Stephenson, Gaylord, Crowder unite to stop Lightner

Another Tuesday, another city council meeting, another pass on voting for the Lightner Public Safety Center. With $22 million already spent on the new public safety center, and the police department in midst of coordinating their relocation out of the current station, three councilors are suggesting that we walk away from those plans. Instead pushing refurbishing the existing police station, leaving the fire station alone and moving EMS somewhere else. Those councilors, Bonner Gaylord, Russ Stephenson, and Thomas Crowder supported by John Odom have submitted this plan to City Manager Russel Allen.

The push back is coming because a property tax increase is needed to make the Lightner Center a reality. The N&O says it would be an 8% increase over the next five years adding about $60 to the tax bill on a $200,000 home. Others say that the math works out to around $20. Its all speculation at this point as Allen, Meeker and the rest of council look for other ways to fund the project, including raising facility fees for developers and decreasing its overall cost by removing different elements. Already we hear that they have cut out locker rooms for the members of each department and the private showers for the heads of each department.

Russell Allen and Mayor Meeker both support the project. The departments have underscored their need for this building as it will give them much needed facilities and technology updates that will enable them to better serve our city. Allen has consistently delivered a balanced budget for Raleigh and has been able to build up a large cash reserve in his 8+ year tenure as city manager. His conservative approach to spending and caution has helped Raleigh avoid any municipal layoffs in the current economy with decreased tax revenues. His support for this project signals that it is an appropriate project that is filling a need.

Updating the existing police station will require new planning, design and programming, a set of construction costs all its own, and will leave us needing additional capacity down the line. It would also require the establishment of a new EMS center that would also need to be constructed. By approving Lightner now, the city has the chance to shave over $50 million dollars off of it’s construction costs because of current low construction costs and interest rates a savings that may not happen if delayed or on a new project yet to be planned. The Lightner design is lauded for its aesthetics, technology and exceptional LEED status. The building is designed to interact with the space around it, to enhance one of our two downtown squares and to help improve the accessibility and flow of the area around it. With the pending vote we may see all of that potential erased, and in the process the loss of a great addition to our skyline, our city, our public services.

Unique102/03 07:21 PM

Bonner Gaylord is the second coming of Mike Reagan

DaveB02/03 07:31 PM

We should create buildings that are empty on the inside. Most people only want them because they “will improve our skyline.”

Cheaper solution.

Lot of money for aesthetics.

DPK02/03 08:57 PM

Oh for the love of… MAN UP ALREADY AND VOTE ON THE THING. I swear our local government is run by a bunch of cowardly who-haws.

JZ02/03 09:07 PM

I"m so done with this counsel. I don’t expect the likes of Boner Gaynorth to get it, but if Crowder and Stephenson are unaware of the long term cost savings and unwilling to keep their peckers firm in this fight, then they ALL need to go. ALL ‘em.

JeffS02/03 10:48 PM

I keep hearing about how it’s needed and how it will improve the quality of service. I have yet to hear a single example of either though.

Why is it needed?

Exactly how do I benefit from a new building?

and finally…

What benefit is there to building it on expensive downtown property?

ncmyk02/03 11:31 PM

sure…

Why is it needed?
the existing facilities no longer provide the required space decades after they were built. the systems and infrastructure no longer meet the technological advances now used by our first responders.

Exactly how do I benefit from a new building?
coordinated response the next time you are in need of public service. on 9/11, fire and police were killed, trapped in the building because of something so simple as their communication systems didn’t even work together. we’ll always have units spread around the city, but this is about a centralized coordinated command center.

What benefit is there to building it on expensive downtown property?
the land is owned by the city and isn’t part of the cost.

$20-$60 a year for five years for a median-price home in the area. the question is why isn’t the cost of a night on the town worth providing our police, fire, and ems a building that functions for a town that’s population has grown 4 times since the existing building was built?

ROB02/04 07:47 AM

raleigh is the worst looking city in the country! it has a bunch of mindless fools running it and its citizens are a bunch of pussies as well for not saying anything to the council about this dreadful idea of just renovating the current building.the public safety center is needed as a NEW building. the current facility is TOO SMALL AND OUTDATED, thats why another one is needing to be built! you dont put the city police headquarters OUTSIDE OF DOWNTOWN PEOPLE WHAT THE HELL CITY DOES THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN A CITY DO THIS YET. $60 dollars more on a 200,000 dollar home… you gotta be kidding me that isnt anything really this just proves that they really DONT want the project built at all…how crazy!? raleigh will NEVER be like charlotte EVER! charlotte will always be the only real city in NC because of these clown leaders around here.

gd02/04 08:18 AM

It would be funny if Charlotte was better than Raleigh. The only thing better in Charlotte is the rail system. Thats pretty much it, cause outside of that, Charlotte blows.

