raleighing archive

"Extreme" Makes Over Raleigh Home

A family home at 207 Poplar Street is being rebuilt by ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition beginning this weekend The show is a spinoff of Extreme Makeover in which a family's house, including all rooms, exterior and landscaping, is made over by a team of builders and designers in seven days while the family goes off on vacation.

If you are interested in volunteering for the construction or production side there will be a table set up near the house during Saturday's demolition. Streets are closed and parking is limited (see details below).

Someone excited about the subjunctive mood wrote this piece:

"Our proposed start date would be this Thursday, November 30th, 2006. We would arrive early in the morning and then work continuously (24 hr days) for the following eight days, demolishing and rebuilding a brand new home. We would illuminate the house in order to work at night, and production would continue, uninterrupted, until the end of the day on
Friday, December 8th, 2006. A small cleanup crew would also remain in the area for up to a week, to make sure the neighborhood is cleaned and returned in the same condition as when we arrived.

Please note that we have applied with the City/County for Road Closures and the posting of "No Parking Anytime" Areas that would be in affect 24 hours per day beginning 11/30/06 at 6:00 am and ending 12/9/06 at 12:00 pm, to facilitate the safe and timely delivery of equipment and materials to the job site. Residents living within the closure areas would be able to enter and exit their homes without interruption. Please exercise caution and proceed slowly through these areas. Postal service, garbage collection, newspaper delivery and other municipal services would not be interrupted. The following areas would be affected:

No Parking Zones:

• Both sides of Blount Street from Delway Street to Mulberry Street
• Both sides of Poplar Street from Blount Street to Wake Forest Road
• Both sides of Marshall Streets 1 & 2 from Poplar Street to Mulberry Street Road Closures
• Blount St at Delway St, at Oak Chase Ln, at Cedar St and at Mulberry Street
• Poplar St at Blount Street and at Mordecai Drive
• Marshall Streets 1 & 2 at Poplar Street and at Mulberry Street
• Person Street at Poplar Street
• Mulberry Street at Marshall Street"

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Congratulations, Bro!

As reported in the Triangle Business Journal, Morrisville company LVL7 Systems was purchased yesterday by Broadcom for $62 million.  LVL7 is a networking software company that was founded in November of 1999 and has been privately held up to this point.  My brother was employee #4 when he was hired back in February of 2000 and is still working with them today.  Congratulations to him and all his coworkers!  Fingers-crossed that everyone lands where they want once the dust settles and the details are worked out!

Goodnight to be Featured on Tonight's "20/20"

SAS Chief Executive Chairman Dr. Jim Goodnight will be featured on tonight's "20/20" philanthropy special. He is one of four billionaires interviewed for the "Cheap In America" focus on charity in the United States. The story will show footage from Cary Academy, the private school that Dr. and Mrs. Goodnight founded. The show airs tonight at 10:00pm on ABC (TWC channel 9).
 

Tonight's "One Tree Hill" Features Raleigh

Word is that tonight's episode of "One Tree Hill" is the episode shot in Raleigh this Fall with extras from here. The show runs at 9pm on CW network (TWC channel 2)

Triangle Ranks #1 for Women Entrepreneurs

The Triangle has topped yet another national survey. This time it is allbusiness.com's survey of the best metros for entrepreneurial women. In the survey 697 women ranked 19 different variables on their importance for a business location. The six most important were:

• Low crime rate    
• Low property tax rates    
• High household income    
• Modest real estate prices    
• Rapid population growth    
• Pedestrian–friendliness

The factors were then paired with government data to determine which MSAs matched the list's priorities best.

Billy Joel Coming to RBC Center

Billy Joel will play the RBC Center on Saturday, March 3. No official word is out about tickets, but most likely they will go on sale this Saturday at 10am.

Cary Grocery Options Improve

In case you've been under a rock, Trader Joe's first area store opened yesterday in Cary. The store is about half the size of the former Winn-Dixie (about the size of two typical parcels in Cameron Village), and is a good addition to the area.

TJ's carries many groceries including various cheeses, meats, canned goods chips, and more. Other than the flowers and things on the health aisle, it appeared that the store only contains Trader Joe branded, edible items (no paper products, cups, etc.). The bagged nuts and breads were the most impressive items I found. Beyond that there were few items that could not be found at competing higher end grocery stores. To be fair, I must admit that I have not bought and consumed any of their food yet, so I have no concept of the food quality.

I unfortunately encountered a disproportionate number of rude customers. After a few rude parking lot experiences, I was run into by a couple of people's shopping carts. Maybe the excitement of the new store got the best of them.

The store decor is quite plain, as seen in many of the photos in this Google search. Lighting is by 2'x4' fluorescent tube panels, and the racks are no frills. The sound system is one of the worst I've ever heard (that includes my grandfather's old a.m. radio he kept in the workshop for over 30 years.).

Trader Joe's is a cultural experience. I never think about what some claim "C.a.r.y." stands for, but I was clearly reminded in TJ's. The store was full of people who live in Carry, and none of those who live in Cayree.

The rumor mill says that Trader Joe's is looking at space in Raleigh, perhaps Cameron Village. This would be a nice addition for the ITB area, however TJ's is probably not a store to which people will drive more than 15 minutes. It is a nice addition for the area, however it hardly has the initial "WOW" factor seen in other coveted chains like IKEA, Dean & Deluca (the real one, not like they have in Charlotte), and Eatzi's.

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In other Carying foodie news, the Fresh Market has moved its Cary store to a large new location on Cary Parkway near Waldo Rd. Where's Waldo?

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Amato Out

North Carolina State University fired football coach Chuck Amato tonight. Athletic Director Lee Fowler said that the coaching search will begin immediately. That search obviously begins with one "Bill Cowher". Cowher, head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is an NCSU alumnus and recently moved his family into a large NoRa home. The defending Super Bowl champ Steelers are currently 4-7, but not completely out of the playoff race with 5 games remaining on the schedule. That the NFL regular season ends on December 31 may mean no word on a new coach for over a month, which may negatively impact recruiting in the short run.

Plow & Hearth Now Open

The North Hills location for Plow & Hearth is now open. The store, bright enough to be seen from space, looks like a no-brainer for great gifts.

Council Approves Kidd's Hill Plan

The Raleigh City Council today approved plans for the Crabtree Village, the plan to redevelop Kidds Hill [Z-68-05 (pdf file), SP-33-06 (pdf file)]. According to the plans, developers will raze the land and drastically change the terrain in order to pull off an interesting mix of condos and shopping. The plan calls for the property to have a 70’ vertical drop, the highest point being at the intersection of Blue Ridge Rd. and Homewood Banks Dr. This means there will be a massive haul-off of dirt and a total clearing of the existing vegetation.

(this map points to the intersection in the diagram's lower right) The plan calls for a ring of 3 and 4-story condominiums (yellow and purple) around a 6-level parking deck. A future piece of the ring is a hotel site (green), near the project’s highest point on Blue Ridge Road. The lower half of the project calls for a crescent shaped segment of retail (blue). Because the land is so steep, the south facing retail level (blue) will face retail space on the basement level of the residential/retail ring (purple). The basement of the crescent (blue) will have retail space that faces Crabtree Valley Mall.

The plan was not recommended by the Comprehensive Planning Committee, but won approval with a 6-1 vote. Councilor Crowder was the only dissenting vote.