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You may know Raleigh Magazine, but what you may not know is how we get our stories. It's all inside info from living our lives and having conversations in our city. You'd be surprised what people will tell us.
Swap the antiquated planters and benches for more outdoor dining and sort of living room style furniture where you're so it's comfy and, you know,
Melissa Howsam:you enjoy it. Really, I love this. You're really activating both ends of Fayetteville Street that way.
Gina Stephens:You're listening to office talk with Raleigh Magazine. I'm your host, Gina Stevens. You may know Raleigh Magazine, but what you may not know is how we get our stories. It's all inside baseball. You'd be surprised what people will tell us.
Gina Stephens:Our MO is telling stories no one else is telling, so this podcast is where you get the inside access to stories you won't read anywhere else. So let's dive into some of Raleigh Magazine's biggest stories. Fayetteville Street, our central business district, is the face of our downtown city and state. The once vibrant bustling street has lost its luster. Recently, Downtown Raleigh Alliance or DRA released a 10 point plan to bring vibrancy back to Fayetteville Street.
Gina Stephens:With me today to talk about the plan to breathe new life into the area's editor in chief, Melissa Hausam. Melissa, thanks for being here.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. We've been talking about Fayetteville Street for a while. We've done, a couple podcasts on this, a couple stories, all of which went viral. I think there's a really deep interest in downtown's luster. As you say, I love that.
Melissa Howsam:You know, we I I just wanna say a year ago now was when we introduced that this plan was coming. So it's nice to see it start to take shape.
Gina Stephens:It is a 100 page plus report. I mean, yes, we went through every page and we printed it more than once, But it targets the corridor between the state capitol and Martin Marietta, Performing Arts Center. And they're looking to make it more attractive, competitive, and connected.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. They were looking at other cities to see, like, what's working in other cities in terms of attractions, what we're missing, ways to activate this the street and the space to get people to come back. And like you said, the plan was over a 100 pages. Obviously, we weren't gonna cover that all, and we didn't even cover all ten points of the the major points.
Gina Stephens:We kind of picked out the ones that resonated with us. And we thought those were the ones that visually we shared in our new March issue. Which is out now. Which is out now. Get a copy because we're not going to cover everything we said.
Gina Stephens:But overall, I mean, some of these things really seem spot on.
Melissa Howsam:Oh, absolutely.
Gina Stephens:And I mean, I'm not gonna do these in any particular order. No. Yeah. But I think one of the constant conversations starting with something that's impactful, but maybe not as bright and bold and seems more logical is there's a parking shortage and people are having to pay a lot for parking. And so one of the options that they're suggesting is creating longer time allowances on apps and possibly making the first two hours in parking decks free.
Melissa Howsam:Love that.
Gina Stephens:I do too because obviously that'll get people to stay downtown longer.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. That's something that we've talked about on here before. We did, we did have a conversation on here about how when we're parked outside right now, you if that time runs up, you can't renew it and you can't even renew it in the same zone. No. So you would literally have to go get in your car, move it to you know, may I'm not gonna do that right now recording a podcast, but I'm definitely not gonna do it if I'm at Raleigh Times having a drink.
Melissa Howsam:You know, I'm gonna do them a leave. Right. Or I'm gonna get a ticket. So neither of those are viable for most people. So I think a lot it's a deterrent.
Melissa Howsam:So this is a big this is a big attractor. I think they're spot on.
Gina Stephens:And I get why they started it. Think back before COVID. They started because they wanted more street parking for people to be able to dash in and out of retail downtown to be able to get in quickly. And then if you were gonna be down here for a longer period of time to go into a parking deck.
Melissa Howsam:It is a it is an interesting conversation because you also could just have parking hogs. Some people park all day and don't leave and keep renewing. But, yeah, I mean, there has to be somewhere in the middle. Right. So this is nice because it's that first two hours.
Gina Stephens:The first two hours would be free. And if this goes through, it would be in the parking decks, the city owned parking decks. Let's be clear. Right.
