Raleigh photos

[Damien]

*Sings the theme song from Weeds* "Little boxes on the hillside. Little boxes made of ticky tack. And they all look just the same."

Isn't there one of those fake tree looking cell phone towers in Cary?

[Transplant]

People love living in these neighborhoods which I don't understand. At least plant some trees so in about 100 years there will be little bit of shade.

[GRDadof3]

I live in a subdivision that was built in the mid-90s. The builder left quite a lot of trees so there are buffers between the backs of lots. Is it perfect? no, more trees would be better. I would like to have seen trees planted in the front yards. The previous owner of my home did plant a tree and it now towers over my house. And it has not been 100 years, maybe 8.

[orulz]

I often use Atlantic as a good Capital Blvd. substitute.

[ChiefJoJo]

THe development near 401 looks to be a mixed use type new urbanist develpoment, perhaps similar to Meadowmont in Chapel hill. I still don't want to see development out that far, but I suppose if it's going to happen, this is what we want to see.

Converselt, the other development is absolutely rediculous exurban sprawl, and was rejected by the planning staff. It's miles away fom anything... the public hearing on these is tonight BTW.

[Jones_]

The pics are good, though all taken from inside a car LOL.

Where is the Wal Mart in the picture? Plantation Pointe? I was at the TTC Best Buy on Saturday, but didn't think to go one block further north.

I often use Atlantic as a good Capital Blvd. substitute. Or Raleigh Blvd, though you have to use Brentwood to get back on to Capital, where the "boulevard" turns into Skycrest. Or take New Hope, which is often congested as well.

The area from Brier Creek to Capitol is "North Raleigh", a lot bigger than the whole city was until the 70s or 80s. The Highwoods stretch just north of 440 between Atlantic and Capitol (with the RBC Centura building) looks like a Buckhead wannabe, but that never happened there.

As shown in the pictures, some builders don't offer garages as options, while others force you into a "snout house". Neither has behind the house parking via garage or alley. Do people really like to show off what they're driving, or do they not care enough to ask for alternate layouts?

It is interesting that time has passed the Mini City area (and points south) by, as development is now at 540 to the north, and along the Glenwood corridor. Is there no incentive to make the Starmount shopping center near Mayflower/Adventure Landing/Cookout better?

I noticed a month or so ago that the shopping center with the Burlington Coat Factory just south of the US 1/401 split lost its Applebees. The Vincents Pizza reopened elsewhere, Dicks moved to TTC (though that was probably a temp location), etc. Is that a "bad" area or just unlucky?

[dmccall]

One thing to note about traffic is that you really can't go faster than the car in front of you. Download good netcasts and get a Rhapsody to Go subscription and that traffic isn't so bad (and I have straight gears!).

I do think Capital Blvd is just awful, though.

[ncwebguy]

The "ring of decay" as I like to call it moves outward from city centers. When the areas around 440 were building out, downtown was in complete decay. In the 90's the 440 ring is in decay, and the mini city radius was being built out corresponding to say Phar Mor on Glenwood as well and Darryls on Wake Forest. Now that Phar-Mor/Darryls/Starmount radius is in decay and downtown is blooming as well as 440 (North Hills, Crabtree) and 540 is experiencing its first build out. maybe this phenomena corresponds to the 30-40 year life span of the buildings?

[Jones_]

Unlike most cities, where the the ring/halo of decay is concentric (unless there is a natural feature, like Chicago/Lake Michigan), Raleigh's only sweeps from Capitol to Glenwood. To the west, there is Umstead, but to the east, there was decay was almost immediate. Mini city has Casalinga, Barbecue Lodge, and Ed McKay's but the rest of it is crap like Rec Factory Warehouse and Colortime rent-to-own.

Pleasant Valley is its own weird time warp. Before the Raleigh Grand, they had the only movie theater in that part of town. None of the other tenants could capitalize on it, since few people took the walk of shame from the movie theater to the rest of the center. Plenty of places have tried to make a go there -- Phar-Mor (which moved from the Best Buy space to where Bed Bath and Beyond is now), Old Country Buffet, Gino Russos, Zany Brainy, Marshalls, Best Buy, etc. And when one left, something eventually took its place. I don't think Ross and Bed Bath and Beyond fed off Best Buy's traffic, but with Brier Creek as part of the "540 ring", they might have a hard time to attract customers. With the first wave of those townhouse residents (a friend moved into one of the ones behind the Glenwood/Duraleigh/Millbrook McDonalds) long gone, the demographics in the immediate area are in decline. A lot of young RTP workers lived in the area along Duraleigh/Edwards Mill to Millbrook/Creedmoor, but now the "resident ring" has moved outward to 540 from Brier Creek to Leesville.

