Crabpeople
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Posts posted by Crabpeople
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On 9/15/2019 at 12:20 AM, Jones_ said:
Phase I's street level is absolutely horrendous. Orulz noticed on the plans way back when, that it looked like a solid blank wall along West St. Well that's what it is. And along Harrington too it turns out minus the little triangle retail space that has a car pull through behind it. The Peace St face, sure, has a walk in entrance but right next to that is a massive car entrance. This is the primary problem with a grocery store of this size in a downtown...it is setup such that carloads of groceries are the expectation for the seller and the buyer. The pedestrian is an afterthought to these large scale, weeks worth of groceries, transactions.
It looks like Ph II is substantially better on that front, at least.
Believe it or not, but some people, even those in urbanized areas decide to have families and find devoting time to raising a family easier easier if they buy more than 3 days of groceries at a time. When that option is accessible for most in the area due to a combination of factors (i.e. not living in Manhattan, without a car), all will take it. That reality is likely far more important to nearly everyone than the subjective aesthetics of a small portion of said building.
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2 hours ago, rolly said:
@KJHburg Good point. Those projects leased out quickly, showing strong market interest.
But there is a lot of competition coming online, with the second tower next to One Glenwood (10 stories), the 9 story tower in Peace Phase 2, and half of 301H (Pendo taking only about half). Also Kane has Tower 4 coming up, which is ahead of all projects with 11 stories of office. And to think that all of this should be done in just a year and a half.
Kane is involved in 2 of the 4 projects you mentioned. If he's willing to compete against himself, there's likely very good reason. Optimistically he knows some things the general public doesn't. All recent office projects have filled up very quickly and people and companies moving here hasn't slowed in the 2010s, so demand should continue as it has.
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On 7/23/2019 at 11:34 AM, Jones_ said:
Funny. The location alone (for Umstead) eliminates it from 5 star status in my head. Just another example of how the people with the money get to make the decisions.
Why would anyone not in the hotel business assume they should get to have input on star classification of hotels? Even just theoretically that oozes arrogance. People with the money to create hotels, which are expensive no matter how many stars of course are the ones who decide what qualifies.
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On 5/10/2019 at 11:30 PM, Jones_ said:
I can't believe people ask this stuff with a straight face. Most of that block is Federally and locally listed Historic register stuff. Even if it wasn't, Raleigh has less than 5% of its commercials buildings left that were standing in 1900. That's it. The uniqueness is because everything else was destroyed with impunity. They were built with materials and techniques no longer in use or available. The character of the buildings is irreplaceable. Age nothwithstanding, there is plenty of reason to maintain small, flexible, retails paces and human scale buildings in any and every urban setting. Taller is just taller, and not demonstrably better on any front. Go ahead and trot out some argument. You can build new crap anywhere. Like literally anywhere. Let me turn it around...what about this spot demands 40 stories? Nothing at all. How about we fix the suburbs and make some gridded streets with mixed use blocks and mixed use buildings out there instead of destroying historic blocks that already are perfectly laid out exactly as they are? Your way of posing these questions makes me very mad because it always is a teeing up of attempting to justify putting some glossy piece of crap in place of the rarest of rare. Raleigh has no culture, or soul now an had little back then. Few immigrants, very little pivotal or national level history (Lafayette, Henry Clay, and Grant's visit in 1865 few other little bits...), but it had some great local builders and architects. Thomas Briggs and Julius Lewis were two of them and both of their hardware stores are on this block. Their work is a good as the famous names that worked here (Jacob Holt, Richard Upjohn, William Percival et.al.). Even if you don't 'get' historical buildings there should be enough objective stuff here to buy into.
Thanks for the info. I work in healthcare, not anything related to architecture or city planning. I've wondered the reasons for buildings being labeled historic. Also maybe try some yoga if you get wound up so easily about questions. Ashwagandha is excellent at mellowing out too.
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We know the buildings in question were built in the 19th century, but what exactly about each of them actually makes them historic? Is there anything memorable/specific the public is supposed to know or could know? Is each of their architectural styles unique to their era that they should be preserved or is 'historic' simply based on being pre-1900?