Melissa Howsam:And a lot of this stuff is some of it is so that we should say that too. This is the plan. Not all of it is definite. It's all published because it's all stuff that they think is viable options, but some of it they're starting on. Some of it is just these are what's been recommended.
Gina Stephens:And DRA is encouraging you that if you see something you like and that you really are passionate about to reach out to your city council represent person who represents your district and tell them what you think, because that will help with funding to get a lot of this stuff done.
Melissa Howsam:Oh, for sure.
Gina Stephens:The other one that I think is is an obvious and you experienced this in lots of cities is the lack of public restrooms.
Melissa Howsam:Not only
Gina Stephens:Nothing's worse than being in a city. You don't know where, you know, you don't know where things are. You don't know what's public. And obviously, you walk into a restaurant. You gotta eat to use the bathroom.
Gina Stephens:You gotta be a customer or
Melissa Howsam:it's retail. This fun fact about me, like, my I just famously have used bathrooms all over everywhere we go, all over the country. And so my family, like, literally, if someone wants to know where a bathroom is and we're all out, they'll be like, ask Melissa. So I just you know, I like to know where they are. You know this about me too.
Melissa Howsam:You know?
Gina Stephens:Kids, you
Melissa Howsam:have either. Or if you have yeah. And so I just think, like, that is a thing. Like, I'm used to downtown. I would know where to go, but it is a good point that if you're not that comfortable or what if you were visiting.
Melissa Howsam:I don't like that in other cities or, you know You
Gina Stephens:don't know. So one of the ideas that they've put forth is I love these relief station self cleaning public bathrooms. They are not porta johns. To be clear, they don't look like porta johns. They don't act like porta johns, but they're free bathrooms.
Gina Stephens:They're sort of the only way I know to describe them is just sort of silver stainless steel looking boxes. But the pod? Pod that are adjacent. In some cases, one of the visuals we saw was maybe adjacent to a
Melissa Howsam:bus stop. Yes. And actually, it does it does kind of give off bus stop vibes, the the picture I'm looking at, which grabbed the issue, you can see for yourself. And they took cues from Portland, please. They looked at other cities where they're working.
Melissa Howsam:There's some questions like when we we also posted this on social media, people wondering about, sanitation. But that is part of the plan. Yeah.
Gina Stephens:So the learning is the way it's designed. And we did have someone comment and say that they had just moved here from Seattle, and they didn't work well there and the city ended up selling them off and not using them. It just didn't work out. But I think conceptually, it's a great idea.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. It does. It's a point of maintenance because they were talking about, like, people hoarding in there or were they clean, but that's Seattle. Right? And so I think this has already happened in other cities, and Raleigh has that to look at and and do better.
Gina Stephens:Well and and also part of the plan was to increase the bathroom hours and maintenance of of, like, public buildings, some of those bathrooms and make them accessible. So you like, you have parking signs, you'd see restroom signs to let people know where their options are. Yeah.
Melissa Howsam:I love that. Because
Gina Stephens:currently, I think the I don't know if this has changed, but the bathrooms at Moore Square closed at a certain time. Right. And again, there are problems on both sides. You leave them open, you have problems. If you don't, you have problems.
Gina Stephens:So they've got to figure out how to navigate that. But to me, those are 2 main issues that affect all of us. We all have to go to the bathroom. And if we're driving, we all have
Melissa Howsam:to park. Well, right. When they have major events, they bring in, you know, extra bathrooms and stuff. But if you're talking about keeping downtown activated on a 247 basis, you know, like Right. Then this is something that you wanna deal with all the time.
Melissa Howsam:Well, you just spoke
Gina Stephens:to that. Leveraging public spaces. They wanna create this is one of the other things, create a playground, if you will, activating certain sections that are rarely used into full blown arts areas, music areas where there are concerts. And and they have some of these specifically, that they're looking at, lots, parking spots.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. I mean, they talked about it being sort of like an 18 hour veritable adult playground and, you know, family friendly too, but outdoor dining, vendor stalls. And, you know, if you think there's other cities that you just walk around, like I know we're not Manhattan, but when you think about walking the streets there, like, it's such a fun time to go around Christmas and just go to the vendors and shop on the streets. And so I some picturing that sort of, like, market.