The "outer edge" quickly swept from Tower shopping center through the old Kroger/Kmart area. Maybe it is demographics of the area, but the Knightdale Wal-Mart seemed to thrive at the expense of everything else. This area is just now getting it's "outer edge" at the 64 Business/540/Midway Plantation area. I haven't been out there in a while, but know I probably won't recognize it. But how long will it be before things start marching out toward Wendell and points east?

The south has had it even worse. Wilmington and South Saunders Streets have been in a state of disrepair for well over a decade from inside 440 to Garner city limits. The development on the northwest corner of Tryon and South Saunders might change things, but time will tell. Garner is its own ring, and that may start to decay as the "new(ish) hotness" at the 40/70 intersection leeches shoppers away from the 70/401 split area.

[willrusso]

Thanksgiving Eve traffic....

Definately NOT North Raleigh, but interesting nontheless.

This has got to be the strangest looking pine forest I've ever seen. Why are these pine trees so puffy? It looks somewhat prehistoric. I'm seriously disturbed LOL.

[Jones_]

Those look like long leaf pines, and compared to loblolly pines they are prehistoric. Long leaf used to range from southern VA to coastal LA and dominated the coastal plain of ever State in between. Ship building wiped out most long leaf pine by the civil war. It is resistant to fire so the natural cycle of forest burning from lightning favored long leaf in prehistoric times. Around 1900 Soil and Water Conservation districts came along in an attempt to save rapidly eroding away farm land. (Umstead Park has many huge erosion gulleys with quartz dams farmers used to try to stop the dirt from washing away. The recent reforestation(since 1900) of the southeast has been with quick growing (and hence easily snapped off in ice storms!) Loblolly Pines.

[dmccall]

Jones133 is unreal. I haven't met you yet, but in my mind you look something like this:

[RaleighLover]

I love how you can always tell Wakefield in a picture. They always go out of their way to have everything non-offensive to eye-sight, from their black stop lights on black poles to their pine tree cell phone tower.

[Jones_]

Jones133 is unreal. I haven't met you yet, but in my mind you look something like this:

[capitalapts]

Those look like long leaf pines, and compared to loblolly pines they are prehistoric. Long leaf used to range from southern VA to coastal LA and dominated the coastal plain of ever State in between. Ship building wiped out most long leaf pine by the civil war. It is resistant to fire so the natural cycle of forest burning from lightning favored long leaf in prehistoric times. Around 1900 Soil and Water Conservation districts came along in an attempt to save rapidly eroding away farm land. (Umstead Park has many huge erosion gulleys with quartz dams farmers used to try to stop the dirt from washing away. The recent reforestation(since 1900) of the southeast has been with quick growing (and hence easily snapped off in ice storms!) Loblolly Pines.

[ericurbanite]

Here is some construction pictures from the raleigh chronicle. Raleigh PICS

Also I was wondering if someone already has a list of expected construction beginning and ending dates for all projects.

[urbanvb]

anyone taking pics of the city covered in snow today?

[Spatula]

anyone taking pics of the city covered in snow today?

[urbanvb]

very nice, Spatula. Unfortunately we go virtually nothing but flurries here. Were some of these shots taken in a park?

[Spatula]

Pullen park. Looks pretty strange covered in snow.

[ncwebguy]

The hill in front of the 1911 building on the Court of the Carolinas (third picture down) used to be a *great* sledding hill. After the snowstorm of 2000, there was dozens of State students and other people going down on whatever they could -- trashcan lids, trays from the cafeteria, etc. And it was easy to keep beverages cold in the snow too! The university made the area handicap accessible via the brick retaining wall in the picture, right across the middle of the hill. So the sledding is no more.

Th DH Hill library pics are cool, like the earlier non-snow ones! The bridge on the west end of Pullen Pond looks a lot better covered in snow that the usual worn wood.

There might be a sledding hill somewhere in Pullen, but I haven't had a good amount of snow + exploring time in a while.

I wanted to take pictures, but by the time I was motivated, the snow turned to rain, which didn't make for good pictures. I have a few pictures of RBC Plaza's supports, but they didn't come out too well.

[uptownliving]

Thanks for posting the pics Spatula, they bring back good memories from my days at NC State. ncwebguy I was there for the historic snow of 2000 and did some sledding on that hill. The Court of the Carolinas was my favorite part of campus.

[suburban george3]

A few shots of downtown Raleigh, NC taken today...

[urbanvb]

great pics! Looks like a great day for photographing.

[suburban george3]

great pics! Looks like a great day for photographing.