Raleigh Downtown Living Advocates

Category: Moore Square (Page 3 of 5)

Thing To Do For Earth Day, Guest Post

April 21, 2012 /

This is a guest post provided by Sandra Simpson at Greetings from Green NC, a new site about sustainable practices and food around the triangle. I challenged Sandra to come up with a list of things to do for Earth Day and here is her list.

Downtown Raleigh NC rocks, and when it comes to observing Earth Day, there are many choices to be enjoyed-not just on April 22nd, but all month long. Here are my top ten picks for saying, “thanks Mother Earth.”

10. For a short stroll, park your car and take a walk around City Market and Moore Square. This historic downtown area provides visitors with an urban earth ambience. There is nothing quite like the comforting sound of footsteps on the cobblestone streets while trekking between City Market Produce (the old fashioned open-air produce) and Benelux Cafe, just to name a few businesses. Visitors can enjoy this as an Earth Day event or put this destination on the calendar as a reminder for visiting on many of our beautiful days in downtown Raleigh.

9. Earth Day is a great day to explore Raleigh by bike. Save the ozone and reduce your carbon footprint by taking a bike rather than cranking up your carbon-emitting vehicle. Feel safer in numbers? Check into the Tuesday night bike rides organized by Boylan Bridge Brewpub or Benelux Cafe at the City Market.

8. What better way to enjoy the bounty of Mother Earth than by growing your own produce? No need to allow small spaces to limit your gardening possibilities; Logan’s Trading Company at Seaboard Station in downtown Raleigh has taken the container garden idea one step further by including pallet gardens, vertical gardens made out of cinder blocks, EarthBox containers, window boxes, etc. When you are enjoying the fresh basil and tomato sandwiches all summer long, fresh from your own garden, you will have Earth Day inspirations to thank.

7. Soak up the sun or enjoy Mother Earth’s moonlight when dining out-of-doors. When searching for outdoor seating for dining or looking for a good home brew, check out these spots for dining-out-of-doors in downtown Raleigh. Roof-top Busy Bee, freshly brewed beer at Boylan Bridge Brewpub, Raleigh Times, Flying Saucer, and my all-time favorite dining and drinking establishment with outdoor seating-Humble Pie.

6. Raleigh is rapidly becoming more pedestrian-friendly, and the 2-mile downtown Raleigh “Sustainability Walking Tour” is a great way to see what Raleigh is doing to preserve Mother Earth. Taking the walk will help you feel good about how your city tax dollars are being spent and you can get some exercise at the same time. Sustainable Raleigh has already measured and mapped a trail for your convenience. If you want to specifically check out what Raleigh is doing to help sustain our environment, Raleigh has 24 points of interest from the preservation of historic Shaw University to the area’s only solar-powered Electric Vehicle Charging Station. You can print the brochure or click on the “app map” for a self-guided-mile trek. For the Google map and more information, please refer to www.raleighnc.gov/sustainableraleigh. Sustainable Raleigh Map is on the right side.

5. Take time to educate your children about ways to save the earth. Start by reducing your family’s carbon foot print by unplugging the TV and the video games and heading outside for an eco-friendly picnic at Pullen Park. A great way to teach sustainability by example is to pack the picnic with reusable utensils, tablecloths, thermoses, cloth napkins and dish towels. A yard sale is a great way to purchase slightly used picnic supplies. If you have to buy utensils choose those made from recycled paper and do not forget to recycle! Reuse and Recycle, save our trees!

4. When selecting ways to celebrate Earth Day and beyond don’t forget the major recycling centers at Five Points. The time honored tradition of antiquing has long been a way to reuse and recycle other than using valuable resources to make new furniture and household items. Not in the mood for antiques? Villa Consegna is Five Points answer to gently used designer outfits.

Two establishments have chosen to retro-fit and maintain the original buildings. NO FO is a charming re-invention of the Five Points Piggly Wiggly grocery store and part of the original Hayes Barton Pharmacy is now an upscale dining establishment with the most generous portion of really good chicken chicken pot pie. The lunch counter is the perfect spot to enjoy the generous homemade desserts.

3. If tree hugging is your way of celebrating Earth Day, then you might want to visit the 400 plus acres at Dorothea Dix. In the early 1900’s Dix was home to a dairy, a vineyard and a greenhouse. No longer producing and growing their own food and spirits, the site maintains an old stand of oak and pecan trees. On a hot day you can feel the temperature drop as you enter the canopy of old growth trees. The future of Dorothea Dix is often a hot topic. Stop by and see for yourself how this shady spot improves the environment of the Downtown.

2. Stop by an urban garden, kinda, the NC State Farmers Market offers visitors to “pick their own” from the variety of fruits, vegetables and plants that are brought there by farmers from all over the state. My favorite sustainable farmer is Erin Weston at Weston Farms, all the way at the north end of the building stop by and here Ernin’s story of sustainability.

1. We all have been watching The Daily Planet come to life and now we can see what is inside. The grand opening of the Nature Research Center at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences is the number one thing to do to warm up for EARTH DAY. The NRC is a day-in-day-out salute to discovering how to keep our planet alive and well and most of all stir the minds of the school children all across our state. In addition to the research projects that can be observed at the museum, live feeds from studies off the coast of NC will be broadcast to NC schools. The head of the New Nature Research Center is Margaret D (Meg) Lowman, affectionally and professionally known as Canopy Meg. Thanks Canopy Meg for choosing Raleigh as your base camp for saving our planet.

December 2012 Moore Square Cleanup

December 3, 2011 /

On a beautiful sunny Saturday, members of the DLA met up in Moore Square and picked up trash. If you don’t know already, the DLA has adopted Moore Square and will be planning more cleanups in the future. Typically the cleanup lasts an hour with a lunch outing immediately afterwards.

