Alleys

On the bus ride into work this morning I passed by the Capital Park neighborhood north of Peace College. I couldn’t help but admire how inviting this neighborhood is. One thing that makes a big difference in my opinion is the use of alleys.

Once upon a time, all a home’s “plumbing” was tucked away from public view, only accessible through the alleyway. Half the front yard wasn’t paved over, and half the facade of a home wasn’t wasted with an ugly garage door.

Had trash to put out? It stayed in the alley, not on the front sidewalk. Had to park your car? The alley will take you to your garage, keeping the front street open for visitors. With an alley there’s no barrier between the front of the home and the sidewalk or street. A home can come right out to the street to greet company.

I wonder when (and why) subdivision developers stopped appreciating this extremely useful part of the neighborhood.

Everyone’s a Eugene

Interesting. I did a search on “they call me Eugene”, looking for a dumb novelty song from the early 80s. Instead of my song, I found a bunch of fake websites with that phrase designed to game the search engines:

your up to date arthritis news site 1375 By Mortgage Refinancing …
They call me Eugene Keith Diaz. I live in a cozy 2 bedroom timber frame home a few miles outside of Woodmore, KS. Me and my family have been living here …
www.mortgage-refinancing.name/129.html – 4k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this
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RBC Plaza

Walking around downtown this past Friday I came to a realization about the RBC Plaza. In essence, Raleigh’s tallest building comes up short in a few important ways.

As some have mentioned before, the setback from the street is far too narrow. Pedestrians never get a feel for how tall it is because from the street level it looks like any other dull building in downtown Raleigh. It might look unique from the top but it certainly doesn’t look unique from the bottom. You could walk right by and miss it.

Part of the problem is the lobby of the building. A large, open lobby would’ve conveyed the building’s grand height to those entering it. Instead the building has a modest lobby with modest ceilings. It doesn’t have the lobby of a 33-story building but the lobby of a five-story building.

One day downtown Raleigh will get the flash it needs to get noticed. The RBC Plaza misses the mark.

Tour de Turner

Yesterday the family went on a mammoth bike ride: probably 25 miles! We rode our Middle Crabtree Creek greenway all the way to Crabtree Valley Mall, then up to Shelly Lake where we rested and snacked, then back down the greenway to our home. The kids rode the Trail-A-Bikes as usual, though I’m itching to get them firmly on their own bikes (and I worked with Travis on that a bit Saturday).

I was glad to see so many other cyclists out, too. Probably more than we’ve ever seen. I’m glad the greenways are getting the proper attention.

I also saw a woman with an unleashed spaniel dog at Shelly lake. The dog repeatedly charged into the lake chasing ducks and scared the turtles away. The next time I see something like this I’ll remind him or her of the rules of proper dog-walking in the city park.

We got back around 2:30 in the afternoon and didn’t have much energy to do much else, though I managed to wash the CR-V. It was still caked with mud from Kelly’s trip to the coast, so I guess you could say it needed it!

Chirp chirp

I was dozing earlier this morning when I sat bolt upright in bed. Someone had thrown a wad of tape on me! Still groggy, I grabbed the tape of my chest and tossed it across the room. Turning on the bathroom light, I took a closer look at the tape.

It wasn’t tape, but a cicada: the one I’d seen in the bedroom yesterday and assumed was a dead one the kids had brought inside. The little buggy had chosen 5:30 AM for a good time for an on-time departure to my chest.

I scooped him up and set him outside, chuckling as I went back to sleep.