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Triangle in the national media


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I think sunflowers may have preceded the Rockford, but that was only open for lunch. 42nd Street Oyster Bar, while not on Glenwood itself, has been around quite a while and has live music on the weekends. To say nothing of Snoopys and Char Grill for "history" or Second Empire for culinary delights.

Pine State's two buildings -- offices and creamery -- came on line in the last five years. I remember being one of the only people in the Rhino club (now stool pigeons), the key for membership and all that. It was either ahead of its time or just not right for the market.

I have *no* idea why the Clarion, and to a lesser extent the Comfort Inn, haven't latched on to Glenwood South as weekend getaway park and walk hotspots. I've directed a few tourists who took TTA from the airport to the transfer station to moore square on how to walk there, since it is downtown's most affordable option.

Maybe the NYT folks will come down again when Fayetville Street reopens too? Or maybe they'll wait five years before they can declare it cool LOL.

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I have *no* idea why the Clarion, and to a lesser extent the Comfort Inn, haven't latched on to Glenwood South as weekend getaway park and walk hotspots. I've directed a few tourists who took TTA from the airport to the transfer station to moore square on how to walk there, since it is downtown's most affordable option.

I think people do see it as GS weekend location, but it is hard for people who live here to see the actual tourists. I know I have directed people there. One thing about the Clarion is that is has terrible reviews by travelors, much of it was posted to certain travel sites, before and while it was being remodeled.

Since many people are going to use a car, I think people stay at the Sheraton and Brownstone. I attend a travel board and people are turned off by the remarks made by people on another travel site. Again, I think people on this site (UP) would be amazed at how many people actually stay DT for partying, travel, weddings, concerts, etc.

I actually like the hotel as it is walking distance to 20 or so bars and that is the first thing I look for when I travel.

Edited by Subway Scoundrel
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Just wanted to add that I have helped out tourists many times too. I was really embarressed one time when a small group of 20-somethings from the west coast were looking for a coffee shop walking distance from Blount Street and the best I could do was Helios, Port City and Tonys were both closed.

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I caught that, too. I could've sworn Pine State was fully leased five years ago and 510 was up and running. But who knows. Time passes in odd ways sometimes.

I know fact-certain that the area was dead 15 years ago when I lived at St. Mary's Apartments (corner of St. Mary's & H'boro). Char Grill and Irregardless were the only places to eat anywhere near there.

Still, a cool article, and great that that area has clearly crossed the tipping point toward success.

Not to get off subject here....is the Char-Grill still there? Man I miss walking there and haveing a Burger and onion rings

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It WAS the Norfolk-Southern passenger and freight depot during this time period. It coexisted with Union Station which still stands at Dawson and Martin (greatly modified and with no tracks leading to it anymore.

Five years ago glenwood south was already looking pretty good....The Rockford opened 1998 which was the first restaurant there.

I work with a guy who is around 62 and his first job out of college/NCSU was with Norfolk Southern and his office was in the 518 building. It was used later, as an office for an interior design among other things.

The guy who started Rockford started it all. He owned the Five-O on Hillsbough Street and bought the building which now has the Rockford. Back in the early to mid 1990's, a friend and I went to Duncan-Parnel printing there on Glenwood South with his girlfriend. While she was in DP, we started to walk the street and looked at places for an apartment and saw the space that is now Rockford. We talked to the barber shop below it and he said he had a key. We went up to the space and we designed what we thought would be the best apartment. The space was old and narley. The space had walls and such but the plumbing was basically the same as it is today. Only Sunflowers was there along with Industrial stuff.

I thought it would make the best apartment in the city when there was nothing on GS. It makes a better bar. About 3 to 4 years later, the Five-O guy bought the building and did most of the work himself and opened The Rockford.

I should have bought it then. :cry:

Edited by Subway Scoundrel
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It WAS the Norfolk-Southern passenger and freight depot during this time period. It coexisted with Union Station which still stands at Dawson and Martin (greatly modified and with no tracks leading to it anymore.

Five years ago glenwood south was already looking pretty good....The Rockford opened 1998 which was the first restaurant there.

hmm thats not what i was told by the lady on the raleigh trolley.

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Not to get off subject here....is the Char-Grill still there? Man I miss walking there and haveing a Burger and onion rings

absolutely! although the full gospel church that was next door is not-- do you remember that place? it used to rock out of control while one enjoyed a Char burger on the wall. It was replaced by a really cool mixed-use building with office and apartments, which I lovel except I miss the church.

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hmm thats not what i was told by the lady on the raleigh trolley.