Gina Stephens:Well, and I love the idea that they wanna put you know, how they're cut throughs between, I don't know if it's going from Fayetteville Street to Wilmington or the street cut throughs sort of light those and make them, you know, artistic. And so that they're well lit. People can go back and forth between different sections of the city.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. I think the ambiance is important. People are excited about that too. Because in the pictures, you can see sort of some public art Yeah. Which is another thing.
Melissa Howsam:Liz in
Gina Stephens:our office was super excited about this idea of creating City Plaza as downtown's front porch and putting a visitor center in. And I do think that's, you know, that's one of those things that you don't know who will use it, but I bet as more and more people visit from out of state or out of city or even in the, you know, triangle and you want to know where something is or recommendation. I think that's not a bad idea.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. And I wouldn't have thought of that until you said it, but she's from outside of Charlotte. And the picture in our issue and and what they use for DRA, was the Charlotte Visitor Info Center, and that's where that inspiration's coming from or one of them. And so, you know, that's something she'd be familiar with and and know how that's been used. So it is it is you know, we don't think of it like we live here, but I think if there was a central hub, they're also gonna have more bathrooms in places like that, places to clean up.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. I like that. Like, if you have little little kids, this is what I was thinking.
Gina Stephens:And this is one of these, the downtown connector is something I've heard lots people talk about, is how to connect downtown to Chavis Park and to Dix Park and to create sort of a strollway. Melissa can talk about this firsthand as she strolled back from Dreamville.
Melissa Howsam:Oh my gosh. We're coming up on the anniversary of that. And listen, we're going, and I'm I'm already pre anxious about the strolling. Well, I love to walk. Don't misunderstand me, but this is not this is not resolved.
Melissa Howsam:We'll see how they do it this year. Yeah. But 2 years ago so a side note, obviously. But 2 years ago when we walked in, you almost came to get us. We we were able to actually do whatever he's probably picturing that knows the area and just kind of, like, cross Western on Mass through Boylan.
Melissa Howsam:Well, last year so you think they make it better? No. They made it worse. They made the pedestrians go a mile south and then and then cross and then come back. And so, yeah, there's a great podcast about
Gina Stephens:what they did to my team. I have said this over and over again. Every time I'm in front of somebody with the city who works on Dreamville, I've said Melissa needs to be on the committee.
Melissa Howsam:If 100 people I
Gina Stephens:mean, I think the people who actually go and and treat it, you know, there's no VIP now. There might be VIP when she gets inside. But in terms of no special access, you go just like everybody else goes.
Melissa Howsam:That's true.
Gina Stephens:And so I think it it would be helpful to know, especially since you guys have walked it both years.
Melissa Howsam:Well, and I mean, it's, you know, because we all wear Apple watches too, like to know what you even do in a festival alone on your feet, and we're all, like, in shape. It wasn't an issue of that. It's more just, like, footwear or other issues and, like, god forbid you
Gina Stephens:have to
Melissa Howsam:go to the bathroom. I didn't. But for real, what
Gina Stephens:would you do? Here we go back to the bathroom. But it's also and and obviously our city, this is not an issue right now, but you could be a safety issue with people crossing traffic, you know, cars, all of that. So
Melissa Howsam:We that is a good point. Last year, we had a bigger group with the team, but the year before, it was just me and Lauren, and we had made friends in the festival and we end up walking with them. It was this huge group of guys And, yeah, I don't I I mean, I'm sure I would have felt fine if it was just me and her, but it's late.
Gina Stephens:Yeah. It's very late.
Melissa Howsam:We don't by the time you walk that and then get an Uber White horse. Or that. There you go. I think a whole
Gina Stephens:bunch of But I love the idea. I I we digress. I love the idea of connecting downtown in some way to Chavis and Dix Park to to make those accessible. I think about you know, I've said on the podcast before. I took my kids I lived in Atlanta for years and took my kids back, my boys, and we saw the entire city downtown in a way that I'd never seen it.
