rduwtf.com

The Flag Guy is one of the seven wonders of downtown Raleigh (I’ll get back to you - or vice-versa- on the other six). He holds forth at the corner of Martin Luther King and Person Street just south of Shaw University. This part of town is changing rapidly, but Flag Guy is the perfect symbol for the old/new, cool/funky, scary/soothing mixes to be found in Southeast Raleigh these days. I grew up with these streets, but they are hard to read and surprise me every week.

As does the Flag Guy, or The No Hands King, as his Myspace page proclaims him, and as chronicled recently in an excellent biographical piece in the N&O. His balancing feats, the huge flags that hang so dangerously to the ground yet never touch, and just the myriad story lines that pop in your head when you see this guy riding no-hand wheelies for minutes at a time over the bumpy gravel front yards and sidewalks of his corner day after day, all make you want to stop and take his picture and give him a tip. So I did.

“Sure, you can take my picture. Want me to ride my bike some?” Rodney seems a lot younger than he is - more like mid twenties than past forty. He is clean cut, friendly but not verbose by any means. He shares a quiet comment with his buddy on the porch and then hops on his bike. He puts on quite a show, as always - but serene and nonchalant. He has the kind of steely reserve one might develop in long prison stints. But the Flag Guy is cool. Southeast Raleigh is cool - even if the gated communities are there and even if tiny stretches are starting to look suspiciously like old Cary. The diversity is complex, and the development is far from scorched earth in its approach so far. From Clyde Cooper’s to Lump to The Lincoln, here’s to Southeast and its capacity to surprise. Let’s hope it lasts.