I have tried to correct the Raleigh Trolley people before and also enlighten them with new info...they often don't have a clue what I am trying to point out to them...I am interfering with their rehearsed "last chicken left in Raleigh" bit. My info on the Norfolk Southern depot can be found here

Edited by Jones133
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How long ago did Mary Lou's (now Dive Bar, behind Snoopys) open? I know it became Dive about 2-3 years ago, maybe longer, but Mary Lou's was there a lot longer before that I think.. though it was such a true dive, i couldn't tell whether it was open or just abandoned. lol

I met the owner of the Rockford (then owner of Five O, as in Hawaii Five O and the Rockford Files tv shows) during a city council meeting to discuss neighbor's complaints of late, loud, and littering bar patrons coming in from hillsborough st. The city cut off parking in the neighborhood, but allowed the south side of the eastbound lane to be parking. That was the last nail for that part Hillsborough being home to bars, but the beginnings of Glenwood South and the rest of downtown, since on street parking wasn't an issue.

The Five O started out as restaurnat by day/dance club at night, but Rockford is just restaurant/lounge. Is there any good "no cover, decent beer prices, good dj dance places" like Five O and Comet used to be? Why isn't there any "non-upscale" dance club alternatives to Aura, Aries, Office, Oxygen, Legends, etc. or does such a place exist and I'm missing out?

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I have tried to correct the Raleigh Trolley people before and also enlighten them with new info...they often don't have a clue what I am trying to point out to them...I am interfering with their rehearsed "last chicken left in Raleigh" bit. My info on the Norfolk Southern depot can be found here

lol i actually worked as a guide on the raleigh trolley for about a minute... it was too cheezy I couldn't take it. i had fun faking a southern accent tho. i will say it was cool learning all about Raleigh history, even if some of the facts weren't dead on...

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  • 3 weeks later...

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage....125624&GT1=7850

It's always fun to make the top 10 of something (even if it means nothing). I'm not surprised Raleigh made the list based on their criteria for the study. They did not factor in mass transit related walking as much this year allowing Raleigh to crack the Top 10.

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ironic, because Raleigh is one of few cities in NC that actually charges its citizens to repair sidewalks. If the walk in front of your house is damaged, they'll come out, assess it, send you a repair bill, and fine you if its not fixed.

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The whole sidewalk thing is insane. We don't have enough of them for starters. Country Club Hills is a great neighborhood with a fantastic location, but it is full of blind hills and curves and no sidewalks. I almost ran over John Edwards while he was jogging one day. Of course that would have gotten messy, but you know what? He and his neighbors (not specifically, just the general tone of the area) have said they don't want sidewalks.

I think the City ought to look at traffic flow and automatically put in sidwalks on streets that have >X number of cars in a 24h period. Who should pay for it? The entire City. I live at the corner of a quiet street and a busy one. They are getting ready to put sidewalks in on the other side of the busy street, and I won't be "assessed". But guess who will be using those sidewalks. I will, and so will everyone on my quiet little street, not just those on the busy one. Our neighborhood will become more desirable, too, unlike Country Club Hills. We're not even interested in looking at houses there.

Edited by dmccall
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The fact that Raleigh is on this list and Boston is not shows that the list is a complete joke.

Raleigh is not friendly to walking outside of the downtown core and a few other areas. Here are the cities between 250,000 and 600,000 ranked by the percentage of pedestrian commuters. Raleigh is, unsurprisingly, next to last.

Carfree Census Database Search Results

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I believe that Raleigh is an excellent city to go for a walk, with the ever-expanding greenway system, numerous parks (not the least of which is Umstead) and endless, quiet neighborhoods. Perhaps we even do belong in the top 10 when it comes to going for a stroll.

But Raleigh is absolutely pathetic when it comes to walking to actually go somewhere. Outside of a precious few, older neighborhoods, The sidewalk network is spotty, development patterns put everything too far away from everything else, and motorists are on the whole quite antagonistic to pedestrians.

I wonder how many miles of sidewalk we could have built or improved with the millions of dollars it cost to build the Reedy Creek Greenway. It's a wonderful path, but it zig-zags too much on the Art Museum campus, goes up and down too many steep hills, and doesn't connect to any neighborhoods (it should at least link up with Nancy Ann Drive to the west, and Ridge Road to the east) - so it's almost useless as a transporation corridor. This matches Raleigh's attitude about walking quite well: to Raleighites, walking is a mode of recreation, not a mode of transportation.

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The fact that Raleigh is on this list and Boston is not shows that the list is a complete joke.

Raleigh is not friendly to walking outside of the downtown core and a few other areas. Here are the cities between 250,000 and 600,000 ranked by the percentage of pedestrian commuters. Raleigh is, unsurprisingly, next to last.

Carfree Census Database Search Results

Actually, it's 24th out of 50. It's not exactly next to last, but point taken.

I did notice that the data is from 2000, it will be interesting to see how it changes by 2010.

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