Gina Stephens:And I'd lived there several years because we were on scooters, we were on e bikes and we hopped on their Greenway, if you will. It was awesome.
Melissa Howsam:That is cool. It made me think we well, we have an announcement coming, and I'm not gonna say what it is. But we were all together last week downtown, and we were on a sidewalk. We were about to go in anybody's. And all of a sudden, we saw somebody we knew just, like, pop out of another building and get on a scooter and scoot away.
Melissa Howsam:And we were like, oh, the you know, it's thinking about how people use Raleigh too.
Gina Stephens:And She's not just teasing you. We have big announcement. It has to do with, you know, Raleigh Magazine's location and some things
Melissa Howsam:because we've talked a lot about how big the sidewalks are downtown. And now there's a angle to use this to our advantage.
Gina Stephens:Absolutely. And they talked about I love that they said swap the antiquated planters and benches for more outdoor dining and sort of living room style furniture where you're so it's comfy and, you know, you enjoy it and free up space for walking, outdoor entertainment on the sidewalks. Yeah. Like stages, you know,
Melissa Howsam:and not just waiting for hopscotch and things like that,
Gina Stephens:but more more frequent. I love it. And everyone knows Raleigh's got an incredible artistic community. And I think one of the recommendations was defining it defining arts and entertainment district within downtown.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. I was actually just gonna say that. So if anybody's been to DC to the Wharf, I think and that's one of the pictures in the issue too. I think hearing these things is exciting, but when you actually think of a place, whether it's in Atlanta or DC that you can picture how this has been how this has played out, I think it makes it much more real. So we have a couple different like, there's a pavilion picture.
Melissa Howsam:I Can't remember what city that's in off the top of my head, but then the Wharf in DC, I just did that not long ago, and it's so fun.
Gina Stephens:Like, just even just walking around. Even if you don't do anything. People visualize it. Right? Because you say, let's create bright streetscapes and, you know, we want these push carts for retail.
Gina Stephens:And if you can show what how other cities can have done it as examples. Maybe that's why this company they hired has had great success in other cities of all sizes. Yeah. Absolutely.
Melissa Howsam:But there's more coming to Fayetteville Street than just the 10 point plan.
Gina Stephens:There is. So we just announced and shared photos of sir Walter.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. So, we have broken that news a while ago, but Lauren checked in, and it was they were ready to share the the first photos with us. So that's in the issue. You can get this super cool.
Gina Stephens:Like, this is going in this is going in where if you remember BeeGoods, if you're familiar with where BeeGoods was on Fayetteville Street, it's really it's, you know, Haymaker right there in that part. It's across from the Rye Bar, which is in the bottom of the hotel. So it's it's in a
Melissa Howsam:key area. Down closer to Memorial Auditorium. Yes. Marietta. Yes.
Gina Stephens:And what's and and no, Sir Walter Coffey is not going away. That is not closing. They're gonna have 2 locations. And this one's probably gonna lean a little bit heavier. It'll have coffee, no doubt.
Gina Stephens:But it'll lean into having a bigger bar scene.
Melissa Howsam:Mhmm. So this one will have alcohol. Well, I guess the other one technically has alcohol, but it it's almost like more, like you're saying thoughtful, like day to night, like,
Gina Stephens:have a little heavier food. They're gonna really play to people that are in that Charter Square building. If you wanna have a drink with a client after work or stick around for an early dinner.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. Yeah. And beyond just liquor, I feel like the the cool thing about the bar is that I do think there's a thoughtful element to that. They're partnering with Kill Devil Rum and Outer Banks Distilling, and they wanna have some hard to find rums and, just kind of showcase some stuff that people aren't familiar with. And then also, like, Prosecco on Tap.
