Families with young kids ITB -- where do your kids play? (Raleigh: houses, neighborhoods)

[munkaya]

So we are in the very beginning stages of scoping out our relocation to the triangle area. We drove around to a lot of neighborhoods this past weekend in Raleigh, Cary and Apex to start getting a feel for what the area has to offer. Among other areas, we really like a lot of the ITB neighborhoods. What do families with young kids in central Raleigh do for outdoor recreation if the house itself does not have much yard (we have a 3yo and 5yo)? We're coming from a more suburban area where we have a lot more green space than we're likely to get ITB. We saw a listing online in the Budleigh area that looks great but has virtually no yard. The closest park is Jaycee Park, but from what I can tell with the satellite map view, none of the streets on the way to the park have sidewalks. Is it safe to walk with young kids along the side of the road in most areas of downtown? Or do most families drive? Are bus stops generally close to the home? Apologies if these seem like silly questions, but our past and current neighborhoods were heavily sidewalked so I just don't know! Maybe there are particular ITB neighborhoods that are more kid-friendly than others?

Thanks in advance for any info/advice!

[raleighnative2]

I wish I could help you, but everywhere I've lived in Raleigh had sidewalks and we played in our yard or rode our bikes all over town.Of course it may have been safer when we did that in the 70's. When I was 5 we played on a big front porch and rode our tricycles on it. If you can get a house with big front porch it will be a big help for little kids.

Good luck on your move and welcome to the area!

[Sir Walter]

There are an abundance of parks inside the beltline. My kids played/ still play at Fallon Park, Roanoke Park, Lassiter Mill, Pullen Park, Jaycee Park, also at the playgrounds at Underwood, Joyner and Lacy schools, the pocket park at Banbury Rd in Budleigh, fishing at Lake Raleigh,the many ITB greenway sections, Rothgeb Park and Fred Fletcher park to name a few. There are tons of families ITB. We live off Glenwood in near Five Points/ Hayes-Barton and there are 24 children from age 1-14 on our small street. Isabella Cannon Park(used to be called Gardner Park) in another good park right off Wade ave.

[Sir Walter]

I think Budleigh is a wonderful, very desirable, family friendly neighborhood. Plenty of children and nearby places to play. Most all of the neighborhoods around Five Points are very family friendly. Most have sidewalks. You might want to check out Drewry Hills as well as North Hills.We are members at North Hills Club, which is a great place for your children to play and for your family to make new friends. Again, good luck to you.

[weblackey]

The city of Raleigh is currently installing sidewalks in several areas to encourage walking, I've seen myself the work on Wade Av. You may want to contact the city and ask if there's anything in the pipeline for the area you're interested in.

Here in Glenwood-Brooklyn there are tons of families with young children, Fletcher Park is right across the street or behind if you're in the Brooklyn part. People seem to migrate to different yards too ;-)

[munkaya]

Originally Posted by raleighnative2

I wish I could help you, but everywhere I've lived in Raleigh had sidewalks and we played in our yard or rode our bikes all over town.Of course it may have been safer when we did that in the 70's. When I was 5 we played on a big front porch and rode our tricycles on it. If you can get a house with big front porch it will be a big help for little kids.

Good luck on your move and welcome to the area!

Thank you! I do like big front porches.

Originally Posted by Sir Walter

There are an abundance of parks inside the beltline. My kids played/ still play at Fallon Park, Roanoke Park, Lassiter Mill, Pullen Park, Jaycee Park, also at the playgrounds at Underwood, Joyner and Lacy schools, the pocket park at Banbury Rd in Budleigh, fishing at Lake Raleigh,the many ITB greenway sections, Rothgeb Park and Fred Fletcher park to name a few. There are tons of families ITB. We live off Glenwood in near Five Points/ Hayes-Barton and there are 24 children from age 1-14 on our small street. Isabella Cannon Park(used to be called Gardner Park) in another good park right off Wade ave.

This is great to hear! Do you walk to all these places or drive? The weather this weekend was pretty wretched so we didn't see many people out at all.

