Raleigh Downtown Living Advocates

Category: City Government (Page 5 of 15)

Triangle Wiki: Your crowd-sourced hyperlocal city guide

November 3, 2012 /

We are lucky to have such a diverse selection of downtown Raleigh blogs to capture the history, local knowledge and the vibrant momentum happening right now.  At the end of the day, all the weight and responsibility is on the local blogger to make it happen, so we can consume.

What if we had a a crowd-sourced hyperlocal city guide where anyone could be a local downtown Raleigh blogger?  We do, it’s called Triangle Wiki.
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Triangle Wiki is a grassroots initiative forming right here in the Triangle, a website about the Triangle that anyone can edit.  Whether you’re new to the area or a native, you have knowledge and perspectives you can share with and learn from your neighbors on the Triangle Wiki.  Simply browse the site or go to a random page.  If you’re interested in getting more involved with the project, brainstorm ideas for content development, or if you’d like to meet the team that’s heading up the efforts to build momentum, head on over to the Triangle Wiki Discussion Group on Facebook and check out the wiki community.
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Reid Serosi is the guy behind Triangle Wiki.  Check out what he has to say in this recent article published in www.fastcoexist.com.

Why vote locally this year?

November 2, 2012 /

Article by Tappan Vickery for WakeUP Wake County

After a decade of working to engage to Generations X, Y and Millennials in civic issues and voting, I’ve discovered that preaching to someone about the importance of voting is useless if they have decided to reject the process.  It’s similar to telling someone to find their faith – it is a personal journey they have to take on their own. So rather than preach, I strive to give people the resources they need to make their own choices.

I have a Raleigh friend who has never voted.  He’s an activist, building local businesses to support sustainability and supports local foundations and other non-profits.  He is a property owner and pays taxes. But he just doesn’t vote.

Jump over to NewRaleigh.com to read the rest of the article . . .

 

 

City Council reviews Unified Development Code recommendations

September 24, 2012 /

WHAT: At the September 17th review meeting, City Council received an overview of the Planning Commission’s recommendations for changes to the draft Unified Development Code (UDO) document.  A detailed review of the Planning Commission’s recommendations will begin at this meeting, starting with Chapter 1 of the UDO. The plan is to move sequentially through all chapters of the UDO.

WHEN: Monday, September 24 at 5:00 pm.

WHERE: 222 West Hargett Street, City Council Chamber

 

For more information: click here.

For other posts on this blog re the UDO: click here.

First Phase of Union Station in Downtown Raleigh Moves Forward

September 21, 2012 /

Joseph Szabo, the head of the Federal Railroad Administration, visited Raleigh’s warehouse district this morning to announce that the Federal Government had awarded Raleigh with the final amount of funding needed to complete the cost of a $60 million replacement for Raleigh’s Amtrak station.

  • $43 Million: Federal
  • $ 9 Million:  State
  • $6 Million: City
  • $2 Million: TTA
  • $60 Million: Total

The first phase of Union Station will be in the former Dillon Supply Viaduct Building near the corner of West and Martin streets, just a block from the planned Citrix Systems headquarters office, and around the corner from the BEST Raleigh mural now being painted by a group of local artists.

This first phase of the city’s Union Station project will serve as Raleigh’s new Amtrak depot, replacing the cramped and busy station a few blocks away on Cabarrus Street.  Project design will begin in January, with construction starting in January 2014.

Planned expansions in the future would establish Union Station as a hub for commuter trains between Durham and Raleigh as part of the Wake County Transit plan.  As you may recall, funding for the transit plan was delayed by the recent decision of the Wake County Commissioners to put off having a referendum on the transit bond.

Eventually, Union Station could also serve as the hub for inter-state High Speed Rail  (route pictured here) and a local Light Rail service that would run between Raleigh and Cary.

Associated posts:

County Transit Plan Moving Forward

Vote YES for Raleigh’s Transportation Bond

Proposed extension to R-Line daytime route to increase passenger wait times

August 13, 2012 /

Public loitering in front of the Wilmoore Cafe and other businesses adjacent to the Moore Square transit mall have prompted the Raleigh Transit Authority to propose a change to the current R-Line route.

Click to enlarge

The proposed change will move the current R-Line stop #16 from its current location to south of Martin Street. Unfortunately, the daytime route will also be extended to include three additional stops (R17-19) – see map.

While transit riders have experienced the congestion around this R-Line transit stop for some time, it was this report through the SeeClickFix app that got the city’s attention.

 

People loitering in front of the businesses surrounding Moore square transit station has become a huge problem and is of great concern to customers and business owners. Panhandling, begging, profanity, open containers/alcohol consumption, public urination, littering, sleeping, etc. has made Wilmington Street an unpleasant place to be for everybody. Please help to solve these problems so downtown Raleigh can be enjoyable for everyone.

The city says that the proposed move is also being done to relieve traffic and pedestrian congestion at this location where both TTA and R-Line buses must stop directly in front of a mid-block crosswalk on Wilmington Street.

So why extend the R-Line route?

Moving the R-Line route to the evening schedule will add three more stops to the daytime route, resulting in additional wait times for passengers at all other 16 stops.

Upon our inquiry we received these comments from the city as to the reasons for the route extension:

  1. Promote convenient access to the R-Line (from Moore Square) without it being on Wilmington Street.
  2. Allow the R-Line to by-pass by this section of Wilmington Street.

The proposed changes have not yet been approved, as they are conditional upon the Raleigh City Council adopting parking changes being proposed on the section of Wilmington Street between Hargett and Martin Streets.

Want to weigh-in on this issue?  Go to the SeeClickFix Report link.

 

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