Raleigh City Council sure is making an awful lot of plans for downtown without public input

Ted Van Dyk, AIA, is principal of New City Design Group, a Raleigh Architecture firm. Mr. Van Dyk founded New City in 1996, and continues to work on a wide variety of retail, multifamily, and mixed use projects throughout the region.

Van Dyk’s op-ed was published in the News and Observer July 2, 2024: 

Hey folks,  let’s talk about manners for a minute.  While most of us are sipping iced tea and chatting about the hot weather, Raleigh leaders seem to have forsaken all sense of etiquette. They are behind closed doors, cooking up final plans to deploy $400 million in tax revenues to build a convention center addition, new Red Hat amphitheater, and another hotel without inviting us.  This is not only impolite, but a tad distasteful.   It is obvious and only fitting that the public be cut in on this conversation.

Some of us old-timers remember that this is the same playbook we ran through only 15 years ago. A shiny, gigantic new convention building, hotel, and amphitheater with a price tag in the hundreds of millions,  justified with the promise of a magical transformation of downtown.

The result has been, well, meh.  The convention center is a loss leader, requiring millions in continuous subsidies to operate.  And the blocks around the convention center are still among downtown’s most bleak and lifeless. Now it’s time to go at it again, doubling down on size- and price tag.  No prizes for originality here.

So, where are the plans?  Are we going to do better this time, or will it be more of the same?  We, the people of the City and County are taxed on our meals and entertainment to generate this cash. Surely our leaders didn’t mean to leave us out, did they? Maybe our invites got lost in the mail.

I ask because the latest buzz is that City leaders and their convention-boosting cohorts are attempting to rush decisions about the design, including closing South Street on a critical block of downtown, without public debate. Whether right or wrong- and I have my opinion, the last thing downtown needs is another closed-off street- there should be a robust and healthy public discussion here.

If done well, could this half-billion-dollar remodel/expansion scheme be a success?   I suppose, maybe. I do like having a concert venue downtown.  Red Hat has arguably been the most popular and fun part of the whole undertaking, at least for us locals.  Nonetheless, our new music venue is currently slated to be on a site that is too small, necessitating the street closing.  And as a bonus, next to active railroad tracks- and passing trains, with their big, deep rumbling noises, air horns, what have you.   On behalf of music lovers all around Raleigh, I respectfully request that a reality check be initiated.

Another point to mull, maybe over an after-work beverage; if we have money to burn, we might want to address some more immediate and pressing needs around here, like paying our police and firefighters enough to keep them from quitting and going to work in the suburbs.  Safe streets to attract visitors and locals alike, anyone?

But hey, I am not the city manager or the head of the convention bureau trying to compete with Austin and Nashville, for whatever reason there might be for that.  Austin, incidentally, is spending over $1.2 billion on their new center.  And Nashville- country music capital of the world…just sayin’.

So, Ms. City Manager, members of Council, Convention Bureau crew-  love ya,  I know you mean well.  But please don’t forget us, your voting and taxpaying dates. We brought you to this party to begin with, and it is just not polite to be behind the curtains carrying on without us.

NOTE: Mr. Van Dyk adds this comment to his original op-ed:

It might be worth mentioning that the original convention center plan was part of a very rigorous and open process. The ‘Livable Streets’ initiative — opening Fayetteville Street — not closing it! — was another of the initiatives that came out of that public engagement. Not sure why this new plan would go forward without a similar process.

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