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It's unfortunate that various people from Duke can't admit they are trying to kill the project because they think it's a boondoggle, as that would be a huge PR problem.
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5 hours ago, KJHburg said:
I predicted this about wherever Amazon HQ2 split in 3 along with Nashville landed. I think the Raleigh Durham area could be a winner in this with other companies.
From a subscriber article in the Business Journal today
Conway referenced the Amazon HQ2 search, which occupied much of the business news cycle last year as the e-commerce giant put out an open call for proposals to decide where to land 50,000 jobs and billions in investments. Amazon said in late 2018 that it would split HQ2 between New York City and northern Virginia. When analyzing skills gap markets in the U.S., New York and the Washington, D.C., metro areas are among the toughest markets to find a labor force with particular skills to meet demand from a company, Conway said. He said that since Amazon's announcement, at least 10 companies have contacted him "scrambling" to do site selection to relocate out of northern Virginia and New York. "Amazon is already poaching workers" there, he continued. The states that companies are analyzing the most for potential relocation: Texas, North Carolina and Georgia. "I predict three to five years from now, we’ll look back and see New York and northern Virginia lost jobs and (other states) are going to be huge, huge beneficiaries," Conway said.
emphasize mine
Intriguing. The law of unintended consequences can be a head scratcher, and then you wonder why you didn't see it from the start. I count myself among the crowd who was dazzled by the possibility and prestige Amazon HQ2 could bring to Raleigh, but as time went by and I thought about it, I started having second thoughts. It will be almost comical if central North Carolina ends up just as economically well off as the HQ2 arrival, but spread out over a longer period of time and a larger geographic area, so costs of living don't jump up quickly and our infrastructure manages to keep pace, when it wouldn't have kept pace with HQ2 arrival. Texas has had the proverbial "last laugh" with economic relocations and booms for a few decades. I look forward to seeing if we end up benefitting from relocations from NY and VA on a parallel to Texas scale.
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The Durham-Orange LTR comes off as a desperate "let's build something" just to be able to say the area has a transit system. Good points made by others that avoiding the airport is tenable. Will this LTR alleviate traffic? Not at all. The most optimistic projections make that clear. A small fraction of 1% of car trips will be saved. While that's the main advertisement to voters and to gain general public support, those are not the real reasons for the LTR. While people here (myself included, despite my ragging on this LTR) are fans of urbanity, we are in the minority among the general population. $3.3 Billion is a lot to hopefully incentivize more pockets of urbanity in a low density city and anti-growth town. And if we're being honest, that $3.3 Billion will likely head north of $4 Billion after the project begins.
I can't help looking at other numbers. SInce 2010, Durham and Chapel Hill combined have been gaining about 5200 population in total. That's slower yearly population gains than Cary and Holly Springs combined. Apex will surpass Chapel Hill's population in 2-3 years. If Chapel Hill were gaining 3500 instead of the 350 yearly population gain its had this decade, I might be quiet on this LTR.
I'm not saying do nothing. I'm saying a few things: why is Chapel Hill included in a rail transit system? For UNC hospital? I'd say Chapel Hill is included because the optics are bad for a multiple billion project that covers only 1 municipality, currently the 76th largest city. Connecting two municipalities is much better imagery and helps fill the project out. AKA, the LTR project needs Chapel Hill more for imagery and approval than Chapel Hill needs an LTR system. Why are we going to have 2 separate systems in the Triangle? Anyone who has lived here a few years can see traffic getting far worse. I'm sure a transit system between Durham, Cary, and Raleigh would get a lot more support than it did just 10, hell 5 years ago.
In my previous post I mentioned self-driving vehicles in 2060, not real soon. I did mention Uber vans, but didn't say they'd be self-driving. I suspect they'll be here well before self-driving vehicles are more than a tiny niche. Whether van or small bus, ride sharing vehicles will take the form of truly fulfilling that term. We'll see Uber/Lyft/other vehicles that look and operate more like shuttle buses. Pick up 5 or 10 people in a small geographic area, then go direct to a single destination or extremely close destinations Makes the fares cheaper, still more direct than city buses following the exact same route all day. A term I've seen is "ride-linking". Not just locally, but for longer trips as well. I think we'll these ride-linking vehicles with services on board. One ride-linking vehicle may have a masseuse on board 4-7pm. Another may be an office/Kinkos on wheels. Another may be used as Tinder + good coffee. All carrying multiple people and being more direct than public transport. Not for everyone and most people would prefer just a ride most of the time, but these have a way better shot at actually alleviating some traffic once they catch on.
