Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Calvin Powers <calvin AT cspowers.com>]

At 1/7/2003 10:41 AM, you wrote:
> I live in Southern Village, but my actual preference would be to live in a
> large apartment built to look like Carr Mill Mall, right next to Carr Mill
> Mall (maybe behind the Broad St building). But nothing like this exists.
> There are some urban-style apartments on Rosemary St. in a new brick
> building, but they are quite small (although with luxury features). There are
> apartments above the businesses in Southern Village, but again, they are
> small. The assumption seems to be that if you want a lot of space, then you
> want a house. Not true. I want a 3000 sq. ft. apartment with exposed brick,
> custom tinted concrete floors, and maybe a roof garden. I would keep a couple
> of push scooters by the door for getting around the house :)
>
> Maria

Well, I live in Southern Village too. (Hey, maybe we need to form a S.V. 
Caucus  within Internetworkers) I like it. But when I decided to move from 
Cary to Chapel Hill I told the real estate agent that I wanted to be able 
to walk out my front door and be on Franklin Street. I wanted either a loft 
condo above a retail store on Franklin or a townhouse within a block or two 
of Franklin Street.

Had I been familiar with the term "New Urbanism," I would have used it.

Like Maria, I was unable to find anything like this.

There is a development of Condos/Apartments on Rosemary, heading toward 
Carrboro. I'm pretty sure they are called "The Fountains" I hear they are 
nice, but as I understand it, there are only about 8 condo units and none 
were on the market the 8 months that I was looking. There are some 
townhoses on North Columbia Street, which were nice enough construction 
wise, but had weird floor plans that were more geared to college roommate 
situations. (Which makes sense, but not what I wanted).

I also looked at the redeveloped areas of Durham (West Village or something 
like that.) The problem there, again, was that most units were apartments 
and only a very few condos. I only got to look inside one that was for 
sale, It's in a converted tobacco building directly across from that 
school. The unit itself was a loft style place and very small. But I might 
have enjoyed living there except that there really isn't much "urban" near 
by. yeah, you have brightleaf square, and the surrounding stuff, but those 
are more "night life" type places than living places. They have your high 
end bars and restaraunts, but where's the piggly wiggly? Where's the 
eckerd's? Where's the dry cleaners? etc.

I should have looked at the new urban areas they are trying to develop in 
Raleigh. But at the time I didn't think I wanted to live in Downtown 
Raleigh. I had my hopes pinned on Chapel Hill.

So I ended up buying a town house in Southern Village. I've lived there two 
years now and I have to say that it's got a long way to go before it 
fulfills the New Urbanism promise. But it's making headway. They now have a 
Weaver Street Market there, which I love. But they are too purist a whole 
foods store.  I can't buy Diet Coke there. Sigh. So while I love the fresh 
foods and the prepared foods and the coffee. I still want a "regular" 
grocery store where I can indulge in nasty habits like Doritos and Diet 
Coke. :-)  I love the Lumina theater. However, when I moved in, I was told 
that they would have on or two art house films and oneor two mainstream 
films running at any given time. But instead they seem almost totally 
geared toward the 8-14 year old crowd in terms of movie choices. But I'm 
sure the kids and parents in the neighborhood love it. They have a dry 
cleaners, which is very convenient if you want to spend the most money 
possible on dry cleaning. :-)

All that sounds like I'm ragging on S.V., but I'm not. I love it. I like 
the fact that people walk arund the neighborhod. Even I take walks around 
the neighborhood, although it's usually late at night after everyone else 
goes to bed. It's nice to see people walking their kids to school. It's 
nice to see people practicing Tai Chi on the lawn in the market area. The 
summer movies that Lumina puts on are nice.


S.V. just doesn't quite do the "New Urban" thing yet, IMHO. But I remain 
hopeful.

Meanwhile, I'm a 5 minute card drive to the intersection of Franklin and 
Columbia so I spend quite a bit of time on Franklin.

Like Maria, I'd love to live in a Condo build in or by Carr Mill Mall. That 
would be mondo cool! There are some townhouses built behind the main drag 
on Main Street in Carboro, but again, they seem more student oriented than 
real life oriented. Plus, well, I just think they are ugly.




========================================================================
Calvin Powers                                             current events
mailto:calvin AT cspowers.com                            cultural phenomena
http://www.cspowers.com/                                    true stories
"The revolution will not be televised."   http://www.StuckInTraffic.com/
========================================================================