Chile Bomba was awful, IMO

12/10/2013 8:04:31 PM

Quote :

"Someone take some pics if you can!"

please

12/10/2013 8:45:15 PM

that McDaid's place that replaced Porter's looks deader than dead every time I look in there

12/10/2013 9:39:18 PM

Quote :

"The tragedy of Hillsborough Street gentrification Sadlack’s Heroes, Schoolkids Records, The Groom Room Barbershop and other businesses currently inhabit the block between Enterprise Street and Maiden Lane. However, in just more than a month, by Dec. 31, they will have to pack up and leave. Their replacement? A 125-room luxury hotel. N.C. State, the owner of that plot, awarded a contract to build a hotel and ground-floor retail and restaurant center to Bell View Partners of Raleigh and The Bernstein Companies of Washington, D.C. (Of the businesses located in that complex, the Bell Tower Mart and Soo Cafe plan on returning to that ground floor.) In 2011, the owners of the businesses that would be displaced found out about the finalized deal not through the University, but through affected customers and media phone calls; i.e., only after the news went public. Sadlack’s Heroes has been on Hillsborough Street since 1973. Sadlack’s is a sandwich shop (with notable vegetarian options) and bar and music venue (the only one on Hillsborough Street). It’s also dog-friendly. But most importantly, it’s a community hub. Not too much of a student community (like Mitch’s), but community nevertheless: From the down-and-outers that refined college students are supposed to feel ill-at-ease associating with, to Zach Galifianakis, who said he tries to stop by there whenever he’s visiting town, Sadlack’s is where real culture — expression and experience by the broad community of outside institutionalization and commercialization — still resides. Places such as Sadlack’s are the ones that connect us to our culture; they have an atmosphere exuding a gritty-yet-warm genuineness reminding us there’s more to the world than what’s reflected off our glossy college degrees. But they are being done away with. There’s a word for this: gentrification. This is the process by which an area is renovated and improved so as to conform to middle-class taste. It’s been happening on Hillsborough for quite some time now, and sadly, much of the sentiment for this on campus has been positive. It hasn’t always been happening, though. In his story “Keep Hillsborough Street funky,” Bob Geary, writing for IndyWeek in 2009, traced the street’s history as being the epicenter of Raleigh’s identity and culture — “the place where Raleigh’s disparate parts are joined in an authentic urban whole” — and recalled its heyday. But by the 1980s, he lamented, “Raleigh had moved on,” Hillsborough Street declined and “[s]oon N.C. State turned away, shutting the street entrance into its main library, D.H. Hill, and hiding other buildings, including the chancellor’s residence, behind tall shrubs.” And N.C. State, as it is today, became fragmented from the urban whole, and as education became more and more a thing of privilege, it rejected — through its administrative initiatives and students’ own recreational choices — culture that was more than a mere commodity for students’ restrictedly socialized tastes. As N.C. State became more disconnected, that created more disjunctions in the culture and community around the area, it led to more purely commercial setups on Hillsborough Street. And today, to me, Sadlack’s and the Reader’s Corner down west are the last vestiges of authentic, vibrant culture in the N.C. State-Hillsborough Street area. (Apart from Cup A Joe and Global Village perhaps, but coffee shops are meant to be community spots by definition. Mitch’s is another contender, but its mainly exclusive N.C. State atmosphere, and its contemporary university detachment curbs the kind of messy equilibrium with its surroundings to qualify it as a producer of real culture.) But gentrification isn’t bad just because of the value of authentic culture — connected to its place and native residents and free to unfold outside of the directedness of capital. It deals tangible consequences upon many. As property values in and around a newly renovated hub increase, lower-income people are displaced, and soon, the city is neatly divided into haves and have-nots. This isn’t completely the case yet for the area behind Hillsborough Street, which is still remarkably diverse, but if luxury hotels and redevelopment initiatives have their effect, it will be. Raleigh has already been tremendously affected by gentrification though. As Ryan Thomson wrote about downtown in his column in September in lieu of the incident of police threatening to arrest community group members for feeding homeless people at Moore Square, “The block … situated on S. Pearson and E. Hargett St. (once referred to as “Raleigh’s Main Black Street”), is currently worth around $7.7 million … (but is being appraised much higher). In light of this process, the city’s recent relocation of the Salvation Army begins to paint a picture of gentrification.” His description of the downtown “redevelopment” efforts can stand for Hillsborough Street as well: “The history books will likely reflect a similar narrative to that of Fayetteville Street having now been “beautifully restored,” but in doing so we neglect the communities and cultural nuances of the Oak City … The redevelopment narrative and would ultimately seek to create yet another Brier Creek or Glenwood South by expanding the commercial district.” In the nick of time, this September, Sadlack’s announced that it had found a place downtown on Martin Street to relocate. Schoolkids Records is moving to Mission Valley. But Hillsborough Street won’t be what it used to be. Katmandu and Shakedown Street won’t ever be back. Sadlack’s will be somewhere else, and won’t be the same thing. We’ll celebrate the polished floors and characterlessness of Saxby’s Coffee and a Starbucks in the new Talley, we’ll drive-by, smirk at Cup A Joe’s griminess, and we’ll continue to exercise our finely honed, upwardly mobile sense of good and bad. We’ll cease to experience the world in a rich way, and worse, we’ll annihilate its richness. Some of us might even live our white-picket-fence fantasies, but on the other side of the fence, there won’t be a sandwich place left to go to when the cash flow has fizzled out to redevelop our side."

