The world’s biggest airplane, the Antonov An-225, landed at RDU this morning. It’s here to pick up a 120-ton generator for shipment to Tanzania, Africa. Talk about shipping First Class!

Check out some of my pictures here.

I found a nice local blog covering the use of CIA planes for extraordinary renditions: Stop NC Torture Taxis.

I’m glad to see folks are still shining a light on this abhorrent practice happening in our own backyards.

I saw in today’s paper how Whose Line Is It Anyway stars Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood will be playing Memorial Auditorium October 27th. Unfortunately, we’ll be Charlottesville-bound for N.C. State’s scheduled whupping of UVa, so we can’t go. I don’t think any TV show has ever made me laugh as hard as Whose Line did. Seeing Colin live and having him act out audience suggestions would make for a hilarious evening.

Just to lessen the pain of not going to the show, I fished up this video clip from the show, where Richard Simmons made a cameo. It had Kelly and me rolling in the aisles, even after I’d seen it already. Its one of the funniest skits I’ve seen on the show.

If you’re in town on October 27th, the Colin and Brad show is the place to be.

There has been lots of debate on active recreation facilities in North Raleigh, particularly surrounding the awesome natural Horseshoe Farm Park on the Neuse River. As recounted on MT.Net, even though a City Council-appointed committee worked for many many months to craft a plan for Horseshoe Farm, and even though that committee recommended to keep a gymnasium off the property, the city Park’s committee ignored the master plan committee’s recommendation and stuck in a gym anyway. This is in spite of a large, impressively organized group of concerned citizens opposed to spoiling the natural beauty of the park.

Now arguments are being made for putting said gym in Durant Nature Park, which is a park right next to my neighborhood. Durant Park would be more accomodating than Horseshoe Farm, yet it would be a shame if its two lakes and wooded trails were paved over for parking lots and basketball facilities.

My question is this: there are plenty of citizens opposed to active recreation. Where are the citizens in favor of it? Why does the Horseshoe Farm Master Plan Committee get thrown a gym they didn’t want or request? Who is driving this supposed need?

I don’t know of any citizens who are driving this need. It seems to be driven from the top down, starting perhaps with Jessie Taliaferro and going through the city’s parks and rec committee. Parks don’t have to have big buildings in them to be parks.

With Horseshoe Farm, Durant Nature Park, and the newly-announced park near Falls Lake, does North Raleigh have a lot of natural parks? Absolutely. Is there anything wrong with it? No. Is anyone complaining that these parks are “too natural?” Not to my knowledge, and that’s the rub. Outside of some city leaders, I haven’t heard anyone who is opposed to keeping these parks natural.

There is no need to plow under our wonderful, natural parks – these wildlife sanctuaries – to build pavement and palaces. A huge tract of park land is due to open up when (if?) the North Raleigh landfill finally closes. If anything deserves to be paved over and developed, its the landfill. I would trade a smelly landfill for a park any day. With this supposedly on the way, why the rush to do something else?

The people have made their preference known. It’s time to respect it. Quit trying to give us something we don’t want and don’t need.

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know something about the legal issues a nightclub in North Raleigh is facing. The Supper Clubb [warning: like the club, the website plays music] on Atlantic Avenue is in a legal battle to keep its doors open amid protests from the neighborhoods around it. Residents have complained about club patrons parking on their neighborhood streets, loud noise, and violence in the club parking lot. The Raleigh City Council has sided with the neighborhood and voted to revoke the club’s amplified music permit.

While I understand the residents’ concerns about the noise and violence, I think its a bit of a shame that the club is being forced to close. The owners have obviously put a lot of money into it. The food is good. The music is good. Its just that they’ve had problems controlling what goes on outside the club.

The Supper Clubb moved into a moribund, faceless strip mall, setting up shop in what was a long-vacant restaurant building. It became popular with the African-American community with its soul food menu and hopping music. Sure, the noise and traffic is a problem for the neighbors, but those are problems that could be solved without condemning the joint.

I can’t help but wonder if this is more of a race thing than anything else. Maybe the neighbors don’t want black people milling around near their homes at night. Seems like the old Plum Crazy nightclub near Brentwood went through the same thing.

