Downtown Raleigh
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
- Courtesy Patriarca12 at en.wikipedia
- Light-transit, Charlotte-style
The Council, on a 6-2 vote Monday night, followed the Triangle Transit Authority's recommendation for the downtown alignment. Previously, the TTA had pledged to accept the Council's determination, whatever it was. Thus, the two go hand-in-hand to the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), a body comprised of local officials from the eastern portion of the Triangle, including Raleigh.
CAMPO has the official last call, but with TTA and Raleigh in agreement, its vote becomes little more than a formality.
So what does last night's action mean? It means that the light-rail system, if it's built and if it includes a Wake County leg, will use the D6 alignment through downtown Raleigh, not one of the other downtown routes under consideration.
I was asked this morning: Does this mean the Council decided to build the D6 line?
No.
Raleigh is not proposing to build anything. And the TTA, which is, has miles to go before its plans become reality.
What's happening is that the TTA is putting together a "locally preferred alternative" for light-rail service in Orange, Durham and Wake Counties. A "locally preferred alternative" is what the federal government wants to see when it receives an application for funds under its "New Starts" transit program. Of course, "New Starts" money is in short supply and there are many aspirants for it, so having a preferred alternative is a necessary element, but it guarantees nothing except the chance to get in line and start doing your environmental impact studies.
That said, Orange County and Durham County have known for some years where they wanted their portions of a regional light-rail system to go. The only tricky, still unresolved portions were in Wake County, specifically: (1) what route to take through downtown Raleigh, and (2) what route to take in the area of Triangle Town Center near I-540.
And only the downtown Raleigh question was really tricky. (At Triangle Town Center, the decision's all but made to run the rail line into the mall, which means it will need to cross over Capital Boulevard; the alternative is to stay on the west side of Capital Boulevard, where a rail corridor — but no mall — already exists.)
The map below shows some of the downtown routes that were studied (others, eliminated earlier, were omitted):
From the map, you can see that only the D5 route would've come into the actual downtown proper. The D2, D3 and D6 routes, on the other hand, skirt the downtown to the west, running up through the Glenwood South district.
D5 has all sorts of other problems with it, however, which caused the city's Passenger Rail Advisory Task Force, a Council-appointed group, to gin up its own last-minute, not-really-studied alternative, which it dubbed D6a. (For background, see our earlier post.)
The D6a idea was to use — like D6 — West Morgan Street, but instead of veering north on Harrington, keep on going right into the downtown. There, it would've linked up with the D5 loop around the Capitol district on Salisbury and Wilmington Streets..
The advantage of D6a: Goes to the downtown, baby.
The disadvantage: To get there, D6a would've needed to cross the ultra-busy S. Dawson and S. McDowell one-way thoroughfares (40-50,000 cars a day) at-grade. Both are state roads, and the state DOT was against having the light-rail cross them at-grade and very opposed to the idea that, if it did cross them, the trains should have priority over the cars.
The upshot, according to TTA and Raleigh's transit planning chief, Eric Lamb, was that even if DOT approved the at-grade crossings (unlikely), the trains would be forced to stop at Dawson and McDowell — red light — every time the lights turned green for the cars. Another disadvantage of D6a, Lamb said, was having light-rail trains stuck in traffic or, worse, hit by a car, on Salisbury and Wilmington.
The fact that D6 goes through the Glenwood South district has major advantages for Raleigh in terms of the development opportunities there. That it does not enter the downtown proper, though, is a big disadvantage for the light-rail system as a whole.
Councilors Russ Stephenson and Bonner Gaylord considered the latter a serious enough problem that they voted no, feeling D6a should be studied more closely before a final decision was made.. Gaylord said he liked D5 as an option also.
Councilor Thomas Crowder, on the other hand, argued that the this first light-rail line, including D6, can and must be augmented by downtown circulator buses, streetcars and additional light-rail lines in the future. In other words, it's not the end of the system, but rather the spine of a system that must evolve.
