JeffC

pre 9/11, the plan was to replace Terminal A, since at that time, American still had some pretty extensive contractual rights to Terminal C dating back to late 80s when C was built for American's short lived hub (back when most people thought having a single airline hub was a *good* thing for a city). In fact the ugly "extension" to terminal A was built to be a "temporary terminal" while they demolished and replaced the older parts of A. After 9/11, of course, all expansion plans and programs were shelved. By the time the post 9/11 airline industry meltdown was over, the contractual probs. with Terminal C had been resolved, and the Airport Authority shelved the A replacement plans. Really, Terminal C with its anemic checkin and baggage claim areas (since it was built as a "hub" terminal, not to serve local traffic) turned out to be more unsuitably designed for RDU's current operations than the older A, so the Authority decided to replace it instead.

the current NC Zoo represents the sort of political split the baby solution ("NC needs a world class zoo. We can't decide whether to put it in Charlotte, the Triad, or the Triangle, so lets split the baby and put it in between in the middle of nowhere.") Result: a pretty good zoo with lots of land to expand into acquired fairly cheaply compared to say, land in downtown Raleigh or Charlotte, but one with no built in political constituency of any consequence (what kind of clout does Asheboro wield in the General Assembly, post Harold Brubaker?), and thus a perpetual scramble for funds from a disinterested legislature (their master plan was supposed to be built out when? 1990? They only have Africa and North America finished, and its taken so long that recent capital expenditures were used to renovate and overhaul what they already have...) Upshot of all that? Efforts to build a zoo in Raleigh would be opposed to the death by the entire current zoo bureaucracy, as well as the Zoo Society, their booster group. So the chances of state funding would be, well, zippo. The fight over where to put a world class zoo in North Carolina was fought and lost back in the 1960s. I have no idea if Raleigh made any kind of serious push to get it. I'd guess no... anyone remember?

I wouldn't look for anything bold here in the twilight of the Easley administration. These guys are now counting down the months until they leave office...look for the exodus from the political jobs to only escalate from now on. Dempsey has clearly been brought in as a caretaker to "make the trains run on time" in DHHS until the next administration takes office. And good luck to him making the trains run on time in that convoluted department.

Well, there is no hope for good pig in raleigh anymore...Did some research, and the place on Old Poole Road, Murray's BBQ (to which Don Murrays on Capital Blvd. was a poor and distant relation) closed in 2005, according to this article probably the last BBQ joint left in Wake County that still cooked with wood. Btw, Old Poole loops off to the right as soon as you cross over 440 outbound on Poole Road...I have no idea why the road was realigned in that area...May have something to do with the County office complex across the road on the site of the old plantation...

I'll take your word for it, since I never ate there...though I doubt it was better than Coopers, and in any event "best pig in Raleigh" is not really a very prestigious title. It CAN'T be a really good barbeccue joint unless there is about a 1/4" veneer of grease on every vertical and horizontal surface in the place (except for the places the health department makes them clean), and this place wasn't open long enough for that to happen... Looks to me like they completely lacked understanding of the Glenwood South market... There used to be (mid 90s) an old place off Old Poole Road just outside the Beltline. It was authentic (cinder block walls, hand-written signs on the walls advertising "chittlin' day is Wednesday" and the like). Anyone know the name and whether it is still there?

As I understand it, the economics of really tall buildings only work when real estate is scarce and prohibitively expensive (Hong Kong, Manhattan). Why go to the HUGE extra expense of building a very tall building, when real estate in downtown Raleigh is relatively cheap and plentiful? Any developer who has been around here for a while certainly remembers the fiasco of Two Hannover Square, the last 20+ story building built downtown before the current flurry, and which stood over half vacant for much of the 1990s and singlehandedly kept the Class A space vacancy rates downtown sky high for nearly a decade...

Turkish Delights is a pleasant enough place, but I don't think they'd make it on their own pastries alone without selling mediocre mass produced ice cream (which they seem to sell plenty of, particularly since they are the *only* ice cream place in Glenwood South)...Since no "make it on the premises" ice cream stores have EVER made it (Remember Steve's, Cream and Bean on Hillsborough; and (really showing my age) Rossini's in Durham on Broad Street), I guess it is a pipe dream to suppose a really good ice cream place can make it in any city that isn't a major tourist destination. (Although, I find it hard to believe Blowing Rock can support a Killians, but Glenwood South could not...)

Even the most seemingly cursed restaurant locations can eventually redeem themselves with the right concept...the Mellow Mushroom at the corner of Glenwood and Peace is a perfect example...it limped along as a procession of failed restaurants over the years, none of which were successful, until Mellow Mushroom arrived and became hugely popular... I knew mediocre chain barbeque was not going to be a success at that location--barbecue aficionados laugh at prepackaged chain barbecue restaurants, and people visiting Glenwood South to eat typically aren't looking for a dining experience replicated in a far superior fashion across NC in every burg big enough to have a stoplight (and plenty of burgs that aren't big enough for a stoplight have superior barbecue also). I thought the previous seafood restaurant was OK, though I didn't go out of the way to eat there. The first use of that building was an ice cream place. I remember thinking the building seemed incredibly overbuilt for an ice cream place, since they were selling the same thing as Goodberry's except with a custom built location over twice as big as a Goodberrys. The icecream store actually seemed ahead of its time...I bet a big dessert emporium a la Killians might make a go of it now...

can we outlaw spelling town with an "e" at the end for place names anywhere in the metropolitan area?

of course, this will be pooh-poohed by the knuckledraggers on the City Council because of the cost...I think we should try and get a referendum on the ballot in the next election that requires that every dollar spent on new infrastructure in green-fields areas (and thus contributing to sprawl) MUST be matched one-to-one with investment in reinvigorating an existing neighborhood, such as these really thoughtful recommendations from the Mordecai CAC...

