ecology

From Wikipedia: The total solar energy absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per year. In 2002, this was more energy in one hour than the world used in one year. Surely can't get all this into a barrel of oil. What did I miss?

Distance of those homes from Wally World - 500-700 feet. Distance of those homes from Kohls - something like 100-200 feet? Separated only by the private alley for the homes and parking lot. How is the world do you folks define "easy walk?" You'd have to actually set up house in the housewares section at Kohls to make it any easier. I would never claim it is an attractive walk by my tastes, but traffic out there doesn't seem to move any faster than it shoots down Western.

Could you have biased your comparison any more? You dissed apartments in Brier Creek, so I showed you a single-family development on lots exactly half the size of those in Boylan Heights. So you discounted those and the even smaller townhouse lots, to focus solely on the larger lots and the golf course

I apologize if it sounded like I was trying to put words or ideas in your mouth, I wasn't and I understood the points you were making. But the above statement is patently false. I don't live anywhere near Brier Creek and I don't claim to be an expert on the area, but a couple of drives through tells me something. This place http://www.visitcharlestonhomes.com/alexmap.html is single family homes, each on its own lot of .07-.08 acres, right next to all kinds of shopping and dining. Probably half as much shopping and dining as in all of downtown Raleigh (I am assuming crossing Glenwood up there is tantamount to crossing Western -it can be done with great care). And apartments certainly count too, as real people with real needs and desires live in them - downtown could stand a few more apartments. I would never want to live in one of those houses out there, among many other reasons I have no desire to see Walmart or Dick's Sporting Goods from my back deck. But many folks are obviously just fine with that, and Boylan Heights or Mordecai with plenty of 1/3 acre or greater lots or most other single-family neighborhoods near downtown can't touch that density or proximity to services and employment. To simply say it isn't so seems to me to be denying the obvious.

Because, to the apparent dread of many on this board, Raleigh is and always will be more than just a downtown (which still is barely a downtown). The West Raleigh complex of 5000 acre Umstead State Park/state fairgrounds/165 acre Museum Art Park/Raulston Arboretum etc. etc. makes this area a destination for the entire Triangle, and many points beyond. There is zero advantage to NC State to move its world-class arboretum, particulary now that it has such a lovely education center. If only the art museum had been built downtown, as many now lament, there would never have been an artpark, which seems to be very popular right where it is. I think I recall that somewhere who knows how many pages back in this thread someone had the idea of moving the Art Museum to Dix. Instead of trying to steal the best of Raleigh and relocating it where it doesn't fit, how about coming up with something original for Dix? I concede that the arena should have been built on Centennial Campus, but there's no moving that now. Jones123 above gets it - there are neighborhoods in Brier Creek that are more dense, more walkable, and more multi-use than Boylan Heights. The Dix property is beautiful just the way it is. If it's not good enough for some, with a little original thought and a good bit of restraint it could be transformed into one of the world's greatest parks. Try to cram a botanic garden and a giant ferris wheel and an ice rink and an aquarium and whatever else anyone in the city can dream up, and it will become so much less than the sum of its parts.