So, Crowder said, when you get off the light-rail line at the station stop on West Morgan Street, say, and you're six blocks from Fayetteville Street, you could hop on an R-Line bus or maybe a new streetcar. Yes, they'd have to stop for traffic at Dawson and McDowell. But when they stop, they won't be backing up an entire regional light-rail system.
Under D6, by the way, the West Morgan Street station is penciled in on the south side of the street between Boylan Avenue and Glenwood Avenue — very convenient to the Glenwood South district and to the Warehouse district, but a good six-block walk from Fayetteville Street.
There was talk of putting the station on West Morgan a couple of blocks further east at Harrington Street, which is where D6 would swing to the north. But it can't be done. The reason: The West Morgan bridge (over the freight rail corridor) is too high, and there isn't enough room between the top of the bridge and the intersection at Harrington to bring the rail cars down without creating a too-steep, and therefore dangerous drop.
With the West Morgan Station not that close to downtown, though, and another proposed station at Harrington and North Streets close to the state government complex but, again, not real near to what most people would call downtown Raleigh, that's all the more reason why a supporting network of R-Line buses, streetcars or equivalent will be needed to make the D6 alternative work well for the system as a whole.
Friday, July 29, 2011
No irony intended, I'm certain, when the ComeUnityNow folks billed their event in City Plaza tomorrow as "the hottest festival in town." it will be that, with temperatures forecast to go above 100 degrees. But it's Raleigh in July, so cool is not an option. And it's for a good cause — with proceeds going to people slammed by the April 16 tornado ...
... via nonprofits such as the Green Chair Project (recycled furnishings) and the Wake Interfaith Disaster Team.
The event is 10 am-10 pm on two blocks of Fayetteville Street and in City Plaza. Music, dancing, art. Two stages. Mostly free, but $10 VIP tickets will be sold to enter the area around the South Stage where the featured musical acts will perform. Donations for the cause will also be solicited. (There's a second VIP option, which is to buy a $20 card from 360Raleigh; it also entitles you to discounts at some Raleigh establishments.)
The key organizers of ComeUnityNow are volunteers — like Jim Bailey, executive director of BuildBridgesNow; Dan Nelson, founder of Streetlight Productions; and Mary Jane Clark, who needs no title — who put their heads together after the tornado and after the 2011 Raleigh Wide Open festival was cancelled by the City Council.
Try putting a street festival together in three months ... but they've done it with help from A-list sponsors like WRAL, Curtis Media Group (WPTF-680 etc.), the Raleigh Downtowner, and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, plus some help with the bands from Deep South Entertainment.
It'll be hot, no question. Dress light, bring sunscreen ... and a donation.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Charging to a world of electric vehicles: "It's a gold rush"
Tuesday night is "Public Night" at the Plug-In 2011 Conference & Exposition, the event at the Raleigh Convention Center for the EV — Electric Vehicles — industry. For $10, you can say you were there when your grandchildren ask, "Whatever happened to the gasoline-powered automobile?"
"Well, kids," you'll be able to say, "it was back in '11 when General Electric came out with an EV charging station in a box, and it sold at Lowe's for about $1,000.
"That's right, kids, one thousand dollars — it was the same year that the Republicans defaulted on the national debt, which as you know crashed our currency and forced the U.S. to begin using the Chinese yuan."
That's a joke :) — I hope.
But seriously, electric cars (you read it here first — first around here, anyway) could solve some big problems for the U.S., not to mention the world. Petroleum imports? Wars in the Middle East? Kiss them good-bye if we can run our cars on electricity, and the electricity comes from wind, solar and other renewable sources ... and we juice 'em up at night when power demands on the grid are low.
Electricity at current rates is far below gasoline — about 75 cents for the equivalent of a gallon's worth of power. Heck, put solar panels on your roof and a big battery in the garage and you'll really be happy motoring.
