charlotte. Though seen in cities across the US, the “sameness” has a much greater impact on the identity of younger cities like Charlotte and Raleigh.
Raleigh’s art, history, and natural features must be celebrated by its residents, its visitors, and shared with others. The synergies between these items must be explored, invested in, and expanded. In some ways we have to remind people of the existing things that are already here and then get them on board with supporting new things.
Nah, Raleigh is young city. We will be the people that will breed a unique culture into Raleigh eventually. We just have to make up s*** and all of us have to follow it and say it’s a Raleigh thing.
Make a unique pastry that only pastry shops in Raleigh will make and only during the Fall season or just even during the September festival season. Call it Pan Raleigh and go all over the world during Fall and say ‘Damn I miss my Pan Raleigh with a cup of coffee, it’s a Raleigh thing–see we eat this bread only in Fall and only in Raleigh–wish I could buy it here.’
I think they should concentrate and stress on non-automotive “connectivity” – and then actually work at it.
I can see more dedicated bike-ways, green-ways with urban destinations, an increase and improvements of sidewalks/ foot-paths as well as more frequent and smaller buses.
Per the other thread, our unique differentiator could be that we have no nice hotels downtown!
Ha just kidding… But yeah, there’s thousands of cities older than Raleigh so the odds of becoming something unique is pretty slim. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, we are already a city people flock to. If Dix Park gets built out to the grandeur of all the preliminary talks and master plan, it will be one of the greatest urban parks on the East Coast, so that will be pretty cool. Especially if they include an iconic Vista Tower for views of downtown, which has been suggested by the city and design team. We could have our own version of a mini Eiffel Tower or those tree towers in Singapore, designed by a local architect to reflect NC State program.
If we injected some Innovative thinking into the UDO we could begin offering wildly different housing options in tight spaces like this: https://kasita.com
I used to think the Raleigh food corridor was a super cool initiative 4 years ago. https://raleighfoodcorridor.org - urban gardening hasn’t quite taken off the way I thought it might but we could embrace our agricultural history and install vertical research farms in the city.
Or we could just push harder for more infill, multimodal transit, and non-auto lanes and enjoy the improvements as they happen 
The Village Subway is a major historical asset. We’re extremely fortunate that the owners of Cameron Village are interested in bringing it back in some capacity, and that it is at least partially reopening. Could be a precursor to more.
Quickly becoming a defining characteristic…as it was was back in the 1960’s…the number of modernist homes downtown as a % of overall downtown construction seems to be climbing higher. I’ve been to plenty of growing cities from Austin to Anchorage, and sure, all have their share of modernist homes…but Raleigh was an important innovator back in the day and appears to be a leader again in this boom for the style. Different than the Frank Lloyd Wright school, which was very much pro suburbs and anti city, this time around, the modernist lilt is decidedly much more urban.
@Vatnos (aka the very cute kitty)
I completely agree! 
And if I am not mistaken, Smedes York has taken it upon himself to spearhead this project even though his company sold Cameron Village a while back if memory serves?
I would say a good start would be to halt the destruction of our historic structures. Preservation is not a unique idea but how many places in this country make it a priority?
We are only a city in a forest because of a lack of density. Not sure I can get behind this one. Unmitigated sprawl is not exactly ECO friendly.
@dtraleigh I love the Cherry Bounce idea. I’ve always thought that was a cool historic thing that had its hand in Raleigh becoming the NC capital. Bloomsbury Bistro has had one on their menu. It’s a little sweet for me, but still a cool thing unique to Raleigh.
What about a holiday we could claim as our own? There are certain cities that attract crowds for certain holidays: Savannah/Chicago for St. Patrick’s, NYC for Christmas, what if Raleigh made a claim on, say, July 4th? Or Valentines Day? Or Halloween? If the city created some organic events around it (ie, world’s largest costume party, world’s largest fireworks display), maybe try for a Guinness record?? I know those sound cheesy, but so does dying the Chicago River green.
