Goodnight, Raleigh!

I realize the sign on the building says Co., but everywhere on the internet it is referred to as Capitol Tire Service. The internet is always correct.

Capitol Tire Service
502 S West St
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 828-8293

These aren’t my words, but those of an ironic vandal that slapped this bumper sticker on a utility box across from the Capitol building. Personally, I am one of those folks who distrusts and dislikes the federal government, but I am optimistic about local and state governments. Those are the elected officials that have a chance of actually improving and changing the events that take place in our day to day lives.
I may agree with this sticker at the national level, I certainly don’t at the local level. I say hurray for local government, even if their priorities seem different than your own.

I guess it should come as no surprise that this place has no web presence. About all I can find are directory listings and a few review sites. I’ve often wondered if the place was still open, but similar to Finch’s Restaurant, I am rarely on that side of town early in the morning. I finally did go to Finch’s and it was an amazing breakfast and a unique experience.
Similar to that post, I’ll vow to visit the place sooner or later. In the meantime, does anyone have any opinions on this place?

It’s easy to see why this is one of the most popular spots in Raleigh to take pictures from. The streaks in the first photo were caused by the crane being in motion.

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To be more precise, it is the Raleigh Amtrak Station. Fairly soon I’m going to give trains their own category on this blog, as I’ve photographed them enough. And God bless Wikipedia:

The Raleigh Amtrak Station, located in Raleigh, North Carolina, is served by three passenger trains, the Silver Star, Carolinian and Piedmont. The street address is 320 West Cabarrus Street, and is located just to the southwest of downtown Raleigh.

Southern Railway built the station in 1950 after leaving Union Station. The station was not used for passenger trains from 1964 to 1985, when a pending abandonment of track by CSX Transportation forced Amtrak to move there from the former Seaboard Air Line station north of downtown.

The station is Amtrak’s second busiest in the southeast (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky). Transportation agencies are studying a replacement station, possibly in conjunction with SEHSR or commuter service.

I really hope the idea of commuter rail travel takes off. I really do not like driving automobiles at all. I’m not just saying that because I spend a solid 20-25 minutes on the civil engineering disaster known as the Harrison Ave/Wade Ave split. Several local blogs have covered the possibility or idea of light rail travel or streetcars, so read up on it. It will take a hot load of consumer demand to bring about something as big as rail service.

Am I being delusional in thinking it has a shot? Am I a hypocrite because I normally dislike government subsidization of business and development projects? Maybe and definitely yes. Rail is one of those things like highways that will never happen as a result of free market economics. It just cannot come to fruition without the assistance of state and local governments. I would be willing to pay higher taxes if the money went directly into a fund to create more rail service. Anything that reduces the dependence of petroleum on a day to day basis is a very good thing. If it means less noise and less congestion, and less damage to the environment, that’s good as well. Throwing more money at adding more lanes of traffic isn’t going to solve the congestion issue–which really isn’t that bad here, especially in contrast with so many other cities. If freaking Charlotte can have service, why can’t Raleigh?

This is a a view from the train station. I took many more shots from this place, and will be making a more thorough posts with those photos shortly. I’ve been out of town the past 4 days, so I need to get caught up in other areas before I get caught up here.

I hadn’t given it much thought up until this point, but other than my first blog post, I’m not sure I’ve ever posted a pic of me on the blog before. Here is where I was goofing off with my back to a street lamp near the Convention Center construction.

Convention Center construction is moving right along. It is shaping up to look very much like airports and other towers I made with Legos as a kid. The giant glass part looks just like the inverted 3 x 4 x 5 windshield that was popular in many Lego sets. The rooftop above it looks exactly like a white 6 x 10 plate, especially with the writing on the insulation. This isn’t an insult, far from it. I find it fascinating, as well as inspiring.

These two tunnels are shorter than they appear in the photos. When walking through them I often wondered how many paint jobs it would take to lower the height 3 inches. Weird, I know. It’s also unique for me in that it’s the only dual, separated, and opposing lane pedestrian tunnel that I’ve ever traveled through.
Does anyone have any unique memories, stories, or associations with it?