So the electric cars are here — the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf, and many more — but what's missing is the charging stations. Sure, in theory you can plug your EV into a wall socket, but that's the power equivalent of filling your swimming pool with a garden hose. What you need is one of those Level-2 chargers, which will fire up your dead EV battery in about four hours.
And folks, that's what GE's "WattStation" is. (It's the hanging unit on the left in the picture.)
The big announcement this afternoon was that GE is building the WattStation at its facility in Mebane, NC and will start selling them at Lowe's stores next month.
Lowe's stores in California, at first, then a national rollout.
Price: "About $1,000." These WattStation chargers hang on the wall, attached to a 240-volt outlet (like your dryer) or else hard-wired into your control panel.
(They're made in Mebane, and you're selling them first in California? I asked. Come back Wednesday, said the gang in the GE booth in unison, and we'll have an answer for you.)
Or, try my favorite product, the Plugless Power charger, a wireless Level-2 gizmo that shoots magnetic rays (I think that's what the guy said) from a pad on the floor of your garage into a module installed on your EV's chassis. Evatran, the company which makes them, is a spinoff from a company that makes transformers. It's looking for partners to test its product — at first, any company with Chevy Volts in its fleet.
Looking around the Plug-In 2011 show floor, charging stations for residential, office or retail-mall parking lot use are the next big thing, and the antidote to so-called "range anxiety." That is, will I be stranded if I'm driving around and my battery dies — how will I recharge it?
Answer: Most days, you won't have to until you get home; but on those days when you do, the electric utilities and local governments are putting in charging stations, as are malls, as are parking decks. And guess what?
AAA is also putting Level-2 and, for the few vehicles equipped to plug into them, Level-3 chargers onto its mobile rescue vehicles. Only a few so far, but AAA is committed, a spokesman said, to coming to your aid whatever size your battery problems come in. Right now, everybody's got a little battery and big ol' gas tank. In the future, big ol' batteries and little, if any, gas.
In this new venture, AAS is partnering with an outfit from California, Green Charge Networks. Its president, Ron Prosser, is in Raleigh showing off his own gear, including mobile charging stations equipped (some of them) with solar-panel arrays. He's looking for customers — say, a football stadium — that may need to charge lots of cars at the same time but intermittently.
The EV industry is in its infancy, Prosser said, with a lot of start-ups competing for the brass ring. Make that the gold ring — "It's a gold rush out there," a smiling Prosser told me.
That'd be sweet.
Public night Tuesday starts at 5:30. The exposition floor is open for a couple of hours, until 7:30, followed by a film, "Revenge of the Electric Car," and a panel discussion featuring Dan Neil, erstwhile writer for the N&O and later the Indy who went on to fame and a Pulitzer Prize for his nothing's-sacred style of auto journalism at The Los Angeles Times. I see he's now at The Wall Street Journal, working for Rupert Murdoch. (Don't hack me, Dan.)
Monday, September 13, 2010
I remember little SPARKcon when it was just a gleam in the eyes of Aly & Beth Khalifa and the rest of the Designbox gang. Goodness, gracious, now it's 5 years old and it's grown so much! It really is "igniting the creative hub of the South" — this part of the South, anyway — from the arts to music to fashion and design and, this year, a new CircusSPARK.
[A note: SPARKcon 2010 is the 5th annual. Upon consuming my fifth cup of coffee, I realize that the first one was in 2006, which would make 2010 its fourth birthday ... unless you count the year of planning that preceded the inaugural. In other words, 5th annual, and 4th or 5th birthday depending on your perspective.]
