Every year, for the past 3 years, I’ve gone to the Kirby Derby, and every year I’ve come away with the same smile on my face for the whole bike ride home. Everything about this neighborhood party has everything a good neighborhood party should have: costumes, cross-dressed people running down the street, responsible amounts of drinking and yelling/booing at kids for kicking full beer cans over (“they’ll understand later on, we’re just training them early about priorities”) and giant feathered chicken carts flying into hay bale barricades/the crowd.

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Antique drinking fountains, located on Capitol Square

In the past few years, Raleigh has been fortunate and invested in public-use infrastructure projects. This includes the installation of new benches, shelters, sidewalks, and other related items. Noticeably absent from these improvements (outside of public parks), is the outdoor drinking fountain.

As Raleigh continues to improve the experience of pedestrians, cyclists, joggers, bus riders, and others, it should consider adding more outdoor drinking fountains to address mankind’s most primitive need: thirst.

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An 1892 replica of the Tornado, the first train to arrive in Raleigh. Currently housed in a museum in Hamlet, NC

1840 was a big year for Raleigh. In fact, it’s one of the most important in the city’s history. On March 21, 1840, the first steam locomotive came roaring and screeching into Raleigh on wooden tracks (the iron strips to cover them would come later). That same year would see the construction of the city’s most recognized and celebrated architectural treasure: the new State Capitol.

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