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I've lived in this area for 15 years and followed this website (to see what exciting new developments were coming about) for 12-13 years. I'm a massive fan of public transportation. I've used Amtrak multiple times, used subway systems in 20 or so cities around the world, and actual high speed trains. I am truly amazed people believe the Durham-Orange light rail project is going to be built and completed....before 2060, when half the population will be working from home and the roads will be mostly filled with self driving delivery vehicles. One need not be a CPA to realize it's a money pit, dead in the water. First, consider almost half of it is through probably the most anti-growth municipality in the state. In my 15 years here, Chapel Hill has gone from 51,000 to ~60,000 people. Twice as many people have moved to that whopping 8 sq mile town of Morrisville since then. The same or more can be said for virtually every suburb more than 5 square miles in size in Wake County. A 1-1.5 mile radius around the center of North Hills has gained more population since 2003 than anti-growth Chapel Hill. While Durham is growing at a decent rate, it still has a long way to go. It will crack the 3000 people/sq mile mark sometime around 2030. By then morning commutes and car ownership will be very different. Uber vans are coming soon, for this purpose. No need for 1/20th filled light rail trains, when a handful of ride-sharing, fair sharing vehicles can get the same job done more directly (in less time) and more efficiently (several ways, including energy used).
Figures from early 2017 put the total cost (including borrowing costs) of the Durham-Orange light rail at $3.3 Billion. aka $10,000 for every man, woman, and child in all of Durham and Chapel Hill. That figure is not going down with population growth. We can't project American 4 yr university students (UNC, UNCC, Duke) as examplary users of light rail transit. While walking a lot around campus, students at 4 yr colleges are among the most insular populations in the developed world. Most college students rarely leave a tiny geographic area Monday-Friday.
So surely the rail line gets somewhere near the airport, right? At closest 10 miles away. Ok, so it must get somewhere near the bulk of RTP employment, right? Most people in Cary can get there much faster sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, in a 20 yr old Camry.
Not to mention the Durham Orange Light Rail line depends on:
1. $1.2 - 1.3 Billion in federal tax dollars it doesn't have secured,
2. Hundreds of Millions in state tax dollars it doesn't have secured,
3. Duke University donating a fair amount of land,
4. Durham's largest commerical enterprises, with swagger, somehow doing a 180 on their loud objections to the rail plan
5. Ignoring its much bigger brother directly to the East, Wake County's public transportation plans, which are bigger in scope and more efficient in moving commuters.
The Durham-Orange light rail is DOA. I hope most of its backers were just trying to get Wake County on board , the rest were just starry eyed dreamers who never liked math. -
Kudos to them for seeing the obvious changes coming in the near future. For people with children born in the last 5 years or so, your children will likely not have to learn how to drive. It's a bit of a blessing that as much as people complain about parking garages in urban settings, they are small footprints here in Raleigh that can be pretty easily converted to adaptive use in the near future or torn down without much fanfare.
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1 hour ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:
Just so you guys feel a LITTLE BIT better about the One Glenwood Parking Deck. At least it isn't taller than adjacent office buildings.
I'm always curious what is to come of said structures in 15-20 years time when at least half of all short drives and likely 3/4ths of drives to downtowns are done by self driving ride-sharing vehicles. Half converted to recharging bases for self driving vehicles?
Zimmer project - Peace & Capital Blvd
in The NC Triangle
Posted
Definitely seems like something we shouldn't hold our breath on, unless more solid details are released. Do renderings like this usually serve a purpose outside of property speculation and resale value? Fingers crossed that this isn't "vaporware" like in the tech world, so does anyone have more information whether this is feasible by the developers who own this spot? Beyond what's already been said? Until more is known, I'd suggest keeping snarky complaining to where it isn't infectious.