The SPARKcon website features an iPhone app and QR codes (if you have to ask ...) to help you navigate the literally hundreds of events in dozens of venues covering all of Fayetteville Street and some other downtown environs. It all unfolds this Thursday-to-Sunday, September 16-19. Here's a commercial to get you started, courtesy (to SPARKcon) of an N.C. State grad student named Chelsea Hedrick:
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Our topic tonight: The public hearing Monday in Raleigh on the proposed Southeast High-Speed Rail (SEHSR) project. The hearing is at the Raleigh Convention Center, 7 p.m., preceded by an open house from 5-7 p.m. I recommend, if you're going — and you should go if the subject of Raleigh's transit future is of any interest to you — that you also take up Norfolk-Southern's offer of free food at their rail yard Saturday, 4-8 p.m. Read on for why I say that. The rail yard is at 1500 Carson Street. See also this position statement from the Downtown Living Advocates (DLA):
***
I could say there are a lot of moving parts to the question of Raleigh's transit future, but this is no laughing matter. The local transit system — Triangle Transit — was always comin' through the center of Raleigh (still is, if it ever comes), but the TTA never thought it needed to close the downtown streets for its trains to get through safely. That would defeat the purpose of transit, yes? Lights, action, crossing gates were though to be sufficient.
But suddenly, the long-planned, long-delayed, widely supported but never well-understood Southeast High-Speed Rail (SEHSR) project apparently is going to happen ... and it's going to come through the center of Raleigh as well. And because it's "high speed" — even though, in the center of Raleigh, it won't be moving any faster than the TTA transit trains would be moving — the SEHSR planners seem to have their heart set on closing West Jones Street right in the middle of the Glenwood South district.
Closing, as in: A big wall on both sides of the tracks to keep cars from crossing the tracks and pedestrians from crossing the tracks.
(And if a pedestrian bridge were to be built over the wall(s), as has been suggested, it would need to be at least 24 feet above any railroad car passing below. Picture that w-a-a-y up in the air the next time you're walking from Glenwood Avenue to the 42nd Street Oyster Bar.)
And closing Jones Street is best-case.
Only Jones Street would be closed, you see, if the SEHSR line uses the Norfolk-Southern rail corridor, which cuts through Glenwood South and then continues north out of Raleigh on the west side of Capital Boulevard. (By the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood, in other words.)
But folks, Norfolk Southern is dead set against this system using its corridor. That's why they're having that picnic Saturday at their rail yard — see above — to feed us some hot dogs and impress upon us how much they don't want this thing in their way. And unless I'm missing something, N-S can probably veto this project if they dig their heels in deep enough.
Which means the SEHSR line may have to use the CSX Railroad corridor, which also cuts through Glenwood South (at one point, the N-S and CSX lines are right next to each other) but then runs out of Raleigh to the north on the east side of Capital Boulevard. (The tracks at Logan's Garden Supply — the old Seaboard Station — are in the CSX corridor.)
According to the state and city officials I've spoken with, CSX is amenable to having the high-speed rail line in its corridor (but it will want money — 'natch) and in fact the TTA line was always — and is still — slated to go in the CSX corridor, part of which the TTA purchased some years ago.
But if the CSX corridor is used for the SEHSR line — and if SEHSR's planners continue to insist that wherever its railroad tracks cross a street at grade, that street must be closed — then three streets would be closed to traffic: Jones Street; Harrington Street; and West Street.
Jones, Harrington and West streets, all closed? How would a car — or a pedestrian — get from the west side of downtown to downtown itself? Answer: Hillsborough Street or Peace Street.
The effect would be as if a highway came barreling through the downtown, cutting it apart.
And, like a highway, the SEHSR line is not taking the locals where they want to go in the Triangle. Its purpose is to take passengers to Washington, Charlotte and Atlanta at higher speeds than the slowpoke trains we have now.
