kermit

Raleigh Magazine has a story on “Four Big Ideas for Raleigh”. Three of them a pretty mundane from the Charlotte perspective (1) a trail to Dix Park from Downtown; 2) a downtown stadium; 3) sculpture (!?). But one caught my eye, they vaguely discuss turning Capital Blvd into a river! ( a la the San Antonio riverwalk) Its really time to remove the Belk and turn it into something that provides many more benefits to the city than 11 lanes of concrete that are only used a small portion of the day. https://raleighmag.com/2024/04/big-ideas/

I have the pleasure of being on a rebooting 300 series train trying to get home. It’s been a while since I have had to wait on a reboot.

Not really N Tryon but I could not remember if we have a Sugar Creek thread. This is the former scrapyard.

^ above project from train

This would make an epic skatepark!

Some folks focus on building height as an indicator that we have ‘made it’ as a city. Meanwhile autistic me sees this (private investment being required to structurally accommodate pre-existing public infrastructure) and thinks we have reached the magic density level of a ‘real city’

Agreed. I’ll add Flying Biscuit to this list.

Original ridership projections were low due to very limited frequencies (basically only one way service from Lake to Uptown in the morning and then back again in the afternoon). It sounds like Red Line 2.0 (if it happens) will have significantly higher frequencies and ridership might get another marginal bump from population growth. However, ridership on this better service is going to be negatively impacted by a) hybrid work; b) the existence of a faster BRT transit option; c) less congestion (I am not sure about this one, but my limited trips on 77 have seen less traffic post-pandemic). From an initial ridership perspective Red Line 2.0 looks mediocre. But it is a political winner, and it will pay off long term with land use change (which park and ride focused BRT can’t do). In terms of ridership alone, there are more effective ways to spend our mobility money. But politics are super important in this case.

It appears the Early Girl in Southend is now gone per google maps (last review looks like a month ago). I only went once, was OK, but certainly did not approach the original in quality or vibe. Google Maps also suggests the slot has already become a Hawthorne Pizza?

I don’t think there is much we can say about the specifics of mode choice / frequency on the Red Line without knowing what NS is willing to do with the tracks. If NS is not willing to sell outright, or at least time shift freight to the middle of the night, then CATS has very few options due to FRA regulations and NS scheduling windows. CATS has done a pretty good job keeping any negotiations confidential, so speculation is kinda pointless. There is also a NCDOT intercity route to Winston wildcard here as well which will preclude any non-heavy rail mode choices. Limited Service yard locations, lack of electrification, capacity limitations at Gateway and the CSX grade crossing in Uptown are likely to prevent any super-high frequency, all day service options. If the Red Line was built 20 years ago many of these problems would have been solved, but here we are.

Yes. The Graham st tracks were the original plan. But in the two decades the Red Line was dormant: 1) NS stopped maintaining the tracks south of Atando 2) NS pulled up the tracks at the CSX diamond and through ADM (NS still owns this ROW, but reconstruction won't be a small effort) 3) CSX decided against taking the awarded $250 million federal grant that would have funded grade separating CSX and NS (the absence of this separation will significantly limit the number of Red Line trains that can be run since CSX freights will still need to cross the diamond) 4) The state decided not to install the necessary crossovers that would allow trains coming off the Graham st tracks to access the existing Gateway Station platform. Even worse, I believe the city pulled the plug on an additional Gateway Station platform that was planned specifically for Red Line trains (my knowledge of this platform is pretty fuzzy) Running the Red Line on the Atando spur would skip Camp Northend, but using Atando would be much cheaper and faster way to get service running on the Red Line. I would bet that Atando is used for a few years before the lower Graham section gets renegotiated and rebuilt. For the image below: top circle is where tracks currently end. Middle circle shows removed at grade crossing of both Music Factory blvd and CSX Bottom circle shows removed connection to NS main and Gateway Station All of these things are fixable, but these replacements will be quite difficult given the number of landowners involved and two active railways.

The feasibility report for Raleigh-Wilmington passenger rail has been released: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/649c7228e2109c2801c8f2f3/t/6622fb82122a1e1538343ded/1713568652062/SENC+Passenger+Rail+Feasibility+Study+DRAFT+20240417.pdf The chosen routing is via Goldsboro rather than Fayetteville (no surprise). Tracks are planned to be built to class 4 (80mph passenger trains). Travel time is estimated to be 2:35. Ridership estimated at 80,000 per year at three round trips per day (Piedmont carries about 290,000) EDIT: I am confused about how ridership is discussed in the report, not sure what numbers are appropriate to report yet. Cost is estimated at $810 million. The press is making all kinds of noises about this in comparison to historic estimates but honestly this strikes me as a bargain and I would think federal funds will be available for this. There is some talk of the benefits of reopening a second freight route to Wilmington (the Fayetteville route would not) and the Department of Defense would be very happy about redundant rail access to Sunny Point. I doubt CSX would be willing to sell their portion of these tracks, but if they did it would be possible to have the port served by more than one freight carrier, this would make a huge difference to shipping traffic and help to pay for much of the track maintenance costs EDIT: jthomas scoped me by seconds. Damn.

No tenants? No problem! They might have the ability to generate positive cash flow from parking alone: (This does piss me off, I gotta walk past that new curb cut pretty frequently (along w most other Blue Line riders in the hood). This is a nonzero increase in my odds of becoming a victim of car violence. IMO NIMBYism is 100% about the noxiousness of cars)

Charlotte Mag has a good, if somewhat bitter, recounting of NoDa from the 1990s. Worth a read but it won't make you feel any better about the current state of the neighborhood. https://www.charlottemagazine.com/the-noda-that-was-the-loss-of-an-arts-district/ I had lunch at Brook's today, I'll really miss it when its gone. I arrived in Charlotte in 2000 and was looking for a house. I had narrowed my choices down to NoDa or 'lesser Dilworth' (pre-McMansion McDonald ave). The houses were essentially the same price at the time (roughly $130 per square foot). Ultimately I choose Dilworth since there were sidewalks (!?) and the housing stock was significantly better (most of the mill houses in NoDa were appealingly renovated at the time). I regretted my choice for a few years (NoDa was substantially cooler -- Pat's still existed then), but as I drove through the NoDa bar district after lunch today I felt like I made the right choice (granted I am 25 years older now). EDIT: CLT_Development does make the point on twitter that NoDa is considerably more walkable today than it was in the 1990s-- this is indeed a very positive change.

not trying to be dismissive of the DEI stuff at all but it is clear that the politicization of the UNC system has already done significant damage to our reputation. The most recent example I have is I was involved in 3 faculty searches this year. We interviewed a total of 10 candidates on campus, only one of our first choices accepted our offers. 4 others turned us down. Most cited the political climate of NC and the UNC System as the reason why. I have been involved in lots of faculty searches over the past 20+ years at UNCC and this volume of rejection is unprecedented. The strongest economic development engine the state has ever had is just limping along. The tide has clearly turned.