Alien Lanes

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on December 17, 2008
in Durham, Good Stuff and Raleigh
. 0 Comments

Western Lanes on Hillsborough Street has assumed new management and Goodnight Raleigh published a reassuring post to let us know the most valuable features (character and characters) will most likely remain intact. Have we told you how much we’ve been digging Goodnight Raleigh, lately? Let us hope Western Lanes reopens the billiards room, the cocktail bar, and might we suggest they add more signage to let people know that giant building has bowling upstairs? And one more suggestion: Rock-n’-Bowl!

Much of Western Lanes’ charm is derived from the lack of modern scorekeeping computers. The lanes are still used for NC State bowling classes and the students must learn to keep score using a pencil and their brains. But Western Lanes isn’t the only bowling alley in the triangle with character to spare. Village Lanes in Durham is one of the best bowling spots around and has one of the most futuristic scorekeeping setups I’ve ever seen: The Brunswick 2000.

By Futuristic, I do mean yesterday’s future. These look straight out of Playboy Magazine circa 1982 and I imagine they’re powered by Radio Shack TRS-80 computers with tape drives.

Scoring interface

At some point during our bowling we had a problem clearing the pins and getting the Brunswick 2000 back on the correct frame and had to request assistance from the guy at the desk. Sure enough, it required some sort of command typed into a terminal to correct the problem. It had all the glamour of the movie Tron but with with the yellowish cast of fluorescent lights.

And one of the greatest things about the alley was the diverse clientele. The kids bowling on the lane next to us were a group of early high school age kids, comprised of a latino guy, two black guys and a white girl. They were all amazing bowlers. The proximity of the Village Lanes to some of Durham’s great taquerias is an added incentive to schedule an outing.

Soleil Center Revised.

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on December 10, 2008
in Architecture, Raleigh, Urban Planning and WTF
. 2 Comments

We’re breathing a sigh of relief as this year winds down. Back in July we bet one gazillion dollars that the Soleil Center would not be built, as planned. We were flush with cash in July but that kind of money is harder to come by these days. Earlier in the week, the news broke that a contractor was suing the developers for non-payment. And today, the N&O reports the condo portion of the project will be removed, but could be added later, by engineering the building for later additions. In Mexico, that engineering translates to “Towers of Hope”. You just leave rebar jutting up at the corners of the building and you can add another floor as you can afford it. The developers still think the area is in need of a luxury hotel. I wonder if the Goodnight family would agree.

We’ve taken the liberty of creating an illustration showing the building as originally planned, and as we imagine it without the condos.

A Rant For Trains.

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on December 9, 2008
in Chapel Hill, Durham, RDU, Raleigh and Urban Planning
. 2 Comments

Do it! Become a yuppie!

Thomas Friedman’s Op-Ed in the NY Times, The Real Generation X, slams the Baby Boomer generation for bailing themselves out and shifting their massive debt load to future generations. I am a real Generation X’er and I never expected anything but this from the Boomers. Of course, generations X, Y, & Z are also complicit for not rebelling en-masse and we’ll all pay for it, whether complicit, or not.

Friedman isn’t all bitch-and-moan without guidance. His main point being: if we’re spending the money of future generations, we owe it to those generations to spend it correctly. I agree with him and feel now is the time for the Triangle to build our light rail system. Construction costs are down and material costs are plummeting. Gasoline prices are at a record low and decreasing but consumers continue to increase their use of mass transit. And the Federal Government is about to shower billions of dollars on such projects. If our leaders spend this money only to add another lane to our beltways and another beltway around the existing beltways, our children will still inherit congested roadways lined with depressing shit, a geography of nowhere. Now is the time to clamor for regional mass transit.

A few weeks ago, I was returning to downtown Raleigh from a drive in the county, past Falls Lake, near the newly bankrupted luxury subdivisions, and as I headed South on US-1, I passed 540, the Outer Loop, and there was NORTH RALEIGH. Triangle Town Center, Best Buy, Total Wine, Applebee’s, HH Gregg, Fashion Bug, and car dealer after car dealer and it rolled on-and-on. It looked overwhelming and I imagined what it must be like to live amidst all those things, and signs, and created wants. No wonder there was a riot at the Triangle Town Center. How are you supposed to teach anyone to care about all that crap? They shouldn’t care. That rolling landscape of trashy consumer clutter is what has replaced community and what defines a “city” to so many. Small pile of crap = “Town” Larger pile of crap = “City”

Building trains, and train stations, will create jobs. It will also create development along the rail lines that will create more jobs. It will create a region that is less dependent on cars, and cleaner. It will also create less tangible benefits: a greater sense of place and community. We do owe it to future generations to leave them with something meaningful - aside from our financial debt. I’m not arguing that trains are meaningful but that they can create more meaningful places than roads. I’ve heard the story that Asheville is so well preserved because it went so deeply into debt, just before the Great Depression, and couldn’t afford to raze and renovate to the extent that other cities could. That’s supposed to be a cautionary tale but it doesn’t seem like a warning (to me) because Asheville is a lovely and enjoyable place to be. If the end result was North Raleigh, it would be a cautionary tale.