The Downtown Living Advocates (name is self-explanatory) are out with a position on this question. Their answer: Use the N-S route and run the trains through Glenwood South below ground (in a tunnel) so the street doesn't have to be closed:
The DLA recommends:
• Downtown-wide quiet zones at all rail crossings
• Alternative transit alignment NC3, Norfolk Southern Tracks — see below
• Tunneling the tracks at Jones Street and parallel to Glenwood South, so as to permit
Jones Street to remain open
Given the present alternatives, the DLA strongly recommends that high speed passenger
trains follow the Norfolk Southern tracks north from Jones Street along the west side of
Capital Boulevard (alignment NC3), and is strongly opposed to the alternative that the
trains travel along the east side of Capital Boulevard, using the CSX tracks
Others in Raleigh will be there Monday to say that no streets need be closed for the high-speed rail line; instead — like the TTA's trains — the high-speed trains will be moving slowly as they approach, or leave, the Raleigh station. Closing gates would be sufficient. And a blast of the RR horn? The DLA folks don't want that.
Many moving parts. Monday.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Diversity's supporters have the high ground going into Tuesday's rally at the Capitol
Looking ahead to Tuesday and the mass march/rally at the State Capitol in favor of diversity in the Wake school system:
It's mid-July. The new school board majority has been in office for almost eight months, and a referendum on their actions to date is coming in November with elections for the Wake County Board of Commissioners. The (Republican) majority has thus far managed to scrap diversity as a policy goal, change a few school calendars and move some students around, notably the ones from Southeast Raleigh who were attending school in Garner but won't be henceforth. They won a recent showdown with Democratic Commissioner Stan Norwalk over where to put a new high school in the northeast quadrant of the county: Norwalk wanted it close to the hugely over-crowded Wakefield H.S.; the school board majority wanted it in Rolesville, i.e. not that close. The majority got their way on a 4-3 vote of the commissioners, with Democrat Lindy Brown deserting her party to side with the three Republican commissioners.
But the school board majority has made little (some might argue no) progress toward adopting a new student assignment policy and no progress on the issue of ED (economically disadvantaged) students and their lagging academic performance. The ED issue was a hobbyhorse whipped relentlessly by the majority (or, more accurately, by John Tedesco and Deborah Prickett, purportedly speaking for the majority) before and after their election wins last fall. Since then, it hasn't seemed to occupy much of the majority's time, however. Do they still contend that "neighborhood schools" will help kids living in high-poverty neighborhoods? Or was it always a fig leaf to cover their real agenda, which is neighborhood schools for their own suburban neighborhoods?
On the other side, the NAACP, the Great Schools in Wake coalition and a slew of other groups have come fiercely to the defense of diversity as a critical element in school excellence overall, but especially in any effort to help ED students and close the achievement gap between more- and less-affluent kids.
To Tedesco's stance that diversity didn't work because graduation rates for ED kids slipped over the past decade, diversity's supporters answered that he's got it exactly backwards: Rather, they say, as adherence to the county's diversity policy slipped over the past decade — the victim of Wake's unbridled growth — so too did the performance of ED kids. To put it another way, as the number of schools with high concentrations of ED kids grew from fewer than 10 to more than 50, the number of ED kids not graduating increased apace. High-poverty schools, usually also characterized by high-minority populations, yield terrible results for the kids forced to attend them, they believe.
Bottom line: Eight months in, the effort by the new board majority to seize the moral high ground by appearing, at least, to advocate for ED kids is fading.
Now, diversity's supporters have the high ground, and they'll try to hold it through November, starting with Tuesday's march. Organizers are talking about "thousands" turning out, a big word for an event on a steamy mid-July day. But the AME Zion convention is in town — that'll help.
A big turnout for the march could be the launch point for the fall campaign, but also for the more important campaign to raise ED achievement scores in Wake and fulfill the promise of socio-economic diversity AND school excellence.
The march is set to begin at 10 a.m. from the Raleigh Convention Center. Here's a promotional video posted by the NC NAACP:
Monday, June 28, 2010
One of the hunger strikers is hospitalized; fellowship service is still on for 8 tonight
- Loida, at right in this photo from Day 6, was hospitalized last night. Rosario is at left.
