Raleigh

Community-focused posts

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East CAC history lesson

Tonight’s East CAC meeting was an unforgettable one. Not only was I honored to be reelected as CAC Chair, but a group of about 15 Pakistanis were here to observe an American civic meeting. After that we had a number of members tell us about the history of our area, many of these folks having lived here for almost 40 years.

The real treat in my mind was to hear from a descendant of the original property owners who once owned the property surrounding Lions Park. The history of the land was traced back to 1851 when it was purchased from the Mordecais! Even venerable old Saint Augustine’s College wouldn’t come into existence for another 16 years.

It was fascinating! I never knew there used to be a pond right in the middle of our neighborhood, or that a stream existed at the bottom of Fenton Street, or that Pigeon House Branch creek was once clean enough to drink, or that many picnics were held at the bottom of Fenton, where a beautiful wooded ravine once stood.

The “history lesson” meeting was so much fun that we’ll have to do another one soon!

N&O still not web-savvy

So the News and Observer recently revamped their website yet again and I think I preferred the previous version. Seemed much cleaner to me, and also seemed to load faster.

One thing bit the N&O the last time they upgraded and they didn’t seem to learn the lesson because they made the same mistake again. They didn’t maintain links to their stories, a big webmaster no no! Any favorable ranking Google gave their stories just got shot all to hell because the web team failed to provide forwarding links from their old stories to the versions on their new site. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

And the newspaper industry wonders why it can’t seem to succeed on the Internet.

Weatherford auction

Yesterday we drove home from T’s soccer game to see signs for an auction at a neighborhood house. We stopped by to see what was going on and found the auction was at a home near ours that belonged to the late Rebecca Weatherford, who used to own the property our house was built on. The house’s items were being auctioned.

I was looking through the home when I recognized Dan Blue, who is handling the estate affairs. He told me some history of the place: that it used to be a dairy farm from the 1920s to the 1960s that encompassed about 70 acres. There was a plantation-style home that dated from the late 1800s but burned down long ago. My neighbor once told me he used to play on the majestic porch of the now long-gone home. I was fascinated to learn that such an old home was once nearby, and saddened that it no longer exists.
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Election Night

My friend Rodger Koopman lost his Raleigh City Council District B race to John Odom. I spent the day outside a polling place meeting voters and asking them to support Rodger. My sense around midday was that Rodger was getting one out of three votes – a prediction that was eerily accurate when my precinct’s numbers came in.

Though it might seem otherwise at first glance, elections are not won or lost on election day: by then it’s too late. If you haven’t done your homework in the weeks leading up to the election there’s little you can do to turn it around at the last hour. I’m still analyzing what went wrong but it’s a shame that a fine candidate like Rodger Koopman won’t get another term.

Election Day

Tuesday is Election Day, where Raleigh will be voting for candidates for mayor and city council. I’m taking the day off to work the polls for Rodger Koopman and Russ Stephenson. Then afterward I hope to celebrate some victories at some downtown establishments.

You won’t get much blogging from me for the next 24 hours. Hopefully the next post will be a positive one!

Baking contest judge

mr-creosote

You know the scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life where Mr. Creosote bursts at the seams when offered a “wafer-thin mint?” That’s kind of what it’s like to serve as a baking contest judge: after a while you think the next “wafer-thin mint” might be the one that does you in!

I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I volunteered to act as a judge for the first-annual Mordecai Historic Park baking contest. I was told there would be forty cakes and cookies to judge. I figured that wouldn’t be too bad – until the day arrived and the number of entries had jumped to 62!
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The ARRRRR! Line pub crawl

I’m looking for a few good pirates for a pub crawl Saturday night. I sent this email out to some neighborhood lists today:

Whereas, Saturday, September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Whereas, Raleigh has downtown circulator bus known as the “R Line.”

Whereas, Saturday marks the first International Talk Like A Pirate Day since the R Line came into being.

Whereas, said R Line has served as transportation for many a downtown pub crawl.

Whereas, it’s been a while since the last organized R Line pub crawl.

Whereas, pirates like to spend their silver on grog in pubs.

Whereas, Raleigh being miles from any sea is no excuse not to drink grog.

Whereas, Raleigh could use an annual costumed event like the one in that
Triangle town over the horizon.

Therefore Be it Resolved That, Saturday, September 19th is hereby declared the start of the First Annual Raleigh ARRRRRR! Line Pub Crawl.

Meet at the Seaboard Station ARRRRR! Line stop at 9 PM (Peace St at Wilmington). Pirate costumes optional this time around, but lack of them next year t’will be a flogging offence.

See you there, mateys!

Mark Turner, a.k.a.
Scowlin’ Bailey Hornigold

Cookie Judge

cookie_big

As part of my service on the board of the Mordecai Historic Park, I’ve been asked to be a “cookie judge” for Saturday’s Baking Contest. There are over 40 entries in this year’s baking contest, so I’m not so sure I won’t have a stomachache when we go to the They Might Be Giants concert later that afternoon. My fellow Parks board members sounded jealous of this assignment when I mentioned it last night, but I’m thinking the only recipe I’ll be interested in is a recipe for a ton of extra exercise the next day!

Come out and visit Mordecai Historic Park if you can. Once the judges have a taste, the contest entries will be distributed to the public. Dig in!

Broughton traffic

I know school just started and I’m hoping things settle down, but in the past two weeks it’s proven difficult to get past the St. Mary’s intersection of Wade Avenue due to the traffic going to Broughton High School. I don’t remember traffic being this bad back in the spring.

Again, it’s early in the school year but so far getting around Broughton sucks.

More public service

25mph-sign (c) FreeFoto.Com
I got a little more public service in during the last few days. I decided to help my neighbors on Edmund Street get the speed limit changed to 25 MPH. This requires 75% of the residents to sign a petition agreeing to the change. I spent parts of Saturday, Sunday, and today walking the street with a clipboard in hand and asking people to sign.

Tonight I got the 30th signature, making the petition valid. Now it’s off to the Transportation Services department of the City of Raleigh to be checked, after which it will be sent to the City Council for approval. The new speed limit signs should appear.within seven days of Council approval. Yay!