davidals

journalism

^ Indeed - I didn't hear the NPR piece, but I expect that it was a boiled-down version of the piece he has in this month's issue of The Atlantic. That I did read, and it's the usual round of cocktail-party pop sociology from the first book, reworked a bit to reflect a new economic landscape. He generally had some nice things to say about Charlotte, without getting too specific, before moving on to the likes of Vegas, Detroit and his favored set of CC meccas. I'd recommend the article - it isn't going to tell you much that you don't already know, but it's entertaining (in a way) to see him play armchair economist.

Yes, but the real point is use of space, and the potential revision of design ideas that may be hitting a sell-by date. The validity of PTRP could be debated, but it's just as true that RTP could be better connected to the remainder of the Triangle. Tweaking setbacks, and working to bring various amenities closer (whether coffeehouses, gyms, living spaces, et. al.) has many advantages, and need not threathen the 'room to expand' that various companies will continue to look for. Boosting density at the park need not make it any more expensive than it would anywhere in the Triangle, and it won't hit Cambridge-like levels of expensiveness anywhere. Except maybe Chapel Hill.

BBC Radio has a feature - listening now (10:45PM) - on the recession's impact on Charlotte, focusing upon financial services, and (to a lesser degree) post-election expectations and economic fears. Charlotte, but no NC, throughout the feature. Not the cheeriest journalism by a long shot, and they did misidentify Wachovia as having been "founded in Charlotte," but it's otherwise one of the more credible Charlotte-centric pieces of journalism I've run into in a while. There are a number of brief "man on the street" type interviews, and they run a diverse gamut from McRorey to local small business owners to people in barbershops to someone working in a health clinic, and it does appear that (apart from the gloomy subject matter), BBC made a solid attempt at capturing as much of a cross-section as they could in a 7 minute featurette.

Among many other issues, the census bureau really needs to get their acronyms under control. They'll be flinging pseudopolitans, megapolitans, brachiopolitans, broncopolitans, neopolitans or neapolitans at us in no time. Where will it end?

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2008/10...iest_small_town The current issue of Bon Appetit magazine has a nice article about the local food scene, dubbing the Durham-Chapel Hill area "America's Foodiest Small Town." (None of the towns in the running are exactly small, it should be noted.) There's a focus on the usual resturants, and a decent bit of attention devoted to the Carrboro farmers market and local farmers as well. I wasn't expecting the article - a friend pointed it out to me - and I was reading fairly critically, but it's a decent piece; worth a look.

If that's not an epitaph for the entire mall, I don't know what is.

Maybe yes, maybe no. You could be getting two or three times the sprawl you're already having to deal with: I'll invite you up to spend valuable time sitting in heavy traffic on I-40 near RTP. There's something to be said, in theory at least, for modest but steady growth. There's a golden opportunity to grow smart, as the numbers start to curve upward. As for Florida levels of growth: be careful what you wish for. Once it's paved over, you ain't getting it back.

Unchained Van Halen: "Whoooo Dave - that suit is YOU!..." This is in a mix that includes the likes of Zappa, Aretha, Bob Marley, Tortoise, Wire and other randoms. Every ipod should include at least one artfully ridiculous David Lee Roth monologue-with-guitar bit.

Oswald

Category 5

Louisville

Generally, it's all good. I just know - from family - people who have been on both sides of the gentrification debate - I have family who have done the gentrifying, and other family who have been priced out of places and were pretty explicitly resentful after the fact. Seeing older, close-in neighborhoods improve, especially at the grass-roots level is a great thing. Seeing realtors from multiple states away (who don't know sqaut about an area's history or current residents, and frankly could care less) salivating over the same neighborhoods because they see dollars is a far less appetizing prospect. Idunno...it's a neverending argument I guess...

McCartney

So intriguing - I knew the neighborhood when it was definitely not trendy - I still have an aunt who lives on State St, 3 blocks down from 5 Points. Great to see the area getting attention, though the vid clip also made me a tad nervous about what precisely this might portend for the area.

Capone

Rapunzel

"No Motion" Dif Juz

It's been a while since I've been down there, but growing up I had family in some of those neighborhoods. Most of the projects were badly built decades ago, and some of the neighborhoods along La Salle near 77 and Norris Ave are a patchwork of rental duplexes, but there are some areas mixed within (like the bungalow section of Druid Hills - bounded by Statesville-Norris-Graham-Woodward, or - I think it's Lockwood - along Plymouth/Sylvania/Keswick between Graham and Tryon) that are comparatively well-built neighborhoods. Double Oaks was for decades in very bad shape; when construction began on 77 it really went into a spiral. I recall my dad telling me that the Double Oaks project was built on top of a WWII-era landfill, and that later the initial plans for 77 were to tie Oaklawn in to the 77/Brookshire interchange, which would have consumed far more of those surrounding communities, but complaints or a petition drive forced modification of those plans. The oldest section of Druid Hills was (also according to my dad) one of the first suburban Charlotte neighborhoods to experience white flight - he did yard work there when it was still an entirely white neighborhood (Statesville Ave was - in the 1940s - the line of segregation, which at some point during the decade shifted east of N Tryon Street).

Nixon

Darwin

drive-in

priest

Steve Perry - quite the diva. I'm more of a fan of "The Lights" ("When the lights go down in the cit-y/And the sun shines on ... the baaay..."). That faux-Queen production gets me every time.

Didn't know about the Raleigh Pulcinella's. I think it's a family place; there's one in Durham (Woodcroft) and in Graham (1 block N of the Alamance courthouse), and they are both quite successful; the one in Graham is (mostly) outstanding Sicilian at great prices. Pizza wasn't anything special, but the entrees I tried were out of sight.