I was an NCSU student when Raleigh police aggressively targeted Hillsborough Street bars in the early 90’s, using the noise ordinance to close them down. Neighbors who complained about college kids having a good time successfully closed many bars and catapulted neighbor Benson Kirkman to a seat on the city council. In that case, however, the university – and the bars that front it – had been there practically forever and were arguably the reason the houses were built. If you don’t like the college bar atmosphere, don’t buy a house next to college bars!

College kids want to go drinking. They will find bars that will allow them to do that. It makes much more sense to have those bars within walking distance to campus to discourage drunk driving. I thought the enforcement was a snotty move by the city and I still do. Now the Hillsborough Street scene is largely a ghost town, filled with blowing trash, shuttered stores and wandering vagrants. The neighbors got what they wanted.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a college student, white, African-American, Latino, or all of the above. We all need a place to meet friends and have good times. We don’t need a place where we can get stabbed or overrun neighborhoods, however. The city should be more willing to work with business owners to make things right. The Supper Clubb’s success proves there is a need and desire for what it offers and that should be considered, too. I hope the club can work out its problems and continue operating, perhaps by finding another location if need be.

I hear there are vacancies on Hillsborough Street.

Is there anything lower than sabotaging a kiddie train full of passengers? That’s what some little punk or punks did Sunday afternoon at Pullen Park. The perp put rocks on the tracks and watched as the train derailed, sending 77-year-old train driver Jackson Dean Oakley to the hospital with a cut hand. This kid was at the scene of the derailment. Police want to talk to him.

If that wasn’t enough, the park’s caboose was vandalized Tuesday morning. Some kind soul broke the windows on it.

We were at the park Sunday morning and were disappointed that the train wasn’t running until the afternoon. Still, we could have been on that train and would not have been amused when it derailed. Now I’m going through my pictures from that morning to see if that kid is in any of them.

Now the kid in question may have just been conincidentally hiding in the weeds near the derailment. Yeah, and I may be mayor of Raleigh. Fortunately for the perp we weren’t around when he pulled his little stunt. If the twit had derailed the train my family was on, he would have been begging for the cops to arrive.

I hope they catch this delinquient and get him the help he needs before he moves on to bigger destruction.

After last night’s demonstration of Plensa’s art for Fayetteville Street (or “F Street” for the hip), I have to admit that I’m starting to warm up to the idea. I’m not gung-ho for it, but I’m not as resistant as I was. Call me neutral. There are plenty of issues still to be worked out, but I think they’ll be ironed out to everyone’s satisfaction. If local community icon Jim Goodman still wants to bankroll most of the cost, I suppose I can keep an open mind about it. He’s putting an awful lot of money where his mouth is.

Today the city council voted to send the project through the Arts Commission. I took this as a supportive sign for the project, as I believe a vote by the council itself likely would’ve been negative at this stage.

I think Plensa needs to take a look at the finished F Street and see how much it differs from his earlier view of it. If he can bring his vision in line with ours on our new main street, I believe we may have something to really be proud about.

Amen to Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen for speaking out against the Plensa-designed art project for downtown Fayetteville Street. I love the idea of public art but this particular art doesn’t make any sense.

I can’t help but think that stringing up wires with LEDs is going to attract pigeons, which will then add their own, uh, “artwork” to the wires and anyone foolish enough to be under them. The LEDs likely won’t be bright enough to be seen during the daytime, especially if they’re viewed with the sky in the background (i.e., from the ground). And what happens when it snows or ices? Boom, the whole thing comes down in an expensive, tangled mess.

I’m all for world-class, signature art. I really am. I just don’t think bird-magnet LED netting is the message we want to send to the world. If Plensa wants to take a second swing at this, let’s let him come up with something bold. Bold but fitting, too. Let’s work towards having the PR this thing generates be good PR and do it right the first time.

Let’s pull the plug on the LEDs. Please.

Crusing into work this morning on the west Raleigh side of the Beltline, I saw a motorist pulled over by an unmarked car I didn’t recognize. It seems the N.C. Highway Patrol may have a new unmarked car out clocking speeders.

While I am not completely sure of the vehicle model, it certainly wasn’t the usual Crown Vic. The car was large with a prominent front grille, similar to a Dodge Charger. This particular vehicle was dark blue with blue lights hidden in the visor area and strobes hidden in the back-up lights. The trooper was dressed in civilian clothes, in this case a red shirt.

Slow it down out there or the muscle car creeping up behind you may be delivering a surprise!