But here’s my favorite idea…a couple of things that are special around here are BBQ and college basketball. I came up with a March Madness style BBQ tournament featuring famous BBQ joints from across NC. Pit masters would face off head-to-head in a bracket-style tournament. People could buy a plate of ‘cue that featured two contestants (blinded) and vote for a winner to advance. Tournament winner gets a pig-shaped trophy to display back home in their restaurant. Maybe have some celebrity judges at the Final Four? Maybe bring in the Food Network to do a show on the world’s largest BBQ Bracket! Or bring in the Guinness records folks to record the world’s largest pig pickin!
Host this in the big Dix field during ACC tournament weekend (Thursday - Sunday), and bring in a few huge projection screens to show the ACC tournament games. (I originally thought this could be a state fair thing, but now I like the ACC tourney weekend better). Station the pig cookers around the edges of the field, screens on either side, and a huge scoreboard showing the BBQ Bracket as winners advance (like that big bracket in the Karate Kid movie). Have some local breweries selling their beer, etc.
Can you imagine hanging out all weekend at Dix field with the smell of BBQ swirling and watching the ACC tourney!!! Rival fans cheering for their teams! Sounds like heaven to me, and something very unique to Raleigh!
I like your idea RedVelvet. IMO Raleigh is sorely lacking in signature places and events and would be well served to cultivate more of both. Sometimes those kind of efforts can feel forced and artificial, but your BBQ and basketball idea builds on existing culture and strengths of the area.
Actually the Best St Pattys Day Celebration is in Buffalo. There are two parades - one Downtown and one in the Old First Ward which is the oldest Irish neighborhood in the city.
I mainly like to compare Raleigh to Buffalo because its what I know. Buffalo is a master at creating tradition and finding any excuse to celebrate. Maybe Raleigh can learn something.
Dyngus Day - Old tradition but has only been 10 to 15 years that Buffalo started celebrating. Its like St. Pattys day for the Pollacks. Its held on Easter Monday and is somewhat of a mating ritual. Guys will squirt girls with water and girls will swat guys with pussy willows. Its a real shame when there is a long winter and there is a shortage of Pussy willows. Anyways, Its a great celebration that the entire City Rallies around.
Boon Days - Celebrates the removal of the Ice Boon from the mouth of Lake Erie at the Niagara River. A Rite of Spring of Sorts.
Taste Of Buffalo - Very Large Food Festival.
Worlds Largest Disco - Speaks for itself. This is a great event.
Waldfest - German Pride Festival in the woods outside of Buffalo on an old Nazi compound. Amazing Fun.
There are other festivals that Buffalo does that reflect its culture and geography (Wing Fest, Winter Fest, Italian Heritage Festival, Grease Poll festival).
What is Raleigh’s culture and Identity?
BBQ and college hoops 
Why not revive the Barrel Monster as our City Mascot?? Since we love our cars and suburbanized city so much, the Barrel Monster makes perfect sense as our city mascot. We could commission a massive Barrel Monster statue and place it prominently on the Southern Gateway before the Western/MLK bridge coming into DTR. 
The Wide Open Bluegrass Festival (which takes place in downtown Raleigh) has the NC Whole Hog BBQ Championship that is the culmination of over 20 local BBQ competitions throughout the state.
I’m with you on this one @dtraleigh. I think it’s implementation would have obstructed the view down fayetteville. This design, if I remember correctly, was also not unique to Raleigh and had been deployed elsewhere - it seemed more like an artist looking for a place to make their mark than a collaborator who wanted to find what was unique about Raleigh and compliment it.
OTOH I will barricade myself in front of the Tower of Light and Time if they ever come for it. That thing is awesome. Just when you think its a cell tower, it blinds you with rainbow lasers. Beautiful.
I think we have a greenway system that is pretty unique among cities our size.
We could do worse than to market ourselves as a city criss-crossed with garden paths where you can use alternate transportation modes to effortlessly get around the city.
We need more greenway connections downtown, but those should be coming.