Thanks to all the members who showed up as well as the new friends from Activate Good.

Share Your Vision for Downtown Raleigh: Turn Empty Storefronts into “Windows of Opportunity”

October 12, 2011 /

It’s happening across the country.  Whether it’s the WALK (Window Art Local Knowledge) Gallery transforming vacant storefronts on King Street in Charleston, or THE AWESOMEST ART THING EVER that has rejuvenated twelve vacant storefronts in Hartford, artists are coming together to fill windows of neglected city properties with images of hope and possibility.  The stated goals of AATE are typical of many of these projects: 

 

Cultivating a new appreciation of the downtown area, encouraging pedestrian activity and engaging the urban environment in a creative dialogue.

WALK Gallery, CharlestonI join the DLA and Tipping Paint Artists in holding this vision for Raleigh, and even something more.  As residents, we walk by these windows every day and wonder how we can support not just the Raleigh arts and business communities, but create a means of communication and empowerment to Raleigh’s residents of all ages and backgrounds.  Given the chance to share their words and images, what would they say?

 

Artist Candy Chang asked that question in post-Katrina New Orleans when she created a 32-foot long chalkboard wall on which she repeatedly stenciled, “Before I die ________.”  Passersby picked up chalk and filled in their answers, which were archived for public record.  WebUrbanist favors using everyday materials to create art, for instance covering entire walls with murals made from sticky notes.  Possibilities for some downtown Raleigh windows may be as simple as assembling collage pieces with school children or setting up a Moore Square collection station for sticky notes pertaining to a specific theme. Others sites may invite art installations by local artists, or perhaps accommodate movement, videography or music.  

Do you remember as a child, the feeling you had when your penmanship paper or finger-painting was posted in the school hallway?  There’s something in all of us that feels the pride of ownership when we’ve been invited to leave our mark.  Downtown is our front yard.  It’s where we meet our neighbors and in some ways, how we define ourselves as a city.  

Are you an artist, teacher, or community volunteer, who shares a vision for residents creating community through creativity?  Do you own a downtown property that is ripe for a face lift?  Add your comment to let us know who you are.  


Together we can transform sidelined windows into magnets for inspiration and activity!



Moore Square Redesign; When and How Much?

February 8, 2011 /


The next step in the Moore Square Redesign takes place next week with a meeting for public comments on the draft master plan. Download a pdf report of the plan from the city’s website (at ‘DRAFT Master Plan’ in the right sidebar) or here directly. The meeting to go over the plan and have an opportunity to ask questions and submit comments is at:

5:30-7:00pm
Thursday February 17th, 2011
Chavis Community Center
505 Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard

Diving into the draft plan, we see estimates for how long this project will take and how much it will cost.

The Master Plan process is coming to a close soon with this final review and plan. Funding is needed to continue to the next step of schematic and design development, an estimated eight month process. Following this, another eight months is needed to create construction documents and another year after until that construction is complete on the square.

Schematic and Design Development: 8 months
Construction Documents: 8 months
Construction: 1 year

Estimated completion: Summer 2013 (funding dependant)

The total cost of design, earthwork, park fixtures, and many other elements that are planned to go into the park; about $14 million. Individual costs are broken out in the report so please take a look and voice your comments at the meeting next week or directly to the city on their website. (there is a contacts section in the right sidebar)

Mastering the Plan for Moore Square Bus Station

December 21, 2010 /

If you’ve waited at the R Line stop by Moore Square Bus Station, you’ve probably noticed what the architect, Roberta Fox is addressing in her preliminary studies for revamping the area.  Hired by the city to spur a master redevelopment plan in the 1st quarter of 2011, Roberta has built a model of the station and surrounding area.  Using the model, which includes interlocking pieces that can be moved around, Roberta showed me some of her ideas that would improve capacity for handling more bus traffic and parking within the facility.   

My query started with David Eatman, City of Raleigh Transit Administrator.  David explained that the Moore Square Station did indeed present some challenges for the city.  CAT buses idle on Wilmington and Blount Streets, queuing there because there aren’t enough parking spaces within the facility.  Looking out ten years, David says that 40-80 more buses will be required to handle the projected increase in population. Even with the plans for Union Station, Moore Square would become a secondary hub for routing bus traffic.

 

What are the solutions?. 

I asked about what can be done so people walking through or waiting at the station can feel more safe and comfortable.

David responded that more “feet on the street” were needed to enforce the existing loitering ordinance, and noted that security was enhanced this past August with the addition of two full-time officers (with arresting authority) dedicated to the station area.  

Roberta explained that security can be also be improved through the facility design based on the following concepts.  

  • Create an environment that is friendly to pedestrians walking through the area.
  • Fill the space with people who are there for a purpose.
  • Open up the opportunity for neighboring business to encroach upon the space.

Roberta says you need to “activate the empty spaces and take away the eddies or nooks and crannies where people can hang out without being seen.  Adding people with a purpose allows for self-policing”.  

The first example of a business taking advantage of the station’s adjoining area could come in the form of a rumored coffee shop that may offer outside seating overlooking the inner courtyard Transit Mall off Wilmington Street. 

David Eatman and Roberta MK FoxIt’s expected that the city will organize a public participation event, similar to the ongoing Moore Square redesign process, but without the contest.  David says that the public input is very important and that the city will be open to creative ideas on how to best use the space.

The construction that you see along Blount Street today is a small project (to be completed next month) to remove the fountains and add better lighting, as well as an additional walkway and seating.  

 

But there is a lot more coming . . . so stay tuned.  Think about what you’d like to add to this important project for re-envisioning our city.  I’m thinking about a mix of retail floors within the parking deck.  Tell us your ideas. 


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