"Noodle Store" Coming To Cameron Village?
I heard a rumor today that a “noodle store” is going to open in the former Grape spot in Cameron Village. Anyone heard more? Soup? Fresh pasta??
WRAL Goes to 7-Day Forecast
Sorry, but I love the subject of weather, so this is an important event for those of us fixated on local forecasting. WRAL, Channel 5, has dropped its long-held tradition (what? 30 years) of giving a 5-day forecast. While other stations have given longer forecasts, WRAL stayed true to its “5” theme and avoided adding two unpredictable days to the forecast;
until now
.
One of my favorite tips from Chris (at Raleighing) is to add this dynamically-updated jpg to the Windows Active Desktop (versions thru XP, only). To add the WRAL 7-Day Forecast to your desktop, right-click on your Desktop and select Properties | Desktop | Customize Desktop | Web (tab) | New… Then copy this URL into the window. Hit OK | OK | OK. The graphic will appear on your desktop and can be resized and moved by dragging corners and the title bar. The graphic will update daily and whenever Windows is restarted. To make this graphic appear in the Vista Sidebar, install Eye On The Web and point it to the 7-day forecast URL . Since adding this icon to my desktop, I found myself always prepared for the weather.
For more weather geekiness, add the WRAL Weather Blog to your reader!
Free Shredding May 3
On Saturday, May 3, Better Business Bureau will host a
free shredding event at Ridgewood Shopping Center
. The event, offered to help people prevent identity theft, goes from 9am to 12:30pm. Acceptable materials include standard-size, paper-based materials, removed from binders; up to 3 boxes or bags.
Ben Folds Coming to Cary
Ben Folds
will be rockin’ the suburbs come May 30th. The concert will be at 7pm at Cary’s
Booth Amphitheatre
. Lawn chairs and blankets will be allowed. Tickets go on sale May 1 at Noon and are $37.50 reserved, and $25 lawn
No Hand King
There has been a lot of talk recently about “No-Hand King”. What’s a no-hand king? Well, if you’ve been downtown recently and seen Rodney Hines riding his bike around downtown doing no-hands wheelies, then you’ve seen the almighty
No-Hand King
. The guy
rules
and he does all of this to draw attention for the troops. His goals include setting a Guinness World Record for the longest no-hand wheelie, and to ride across America with no-hands.
Check out his video
on YouTube.
One of the big ideas at Monday’s meeting was to have a statue honoring the No-Hand King. A move I wholeheartedly second!
Crabtree Place Goes Back to Drawing Board
Last week I noticed that the artist’s rendering for the planned Crabtree Place project disappeared from the Weingarten website . A representative stated:
We no longer plan on building the shopping center as depicted on our website so we have removed rendering so we don’t mislead folks. We are reworking our site plan and elevations and will place a new picture when the time is appropriate.
Here are some of the previous renderings for the project.
Webb Simpson Ranked As #1 Amateur
Raleigh’s
Webb Simpson
was recently named the #1 amateur men’s golfer (in the
world
) by
Golfweek Magazine
. Thus, he’ll forever be known here as “World Wide Webb”. The Broughton High School graduate and Wake Forest University Senior recently set the ACC Championship 3-round record with his 202 shot performance.
Augustana Coming to The Brewery
The Brewery
will host its biggest act in a quite a while when
Augustana
rolls through on Monday, May 26. Five Times August and Wild Sweet Orange will open. Tickets are $14 in advance and $16 at the door, and are
available through eTix
.
Big Ideas With A Smile
Last night the Raleigh Planning Department hosted an open meeting to drum up all kinds of ideas for the future of Raleigh. In a fun night to commemorate the original planning Raleigh planning meeting at Isaac Hunter’s Tavern, ideas at Tir Na Nog flowed and ranged from totally reasonable to utterly absurd to hilarious.
The department furnished many large printed maps of Raleigh and asked participants to jot, draw, cut….whatever they wanted…to convey their ideas about what we want Raleigh to be in the year 2030. At the end of a good hour of small group discussions, participants quickly presented ideas on the small stage.
Of course, I liked my idea to urbanize the area from Lassiter Mill Road down to Atlantic Avenue by redeveloping the triangle bounded by 440, Six Forks, and Wake Forest, and connect it into new development along St. Albans with a new bridge over 440. By bringing a northern crescent rail line from Atlantic to North Hills, Crabtree, Rex Hospital, the RBC Center, and the Fairgrounds, we could have a rail system that includes many places people already want to go. I’ll discuss this idea more here later, but it was met with the flattest, deadest applause of the night (to which I laughed).
Some other good ideas included a circulating bus/trolley system between Centennial Campus, NCSU and downtown to connect with the planned rail line. This “tech tripod”, according to Dan Douglas, would allow firms to place themselves in any of 3 types of connected environments. I liked Mitchell Silver’s idea of elevated development over the railroad wye. This would allow Boylan Heights to continue with unbroken development down into the warehouse district.
The whimsical idea of the night I liked best was Sig Hutchinson’s idea to use the Duraleigh Road Rock Quarry as a giant flood control reservoir, thus allowing Crabtree Creek around the mall to be a true riverwalk. The entire area could then be focused around the walk and surrounding developments could be walkable. I also strongly advocate the razing of most buildings on the block bounded by Jones/Dawson/Lane/McDowell and returning the block to park status. It could be a fantastic place for the quickly growing residential neighborhood to the NW, and could include an outdoor amphitheater. Its proximity to the planned government stop for the rail line makes it an ideal location for some neat ideas.
Some other ideas were raised: A trolley line down Glenwood (people probably prefer the trees in the median), tearing down the N.C. Legislature to create a clean green vista north of the Capitol, a chiller plant for downtown that would turn its chill on Fayetteville St. during summer weekend days, and razing the Governor’s Mansion to reclaim the park land upon which it sits.
My only criticism of the night is probably that designs were a little too focused on specific current downtown issues and ignored the regional development issues. Nobody bothered with the maps of Triangle Town Center, Brier Creek, Southeast Raleigh, or other outlying future development nodes. Before the meeting the challenge of future traffic issues in north Raleigh was raised, but ignored. People cannot possibly expect a single L-shaped rail pathway that drags people through downtown to serve suburbia’s needs.
The Planning Department is only but a few minds, and the more minds and the more crazy ideas there are, the better the chance for some really good ones. We need to keep the ideas flowing, though. This was one discrete event, the but process is a continuum. Thanks to the planning department for being so open to us novices out here!
PS. I liked the phrase that was born out of this event: Making New History.
Music Builds Tour Coming to TWC Pavilion
On September 19 the “Music Builds” tour will hit Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion . The tour to benefit Habitat for Humanity hits 23 cities and features the bands Switchfoot , Third Day , Jars of Clay , and Robert Randolph & The Family Band . No word on a ticket date.
Regeneration Tour Coming to Cary
The Regeneration Tour will be making its way to Cary’s Booth Amphitheatre on August 27. The acts appearing are ABC, A Flock of Seagulls, Naked Eyes, The Human League, and Belinda Carlisle. No word on tickets yet.
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