2 questions: (1) so where was Edward's Mill (the mill itself)? was it on Crabtree creek close to where the mall is now? (2) if old Leesville Road was originally 70, it went up the current Lead Mine to "Town and Country" to what is now Millbrook, and then picking up its original route at the signal on Millbrook between Creedmoor and Pleasant Valley Road...but how did that road lead to Durham? Did it originally come back to the current 70 further west? Where? *EDIT* answered my own question....Leesville ends at 70 way out past TW Alexander (in fact on the internet maps, that stretch is still called "New Durham Highway"...the old route was Angier Avenue, which veers away from "new" 70 just past Leesville...boy, what a meandering route to Durham that was...obviously a pre-automobile route which I bet follows some terrain feature (ridge, stream valley, etc.)

wonder if the half price sushi on Tuesday and Thursday will follow to the downtown location...I could see Soup Nazi like lines there if that is the case...

looking for the 24-hour rainfall records for RDU, I found this nugget from description of Fran in 1996: I cannot find a list of the top 10 24-hour rainfall events at RDU anywhere on the web...

The dead end of Glenwood into Morgan is an OBVIOUS location for a connector into the Multimodal Center, particularly since it aligns perfectly with the existing street grid (if you look at a map, "Saunders Street" (as Glenwood was originally called) lines up with South Saunders on the other side of the Amtrak Station. Unfortunately, the stub end of S. Saunders is a very narrow street lined with somewhat run-down early 20th century houses, so not a good choice for a southern entry into the Wye area...

orulz: so I read your thread linked to the train message boards, and I still don't understand...why in the world was infrastructure destroyed in the 1950s when they pulled up the 2nd set of rails in so many places? couldn't afford to maintain it? didn't think usage supported double tracking? This is the craziest thing I've ever heard.

I'm guessing we don't have too many 16 year olds hanging out on these boards...

The dirty little secret of the Crabtree Creek basin (no pun intended) is the extent to which the numerous lakes built as flood control (Lake Lynn, Shelley Lake, lots of smaller ones all over the city) have silted up, thus reducing their flood control design capacity. The poster above is correct that the mall and flooding has happened several times over the last 10 years. Thats because it no longer takes a 10 year rain event to overwhelm the flood control system. Someone might want to check the weather data, but I don't think anything that has happened in the last 15 years or so (including Fran) was as big a rainfall event as the floods in the early 1970s just after the mall opened. Who knows what sort of disaster that amount of rainfall would be today, with probably a 10-fold increase in impervious surface in the Crabtree Creek basin. There might be water on the 2nd level of the mall...

few months ago I had to drop something off at the Cooper Building, the nondescript building fronting McDowell that houses several parts of the Division of Public Health. There is a courtyard of sorts on the interior of that block, most of which has been paved over and turned into parking, but you can tell the faint traces of what was once a more campus-like setting. Of course, wedged between Dawson and McDowell with traffic zooming by on either side, it would be a rather poor site for a park anyway.

One of the buildings on old Caswell Square is the Caswell Bldg....not sure why they built on this square, but I know the building on the corner that is now being restored was, I believe, originally built to house the Gov. Morehead School for the Blind. As for Burke Square, I think the Governor's Mansion (built 1891) replaced another house on that site...what does the 1872 Drie Map show on that site?

Yes. The current high speed curves simply encourage, well, high speed. Largely unnecessary...that is no longer a major commuter route north out of downtown. I suppose some people may use it to cut all the way across the city (Hammond/Person/Wake Forest) as a north south route, but I can't imagine why. Was this routing originally denoted as US 1 or 401 before they built the Beltline?

Wonder if the city has considered dismantling the whole Person/Blount/Old Wake Forest throughway configuration...was probably put in when this roadway was the US 1 heading north out of downtown. With Capital Blvd., it no longer is really needed, is it? Maybe its time for that area to revert to neighborhood streets, with Person and Blount both two way. The southbound traffic roaring around those sharp bends to get over to Blount Street is certainly not conducive to pedestrian and neighborhood oriented development...Anyone know the history of street development and routing in that area?

Interesting article. The connection with the heritage of Newton's is a brilliant stroke...but unfortunately, I'm not sure there is anyone left who is still aware of the heritage of Newtons....I worked for years in downtown, and never set foot in the place...I didn't even know it was, or ever had been a grocery store. It just looked like a nasty-ass rundown restaurant. I guess as the Halifax Court area went downhill in the 70s and 80s, so did Newton's...

Evidently, the professor had as much trouble with documentation of Jones as you have (he mentions lack of primary sources in the paper) Meredith land history

Driving by there yesterday I took a good look. There are two service stations on the SW corner of the Hardimont/New Hope and FON intersection. I think the one directly on the corner was built later, on top of the old FON. If you look at the bank building in the parking lot of Eastgate (behind this corner service station, it is tilted in an odd fashion that lines up with the direct line of Bland across the Eastgate parking lot and the "new" corner service station (the other station is the prealignment corner service station). If you look at the parcel maps on Wake County's IMAPs site, the original route of Bland/FON is pretty obvious.

I assume this Jones was related somehow to Nathaniel Jones, who was a major landowner in Wake County during this era...he owned land adjacent to the northern edge of Meredith's modern campus (according to a history of Meredith written by a professor there that is posted on the web)..wonder if N. Jones lands extended all the way from there east to Wake Forest Road?