One of the three young women on a hunger strike for immigration reform was hospitalized last night, apparently due to heat stroke. (Update: Just before noon, WRAL reported that Loida was treated and released from the hospital and is resting at home.) A fellowship event scheduled for 8 pm tonight — Monday — will go on as scheduled at their encampment. It's at the southeast corner of Lane and Wilmington Streets in Raleigh, very close to the Legislative Office Building.
An announcement came in today from the N.C. Justice Center:
Hunger Striker Hospitalized
Announcements about the strike will be made tonight at 8 p.m.RALEIGH (June 28) — Loida, one of three women on a hunger strike until Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) co-sponsors the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act was hospitalized last night after suffering what appeared to be a heat stroke.
Several supporters were among her when she fell ill. Friends and family are with her at this time. While we cannot offer specifics to the press this morning, a full update will be given this evening at 8:00PM at the campsite, located at the intersection of Wilmington Street and Lane Street in downtown Raleigh.
The NC DREAM Team, composed of the hunger strikers and their immediate supporters, had previously scheduled a fellowship event open to the public at the campsite for 8 p.m. Some of this time will now be devoted to updating press and all concerned community members about Loida’s situation and everything that has happened with the hunger strike thus far. We will still be accepting visitors to the campsite.
Any major announcements about the strike will be made tonight.
Efforts to schedule a meeting with the senator have not been successful. Last week, Senator Hagan announced that she would not support the DREAM Act, but it is unclear if she opposes it simply as a stand-alone bill or even if it were included as part of a broader immigration reform measure.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
- What's My Name Amphitheater
The downtown amphitheater in Raleigh won't be the BLA after all. The state ABC says it can't be named for Bud Light or any other booze item. Doggone it, the BLA seemed so perfect.
$300,000 a year times 5 years = $1.5 million down the drain.
What are we bid for your name [HERE] on the city's new amphitheater?
Friday, June 4, 2010
Bolton: "The most important property in Raleigh." (Or, What about Whitley Street?)
- Whitley Street
This is Whitley Street in Raleigh. I know, it's not much — yet. But use your imagination. What about shops and cafes on either side of it as part of a new, mixed-use, transit-friendly, walkable development near the Hillsborough-West Morgan roundabout in Raleigh? You know, all those cool buzzwords we use to describe what we want Raleigh to be when it grows up? Well, here's a chance to grow up some.
Anyway, I thought a picture of Whitley would help frame the column I wrote for the Indy this week, which ran with the headline — I didn't write it, but it's right on — "The most important property in Raleigh." As I was finishing the column, some folks from the neiighborhoods went to the City Council with a petition to extend Whitley from its premature termination over to Ashe Avenue — not far. As they counted it, Whitley could provide 40 on-street parking spaces for a future Bolton tract development. Not too shabby.
Note: The public hearing on FMZ’s rezoning application for the Bolton tract, Z-011-10, is scheduled for July 22 at 6:30 p.m. in City Council chambers.
Here's a link to the column. Full text is below.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Cap it off with a 3.7 mile tour (above) that goes right through my neighborhood.
The schedule:
The event at Marbles Kids Museum will offer free bike check-ups by REI, a bicycle rodeo for kids and a bike safety clinic for adult cyclists. Free beverages provided by Coca-Cola and food provided by Roly Poly!* 3 - 6pm: Cycling & Environmental Expo
Free children’s helmets with fittings (First come, first served). Bike on bus demonstrations. Includes the following events:
* 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30pm: Kids Bike Safety Rodeo
* 4 - 5pm: Community Leaders’ Bicycle Transportation Information Exchange with Elected Officials
http://www.campo-nc.us/BPSG/BTWW_Leadership_Info_Exchange2_2010-04-30.pdf
* 5-6pm: Commuting 101 for Adults and Students.
* 6pm: Downtown Group Ride - 3.7 miles following the route above.
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Michael Pollan,
Amen, Amen, Amen!! Your comment was excellently put. Thanks so much for writing in! …
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