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

[internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org (zman)]

What your talking about was called "The Subway", this is where the Cafe
Deja Vu, The Bears Den, The Pier, arcade, and Soundhaus were. You could
go see REM playing The Pier ($3), The Cigaretz (Raleigh's original punk
band) @ The Cafe Deja Vu, and Steve Morse's old band The Dixie Dregs @
The Bears Den all in one night. It was thriving to say the least, then
York decided that they wanted to take Cameron Village upscale, booted all
the clubs and went about their business of gentrification.

This is when there were still plenty of bars on Hillsborough st., nothing
downtown, and there was plenty of cheap space to be had in the warehouse
district. It got progressively worse from there. Things started opening
downtown (The Fallout Shelter and Easy Street to name 2). But the City
decided it didn't like bohemia and started it's march to stomp out
everything not big time corporate. It seems to come down harder on small
mom and pop's than corporate clients. Witness the Jillian's sign, very
much against the city sign ordinance. But when Steve Guth  wanted a sign
for the Fallout Shelter there was no varience even considered. Same thing
when I owned the Five-O, no room to work anything out at all.

I believe you'll witness the death of bars on Hillsborough st. this year.
They've already started their onslaught of the Comet and East Village,
then the only thing left will be Mitch's, and I don'tthink they'll leave
him alone for long. I don't know how familiar anyone on this list is with
Atlanta,but Raleigh desperately needs it's own Little Five Points. There
have been a few of us trying desperately to find somewhere to create this
in to no avail. It would be easier in Durham as the city wants to help put
business' downtown. Chapel Hill even helped Frank find a new hoem for the
Cat's Cradle, twice. But Raleigh seems to turn a blind eye to it's artist
community (both audio and visual).

On Thu, 6 Feb 2003, Jim Allman wrote:
> Many years ago (well before the boom, late '80s I guess), I was fishing
> around for studio space in downtown Raleigh and especially in the old
> "underground" at Cameron Village. For those who don't know, this is an
> entire *level* of shops and clubs beneath the section that now houses the
> public library.
>
> I'm told that for decades, this was a thriving part of Cameron Village, with
> good music and whatnot. For some reason it was sealed off and eventually
> even the glass entry was removed, leaving just an empty parking lot.
>
> Anyhow, a few friends and I were sniffing around to see if it could be
> cleaned up and revived for a cluster of art studios and small offices. No
> interest at all (anti-interest?) on the part of York Properties, who would
> rather let it rot. Go figure..
>
> Then again, we were a shaggy bunch of college kids and destitute artists at
> the time, so it's hard to blame 'em. I suspect that for corporate (vs
> wealthy individual) owners, surrendering commercial space to bohemians is
> always a last resort.
>
> By the way, my name's Jim Allman. I probably know some of you, but I've just
> signed on to the list. It's been pretty lively so far :)
>
>
> ---
> Come and play at the InterNetWorkers Web site!  
> http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
> You are currently subscribed to InterNetWorkers mailing list
> To unsubscribe visit 
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/internetworkers
>

-- 
Scott H. Zekanis
zman AT kungfumonkey.com
scott AT thehellbenders.com
http://www.thehellbenders.com
1957 Buick Riviera Hardtop (2 dr., 364" Nailhead)
1951 Kaiser Henry J (4" chop, 60's custom front end, bellybutton)