RaleighRob02/04 09:15 AM

ncmyk— great answers…I wholeheartedly concur!

David—very good article. I am not surprised at all that Gaylord and Odom (from the “party of NO”) is against this. I just don’t get why Crowder and Stephenson are being so reactionary on this.

ljg02/04 09:23 AM

Here we go again. It’s the same idiotic thinking that went into the RBC Center location. And look where that got us. An arena stuck in the middle of nowhere, and already planning has begun to relocate it into the downtown area.

Whatever happened to a sense of municipal pride? Not only do we have the long-overdue opportunity to centralize city services, but to gain a world-class green building which could help to set an example for other developers in the city’s core.

Is $60 a year such a terrible price to pay for a 21st century solution to a problem facing us all?

tito02/04 09:40 AM

to the nay-sayers - i’d ask you to go visit the current building. how they operate there with any type of effectiveness is beyond me. i don’t think the new building is perfect but it sounds reasonable to me, and i applaud them thinking of the future. the rbc center is a perfect example of a situation where they didn’t properly consider the long-term benefits and costs of a building. ten years into it and there are no benefits to the rbc’s location. it didn’t bring in businesses or hotels. it doesn’t do much to bring people to a part of raleigh where they might spend money. same thing with walnut creek. i realize a public safety center isn’t intended to bring people downtown, but my point is that i think they have put a decent effort into thinking about the long-term specifics of the role that building will play in raleigh’s future, and that’s a good thing.

Joey02/04 12:27 PM

This shows how weak of a mayor Charles Meeker is. This project is based on conservative principles: public safety and fiscal responsibility as it is cheaper now with construction costs and interest rates so low. Conservative projects pushed by democratic leaders almost always pass. Anybody else would have been able to get this project passed.

Tony Woodard02/04 12:42 PM

I am very disappointed with my hubby, Bonner. Not only has he not purchased the pillbox hat he promised me if he got elected, but now that he’s in office he never calls or sends flowers like he used to.
Knowing him as intimately as I do, I’d bet he’s posturing with this ‘no’ to show all of the Fundies in his district that he’s not some tax-and-spend liberal in wolf’s clothing.

ct02/04 01:18 PM

One would expect Stephenson and Crowder, who are architects, to naturally support an upscale building in downtown. The fact that they don’t support it tells me two things: one, in their professional opinion something went amiss in the design of the Lightner building; two, they want to be re-elected but they fear that either NCICL will succeed in challenging use of COPS in court or WCTA and the Republican Party will ride this issue to victory in the next election.

Mayor Meeker has overreached and has bungled this from the outset. He had warnings as far back as 2008 that the sheep might come off the hill. Instead he allowed the architects to design a palace (relative to norms for governmental buildings).. and then he didn’t ask the architects to tone it down a little, when the country went into recession.. and then he didn’t communicate effectively with the populace about why this buiding was worth the high price.

As for the RBC Center, let me remind everyone again that NC State Univ didn’t want it in downtown, and neither did the Hurricanes.

Cackalacka02/04 05:29 PM

Rob, I’ve been to your ‘city.’ It will never be Atlanta, EVER!

I always love how Charlatans always spit on the city of Oaks, and spit first. Listen, dude, we could care less about your Applebee’s berg. All you have to offer, culturally, is a failed NFC team and some bankers. Oh and some NASCAR museum is being built. Wow. You truly are the Paris of Mecklenberg county.

I understand that facilities need to expand to keep up with services… but… this building will be located 12 miles away from areas of north Raleigh and 5 miles away from areas of west Raleigh.

Skyscrapers are nothing more than monuments to dying entities. They did nothing to enhance Pan Am, Chrysler, or Sears.

This is the information age; do we really need to house everything in a skyscraper for our emergency system to communicate?

As for the fella who name-dropped 9/11, care to tell the people where Guiliani’s disaster recovery team was headquartered?

That’s right, a skyscraper. That helped tremendously in NYC’s response. /sarcasm.

JZ02/04 07:10 PM

__This community needs to decide whether they want their civic structures to also be symbols; embracing and celebrating that which defines Raleigh as a unique and memorable place to live or visit. All that while meeting the ever-changing needs of a growing population.

