Glenwood South Opening to 3-Way Traffic
Raleigh’s hip Glenwood South section is about to get a lot hipper. While Raleigh has been opening many streets to 2-way traffic, officials are trying a new concept on Glenwood: the 3-way. One city official said,“We heard that there were many open-minded, adventurous people frequenting the Glenwood South area, so we surveyed them. One respondent wrote,’How about a 3-way?’ He may just be on to something.”
Raleigh Pays for Grass Conversion
In an effort to minimize the risk of wildfires, The City of Raleigh has started a program to entice homeowners to convert their lawns and natural areas to a less combustible grass. “We’ve noticed a real risk imposed by people with pine straw and warm season grasses such as bermuda, centipede, and zoysia. As these grasses lie dormant for half of the year, they present a dangerous fire hazard,” said an assistant city manager. “Just last week we had a wildfire in North Raleigh where the warm season grasses burned quickly right up to the neighbor’s fescue lawns, where the fire stopped”.
As an incentive the City of Raleigh has instituted the Turf Buy Back Program. It offers eligible
property owners a one-time, $500 incentive to replace a minimum of 1,000 square feet of natural area covered in pine straw or warm season grasses (such as Zoysia, Centipede, Bermuda,or St. Augustine) with Fescue. The city is also providing a $250 incentive for any homeowner who installs a permanent irrigation system, a proven factor in mitigating wildfire spread. Homeowners should consult an insert in the April 1 water bill for more details.
Raleigh Plans New Amphitheater
On the heels of the excitement for Raleigh’s yet-to-be-named downtown amphitheater, the City of Raleigh approved funding for yet another amphitheater. The city’s third amphitheater will be located on the west side of Boylan Heights, and will be a similar size as the new amphitheater being built adjacent to the convention center on the east side of Boylan Heights.
Reasons for the project are not clearly understood, but we at gogoraleigh have spoken to a few insiders who say that the project is aimed at equal access for the incarcerated. “We got many complaints from Central Prison that those being held in Raleigh’s jail will be free entertainment. So, we thought the only equitable thing to do is to also offer a concert experience for long-term residents in Central Prison.”
As predicted, Boylan Heights residents are already angry. One resident resident explained: “I can already hear the noise from the [yet completed] downtown amphitheater. What’s going to happen to our neighborhood when we have two concerts going at the same time? Even worse, what if the western amphitheater has an O.A.R. cover band playing on the night that the
real
O.A.R. will be playing downtown? We
could
even have to hear ‘Hey Girl’ as a round, a situation more torturous than waterboarding!”
La Quinta Central Serving Brunch
The newest addition to the Sunday Brunch scene is the La Quinta Central location, in the heart of Raleigh. Beginning April 11, the hotel will serve a brunch buffet “among the area’s best”. It will include fresh fruits, classic breakfast items, southwestern fare, cereals, custom omelets, fresh Belgian waffles, and a large assortment of pastries. On the deck (weather depending) will be a live harp player, as well as free wifi.
The buffet is $17.99 for adults and $9.99 for children under 12. Service begins at 7am and ends at 2pm, Sundays. The La Quinta Central is located at 2800 Lakeview Drive, Raleigh.
New Southwestern Restaurant Coming to Downtown
A new fast-casual restaurant will open in June in Downtown Raleigh. The restaurant, named “No-Moe’s”, will feature an all-you-can eat bar of Southwestern fare. “We want to offer a fun setting while you eat ‘til you just can’t eat ‘no mo’”, said restaurant manager Guy Shrilevo. The restaurant is seeking a wait staff of hotties that will be scantily clad. Aiming for high tip rates, the “No-Moe’s Ho’s” should be the talk of the town.
Clemson Football Picks Barrel Monster As Mascot
In the wake of Tiger Woods’ recent controversy, Clemson Football recently decided to drop the Tiger as its mascot. Instead it will use the Barrel Monster as its mascot. A school booster club spokesperson said,”We were impressed with everyone’s embrace of the barrel monster, so we decided to go with it as our mascot.”
The team’s colors will be orange and white, and preliminary reports are that the team jerseys will be horizontal orange and white stripes, with the player’s number stamped in a black, block font. South Carolina Department of Corrections officials are currently trying to block the sale of replica jerseys to the general public.
