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Postings about downtown don't seem to get much love on this site. Is everybody on here a suburbanite?
Raleigh often feels like a great big suburb. The horrid mess of construction in downtown doesn't seem to be where people want to be. From an outsider's point of view it almost seemed like they were just now building the city. At one point last summer I was driving into downtown twice a week. You could throw just about every road map out because streets were blocked off everywhere. But if it's done - all those watercolor paintings of what they were going to be doing with Fayetteville Street etc. were surely looking nice and all - maybe an actual urban culture will evolve. RDU has a lot of potential, really, but it's at a crucial crossroads that other fast-growing cities (e.g. Austin, TX) reached at one point where it had to decide whether it was going to try to stay a small town or make the step toward becoming a major city. If it goes the small-town route it invariably becomes a homogeneous cluster of suburbs. Houston fell into that pratfall, slowly realized the error of its ways and now is starting to embrace the concept of an actual urban identity. This development of downtown is crucial to establish the same in Raleigh.
Postings about downtown don't seem to get much love on this site. Is everybody on here a suburbanite?
I can see where you are coming form. Yes, most of the posters on this forum are living in suburbia (I am one of them). But there are those of us who are interested in talking about Downtown Raleigh and Downtown Durham. There just don't seem to be too many people who live downtown posting on this board for some reason. We use to have a great poster who went by the username RaleighRob who had a ton of great knowledge of Downtown Raleigh, but sadly he doesn't seem to post here any more.You can find lots of discussion about the more urban parts of Raleigh and Durham at urbanplanet.org.
As to the previous posts, I think Raleigh has committed to revitalizing its downtwon area. Just look at the HUGE convention center project and the multiple condos going up. I don't think downtwon Raleigh will ever be the next New Yor City, Boston, or Chicago, but I do think it will become a vibrant southern city with a formidable downtown population and have stores, restuarants and other establishments that cater to more than the 9-5 workday crowd. Raleigh isn't there yet, but that is the path it is headed down.
As to the Downtwon Raleigh Alliance, I think they do a great service to the city. I must admit though, I was a little dissapointed when I read up on the new director of the Downtown Alliance in a recent issue of The Idependent Weekly. While he seems like a decent enough guy, he repeatedly refers to the work he did in the city of Ronaoke, VA when he speaks if his vision of downtown Raleigh. No offense to folks from Virginia, but I don't really consider Roanoke much of a success story and I would hope that Raleigh aspires to be more than that. I think another big piece of the puzzle is getting large employers to relocate downtown. I don't know if that will happen though with all the available space out in RTP. In some ways I feel like RTP as much good as it has done this area, is a hindrance in some ways to the overall revitalization of downtown Raleigh and Downtown Durham.
In any event, I think good things are happening in downtown Raleigh. I work downtown and spend many weekends down there as well. I think it is a slow process, but it seems to be on the right track.
Postings about downtown don't seem to get much love on this site. Is everybody on here a suburbanite?
I do live in Wake Forest, but I am a big supporter of Downtown Raleigh and try to get down there as often as my schedule allows.
I am not sure why there isn't more action on the downtown threads....probably because most folks on the boards are just getting settled in their own locations....they haven't explored the entire area yet.
Maybe everyone will head downtown on the 21st of this month and see downtown in action!!!
I spent some time downtown during my visit two weeks ago, and I really like it! It's walkable, has a nice mix of old and new architecture, nice restaurants, beautiful squares of greenspace, and it's easy to find parking. I'm considering living downtown, if I can find a relatively affordable place. It seems like the city is really trying to bring some life back into downtown, and I think the completion of the convention center will help a lot.
What downtown does need is a grocery store that residents can walk to in a few minutes.
We just moved into an apartment downtown after spending our first year in the NW Raleigh suburbs and we am SO happy with our new place. When we came up to find an apartment before we moved, we wanted to be in the downtown/Cameron Village/Five Points neighborhoods if possible, but couldn't find the right place in the short time we had to look around, so we settled on a big complex out in the burbs. Not to knock the burbs, because it was a very nice area that we lived in, but just too vanilla for us. I love the mix of new and old architecture in downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, especially since I'm a sucker for historic buildings. Plus, we really like being able to walk or bike to entertainment and community events nearby. Not to mention that we found ourselves constantly making the trek downtown from NW Raleigh for weekend events and meeting up with friends, so it made sense for us to live closer, if not in downtown itself.
I am glad that there is interest in Raleigh's downtown area, as I personally believe it has a lot of potential to achieve its own character. I look forward to seeing great things happen here.
It seems to me that the folks relocating to the area are drawn by the lure of square feet of suburban homes. And huge advertising budgets for new subdivisions overshadow the quiet quality of life one can have downtown.
Frankly, a big drawback to me for downtown Raleigh is the difficulty finding a home with an attached garage for my wife to use.
But I love many of the neighborhoods and might get there yet one day.
Cameron Village? Fantastic! And there is a choice of grocery stores.
AskMrBrown has in a few posts imparted a huge amount of knowledge about Raleigh. Wish Mr. Brown chimed in more often.
I looked around at apartments in the downtown area, and I'm a little disappointed. I love older buildings, but the ones I saw seemed to be kind of run down and/or filled with students. I've got nothing against students, but I've been there, done that. Some that I checked out include the Raleigh Apts., the Wedgewood Apts., and the St. Mary's Apts., as well as some brick ones on Hillsborough Street (sorry, can't remember their name).
I'm curious about the Tucker building going in downtown. I heard it was going to be condos, but now it'll be an apartment building.
Also, how do you find out about individual condos for rent? Is it reasonable to think I could find one downtown for under $1000/month?
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