__ For $60, I’ll pitch in. But if the majority wants a warehouse somewhere out on the perimeter, then they deserve the faceless, nowhere place they will get.

JRD02/04 07:28 PM

I think I have a great idea! Why dont we build this building on the east side facing Moore Square. That would work wonders for so many reasons and so many ways. Think about it. It would bring more development in that area (where theres currently nothing) and draw away a sometimes sketchy crowd. Keep using the old one while the new one gets built. By then theyll REALLY need the new building. Think about it.

Micah02/04 08:04 PM

JRD, the city owns the lot the current police station/city hall sits upon. It also has parking infastructure already in place. Siting the building at Moore square would involve forcing surrounding property owners (from a whole block) to sell. This would probably involve imminent domain and millions of dollars. Also, the police department has already relocated to several other buildings around the city.

ROB02/05 07:54 AM

yo i never said charlotte was necessarily better than raleigh i was implying that it is MUCH more of a real city than raleigh is and the way raleigh is going it will maintain as the premier city for nc. raleigh culturally is better i will admit but come on lets be for real who really remembers raleigh after leaving here seriously. raleigh is easily forgettable because it chooses to be. this very post is proof, the leaders dont even care about the city enough to give it a state of the art police headquarters which in my opinion should be a really important facility to house the emergency crews. why is it that raleigh is the only capital city i’ve seen with such narrow minded thinkers? nashville, richmond, atlanta, boston,columbia, are all far more advanced than raleigh in my opinion. you can say what you like but charlotte WILL in fact become a smaller version of atl and just might do it better than them in some ways. the light rail came at a very good time, way before traffic got to be outta control like it was in atl when they got the marta. the coliseum, lots of hotels, museums, business corporations, libraries,movie theaters,skating rinks, resteraunts,clubs,and retail shops are all centrally located within 2 square miles of uptown as apposed to raleigh which has things all over the place. getting around raleigh when you are from out of town is a HEADACHE cause everything is so far apart! o yea and the nascar hall of fame museum is NICE i must say even though i aint a nascar fan! the new science museum extention should be nice when it opens in raleigh and will probably be the best thing dt raleigh will ever have to offer. o yea and im NOT even from charlotte.

Jason02/05 09:49 AM

Rob,

Good post. This whole high speed rail discussion proves my point. Raleigh doesnt have the infastructure to handle the connection points once people get off the train, and the R line is not the answer. I might add Raleigh is the only city that I have lived in that doesn’t take criticism well, if at all. They are too thin skinned. NYers, Bostoners, DCites, all make disparging remarks about their city and mean it, and actually join in on many of the criticisms of visitors to their city. Raleigh seems to want to be a destination and not a commmunity. Raleigh has a well deserved reputation of smelling its own farts and thinking its gold, as most people who lived in other cities, not the suburbs, wonder what people are smoking when they say raleigh is jumping downtown or has a great transport system.

JeffS02/05 10:14 AM

Since when do you have to build a new building to upgrade the communication system?

And yes, there most certainly is a cost to the land. You could sell the land and buy cheaper land. That difference is what we are paying to keep the building downtown. I’m just asking what the benefit is to having it there.

JZ, the police station as a tourist attraction? Really? You must have been drinking the Meeker cool aid. For the record, I’m not against the building, I just want someone to tell me (with some f’in detail) why they need it. It’s not about the $60. It’s about the $60 that isn’t going to some other, potentially more worthwhile, project.

joe02/05 10:22 AM

Where in the hell have Crowder and Stephenson been the last 2 years while we spent $25 million on the design of this project. both of these guys are architects and you are telling me that they were completely ignorant of all of the work that has gone into this project to-date.

These guys look like jackasses for raising these issues at the 11th hour. Where were these ‘concerns’ in 2007 and 2008?

JeffS02/05 10:44 AM

Agreed joe.

The nitpicking of every little detail seems especially bad to me. We’re going to remove a stairway to save money, then pay probably more than that amount to redesign. While I am not sold on the building, it should have been approved as-designed or killed completely. That so much has already been spent is a sign of the poor project management staff employed by the city.

ct02/05 10:47 AM

See Bob Geary’s story in Indy Week for the background. This controversy has been brewing for a long time. Apparently the Mayor and Russell Allen assumed the controversy would die down. Bad assumption!

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:409282

JZ02/05 11:22 AM

Jeff__ Many of our own citizens will be interfacing with the City here. It doesn’t need to be a tourist attraction drawing non-residents to demand being a high quality project. We used to invest in our government buildings as symbols. If the digital era has brought the death of that interest, then I suppose I should invest more in computer gaming and movies…they are the only place interesting spaces and places are being made anymore. Then, my lazy ass will never have to leave the comfort of my couch to enjoy the world I live in. Thanks for reminding me.

