Leo Suarez
Recent Posts
A Walk Up South Street
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West South Street, August 2016 On a warm Sunday morning, I took a walk along South Street, an area of downtown Raleigh that has a lot to talk about. South Street used to be the original southern boundary to the entire city. Today, you could argue it’s the southern boundary of downtown but generally Western […]
Revisiting Raleigh’s Gateway Center
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The end of Kindley Street, June 2016. Click for a larger, wider view of the site. I wanted to turn our attention today to what is being called downtown’s Gateway Center. The Downtown Plan calls out the area around the Performing Arts Center and the Raleigh Convention Center as a possible “catalytic project area” and […]
Consolidating City Offices Into a New Downtown Campus
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Corner of McDowell and Hargett Streets The City of Raleigh has around 1,100 employees and in downtown, you can find them in a variety of places. One Exchange plaza on Fayetteville Street, behind the old Raleigh Union Depot facing Nash Square, and the City Hall block are just a few of them. In May, the […]
What $1.1 Billion Dollars Looks Like
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I’m pulling out some interesting factoids from the 2016 State of Downtown Raleigh report. There is over $1.1 billion worth of completed, under construction, or planned developments in downtown Raleigh. What does that look like? Below is the list. I’m proud to say that this blog has hit almost every one of them. I’ll try […]
Those Tiny Details
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Looking west down Martin Street I was walking down Fayetteville Street recently on a gorgeous Spring afternoon. On this particular day, a Saturday with no major events taking place, people were wandering the sidewalks enjoying the same comfortable weather. I’ve done the walk thousands of times but it was when I noticed a small, new […]
Completing the Lenoir and South Street Two-way Conversion
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South Street at South Saunders Street The two-way conversion of South and Lenoir Streets have begun. You could loosely call this a phase 2 project as parts of Lenoir and South were converted to two-way years ago when the Raleigh Convention Center opened. Now, the city is finishing the conversion so that the streets operate […]
Municipography, Food Trucks and Raleigh Bike Share
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Municipography is a summary of current issues going through the Raleigh City Council and other municipal departments in the city. The point is to try to deliver any video, photos, and text associated with the discussions happening at City Hall or elsewhere. Since this is a downtown Raleigh blog, the focus is on the center […]
Moore Square Redesign Chugs Along Toward Construction
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Views across Moore Square from the northeast It has certainly been quite a few years in the making but while the movement may be slow, it’s always forward on this project. The design around a new Moore Square should be at around 40% in March of this year with construction starting this summer. In December […]
Council Discusses Bike Share in Raleigh
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Denver Bike Share Station by Mikeshoup During last week’s city council meeting, discussions about a possible bike share system in Raleigh took place. A presentation by Eric Lamb, the Transportation Planning Manager, took the council through a brief recap of what has been done so far, for the benefit of the newer council members, and […]
GoRaleigh Station Renovation Groundbreaking on Feb. 19
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From my inbox to yours. Mayor Nancy McFarlane is the featured speaker for the GoRaleigh Station renovation groundbreaking ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 19, at Moore Square Transit Mall, 214 S. Blount St. She will be joined by City Council member Corey Branch who is also the Raleigh Transit Authority’s Council liaison, and by […]
Looking Back at 2015 and Ahead at 2016
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I have a lot to look back on this year. Personally, in 2015 I saw major changes in my workplace and my family grew from a pair to a trio. On the web, the blog has been covering a good balance of currently under construction projects as well as ones in the planning phases. I’ve […]
Checking In on Market and Exchange Plaza
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Exchange Plaza, December 2015 The overhaul of Market and Exchange plazas started in the Spring of 2015 and this project is hopefully nearing completion. Taking a looksee recently though, the plazas might not be ready for New Year’s. It would have been a nice bonus to be done before First Night but I’m sure plenty […]