Raleigh

Community-focused posts

There are 776 posts filed in Raleigh (this is page 36 of 78).

Introducing Little Raleigh Radio

Little Raleigh Radio


One of the initiatives that’s been taking up my Copious Free Time is helping start a low-power FM community radio station in Raleigh. A few months ago, a friend mentioned the Little Raleigh Radio (LRR) project and I became determined to help this project succeed.

I’ve been following low-power FM (LPFM) for quite some time so when I learned that the FCC’s window for granting new licenses may be opening again, I felt I had to help.
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Making the “Open Source City” a bit more open

I was away from my home the other day and wanted to tune into the streaming video of the Raleigh City Council meeting using my smartphone. Lo and behold, the proprietary Microsoft Silverlight video format that the Granicus service uses to stream Raleigh’s government channel does not have a player for my Android phone. I’d be surprised if a client exists for iPhone, either, for that matter. It seemed I would need to be glued to my desk if I wanted to keep up with Raleigh politics.
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Recycling theft ordinance

While on my morning walk this past Friday I was crossing Glascock at Brookside when I noticed a blue pickup truck pull past me. I’d seen this truck the week before and suspected it was involved in some suspicious activity, so I stopped to watch what it did. From across the street I watched as a man hopped out of the truck, crossed the street, and began rummaging through the neighbor’s recycling bin, fishing out the aluminum cans. It wasn’t the suspicious activity I’d thought it was but noted the license plate anyway and continued walking.

I took the kids to school by car that morning and when I returned to the neighborhood I was amazed to see yet another man in a pickup truck, rummaging through a neighbor’s recycling bin. This wasn’t a case of some homeless guy collecting a few cans to get by, this looked like an entire team was out to steal the cans people had put out for the city.
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Game over for Raleigh software startups?

I thought this recent Triangle Tech Talk column by Chris Heivly was interesting until I got to this part (emphasis mine):

So what’s my point and where do we go from here? First, notice that we refer to this as Triangle Tech Talk and Triangle StartUp Factory. We support the entire area and we will support any initiative to help Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Cary and other local communities embrace entrepreneurship. But not around software companies. Let’s support each community to identify their industry niche. Let’s rally companies in that niche to build a critical mass in a neighborhood. And then let’s celebrate and market that niche.

So, Tech Talk is declaring “game over” for software startup companies and Durham is the winner? Durham has had success with software startups, no question about it, and I don’t want to take anything away from that. Still, to imply that Raleigh should just close up shop is a bit ridiculous, don’t you think? Raleigh’s been home to Red Hat, Lulu.com, Misys, Allscripts, Da Vinci Systems, Q+E Software, HAHT, Accipiter, Oculan, Lobbyguard, and many, many others. That’s not exactly a dearth of talent. To say that Raleigh should cede it’s startup software scene to Durham is ridiculous.

How about this: Raleigh can be Raleigh and Durham can be Durham. Each city can go with whatever works for it. There are plenty of smart, creative people in both cities and plenty of room to grow and compete. Both cities can enjoy success with software startups. To declare a “winner” and divvy up who should get what is absurd.

Grown-up Raleigh politics

At ages 7 and 9, my kids are growing like weeds. They’re growing almost faster than I can acknowledge.

The same goes for Raleigh. A fact I liked to share when former mayor Charles Meeker was in office was that Raleigh grew so quickly during his tenure as mayor that one out of three Raleigh citizens had never known another mayor. That’s right: in the span of ten years Raleigh population grew by fifty percent.

Fifty percent! It’s hard to wrap one’s mind around that.

Over the holidays my aunt came up to visit from Tallahassee. Knowing my interest in politics, she asked if I was interested in running someday.

“If only it paid the bills,” I sighed, explaining how our mayor and councilors serve as de facto volunteers.

My aunt was surprised that Raleigh, the country’s 43rd largest city, has volunteer leaders. “Even little Tallahassee pays its mayor and city commissioners,” she pointed out.
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Slow it down

On my morning walk my still-kinda-dreaming eyes fell on the 25 MPH sign next to Dennis Avenue.

I thought about that wide-open stretch of road and the role the speed limit plays in taming it. Must have been like a racetrack before, I thought.

Then I thought of the mini-highway that New Bern Avenue became when it became one-way, and the mini-highway that Capital Boulevard is near my home. Seemed to me the first step in rejuvenating these areas would simply be to slow down the traffic. This could be a sophisticated operation like returning the streets to two-way traffic. Or, it could simply be dropping the speed limit.

I’m thinking all it would take to pump some life into some of Raleigh’s troubled neighborhoods would be to reduce the speed limit. It’s a simple and cheap solution, too.

Raleigh raises fees for youth sports, park rentals

In addition to the Mordecai article, I was also quoted in a separate Midtown Raleigh News article on the new parks fees.

Many parks fees had not been raised for several years, parks board members noted. For example, the citywide youth sports registration fee has been $12 since 2004.

“This is an opportunity to make adjustments that have been needed for a while,” said board chairman Mark Turner. “I didn’t feel they were necessarily drastic … The variety of programs and offerings are still a very good deal for the public.”

via Raleigh raises fees for youth sports, park rentals – News – MidtownRaleighNews.com.