__NEVER NEVER NEVER again will the project achieve a greater cost effectiveness because of the present economic situation. Hundreds and hundreds of workers will be employed to build this project. Sounds like a very responsible use of public money to stimulate the local economy to me.

ct02/05 11:43 AM

Look, there is no hurry here! The commercial real estate market is in the tank and will stay there for years. The collapse of the leveraged residential real estate matket gets all the headlines, but leverage in the commercial real estate market is just as bad (if not worse). Commercial contractors are desparate for business, and prices to erect new buildings are still falling. Welcome to deflation.

Raleigh must decide what’s the right building at the right price, but don’t fall for the argument that “we’ve got to do it now.” The Mayor is just using that as a tactic to recover from his prior mistakes.

JZ02/05 11:48 AM

__You’ve got about a year….maybe two to bid this thing…that’s correct….but let’s not dilly-dally to long.
__I’ve not heard the Mayor’s comments. These are my feelings about what is right for Raleigh.

joe02/05 11:56 AM

jeff,

can you name any other city that has taken their police headquarters out of their downtown?

at least a city that can actually call itself a city?

ct02/05 12:03 PM

Atlanta, which moved its police HQ to the former Sears facility at 675 Ponce de Leon—about 1.5 miles from the central business district. The counterpart location in Raleigh would be about where Enloe High School is.

David02/05 12:04 PM

Ah Atlanta, the paragon of city planning.

ct02/05 12:07 PM

Hey, I used to live there. Atlanta’s problems today are largely attributable to pro-segregation politics in the surrounding suburbs and counties 50+ years ago. Most folks would say that under the circumstances, the City gov’t has done reasonably well relative to what it can control. Metro Atlanta is another story, but don’t blame people inside I-285 for that.

David02/05 12:11 PM

Pro-segregation politics.. sort of like voting in the new School Klux Clan in Wake County.

Cackalacka02/05 12:38 PM

You know what is cute, Rob: Charlatans (and yes, I believe you are one of them) always presume that Raleigh wants to emulate your example.

That is just projection for your Atlanta inferiority complex. Me, I don’t want to live in either of those towns. Both cities are fine specimens for urban planners deciding how to build an unsustainable community.

As for City Hall East on Ponce; hey, if you’ve got hundreds of thousands of feet of empty office space you can get for a song, why not? That might be the only smart urban planning decision ATL has employed in the past two generations.

Atlanta’s urban design failings fall pretty squarely on the mindsets that infect Cobb and Gwinnett.

I’ll be curious to see what Charlotte looks like once the fall-out from the financial services fiasco settles. The markets and market towns have a reckoning yet to be paid.

ROB02/05 02:19 PM

well to tell you the truth cackalacka i am from here in eastern wake county but i can tell you this, i’ve lived in charlotte, new jersey, atlanta, and nashville. the difference between those places and raleigh is that raleigh has TOO many leaders who just go THE WRONG WAY ABOUT APPROACHING THINGS AND GETTING THINGS DONE HERE. number one you have so many people here who dont really care about downtown. this is a HUGE problem! how can you even call yourself a real city if the city leaders and the suburbanites dont give a shit about the core of the area? people here have neglected dt for so many years and now that there is a mayor who finally cares about dt yall criticize him and question him for putting so much emphasis on dt. he wouldnt have had to care so much about developing dt if the previous leaders and mayors did their jobs 15 years ago. in charlotte, atl, nashville and other places the city councils work together to create a world class city one that can be remembered when one goes to visit. they work on bringing things to the city that will bump it up a notch and make it that much better. raleigh leaders bicker like a bunch of whiny pUSSIES. crowder and alot of the city council members voted no for the new convention center, rbc tower, marriott hotel( they are the ones that had it designed hideously like it is now)but voted in favor of putting the rbc center on edwards mill road. the only thing they voted on was fayetteville st revitalization. they dont work with the mayor at all to make raleigh a true city that people from the outside looking in can see as a city with so much more to offer than just good jobs and schools. say what you want but atl was not what it is today just 20 years ago but after strong leaders came in a pushed the city up now atl is a regional area in the us. they made their image as a destination for african americans and as a regional finacial center. charlotte made its reputation as the bank capital as well as nascar. raleigh… well you can say we have educational institutes and technology, so why not capitalize on that and make this a destination for people. create something that will bump raleigh up a notch instead of down three. maybe a technological museum or something interesting. as far as downtown goes, say what you want but raleigh doesnt cut it one bit compared to charlotte.like i said, density, shopping retail, museums, movies, concert arenas, resteraunts, condos, hotels, all are located within walking distance of each other. thats not saying charlotte is better but they damn sure get things moving quicker and they dont quarrel like these raleigh leaders. dont lie… if raleigh’s dt looked anything like charlottes yall would be HAPPY!LOL

