Raleigh

Community-focused posts

There are 773 posts filed in Raleigh (this is page 16 of 78).

Green Tie Awards

Our family attended the Green Tie Awards and dinner of the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters as guests of Bill and Bett Padgett. It was great seeing so many familiar faces in the crowd, so many I couldn’t possibly talk to them all.

The highlight, though, was the speech Hallie gave to the crowd at the end of the program. She marched right up to the podium and gave a heartfelt speech on why conservation matters to her. Kelly and I were justifiably proud of her and her speech generated a lot of positive comments from the attendees.

Afterwards, I had to chuckle at the spectacle. When I was Hallie’s age, there wasn’t enough money in the world to get me to speak in front of a crowd. I would have died on the spot, or nervously mumbled my way through it yet our daughter can belt out a passionate speech to a roomful of strangers without even breaking a sweat. That’s a pretty powerful skill for a kid. It took me until the age of 30 to even get close to that.

So, even though my attention is drawn in dozens of directions right now, it’s great to have the opportunity to cheer the accomplishments of our kids.

Vic Lebsock retires

I had to take a moment out of my day to attend the retirement party for Raleigh greenway planner Vic Lebsock. Raleigh’s greenways have undergone a transformation since Vic took over, growing from less than 20 miles in 1990 to over 110 miles today (with more under construction).

I’ve served on the Parks board for 20% of Vic’s time with the city. During that time I’ve attended many greenway dedications, gone on many greenway excursions, and forwarded many questions to Vic during that time. I was happy to see three other Parks board members there to say thank you to Vic.

Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, Mr. Lebsock!

Doing away with generators at Raleigh’s street festivals

Noisy, smelly generators are bad, mmmkay?

Noisy, smelly generators are bad, mmmkay?


I’ve long thought that Raleigh’s Moore Square is a poor place to hold festivals. The foot traffic, lack of infrastructure, damage to trees, poor sight lines (from the aforementioned trees), and other aspects make it a tough place for large crowds. However, there is one thing that Moore Square offers that Fayetteville Street cannot: silence. Vendors working in Moore Square went about their business without one thing you almost always find in other festival areas: generators. The Moore Square vendors didn’t need generators because Moore Square provides power facilities vendors can plug into.
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Photographing art

Intellectual property? Um hmm.

Intellectual property? Um hmm.


I’ve never understood why artists get so uptight when someone photographs their art. It always makes me shake my head when I go to a concert or show and the artist prohibits photography. Are you really worried, Mr. Artist, that a simple photograph could compare to actually attending your show? Is your act truly that boring? If a photo of you onstage is so much of a threat to you, why are you in business? What are your fans getting for their $50 tickets? I’ve never seen Bruce Springsteen live, but I can’t imagine a photo could take the place of the three-hour experience he provides. I ran into a similar attitude at Carnegie Hall.

I felt the same way when I walked among the stalls at Artsplosure last weekend. A few artists that had put up signs restricting photography, so obviously I had to photograph them. Now I know these folks put a lot of work into their art and they’re justifiably proud of it, but when they display it openly in a public place on a public street there’s nothing to keep it from being photographed. And why should they fear this? I couldn’t possibly reproduce this man’s sculpture from a photograph, nor could a photograph ever capture the essence of a three-dimensional work of art like sculpture.

At least Mr. Mosquera said please on his sign. The one at this next booth takes the cake. Continue reading →

Council to vote on Frank St. sidewalk Tuesday

Frank Street Sidewalk
The City Council’s Law and Public Safety Committee recommended approving the Frank Street sidewalk 2-1. It now goes before Council on Tuesday afternoon and then, if approved, the normal sidewalk planning process.

Once it gets to Council there won’t be the opportunity for public comment but a strong showing of sidewalk supporters in the Council audience would go a long way. Everyone wear their Conn T-shirts!

I have worked to get a sidewalk here for many years. I hope it will soon be a reality!

Below are the minutes of the committee meeting:

Item# 13-04 Sidewalk/Crosswalk – Frank Street.

Chairperson Baldwin asked Staff to give an update on this item.

Assistant City Manager Howe gave a brief introduction on this item.

Assessment Supervisor Upchurch stated Mr. Turner requested a City initiated sidewalk on the south side of Frank Street between Norris and Brookside. He has attempted twice through petition process and has been unsuccessful. There are only two properties on the street. He pointed out the property owner most affected by this is not supportive.