Melissa Howsam:So I know you'll like it. Yep. So wine, cocktails, and like she said, you know, more complete food program, breakfast, lunch, you know.
Gina Stephens:And if you haven't been to Sir Walter, go check out the what? The one that's on Davie Street right now.
Melissa Howsam:It's great.
Gina Stephens:The other thing that's coming that we've talked about before and we'll have a lot more to share on that in our April issue is LM Restaurants. Saint Carolina, Ale House, Vidrio, Taverna Gora is opening a new full service concept and the lower level of where we are right now, 150 Fayetteville Street Yes. Formerly known as the Wells Fargo building. But, this is gonna be incredible space because it's gonna all day parts. Yep.
Melissa Howsam:So, like, another day tonight, really. I love this. You're really activating both ends of Fayetteville Street that way between this and mister Walter, but this has got a bunch of really cool elements. The front of this building is an event, I feel like. You know, there's swings, there's there's tables, there's there's big space, but they're gonna have the restaurant on the lower level, like you mentioned, and really take it from day to night.
Melissa Howsam:So whether you're coming in for, like, meeting people for coffee or later for happy hour.
Gina Stephens:Right. Exactly. And then and they even see it as, you know, date night at the end of the night for dessert and champagne or and they talked a lot about wanting a restaurant that was full service in the sense that if you're down at a festival with family, you've got kids with you, grandparents, the menu is gonna be conducive to that. It's gonna have a huge patio and a special artist that they're bringing in from Atlanta is doing something really spectacular on the patio that we, we can't wait to share with you.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. So we're hoping to know more about that, including the name and the artist and all that.
Gina Stephens:Yeah. And I mean, you know, we love to tell you about the good stuff, but we try to keep it real. And and there's a lot of conversation out there, that the ABC store that was announced for Fayetteville Street. And I'll admit, at first glance, I was like, woo hoo. Oh, yeah.
Gina Stephens:Because there have been so few ABC store locations and really not one in downtown. But I think there is some concern about how that's gonna be operated. And again, don't at me. I I get that it's a touchy subject. But given some of the troubles and problems we've had on Fayetteville Street, and things the city is dealing with, just wanna make sure that that, is managed in a way that doesn't counteract what the community, the police, city council's doing to to revive the business district and doesn't take us down another troublesome path.
Melissa Howsam:Right. I mean, because, yes, it is a sensitive topic, but sometimes and and there's there's plenty of ABC stores in the city, and we don't see this at all of them. So it's yet to be determined, but this is also downtown. So sometimes you do have some loitering around places like this, and, that kind of brings us to the other part of this, which is the bus station Right. Has been a big issue, of late and and especially with the free fares.
Melissa Howsam:And that little pocket of downtown has gotten a lot of tension for you know, we've covered crime downtown extensively, but what we've seen is the city has made a very valiant effort to get it under control is it's almost I'm not saying no crime exists outside of Wilmington Street, but it is almost very centric to that pocket in terms of
Gina Stephens:Right.
Melissa Howsam:The the numbers are elevated in that little I don't really call it a square, really. I don't know. And I don't mean more square, but around that area. And the bus station has a lot to do with that.
Gina Stephens:It does. And I think people even people who supported the free fares, and still think it was a great idea, now realize that, you know, sometimes good things, you know, don't need to last forever and they and they go bad. So this was an idea that maybe it's time for us to do away with that, especially going into spring with temperatures rising and kids getting out of school.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. Corey Branch, city council member just had a, led a meeting off of, I think it was off of Wilmington. It was in Moore Square somewhere around their church, with community members in the neighborhood asking for their input and ideas, and it was him and a couple police officers, r r p d. And I saw, like, clips of it. It looked like it was very I don't know.
Melissa Howsam:I thought it was really cool. Like, the conversation, the snippets they showed, people had some good ideas and their concerns, and they weren't they weren't angry or, you know, yelling. Everybody was very mild, and I think that's the kind of stuff we need is like More conversation. Yeah.