JeffS02/05 02:23 PM

So you prefer your tax dollars to be spent on privately owned hotels and restaurants? I can’t imagine why.

ct02/05 02:36 PM

In general, Council does want to promote downtown. Even Fetzer and Coble got the Memorial Auditorium project done. But they can’t get too far ahead of the curve, or the anti-tax crowd takes over like they did in 1993-2001.

The good news is that Raleigh has remained economically strong because of all the annexation. But the flip side is that many of these annexed voters live a long way from downtown and don’t feel attached to it. I’ll be interested to see the 2010 census results; it wouldn’t surprise me if the Raleigh ITB population is less than 40% of the total. Many of the OTB residents support a better downtown, but it’s inherently Republican territory and they are easily put off by tax increases. Fact is, the Lightner building would be non-controversial if the City could pay for it without a tax increase.

Charlotte is fundamentally different because of the pro-downtown trajectory set by First Union and NCNB—but those days are over. Atlanta is fundamentally different because it’s never been allowed to annex.

stazione02/05 02:46 PM

Wow, someone needs to enlighten the author as to the true nature of city manager Russell Allen. That guy is a self-serving cynic to put Sir Humphrey Appleby to shame.

David02/05 03:20 PM

Thanks for the enlightenment.

Tony Woodard02/05 04:33 PM

David, I want to plant a big, juicy kiss square on your lips.

OldTimer02/05 05:33 PM

The amount of misinformation in this thread is astounding, downright alarming. Does anyone that reads New Raleigh have any clue what they are talking about? For example, ROB wrote:

“crowder and alot of the city council members voted no for the new convention center, rbc tower, marriott hotel( they are the ones that had it designed hideously like it is now)but voted in favor of putting the rbc center on edwards mill road.”

1) Crowder voted FOR the convention center, look here for just ONE of the many reports about this: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/113483/

2) Crowder did NOT design the hideous Marriott Hotel. Indeed, he voted no because the Marriott had promised a palace and delivered EIFS. For just ONE of the many reports about this: http://www2.nccommerce.com/eclipsfiles/13560.pdf

“To Councilman Thomas Crowder, the deal was Raleigh’s chance to show that it is a first-class city that deserves a first-class hotel. For him, guaranteeing a lasting downtown building was worth shedding a few niceties with developers.

He has long maintained that the Atlanta-based hotel developer Noble Investment promised brick, stone, metal and glass—not EIFS.”

For the record, it was Mayor Meeker who was all about investing taxpayer money in a fake stucco hotel.

3) Which of the city councilors were around when the RBC center was approved? Only John Odom (he voted yes). Mayor Meeker did vote yes in 2007 to spend $26 million in city money to support a $56 million upgrade of the RBC center. Rationale was that this place is going to be around for a long long time and needs to be continually improved and updated.

Many days it is hard to tell who is less informed - the New Raleigh writers, or the New Raleigh commenters. With Rob’s screed, I’m giving this round to the commenters.

ct02/05 06:49 PM

OldTimer is correct. Glad he took the time to refute.

JZ02/05 06:56 PM

You know, there’s all this jabbering about whether its right or wrong to be spending these resources on this thing, but nobody has been able to articulate WHAT they want this building to be:
__How should we ennoble the work that our Public servants in Police, Fire, etc.?
__SHOULD we celebrate that work in the crafting of a building on display in downtown?
__How should someone feel if they need to come to this facility for help, have questions answered, etc? etc?
__Can the building tell any stories unique to our community the way the shimmer wall or the marble wall does on the Convention Center and Marbles Museum does? (full disclosure: that’s a leading question as my firm happens to be be responsible for the creation of those things)
__Or should the functions of the building be hidden away and protected against attack or environmental threat?