http://www.technicianonline.com/opinion/article_ad85f910-5d6c-11e3-8004-001a4bcf6878.html

12/31/2013 12:10:07 PM

the city relocated the salvation army?

12/31/2013 12:38:47 PM

[Edited on December 31, 2013 at 12:56 PM. Reason : meh whatever.]

12/31/2013 12:55:30 PM

Wow. The writer of that article seems to really hate upper-middle class white people. That, and capitalism in general. Personally I think it's rather tragic that Sadlack's is moving downtown also, but some of his other examples are a bit out there. Shakedown Street? Really? That wasn't there long enough to become an institution, not to mention that storefront was notorious for failed businesses and stupidly high rent.

12/31/2013 12:58:35 PM

I will be at Sadlack's for at least a beer or two at some point today

12/31/2013 1:45:10 PM

Sounds like the misguided musings of an occupy protester-turned-Starbucks socialist. It's bad enough that half of his article is quotes from other articles as filler.

12/31/2013 2:41:10 PM

^^^Funny thing is....shakedown street used to be a Starbucks back in the day. Its all circular, feel the flow, in with the good, out with the bad.

12/31/2013 2:50:15 PM

what was it before starbucks? was mcdonalds in that space for awhile?

12/31/2013 3:16:52 PM

good question dtownral....not sure. When I first started at NCSU in 1999 it was something else. I actually want to say that it was a Jersey Mikes (but that could have been post starbucks) for a small time. I do have a recollection of a McD's in that area, but not exactly where it was located.

12/31/2013 3:42:13 PM

I remember when Starbucks closed and someone tagged the side of the building with "Starbucks you got Served!"

It's not funny now, but at the time that movie was new so i laughed

12/31/2013 3:45:23 PM

Harness. Energy. Block. Bad.

12/31/2013 3:45:32 PM

Quote :

"good question dtownral....not sure. When I first started at NCSU in 1999 it was something else. I actually want to say that it was a Jersey Mikes (but that could have been post starbucks) for a small time. I do have a recollection of a McD's in that area, but not exactly where it was located."

You're a couple storefronts off. That location was Starbucks in '98 when I first came to NCSU, and I think I remember seeing it there when I went for a visit in '97. Jersey Mike's was next door, where Shanghai Express is now, also dating from at least '98. It closed sometime around 2001-2, re-opened maybe a year later, then closed again and became Shanghai Express sometime in the mid '00s.

McDonald's was in the old theater building (most recently Hillsborough Street Textbooks) though that had closed by '98 so I'm not sure how you'd remember it. Think I've heard that closed in either '96 or '97; the building looked pretty dilapidated by the time I took notice of it.

12/31/2013 5:59:50 PM

Pretty sure it was a Jersey Mike's in 2000.