Mr. Upchurch pointed out Ms. Harris’s daughter lives in New York and has indicated her mother does not want a sidewalk. He stated the daughter has indicated that the crosswalk across Brookside to the school be relocated to north side of intersection and then kids would use sidewalk on the other side of the street on Frank Street. He pointed out citizens are definitely using the south side of the street. In Mr. Turner’s video he has shown numerous pictures of the children utilizing that side of the street. He pointed out Staff is not necessarily not in favor of putting the sidewalk there but wanted to make sure the Council knew all of the facts and all of the information. He stated Mr. Niffenegger will address the crosswalk issue because Ms. Harris’s daughter was very concerned that if the City could look at relocating the crosswalk this would resolve the whole issue.

Mr. Niffenegger stated they have studied Conn Elementary many times. He pointed out this school has a crossing guard. They have studied this 3 times. Highest score of any one they have done. He stated it had 128 students crossing in the a.m. and 200 students crossing in the p.m. Staff does not recommend changing the location of the crosswalk. He feels the sidewalk would be a big benefit here.
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AT&T, NCNGN, and Google Fiber

fiber_house
I’ve had a lot of people ask me last week what the deal is with the City of Raleigh’s announcement that AT&T has been selected as an NCNGN provider. Most want to know how this affects the city’s work to get us Google Fiber. I was curious, too, so I gave the City’s CIO, Gail Roper, a call.

OMG! Did Raleigh just kill Google Fiber?

Let me say right up front that Google Fiber is safe. The city has been working hard to complete Google’s checklist which is due back on May 1st. The city is still on track to respond by the May 1st deadline. With that out of the way, allow me to explain a bit what NCNGN is all about.

The N.C. Next Generation Network (NCNGN, pronounced “NC engine”) is a regional effort to define common standards for building out fiber networks and to attract providers willing to meet these standards. The participating government entities are using the NCNGN plan as a starting point for negotiations with broadband providers. The goal is to bring some uniformity and predictability to what can be a very expensive process by standardizing on as many aspects of a fiber build as possible.
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Exhibit B for sloppy N&O editing

Well, that didn’t take long. No sooner did I complain about a glaring error in the Sunday Midtown Raleigh News that I found an big error in today’s print edition. A story about the opening of the newly-renovated Terminal 1 at RDU Airport carried a headline referencing Terminal 2. This wasn’t a long, wonky story but one maybe ten paragraphs long, so there’s no excuse for the editor not being able to quickly scan the story and see which terminal was being discussed.

Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Come on, N&O. Get it together!

Tornado, three years later

Today began for me much the same way it did that Saturday morning exactly three years ago. Then, as now, it was just the dog and me at home while Kelly and the kids were on the road.

Fortunately the similarities end there. This morning’s weather is clear, breezy and very chilly at 34 degrees F with no signs of any tornadoes. In fact, one of the last … er, signs of the tornado in my neighborhood was removed recently. Up until a few weeks ago, a “No Parking” sign stood outside St. Aug’s on a steel post that was twisted almost completely around, a daily reminder of the jaw-dropping power of violent wind.

Sadly, a day before I was to take a picture of it the city replaced the post and sign. Don’t know if I should be sad I missed it or happy the public works department is so on top of things. At any rate, life in East Raleigh is back to normal now.

N&O runs dedication story a week late

In about ten minutes, a group of people will converge on the entrance to the Walnut Creek Greenway near the Worthdale Community Center. They will wait around in the rain until they become bored for a dedication ceremony that has come and gone, and sloppy editing on the part of the News and Observer is to blame.

Sunday’s Midtown Raleigh News carried a front-page story on the greenway dedication, stating the ceremony would occur Tuesday at 4 PM. The problem is that the ceremony took place last week. The story was correct when it ran a week earlier in the N&O but somehow it landed in Sunday’s Midtown edition without being updated to show the ceremony already took place.

I love the N&O’s spotlight of Raleigh’s parks. I called for more coverage in the past and still think Raleigh citizens value their parks highly enough (and they have invested enough in them ) for parks to merit media coverage. That said, inaccurate coverage might do more harm than no coverage at all.

I wish the N&O would work just a little bit harder on fact-checking its local coverage.

Frank Street Sidewalk City Council Petition

FRANK ST. SIDEWALK SAVE THE DATE!

The Raleigh City Council needs to hear from YOU about the Frank Street Sidewalk!

Mark your calendar for Tuesday, April 1st at 7 PM and express your support for a sidewalk along Frank Street from Norris to Brookside!

Don’t know what to say? You don’t have to speak! You can support the sidewalk just by being there!

The meeting will take place in Council Chambers of the Raleigh Municipal Building, 222 W. Hargett Street, Raleigh. Parking is available in the city deck on W. Morgan Street between Dawson Street. and McDowell Street.

Questions? Contact Mark Turner at 919.741.6329