Raleigh To Build More Empty Lots
The City of Raleigh is leading the way again! Today city officials announced that they have stumbled onto a terrific idea in their quest to make Raleigh unique. I sat down with one city official today who told me this:
“We looked around at what other cities were doing, and we saw a real opportunity. While other cities are replacing outdated structures with new buildings that will just deteriorate over time, we found that by converting these older properties into empty lots, we can save future landowners from going through the never ending teardown/replace cycle we so commonly see. We’re also saving the environment in the process. Just look at successful projects like 300 Hillsborough, the former Meredith College site, Franklin/Blount, Slims, The Lafayette, and many more! Those are sites where police no longer have to patrol and the environment can be allowed to grow on its own. We’re also looking a some areas outside of downtown, such as the former Sheraton at Crabtree. That’s a site where the creek can now flood without affecting anyone. We’ve been talking to owners of Crabtree Mall for conversion of their property to alleviate Glenwood Avenue traffic problems, but their greed overwhelms their awareness for this city’s need for more empty lots. It will take some time, but we remain hopeful for that conversion”
Miss North Carolina Judges Announced
The judges for the upcoming Miss North Carolina Pageant have been announced. Judging “Personality" will be Jessica Simpson, while this year’s “Beauty” judge will be English sensation Susan Boyle. Finally, the judge for “Singing” will be Ben Folds.
South Hills Deals With Inferiority Complex
Ever since the inception of South Hills Mall in Cary, the shopping center has been trying to keep up with its nemesis, North Hills. The two malls have been a bitter war ever since Day One. It began as simple gags like soaping each others fountains. Then they took it to TV, with smear campaign commercials that made Hunt/Helms look friendly. In recent years North Hills has had the clear upper hand, but that may soon change.
At South Hills there once was a mall, where Santa greeted children, Cub Scout troops held bake sales, and 4H groups were able to display their projects. To put it succinctly, the place was hoppin’ . That is…until Roses closed. Mall owners were devastated when they lost the 3rd Lock, Stock, & Barrel location, but Roses was another story. The mall scrambled and found outlet stores and hobby shops to fill the space. They even did away with the indoor mall concept, converting the space into additional retail space.
As North Hills rebuilt itself into a regional, chic destination in the past decade, South Hills watched carefully, looking for their opportunity. They may have found it. Mall spokesperson Georgio Wantiflosplat said to us,”They may get The Varsity. They may have the movies, Chick-Fil-A, Bonefish, and Vivace. But we? We have the lock on Asian. We have one of the best Thai restaurants around, and they cannot even get a sim-ple little Chinese restaurant to make it. We have Grand Asia Market and what do they have? A crazy Harris Teeter with a Chinese buffet. You call that an Asian market? HA! I call it poppycock! And we have Northern Tools where you can buy all sorts of things. In North Hills? You can buy a crappy cordless drill at, how do you say? TARGET! HA!”
South Hills has held strong with Grand Asia, Northern, Burlington Coat Factory, and MJ’s Furniture, however the shopping center just may be crossing the threshold with their new addition, the Scotch Tape store. Yes, it is this finely tuned selection, says Wantiflosplat, that will finally give South Hills what it takes to win the War of the Hills.
DOT To Halt Glenwood Paving
Glenwood Avenue was last repaved in 1987, and a long-needed resurfacing project began in the winter. However, as crews began scraping off the top layer of the street’s asphalt surface, a funny thing happened. Traffic slowed, pedestrians are safer, and the Raleigh Police Department has not had to patrol the area. Studies show that the roughening of the road has actually improved the traffic situation, so the state’s D.O.T. today announced that it will leave Glenwood Avenue with its corrugated surface for an undetermined period. Raleigh’s manager of street surfaces, Jay Fiedlander, said “If the positive effects hold out, we may just convert all of our streets to this corrugated surface”.
New Restaurant to Open Outside of Downtown
We just got a tip that a restaurant will open outside of downtown Raleigh this Spring. There is no word on its location or cuisine. However, it will be the first such occurrence in over 10 years.
New Raleigh “Mailcan” Eliminates Middle Man
The City of Raleigh recently unveiled a new line of garbage cans for homeowners. The new can is similar to the green rolling carts that the city distributed a decade ago, however the new cans add a mailbox to the lid which directly opens into the garbage can. City Spokesman Harvin Lambert said,”We did a study of the U.S. Mail, and found that 95% of what people receive in the mail goes straight to the landfill. So, we figured we could easily eliminate the ‘middle man’ from the equation, and let the mail drop straight into the garbage. Most everyone has converted to electronic delivery of their important financial statements anyway, so from our estimates, residents will be overjoyed with the new design.” He also states that Fellowes is working with the city on battery-powered shredder attachment that will help reduce identity theft.
Verizon Bringing Cellular Service ITB
While the entire world has enjoyed widespread cellular phone service for the past two decades, the one holdout area has been inside of Raleigh’s Beltline. Today Verizon announced that residents living inside the Beltline, especially those near Oberlin Road, will actually begin getting cellular phone service in early 2011, completing the last link in the worldwide cellular phone network.
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