Raleigh’s newest millionaire(s).

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on December 3, 2008
in Music, RDU and WTF
. 0 Comments

CombolandRadio.com is a nice guide to a specific time in local music history, and we should have mentioned it long ago. But David Menconi’s blog, On The Beat, brought this item to our attention and if you haven’t visited Comboland lately, or ever, you should visit now.

Th’ Cigaretz were a local punk band in the late 1970’s and early 80’s and their self-released album with hand screened covers is a prized local artifact. The history of Th’ Cigaretz includes some interesting overlaps with The Beastie Boys, the Bad Brains, and Madonna. I don’t know how the members of Th’ Cigaretz share their publishing but Comboland Radio makes a strong argument that Miley Cyrus owes them some money. Miley’s recent song on Dancing With The Stars, is a blatant rip-off of Th’s Cigaretz song “Apartmental Living”. Click on the link in the upper right of CombolandRadio.com to hear an audio comparison. I’m no musician but this sounds like a straight-on version of the Cigaretz song with the addition of Nirvana-style production and drums and the vocals of Ms. Cyrus. Ka-ching-$!!!

Lastly, I’m sure Godfrey Cheshire would take umbrage at the word Comboland being used without his name being mentioned. So, we just took care of that.

Person Street Potential

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on November 19, 2008
in Raleigh and WTF
. 13 Comments

Geezer told me months ago that Conti’s Italian Market, on Person Street, would be closing soon and apparently they are. I really wish I could be sad about it. I gave this place a second chance, over and over again and it always disappointed. It wasn’t the store that disappointed as much as the owner. We love character here at RDUwtf but there IS a difference between being a character and being a dick. I think that concept was sometimes missed at Conti’s. Initially there was the owner and his wife (now ex-wife) and i attributed most of the problems with the place to symptoms of being a new business but eventually the problems would become too inconvenient to tolerate. Serving lunch one week and not the next can be forgiven but after it happens a few times, you make other plans. Then, the owner started waging a war with an auto repair business down the street, ostensibly because he claimed it was an eyesore but with careful reading of the stories, it seemed evident that he wanted the location as a parking lot and felt some strange entitlement. The auto repair shop was a black-owned business that had been in the neighborhood longer than Conti’s, in a neighborhood that was being gentrified and I perceived the battle as somewhat racist. Parking was never my problem with Conti’s.

Last winter, I began patronizing the store again, they seemed to have some steady employees and the hot sandwiches in the deli were rocking. I took my son in to shop one day and ordered a sandwich.  The two workers in the deli were efficient and helpful but after a 15-minute wait, I asked why my sandwich was taking so long. The owner had taken my sandwich off the panini grill and given it to two other customers to sample. Those customers felt terrible and kept apologizing, while the owner kept assuring them it wasn’t a problem. I assured the customers there was a problem: it was with the owner. I hope something great opens in that spot. Might I suggest that Giacomo’s open a deli there?

MiddlingTown

Published
by
A Loud Arcane Toad
on November 19, 2008
in Raleigh, Urban Planning and WTF
. 4 Comments

The folks at New Raleigh covered this ages ago, and I agree with their take, but lets give it the wtf spin. The first time I heard “Midtown Raleigh,” I thought it was ridiculous. My only point of reference was Midtown Manhattan, and I knew that there was nothing resembling Midtown Manhattan here in the City of Oaks. Wikipedia lists eighteen cities with areas called Midtown, but I don’t think it’s a bad assumption to think of Manhattan when someone uses the word. Leebowitz hipped me to Midtown Atlanta, which is clearly what Uber-Developer Kane was shooting for with this designation. Many folks have already forgotten that he popularized the term, not the News and Observer. So, why “Midtown” instead of the perfectly good North Raleigh and ITB Raleigh? Well, Inside-The-Beltline, even if the real estate values are crazy there, includes some of those pesky students, working class and poor people. But shift your focus north, and voila, you’ve got a mostly rich and mostly white bunch of folks to advertise at. Pretending that Midtown is a real area that exists then makes it easier to call the entire center of Raleigh “Downtown,” even though it’s obviously nonsensical to call Cameron Village “Downtown Raleigh.” Midtown Raleigh is an area made up to satisfy developers and the folks who hawk boutique clothes, day spas, and plastic surgery to the avid readers of Midtown Magazine. An area that has nothing to do with the history or evolution of Raleigh. An area that ignores real neighborhoods and zones that do have a rich history … Five Points, for instance. If you don’t want to call it North Raleigh, or more specifically North Hills in the zone around the old North Hills Mall (RIP) then call it what it is: Kanetown.

