Plan could return life to dormant Liberty Street

[twincity]

A downtown gateway is the next "street improvemant" plan being considered by the city. Liberty Street just about covers several of the main areas of Winston-Salem...starting at Smith-Reynolds Airport, then travels along US 52/ I-285, then it heads through East Winston, Goler Heights, The Arts District, WSTA terminal and ends at the Financial district. For years the struggling Liberty CDC has been trying to raise money to improve the gateway, Now it can possibly be getting a major boost from the city. This street is finally seen as being vital to the community.

article:

http://journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pa...s=1037645509123

[AnEverydayJo]

I work off Liberty at the Smith Reynolds Airport, so any improvement is very welcomed. Anything's better than seeing prostitutes and drug addicts on my daily commute.

I wonder if a gateway would include a traffic circle once Liberty hits the DT area? I know they've talk about a few additional cirlces but I don't remember is this was area was one of them. The way they reconfigured the road is ridiculous. Liberty used to run continuously into downtown. Now it dead ends and you have to make a short turn onto Patterson, with an immediate turn onto MLK....down a few lights then back on Liberty. Do you know if there are plans to fix this?

Also, the area just north of the map in the article will be reconfigured to the east of US 52. Basically the plan calls for Liberty street to go where 52 is now, and vice versa...eliminating the back and forth motion of Liberty and hopefully revitalizing the area. With the Airport Business Park plans, the area could come back to life...but it will definitely take some work.

[twincity]

Yea N. Liberty needs all the help it can get. Some improvements have been made, especially when the city redeveloped that old lowes store. that helped out a lot. The Airport Business Park, too, is a start, even though it probably wont be constructed for another several years. With that development and if Smith-Reynolds could regain some of its glory back, then Liberty has a bright future.

[cityboi]

here is a website link that I found that talks about all the downtown development in Winston-Salem including transportation.

http://www.dwsp.org/index.php

[twincity]

Life is slowly returning back to this neglected strecth of N. Liberty. This really wouldnt be news to the busier areas of the city.. but again another big step in adding life to one downtowns main gateways. the convenience store is expected but the suprise is that office space, although small, is being added to the area.

http://journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pa...s=1037645509099

[intcvlcphlga]

Life is slowly returning back to this neglected strecth of N. Liberty. This really wouldnt be news to the busier areas of the city.. but again another big step in adding life to one downtowns main gateways. the convenience store is expected but the suprise is that office space, although small, is being added to the area.

http://journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pa...s=1037645509099

The Goler Hts development and landscaping and extension of MLK Jr Blvd should help improve the prospects of Liberty Street as it comes into downtown. There is a lot of vacant land that could be developed over the next decade or so if the revitalization of downtown continues to be a success.