Raleigh

Community-focused posts

There are 773 posts filed in Raleigh (this is page 32 of 78).

World music

AfroCubism


I kicked myself when I found out the world music supergroup AfroCubism played at the North Carolina Museum of Art on Sunday and we missed it. I’ve been on a world music kick for a few years now and it doesn’t get much better now than AfroCubism.

In surfing the art museum’s concert page, I noticed it was sponsored by a group called Friends of World Music. I’d never heard of this group but was delighted to learn it is a Raleigh-based non-profit that works to bring live world music to the Triangle. I’ve often mused that my “second career” would be being a world music promoter and Friends of World Music seemed like a serendipitous find.

On a whim I called the number listed, began leaving a rambling message on their machine, and soon the longtime executive director, Jessie Cannon, picked up and spoke to me. It turns out I may be just the person the group is looking for, she said, telling me the group used to put on more shows in prior years but haven’t been able to keep up that pace in recent years. Jessie and I are meeting for lunch on Friday to discuss the possibilities.

Kelly tells me I need another project like a hole in the head and she’s got a point. I see this one as a long-term thing that I’m happy to be patient about and grow at my own pace.

Again, I’m open to the possibilities. We’ll see where it leads.

Wade CAC getting back on track

Remember that neighborhood crisis I mentioned earlier? Well, last night was the night of the first “special meeting” to try to get the CAC back on track. Neither Dwayne Patterson and Luis Olivieri-Robert from the city’s Community Services department nor I had any idea how many members would attend the meeting, held at the Unitarian Church. It turns out that around 70 people showed up, which isn’t too shabby for a week’s notice.
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House Creek Greenway opening in September now

I got the word about why Raleigh’s much-anticipated House Creek Greenway will be opening in early September now, rather than the July 19th I had initially mentioned. The delay comes as a result of the contractor needing to put up over 3,000 feet of railing along the top of the retaining wall.

House Creek Greenway covers some challenging topography. It’s a big project that has been anticipated for many years. While it would be great if it was open now, another few months are worth the investment to get it right.

Jumping into a neighborhood crisis

It’s been a crazy week for me. I got word last Friday that all was not well with the Wade CAC. Elections for new CAC officers that were scheduled to take place on Tuesday were delayed and the existing leadership resigned two days before. There were lots of email flying around and phone calls made, to the point where my head began to spin with trying to unravel everything.

The Wade CAC normally meets every other month, which means that any attempt to “reboot” the election process would normally have to wait until September. That’s the approach that the city’s Community Services department wanted to take, but as the chair of the Raleigh CAC (RCAC) organization of which the Wade CAC is a part, I didn’t think it was fair for the Wade CAC membership to have to go four months without representation. Many others agreed, writing some heated emails to that effect to elected officials and city staff.
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Neuse Radio now on the air!

Neuse Radio


It’s been about a year since I began learning how to use the open-source Rivendell radio automation software. I’ve been fiddling around with my online radio station, perfecting it as best I can. Today I decided to see what would go into actually opening it up to real listeners, which of course means paying royalties for each song played.

That’s where the LoudCity service comes in. You select the level of listeners you expect, provide it your admin password to your icecast server, and boom – you’re broadcasting online! LoudCity pays the royalties and keeps me legal.

I only meant to prep my broadcast tonight but instead I wound up kicking off LoudCity’s free 7-day trial. Rather than let my free trial period vanish without being used, I decided to go ahead and open things up.

You can tune into Neuse Radio by clicking on the image above or via this link: NeuseRadio.Com. I’ll get around to putting an actual webpage up soon as well as adding Raleigh-specific content to the audio. In the meantime, I welcome any comments or feedback anyone might have. Thanks for listening!

House Creek Greenway to open in fall

Lots of people are excited about the new House Creek Greenway opening. I know I am! That side of town has been missing a good north-south greenway connection for years and now it’s about to take shape.

I learned this evening that this new greenway segment that was originally scheduled to open July 19th will now not be opening until early September. The contractor has alerted the city to a problem which will delay the ribbon-cutting, I’m told.

So it sounds like the greenway will be open for the cooler riding weather of the fall, but not as soon as I or many others would like!

1304 Bikes to rise again?


Astute MT.Net readers might have noticed that I referred to the now-defunct bike charity 1304 Bikes in the present tense as one of the great things about Raleigh. That’s because I have been in contact with the co-founder in the hopes of reviving this important charity.

For years I wondered why my kids were the only students at their school to ride their bikes there. This year their bikes were joined in the school bike rack by a brother’s and sister’s in the neighborhood. After a a few trips riding from school with these kids, I took a look at their bikes and felt sorry for them. One had a wheel with a broken axle and the other has no brakes. They’re absolutely fantastic kids, they’re in a loving family, but for one reason or another this is what they have to ride.
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Action-packed weekend

I had an incredibly action-packed weekend. Friday evening I met up with Jacob and Kelly of Little Raleigh Radio to chat with an attorney who is interested in helping us out. When I got home my in-laws had arrived for their weekend visit.

Saturday morning, Kelly’s parents gave us some time to go out by ourselves so Kelly and I got out the bikes and enjoyed a two-hour bike ride over to her office and back. We took a route along Glen Eden but soon regretted it as we didn’t appreciate that Glen Eden has some difficult hills!
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Multi-Modal in Raleigh: Leading by Example #BikeRaleigh

Over at her Multi-Modal in Raleigh blog, Kristy blogged about Friday’s Bike To Work Leadership Ride around downtown Raleigh. Kristy even got a pic of me at the bottom of her post, too.

Thanks, Kristy!

A perfect Bike to Work Day in Raleigh, NC. We rode a loop from Centennial Mall around downtown Raleigh to raise awareness for cyclists and promote bicycling as a valid form of transportation. It felt really good to be among such great leaders in Raleigh and to show support for this nationwide movement to promote bicycling as safe, sustainable, healthy, and well – easy.

via Multi-Modal in Raleigh: Leading by Example #BikeRaleigh.

Raleigh CAC meeting ends on time

Tonight was a milestone of sorts as the Raleigh CAC meeting I chaired actually ended ahead of schedule. In the four years I’ve been on the board I can’t recall a single night where this has happened.

When I was elected chair, I pledged to my fellow boardmembers that I would run an efficient meeting and not waste everyone’s time. While the first few meetings were a bit longer than I would’ve liked, tonight we actually ended a minute or two early.

One of my first big moves was to make the meetings end at 8:30 PM instead of 9 PM. I thought we should be able to get done what we need to get done in that time and so far it’s worked out well. So with the switch to the earlier time, it’s probably safe to say that no RCAC meeting has ever ended before 8:30 until tonight.

One of the reasons I consider this a milestone is that I conducted the meeting fairly, sought input from the CAC chairs, and moved things along when they needed moving. Another notable thing is that the CAC chairs actually listened to me! When I first joined the RCAC board years ago, the RCAC seemed like the epitome of herding cats. Being chair looked like a thankless job that I accepted only with trepidation. Instead, meetings like tonight show that I may be able to effectively lead this organization after all.

I came home feeling psyched, energized, and actually looking forward to the next meeting. It’s a pretty good place to be!