Gina Stephens:More conversation. Well, I'll tell you. I was downtown quite a bit this past weekend and, Renfro, the private security company that's working with the city, has have their little branded vehicles, and I've I've seen them all over town. So, you know, I think every every there's gonna take a lot of pieces to the pie, a piece to to the puzzle to solve it.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. Absolutely. And I think bringing it full circle, the the plans they have for Fayetteville Street and bringing the people back will also just help naturally revitalize some of this.
Gina Stephens:Mayor Baldwin said that. She goes, you know, the more eyes on the street, more people, less things are gonna happen.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. Absolutely. So so it's just a rapid fire. We haven't done that in a while.
Gina Stephens:I know. Which of the 10 things do you think, will have the biggest impact on getting people back downtown? Well,
Melissa Howsam:so so not which one am I most excited about? Okay. So hold on. So I think the biggest impact will probably just be the general activation. Right now, I think people think about it as, oh, I'll go there for Brugaloo or I'll go there for, you know, some other event, art exposure.
Melissa Howsam:But, now I think if it's more generally, like, a playground all the time, then it's just like, oh, what's going on
Gina Stephens:and I, you know, sadly, people always say to me, oh, I don't go downtown that much because I don't know where to park. And I'm like, seriously? Yeah. And I'm like, I've got 5 apps. One of them will tell you the closest parking, lot or spot near where you're going.
Gina Stephens:So I think, you know, elevating, lengthening the time and possibly the 2 hours free.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. And, also, I think we should say that connectivity point has really stuck with me, like, even just from this conversation. You know, we we all worked on this story together, but talking about it makes me think about it differently, like having the Dreamville piece. And we've talked a lot about how the more Raleigh grows, the more you can get. We just did a podcast on this.
Melissa Howsam:You can get from one pocket of downtown to another, and it's becoming more walkable and and interactive. And so I do think that's a pretty big deal because you wouldn't then see, oh, we're going to Dix Park or we're going to Fayetteville Street.
Gina Stephens:Right.
Melissa Howsam:It becomes like a we're doing You can do both. Whatever. Right.
Gina Stephens:You just free flow it.
Melissa Howsam:Yep. I love that.
Gina Stephens:What's one thing from I mean, we we both have spent some time in Chicago and Atlanta that you think or wish we had on Fayetteville Street.
Melissa Howsam:You know, I I didn't have my answer until, about 5 minutes ago, but I think it is a water feature. And I was thinking about that. You know, the famous married with children fountain is in Chicago. And so I don't even mean, like, Michigan. Obviously, they have that too, and they have a river.
Melissa Howsam:They have it all. But people really want sun, and we know that they want that. They've told us. People really want some kind of water. A lot of downtowns and cool cities are built on
Gina Stephens:Yeah.
Melissa Howsam:Water, and and we can't make I mean, we I guess I could do, like, a land Yeah. A man made lake, but
Gina Stephens:Well, that's similar to what I was thinking. I was thinking about Centennial Park in Atlanta where they have a Ferris wheel. Yeah. And they have the water shoot, you know, water park with water shooting up that kids can play in or Yeah. Or you can sit and enjoy and watch it.
Gina Stephens:I think, you know, that park area would be nice. Something like that, and not a Ferris wheel that's there for a festival, but something like that that's there all the time.
Melissa Howsam:When you mentioned that before, I was thinking about how when when we come down here around 1st night time and they're and they're setting up and you can see the Ferris wheel,
Gina Stephens:it's like, oh, that's cool. So, like, what if that was there all
Melissa Howsam:the time?
Gina Stephens:I know. I like it.
Melissa Howsam:Yeah. Cheers. Cheers.
Gina Stephens:This has been office talk with Raleigh Magazine. I hope after hanging out with us, you feel more like a Raleigh insider. You can find copies of our magazine around town or subscribe for $10 for 10 issues. We'd love it if you gave this podcast a rating and review and share it with your friends. This podcast was edited and produced by AirFluence.
Gina Stephens:I'm Gina Stevens. We'll see you again
Melissa Howsam:soon.