Bye bye, Mordecai Historic Park Advisory Board

Mordecai House


On Tuesday, Raleigh City Council officially dissolved the Mordecai Historic Park Advisory Board and created a new board called the Historic Resources and Museum Advisory Board. I served on the Mordecai board (MHPAB) as the Parks board liaison for over three years, or half of the Mordecai board’s existence. The last year I served as vice-chair.

The abrupt dissolution of the board hits a little hard. The Mordecai house has stood longer that any other home in Raleigh. It has seen people come and go. Still, the boardmembers with which I served were all extraordinarily passionate about the Mordecai house and to promoting its mission. I will miss that cozy association.
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Raleigh Union Station

Raleigh’s Union Station, circa 1940s. Photo by John F. Gilbert.


This morning, federal, state, and local officials gathered in the Dillon Supply Viaduct building to announce that Raleigh’s proposed new Union Station is now fully-funded. The chance of Raleigh getting a new train station anytime this decade looked remote until Raleigh won a $21 million federal grant. The Feds are kicking in $15 million of stimulus money and the state is kicking in an additional $6 million. Raleigh is funding $3 million from its earlier transportation bond and Triangle Transit is contributing the $1.3 million property.

Above is a circa 1940s photo of Raleigh’s former Union Station, which still stands at the corner of Dawson and Martin streets facing Nash Square. Raleigh’s station was an “end-station” with stub-end tracks, meaning trains stopping at Raleigh had to back either in or out of the station.

Backing up trains takes a lot of time, so when the Seaboard station and Southern station (both through-stations) opened up it spelled the doom of Union Station. Now the building houses offices. I believe the station’s tracks are still embedded beneath the surrounding roads.

Donors predict Romney loss – POLITICO.com

Remarkable. When a campaign’s lost its money men it’s already spiraling down the drain.

DONORS PREDICT ROMNEY LOSS – “The campaign is moving fast to calm nerves, especially among donors. To get a flavor of the challenge before them, a top donor said that after Romney spoke at a fundraising breakfast at the Hilton New York on Friday, a will-Mitt-win poll was taken at one table of 10 men, each of whom had paid at least $2,500 to attend, and some of whom had raised as much as $50,000 for the campaign. Not a single man said yes.”

via First look: Bachus rips CFPB – Donors predict Romney loss – Top story: Monetary easing goes global – Big idea: Dems better for stocks – POLITICO Morning Money – POLITICO.com.

RCAC unplugged

After my post last night, I thought of one other highlight of the evening. After the meeting adjourned later than scheduled, I looked around the room and no one was leaving! The CAC chairs were all happily chatting with each other well after the meeting was over. Ten minutes later I think only 10% of members had left (and we had over 21 there).

I marveled for a moment at the sight of these interactions. I seldom saw this kind of cooperation and collaboration when I first became chair. It tells that I was right about the value of the RCAC, that the chance to work together is what its all about.

I see the RCAC as kind of a support group for CAC chairs. It’s proving to be a good call.

Twitter Updates for 2012-09-20

  • Me jolly pirate crewe Mama's Boyz and I bid ye a fine #TalkLikeAPirateDay Yarrrr! #
  • @kriselie Shiver me timbers! I'll set a course for me Krispy Kreme before nightfall! in reply to kriselie #
  • Dear reporters: if you want people to send you tips and scoops, quit making it so damn hard for them to do so. #
  • Really getting excited about the potential of a Capital Boulevard Park. Let's make it happen! #raleighparks #
  • A joke in here somewhere. RT @wired Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong will unveil its wax sculpture of Steve Jobs next week http://t.co/kw9Inp46 #
  • A breathtakingly beautiful crescent moon is hanging in the sky now. #ncwx #

RCAC recognition

We were having what seemed like a typical RCAC meeting tonight, with a few long-winded discussions about neighborhood events and Raleigh’s UDO. We were already running past our usual adjournment time when Dwayne Patterson of Community Services made a wonderful comment.
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Recycled recognition

Remember last year when BusinessWeek.com named Raleigh the number one city in the nation? I sure do. I chuckled when BusinessWeek lauded our city for its wonderful pedestrian mall, even though the mall was ripped out in 2006.

I chuckled again today when a number of folks passed this same article around on Facebook, apparently thinking Raleigh had won two years in a row. Hey, our city gets so many accolades, it’s hard to keep up with them, right?

Chick-Fil-A Agrees To Cease Funding To Anti-Gay Orgs

Bravo for Chick-Fil-A!

Could Chick-fil-A be turning over a new leaf?A Chicago-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender LGBT advocacy group reports that the restaurant chain — which was at the epicenter of a media firestorm this summer after its president confirmed his company’s anti-gay stance — has agreed to cease donations to right-wing groups that oppose same-sex marriage.

via Chick-Fil-A Agrees To Cease Funding To Anti-Gay Organizations, Chicago LGBT Group Claims.