I won’t claim that there are any right answers…there aren’t any…but I’d rather get people’s impressions of what is important to them in a building like this than squabble over how to pay for it. If we all agree something is important, then we should work to find a way to pay for it. If not, then so be it.
__

OldTimer02/05 07:21 PM

Hear, Hear!

obu02/07 10:23 PM

Raleigh wont ever compare to charlotte. Raleigh will always look like it does and charlotte will always keep advancing in its city center. Im from richmond and I will admit that charlotte isnt the greatest city in the world but raleigh’s downtown will never compare. The whole downtown looks like legoland with all these block buildings you have. Charlotte could take any building in its downtown and put it in phily or miami and it could easily fit in. Richmond isnt all that great either but at least our downtown is urban to the point it looks like a real city. Raleigh has a long way to go!

ct02/07 10:27 PM

All cities have their ups and downs. The question for Charlotte is, can they keep all those splendid downtown buildings full? A lot depends on how many jobs Wells Fargo moves (slowly) to California and how many jobs BofA/Merrill moves (slowly) to New York. Time will tell.

JZ02/08 07:56 AM

And what does all this posturing have to do with the principles of urbanism/smart growth? Scale has nothing to do with this discussion (unless we’re talking the ‘scale’ of the project budget <nudge, nudge>).

arthurb302/08 09:37 AM

Oh, my! So much hot air blowing around these days! Get involved and do something about it!

joe02/08 10:16 AM

The last 10 posts have little or nothing to do with the topic albeit entertaining.

The issue here is the fact that both Crowder and Stephenson have had 2 years to review the costs and design of the proposed public safety center. More baffling is that they both ‘APPROVED’ all of the steps that led up to the $25 million spent to-date.

And now at the 11th hour, they somehow have a ‘change of heart’ because of their concern for taxpayers? Fine, give me the $25 million that you have wasted back Crowder and Stephenson!

OldTimer02/08 03:46 PM

“And now at the 11th hour, they somehow have a ‘change of heart’ because of their concern for taxpayers? “

June 19, 2008: Mr. Stephenson talked about the Lightener Public Safety Building and pointed out there has not been a lot of discussions about the details and the programming of that center. He questioned if construction of that facility were delayed if the tax increase could be reduced. He also questioned if we could put the public safety center construction on referendum for taxpayers, what impact that would have on the tax increase, the city’s service delivery, etc. He again stated we need to look at needs versus wants. The need for the public safety center was talked about by the Manager.

March 16, 2009: Mr. Stephenson pointed out he has been trying to get the Council to slow down on some of the Public Utility projects and he feels that could be addressed.

JZ02/08 04:18 PM

@OldTimer: not doubting you, but could you please cite your source?

OldTimer02/08 08:33 PM

Sorry about that JZ - City Council minutes that popped up with a quick google search.

bookerT02/08 11:00 PM

obu, Raleigh might not be Richmond but Richmond has it’s own problems. Yea, it has character but that has nothing to do with the current city leaders. The cobblestones and tobacco warehouses have been there a looooong time. They have just started to turn around Broad St. (and that isn’t done) and the Canal Walk is not close to what city leaders expected. That was a black eye that just wouldn’t go away.

The point on the center is this: diversity.

The last thing Nash Square (or any other square downtown for that matter) needs is a public safety center boarding it. Do you ever hang out in Nash Square? It’s a loud place. It should be a tranquil oasis. Residents of the warehouse district should want to adopt it…as it is, it sits pretty unused. And, my guess is that the N&O will be moving into smaller digs at some point in the next 10-15 years…that square could be transformed.

The city should sell the property, move the center to a cheaper downtown property that sits on the edge of an area that needs a bit of sprucing up. There you construct a building that captivates a neighborhood. If you are truly serious about making it a public space then build it in an area where you can incorporate recreational elements…add basketball courts, a playground…make it educational and fun. Parents would love a large safe place to take their kids outside in downtown that had a multitude of activities. The cops/fire don’t need to sit in a tower and distance themselves from the public. They need to be a part of the neighborhood. Yes, it should be as energy efficient as possible and have renewable energy on the roof…build a green roof and teach your local community about the importance of green building practices. But help change the culture - don’t create another barrier.

kp02/09 02:08 PM

To be honest i dont see why raleigh needs a new police headquarters the crime rate around here is incredibly low. I could see if it was DC or baltimore needing new updates to its emergency crew with the high murder rates in those cities but raleigh seems fine enough. I dont think raleigh has recorded a murder in forever. It is a nice looking building though and would fit in to downtown. Idk, it just doesnt seem necessary but thats just my opinion though.

gd02/09 02:24 PM

KP: Do you not read the news? You must not because there has definitely been murders in Raleigh recently.
The current building is too small for them.

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David Wednesday, February 03, 2010