12/31/2013 6:00:21 PM

From the corner of Pogue down to Oberlin, my recollection of the storefronts in 9/98 were:
-Some sort of clothing shop
-Sir Speedy printing
-Kelly's nightclub (with Studio I/II theaters above and a bar and tattoo parlor behind/below)
-A coffee shop whose name I no longer remember
-A florist
-Western Lanes
-Brothers' Pizza
-Two Guys (the original)
-Jersey Mike's (Blue Moon BBQ was upstairs, but maybe not all the way from '98)
-Starbucks
*Horne St.*
-Manhattan Bagel
-Mitch's (I don't remember what was underneath it. Global Village didn't show up until several years later.)
-Frazier's
-The Rathskeller (with Stats Dept. offices above)
-Esquire Haircutters
-Golden Dragon
-El Rodeo
*Chamberlain St.*
-Zippy Mart
-I <3 NY Pizza
-Kinko's
-Schoolkids Records
-Unfinished building (stood empty for years before being finished as Sylvia's Pizza)
-Clothing store of some sort
-Planet Smoothie
-Bruegger's
*Logan Ct.*
*North Hall*
*Enterprise St.*
-Sadlack's
-Buddha's Belly
-Pawn Shop
-Left Wings Right
-Five Star Barbershop
-Bell Tower Mart
*Maiden Lane*
-Some sort of art supply store, think the name started with M
-Cream & Bean Ice Cream parlor
-Wardlaw Life bldg.
*Ferndell Ln.*
-Weatherman Jewelers
-Darryl's
*Oberlin St.*

[Edited on December 31, 2013 at 6:23 PM. Reason : z]

12/31/2013 6:22:54 PM

Seemed topical:

Quote :

"Gentrification: Unless you live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, someone has likely described your neighborhood as 'gentrifying.' Higher rents? Gentrifying. New yogurt store? Gentrifying. The word is so ubiquitous that it's lost most of its real meaning. That's made it hard to talk seriously about the different ways neighborhoods change and whether those changes might benefit a city's less fortunate."

http://theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/12/urbanist-buzzwords-rethink-2014/7959/

12/31/2013 7:03:43 PM

Quote :

"what was it before starbucks? was mcdonalds in that space for awhile? "

It was a mom n pop breakfast joint before Starbucks. McDonalds was never in that space, but they were in the old movie theater near Mitch's.

1/1/2014 11:11:07 AM

I miss Colorado's.

1/1/2014 12:14:44 PM

Terrible article. I loathe capitalism as much as anyone else but this was just straight garbage. I feel like NCSU is becoming more a part of the city with all the recent development. All the student stuff will move to the south side of campus in Mission Valley, Centennial, and Avent Ferry. North side of campus will be the easily accessible for students business-y location and Hillsborough St will be a highlight of the city for how to do contemporary urban life. If they ever get that light rail up and running everything will click together. Increasing density and lessening the need for cars in the area so everyone walks will do more for culture than any seedy bar and record shop could.

1/1/2014 3:08:56 PM

Not sure if this has been posted before now, but here's some renderings of the new hotel across from the belltower

i, for one, welcome our brick and glass overlords

it's not the most innovative thing in the world, but at least now we can take pictures of the belltower for promotional purposes from the NC State side of the street of we want





http://bulletin.ncsu.edu/2013/10/aloft-sets-sights-on-hillsborough-street/

http://www.hotelmanagement.net/operations-management/starwoods-aloft-brand-to-debut-in-raleigh-nc-25095

[Edited on February 18, 2014 at 9:42 AM. Reason : +]

2/18/2014 9:41:35 AM

so the hotel will look like the first pic and not the second, right?

2/18/2014 10:24:58 AM

both look nice to me

2/18/2014 11:47:19 AM

it'll be a dorm within 10 years. Complete waste of money.

2/18/2014 1:06:16 PM

Quote :

"so the hotel will look like the first pic and not the second, right?"

yeah i couldn't figure it out

maybe one was from the front and the other the back?

first image is from the recent edition of the alumni magazine

2/18/2014 1:38:19 PM

Unless I'm mistaken, the second picture is the Aloft in Chapel Hill. If that's not it, it's one of the exact same design.

2/18/2014 7:29:37 PM

First one is what it will look like. I'm not sure if a hotel is the best thing to put there either, but I'm just glad the rest of the shit on that block got demolished. Best part about the hotel is the bar/restaurant area on the 2nd or 3rd floor.