Originally Posted by Sir Walter

I think Budleigh is a wonderful, very desirable, family friendly neighborhood. Plenty of children and nearby places to play. Most all of the neighborhoods around Five Points are very family friendly. Most have sidewalks. You might want to check out Drewry Hills as well as North Hills.We are members at North Hills Club, which is a great place for your children to play and for your family to make new friends. Again, good luck to you.

I think maybe it is just this particular area we were in then that doesn't have a lot of sidewalks. We'll keep looking! We'd like a place ITB where at least the more traffic-heavy streets are sidewalked. I'm not as concerned with residential streets where the only cars are your neighbors'. We're looking into those neighborhoods around North Hills and will look at Drewry Hills too. Love those neighborhoods off of Lassiter Mill but they look like they are out of our price range. Thanks!

Originally Posted by weblackey

The city of Raleigh is currently installing sidewalks in several areas to encourage walking, I've seen myself the work on Wade Av. You may want to contact the city and ask if there's anything in the pipeline for the area you're interested in.

Here in Glenwood-Brooklyn there are tons of families with young children, Fletcher Park is right across the street or behind if you're in the Brooklyn part. People seem to migrate to different yards too ;-)

Great idea--thanks!

[mskb]

Sir Walter makes a lot of great points. I live in the neighborhood and although it would be great to have sidewalks, it honestly has not been much of an issue for us so far. The neighborhood is very kid-friendly. Lots of kids out playing, people out walking or walking their dogs. People are very aware of it and are careful when driving. I'm also lucky enough to live on a dead-end street so that we feel a bit more comfortable letting the kids play in the sidewalk and teaching them to go to the side when a car comes. There are several dead-end streets and culs-de-sacs in the neighborhood where I have seen similar set-ups.

We see lots and lots of kids at the pocket park Sir Walter noted. It's at the intersection of Banbury Rd and Brooks Ave. There is a playground, swings, and a sandbox. There is also a soccer field next to it and it's connected to the bit of greenway we have in the neighborhood. We often walk there (about 15 minutes) with no issues. The streets are plenty wide enough to give walkers a good berth. I also see lots of parents that drive their cars to the park.

I actually haven't been to Jaycee Park yet - I thought it was aimed mostly at older kids/adults with baseball fields and a gym/community center but looking at the web page, it has a tot playground! Will have to go check it out. Technically, it's closer than Banbury Park but more of a hassle to get to because of needing to cross Wade Ave without a crosswalk. However, if you are on the south side of Wade Ave, there is a sidewalk on that side to get to Jaycee Park. Many of the major roads ITB have sidewalks, at least on 1 side: Brooks Ave, Oberlin Rd, Wade Ave. And they should be getting better as the city replaces or adds sidewalks as part of the Raleigh 2030 Plan.

As for bus stops....we aren't quite there yet but I see some of the 20+ kids from our street (ranging from 2 years old to teenagers) walking home from school daily. The bus drops them off at the beginning of our dead-end street. Since the area feeds into Lacy, you can look here and see where the closest bus stop might be for the listing you looked at: WCPSS: Lacy Elementary Bus Routes.

I have noticed a fair amount of rebuilding going on in the neighborhood, which is great, but the trend appears to be going towards more house and less open land/yard. There really aren't any lots less than .25 acres (and often larger in Budleigh) but when you tear down a house that is less than 1500-2000 sq ft and build a 3500-4000+ sq ft house, you are obviously losing out on land. Pretty houses though. You probably will want to avoid the Oaks at Fallon Park (next to Joyner Elementary) - all house, no yard although it's next to the elementary school and another park.

Good luck with your search! We lived in Northwest Raleigh before and thought to buy there but really fell in love with the look and feel of the houses in our area. Since we moved in, we have been very happy with the community feel and convenience to most everything (and we love all of our neighbors on our street)! Even if there aren't quite as many larger parks as areas in North Raleigh, it's very easy to drive to one of many nearby parks or head downtown for other kid-related activities.