Goodnight Raleigh - a look at the art, architecture, history, and people of the city at night

The Convention Center

The last time I photographed the convention center, I focused mainly on the side minus the shimmer wall. This is a view as seen from South Dawson street.

What Is Up With The Arrow?


A friend of mine bought a calendar and asked about this month’s photo (not the one above) which had the arrow (as shown above). I have no idea as to its purpose, and nor does anyone else I’ve asked.
If you’d like to see it for yourself, climb to the top of the parking deck at Moore Square Station. It has appeared in a previous blog post, but I didn’t really mention it.

My best guess as to its purpose is that it is for emergency helicopter landings–It points to an open field as seen from Google Maps. However, Moore Square seems to be better suited as it has a larger green area.

Idlewild Ave: A Lesser Known Road

Idlewild Avenue connects to Edenton and is definitely an older part of the city. If you aren’t familiar with it, I should warn you that people may want to talk to you if you drive down it. It looks normal and average enough in the photos, but you may encounter someone waving their arms and walking towards your car. It isn’t a certainty, but has been frequent in my experience.

Many of the surrounding neigborhoods have undergone restoration or revitalization, and are no longer plagued by the drugs and violence that Idlewild has. Neighborhoods one block away are peaceful and calm. In fact, I have friends that live very near this road–It’s how I came to learn of it. Although I warned you of people approaching your car while driving down it, I must say that I didn’t feel in any danger while taking these photos. The recent Raleigh news about Idlewild was of a house that burnt down very recently. I can’t find any more than what was on the nbc17 web site, which wasn’t much at all. The only future for that giant house is to be torn down.

I imagine that just like many of Raleigh’s former run down neighborhoods, this one will also undergo a transformation. It was sort of obvious to me from a question posed to me by a random passerby on Idlewild: “Are you buying up property here?”. A second man asked me if I lived in the house across the street. Seems the word on the street is that property in this area is definitely in demand. There is still the issue of crack dealers and prostitutes, but I imagine that will rapidly decline as more of these houses are renovated, divided, and rented out to higher paying tenants.


Discuss Raleigh

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