The State of Cameron Village

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on November 19, 2008
in Raleigh, Uncategorized, Urban Planning and WTF
. 3 Comments

Back in June we detailed the impending demolition of much of Cameron Village’s remaining mid-century modern character, to make room for this:
Why?

Since then, much has happened, many discussions carried and arguments waged. So, where do we stand? It seems the City Council panicked as we began tumbling down this economic rabbit hole and approved two projects that conflicted with the very planning guidelines created by the City, including this uninspired crap in Cameron Village. We’re not opposed to the height, or increased density of the building but the city needs to decide whether Planning has a place in Raleigh, or if it’s just a barrier for those without enough money to hire the right real estate attorneys and architectural firms.

But the City isn’t the only party to blame here. The neighborhood opposition needs to develop plans that aren’t all-or-nothing. Have you checked www.SaveCameronVillage.com lately? No need, they’ve taken their game and gone home because they weren’t winning. The neighborhood can still pressure the City and developers to make design choices that will lessen the qualities that make buildings feel oppressive and looming - but the opposition seems to have disappeared. The “No Towers” slogan may no longer be appropriate, and we’ll argue that it never was, but “Save Historic Cameron Village” might carry some weight and might generate some concern. In our minds, this was always about preservation of character more than fighting density. Cameron Village could use some more density and less EFIS crap. There’s your slogan: SAVE OUR VILLAGE - FROM EFIS CRAP.

Snowflakes

Published
by
Administrator
on November 18, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments
Boylan Bridge 1990?

Boylan Bridge. 1990?

Turkey Call

Published
by
The Furry Geezer
on November 18, 2008
in RDU and Raleigh
. 4 Comments

Turkey, NC

I am thankful two thirds of the good people of North Carolina give a flip.
I am thankful that the times they are a’changing.
I am thankful our windows have been rattled and our walls shaken.
I am so thankful that the market still enables us, and we still have the will, to unconsume gasoline enough to punish the greedy knaves who try to gouge us. It’ll be back up soon, but two dollars feels so good.
I am thankful the economy has put many obscene projects, from Dubai to Crabtree Valley, on hold.
But I am thankful the miracle of DVR enables me to watch UNC football and basketball at will, even when they are simultaneous!
I am thankful we will have children in the White House for the first time since Amy Carter.
I am thankful that Raleigh can point to one shimmering masterpiece of public art, at least.
I am actually pretty thankful Raleigh isn’t contributing to the vast dimming of the night sky with art.
I am thankful that global warming enables me to grow spinach under glass all winter, but I’m also thankful that we may finally join the rest of the industrial West in setting some real goals in that area.
I am very thankful that the News & Observer hits my doorstep every morning, and if it ever stops, I am going to be quite unsettled for a long time.
I am thankful it is hip to be a geezer.
I am thankful WTF is chomping at the bytes again.

The Great Cover Up returns! Kinda.

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on November 18, 2008
in Good Stuff, Music, RDU and Raleigh
. 2 Comments

New Raleigh reports the premier annual event from the former King’s Barcade, will be resurrected by Tir Na Nog. Great news! But the former owners of King’s have some legitimate concerns about the adoption of their intellectual property:

As some of you may be aware, Tir Na Nog is preparing to host a weekend of shows in Jan. that will be similar in concept to the annual Great Cover Up. Those of us that were responsible for creating and perpetuating this event at kings for 7 years are not involved in this event and therefore we have requested that they do not use “Great Cover Up” or “Cover Up” as the name of their event. The proposed event is for charity and so we wish them success in their endeavor.

Fair enough; I suggest Copy Cats! We’re glad to see someone resurrecting this event but my god, it is another reminder that Raleigh still has a serious void in its cultural life since the demolition of King’s. What are the odds that empty lot will flourish into something wonderful, or into anything other than an empty lot, within the next five years? Slim.