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  • From: Calvin Powers <calvin AT cspowers.com>
  • To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] New Urbanism
  • Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 19:36:29 -0500

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.




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