Raleigh

Community-focused posts

There are 773 posts filed in Raleigh (this is page 46 of 78).

Lots going on

As usual when you don’t hear much from me, there are a lot of things happening at the moment. And they’re good things, really. Can’t complain.

On the work front things are cranking up. I was busy with a few projects which have expanded my knowledge of the product. I was expecting to be traveling south to Orlando next week for a trade show but my plans changed abruptly today when the company realized I should be in New York state instead. So rather than enjoying high temperatures of 80 degrees I’ll be looking at 55 degrees instead. Oh well: at least the work will be interesting! I will be far more active in NY than at any trade show, so my product knowledge will increase exponentially from this change of plans.

Outside of work my community involvement continues. I nailed down the East CAC’s November agenda, and through the magic of Le Calendar I have proclaimed this month’s to be the last meeting of the year. We’ll have a holiday social event and hobnob this month. It’s always one of my favorite meetings.

On the Raleigh CAC front, I’ve been asked if I would like to become chair. I’m not really looking for any more feathers in my cap but I don’t want the organization to lose ground, either. Still trying to figure out if I want to take something else on, though as of now I’m leaning towards “no.”
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Election Night

Well, that was interesting. Election Day was yesterday and, nationwide, Democrats took a drubbing. The U.S. House is in Republican hands again. The Senate remains in Democratic hands. Can’t say results on the national level surprise me.

I found the local races more interesting. GOP took control of the General Assembly for the first time in over 125 years. The Republicans face tough decisions with a looming $5 billion state budget deficit. Cutting taxes won’t solve that problem, so now Republicans will have to govern rather than whine.

For all the “throw the bums out” talk, nearly all North Carolina Congressional incumbents were reelected. At this time Bob Etheridge is calling for a recount against political newcomer Renee Ellmers. At this point it looks like Etheridge is done. If so, he’ll become the only congressional incumbent to lose this election.
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“Repeat Robber” was good handyman

I laughed this morning when a neighbor retracted her recommendation of a handyman she had been using for years. It turns out the handyman, Lee Pope from Precision Plumbing and Cooling, had switched from handyman work to robbing banks, becoming known to the FBI as the “Repeat Robber.” Pope was arrested Monday on suspicion of robbing over a dozen banks in the Triangle. It’s sad when a good guy turns bad. Perhaps the handyman trade wasn’t working out for him.

Before his arrest Pope drew praise for his handyman work. Said one customer:

We have been using Lee’s company for years now. He has replaced our furnace, AC, fixed pipes and we are getting ready to have him redo all the plumbing in our house. He is excellent and reasonable.

Once news broke of his arrest, the customer changed her tune:

I would like to retract this recommendation. For the past 6 years he did close to $10K worth of work for us and was always here when it was icy or 110 degrees and something was broken that needed fixed, fixed our friend’s AC for free, etc., I guess he hit bad times and went rogue.

I wonder if Pope had anything to do with the rash of copper thefts from AC units in the area. Hopefully police are following up on this, too.

Busy end to busy week

Wow, what a week I just had. I had a sales presentation I had to complete for work, to be done in-between conducting two days of product training for customers. After work I conducted the East CAC meeting Monday night, attended a public hearing Tuesday night, presented at the Raleigh Neighborhood Recognition Awards Wednesday night, went to my first Parks board meeting as the vice-chair Thursday night, took Travis to his piano lesson Friday night and then attended a neighborhood party afterwards.
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Hunting Isaac Hunter’s tavern

Wake Forest Road in 1965


On a whim I looked back at the 1965 aerial photo I got from the North Carolina Geological Survey when I was researching the Raleigh Speedway. It turns out this photograph nicely covers the Wake Forest Road area north of the Beltline! This means it probably shows Isaac Hunter’s Tavern, but the question is where?

Looking at this shot you can see many residential-type buildings along the road. At the bottom is the Beltline, still being constructed and at the top of the photo you can see the eastern half of St. Albans Drive branching off. This area roughly corresponds to this modern-day view shown on Google Maps.

Now my Navy military-intelligence training did not make me a satellite imagery expert, but looking at this photo and comparing it to the roof of the tavern as shown in the Flickr images it’s pretty easy to rule out many of the buildings shown. Second-story homes cast longer shadows and the tavern is decidedly single-story. There are also homes with much fancier rooflines than the tavern, so those are easily ruled out. What does that leave? I’ve (crudely) highlighted two buildings that seem like good candidates.
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Isaac Hunter’s Tavern

Courtesy North Carolina State Archives

This post over at New Raleigh got me wondering again about the long-lost Raleigh landmark, Isaac Hunter’s Tavern. In its day the tavern was known far and wide. It drew our early state representatives together long enough for them to decide to create a new state capital, and thus decreed that this capital would be located within ten miles of the tavern. Yet, in spite of its historical significance to our city and state, no trace of the tavern still exists. Sad, isn’t it?
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Downtown lowdown

I was wandering around downtown this afternoon, on a mission to update the Wikipedia photos for Raleigh and also Memorial Auditorium. As I snapped pictures of Memorial Auditorium a man walked up to me and asked for things to do around town. He was a bit shorter than me with curly shoulder-length hair and wore a tam-o-shanter cap and dark sunglasses. I imagined that he had just gotten off a plane from New York City.

“Isn’t there a museum nearby?” he asked.

“Yes, there are a few. Perhaps you’d like to go to the North Carolina Museum of Art?”
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Secret media cabal weighs information future

Ok, not really. I was invited to participate in a roundtable discussion today about the state of the Triangle media by Fiona Morgan of the New America Foundation. The roundtable was to three general questions about our community:

1. How healthy do we consider the Triangle’s “information community?”
2. What are the challenges as we move into a digital age?
3. What are the opportunities for the Triangle and its communities?

Joining me were a number of leading media experts, both traditional and so-called “new media.” John Drescher of the N&O, Steve Shewel of the Independent Weekly, Barry Moore of the Garner Citizen (whom I last saw wearing a badge when I lived in Garner and was working closely with Garner PD), Kevin Davis of Bull City Rising, Paul Jones of Ibiblio fame, Gail Roper of the City of Raleigh, and many, many others. I felt a bit out of place in the room, as my experience with journalism ended when my high school journalism class did. Fiona has been impressed with my East CAC efforts to connect my community, so I provided perhaps a nontraditional angle to the discussion.
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Coyote sighting

Late last night a man walking his dogs in the Cameron Park neighborhood spotted a coyote as it crossed the road about 20 feet in front of him. The coyote trotted on to the property of St. Mary’s College, apparently paying no mind to the man’s dogs.

I’ve had a friend report a coyote sighting in East Raleigh, too, but her sighting took place along the wooded Middle Crabtree Creek greenway east of Raleigh Boulevard. I think a coyote roaming around St. Mary’s is that much more unusual because of how urbanized that area is. It’s amazing how adaptable some wildlife is.

Thriving neighborhood

Friday morning I walked the dog as usual around the neighborhood. This particular morning I saw no fewer than 5 separate groups of people, either walking their dogs, jogging, or biking around. Not bad for 7 AM.

I also saw a group of eight 40-something people out playing Ultimate Frisbee in the park. Now that made me smile. Sure, they were hooting and hollering and probably waking up my neighbors, but what a sight that was! Folks were out using the park for what it’s meant to be used for. Two years ago I’d walk through that park in the morning and shady individuals would be there hanging out in their cars. They would often bolt when they saw me walking by. Now to see folks out exercising in the park in the morning really makes me happy. I don’t care how loud they are, that is just awesome.

Seeing people being comfortable coming to the park in the morning and the folks out walking around shows how healthy our neighborhood has become.