The old Hot Box place (not sure if anyone ever signed on to move in there) is adding a 2nd level bar/restaurant area as well IIRC.

2/18/2014 9:56:53 PM

but will they sell pizza on both floors? hillsborough must not go pizza free

2/18/2014 10:40:44 PM

wonder if you will still be able to see the belltower from Cameron Village

2/19/2014 11:28:35 AM

What dive bars do state students go to now?

2/19/2014 8:33:55 PM

I remember Cream & Bean!

2/19/2014 9:42:12 PM

aloft hotels are very strange as chain hotels go.

2/19/2014 11:49:02 PM

i know very little about them

what is strange?

2/20/2014 9:23:17 AM

he probably hates them because they are a chain

but, less likely, he could be referring to the fact that they are a discount hotel with high-end-looking modern styling. The rooms are a mix of modern high-end-looking finishes yet use cheap materials like painted plywood surfaces to save cost. They are also weird because some are still very nice, and in some cities they are worn out a bit, loud, and not that great. I've stayed in a couple and thought they really overdelivered for the cost, however I have also avoided them in some cities because they had terrible reviews that included phrases like "not like other alofts"

One of the shower walls is open to the bedroom, which is fun. They also use slide-out baskets in the built-in closet instead of a conventional dresser/closet, which I appreciate. The bar's at the ones I've stayed at were well-used and enjoyable.

2/20/2014 10:16:14 AM

They're fucking secret swinger hotels.

2/20/2014 11:09:41 AM

As long as Aloft honors the wishes of the previous businesses that occupied that space and allows homeless people to solicit patrons.

2/20/2014 11:35:59 AM

With the Five Star barbershop gone, patrons looking to knife their barber will be forced to go down the street to man-mur to get their stab on.

2/20/2014 2:17:17 PM

hotel guests will love the maiden lane frat scene

2/20/2014 2:29:26 PM

are any frats still on maiden lane? just theta chi?

i don't know why they would care, they will have off-street parking in a private deck.

[Edited on February 20, 2014 at 2:45 PM. Reason : .]

2/20/2014 2:45:33 PM

maiden lane will also be demolished

2/20/2014 4:45:05 PM

they're strange because they might as well be straight out of an ikea, but with the oddest of ikea fixtures selected as standard

the bathrooms have pocket doors, none of the cabinets have doors, etc.

not a bad thing, just bizarre

the lobby floor is often one large bar/lounge area that happens to have a check-in desk in the center

2/20/2014 6:54:28 PM

I graduated from State in December, was in Theta Chi since '10. We've been in the market to sell our house/land for like 2 years now, talks to move have gotten a lot more active in the last few months though. Some developer has buying up that land pretty steadily in the last couple of years as well - gonna demolish everything when they get the chance.

2/20/2014 10:25:06 PM

They're demolishing *everything* on Maiden? Damn--7 of those houses are over 100 years old. Granted, most of them are in pretty bad shape and have been added on to several times, but that's still a shame. The twins at 9 and 11 still have impressive millwork on the porch, even.

Surprised this is the first I've heard of it.

2/22/2014 2:57:58 AM

It's crazy how quickly things come and go on Hillsborough Street. I moved away in August 2012 and moved back in January, and it's like I barely recognize it.

2/22/2014 4:10:14 AM

^^

yeah... And they were also the first home of the nc state staff and faculty as well :/

2/22/2014 8:37:47 AM

Shit I barely recognize campus anymore.

2/22/2014 2:38:47 PM

I imagine a salvage company will save valuable millwork and pieces from those homes before demo, they usually have good resale value.

2/22/2014 2:55:25 PM

It's better than nothing but finding a solution that didn't require demolishing the entire block would be better.

9 and 11, in particular, look intact and mostly original. Those could probably be moved and saved, though I doubt anyone will. The house at 3 doesn't look bad either but anything that's been a frat house for that long is probably totally fucked inside.

2/24/2014 7:21:38 PM

Have they started ripping down the buildings across from the bell tower yet? Last time I was over there they just had fencing up.

3/15/2014 7:43:26 PM