Wow, Dana, I don’t know where to begin with my comments. I have so many.
First of all, I have a problem with the elitest statement regarding “25,000 of North Carolina’s wealthiest 20 year olds”. While I am no big fan of UNC or the city of Chapel Hill, a statement like that only goes to further a stereotype about Chapel Hill that certainly doesn’t represent everyone.
Secondly, I think that the demise of the collegiately supported university retail strip can be attributed to a couple of factors: 1.) Local housing expenses that are displacing students with more wealthy “urban” professionals….and 2.)The continuing fallout from the state raising the drinking age for beer and wine from 18 to 21 a few decades ago.
More students are living further and further from campuses these days and they are going to the places where the rent is cheaper. I’d suspect that many students at UNC are living in Durham. And, given that they are living in Durham, they are probably shopping at Southpoint with everyone else.
So, it sounds like Franklin St. is following the path of Hillsborough St. in Raleigh. Students move to other areas, yuppies move in, college bars close or struggle and the city is left to figure out how to fix it all.
Every non-student that moves into a university community makes it more difficult for that community to remain a student focused environment. Professionals beget more professionals and that drives change in the eco-system of the neighborhood. When living “in town” wasn’t de rigueur like it is today, the more urban neighborhoods near universtities were often times more affordable than the burbs. Now, it’s the opposite. As a result, student life will follow where it’s cheapest.
If either Chapel Hill or Raleigh wants to bring its retail back near their respective campuses, they are going to have to find a way to bring more students back to the community. This means that they need to pursue affordable housing for them. Then, they are going to have figure out what the students’ market is so that they will shop in the local stores.
Regarding transit plans, establishing transit hubs increases local population over time and increases activity in those neighborhoods. It actually grows walkable/urban areas. It doesn’t drain them of their vitality. To that end, transit will be good for DT Chapel Hill.

Even when I lived out of walking distance from downtown I still used to go there quite often. But that was back in the days that it had two record stores, a gaming store, and a couple of used bookshops all between the post office and Columbia. Now there’s very little in that area to tempt me.

I worked at several former Franklin St. businesses, and their main difficulty seemed to be the high rent. There were days that we’d have as many customers as we could handle, but it was still difficult to make ends meet.

I think your spin is a bit out of control on this one Dana.

Franklin Street is not failing. This seems more like an effort to give people something fun to do, than the desperate last-ditch effort to save the “failing” downtown Chapel Hill that you portray.

At a cost of $50 per performer, how much will this cost the town over the course of 6 weeks anyway? $2000? $3000? Sheesh. The town spends $3000 basically on recreation and all of a sudden TRANSIT IS DOOMED TO FAILURE EVERYWHERE!!

At the risk of being completely misunderstood, I would like to say up front that I am 100% for a light rail system, as long as it connects the Triangle’s most important centers and isn’t a big burden on taxpayers. Please, keep in mind that my brain is a little fried after staring at the computer screen all day and my thoughts may not be very clear – yes, I actually do some work during the day :LOL:

The reason I started with the light rail – you may substitute “light” with “regional” – is because Dana is right on the money when he mentions public transit. Chapel Hill has a decent transportation system in place, and yet very little boost seems to come from it. During the era when Franklin Street was bustling with activity, Raleigh and Durham were improving their own entertainment centers at a fast rate. I remember people from Raleigh going to Chapel Hill frequently, either to visit friends, or just to be entertained. With DT Raleigh and DT Durham becoming stronger, Chapel Hill appeared to do little and consequently it might have lost some of its crowd, whether it is entertainment they are seeking, or shopping. Communities like Southern Village and Meadowmont Village might have taken some of the activity from the center, too.

I suspect, and this ONLY an opinion, that a good light rail system that connects Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill could eventually help the latter in the future, but I see additional residential projects bringing some of the old glory back to Franklin Street faster. If CH NIMBYs want to prevent anything above 6 floors to find its way to DT Chapel Hill, not much can be achieved. Developers will eventually get sick and tired and finally shift their interest to more suburban areas.

Maybe Chapel Hill can do something along the same lines with Durham. There may not be old warehouses to be renovated, but there are a few sites that could host new developments. The town should try hard to attract some companies that require creative employees. The workforce is there.

Dana,

I would like to take issue with a few of your assertions.

First, I hardly see the connection between the town of chapel hill instituting a program that will cost $600/month (assuming they’re going to pay musicians 3 night per week) signals that the death of franklin street is imminent. It seems like a simple way to provide a small amount of entertainment while school is out.

Second, I don’t think it is fair to refer to franklin street as anything but devoid of retail. I would venture a guess that there are maybe 10 retail stores on the three blocks of franklin. Therefore it is extremely unfair to come to conclusions about retail based on downtown chapel hill. It is in no way representative of what rail stations aim to provide. The main draw of the area has always been dining and bars. Both of which are doing very well and benefiting amazingly from public transit.

Thirdly, the largest reason for the implementation of the bus system in chapel hill is the planned eradication of parking on campus. As of now it is nearly impossible park anywhere on campus. Without the buses, a huge portion of students, staff, and faculty would have no way of getting where they need to go.

Fourth, I heard a lot of the same arguments against rail used a few years ago in charlotte when the battle of light rail there was going on. Yet once the line started up, ridership shattered every expectation that anyone had made, and development around stops exploded. Add to that a study released last week, discovered that the vast majority of people who use the train are new to transit, meaning that those were cars taken directly off the road.

Source – http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/847693.html

I also take issue with the statement “people consistently vote by getting in their car’s”. What other choice do they have? We live in a country that has done nothing for transportation but build roads for the last 40 years while putting trains on the backburner. Yet we wonder why no-one rides the trains that we underfund.

“In Chapel Hill, they have the option of riding a _free, clean bus_. They _choose not to_, however. That is the entire crux of the post.”

But they do use the buses. I do every morning and evening, and the bus is packed. Often their are too many people at the stop for a single (double-length) bus. Why don’t the buses serve retail more? Because the buses mainly serve students and students the 16,000 undergrads can’t support a full street of retail.

Thanks for the kind words Ernest.
I agree that the city should be focusing on letting in more segments of the population. But, I am not so sure that they should focus on the wealthy. Those people are coming anyway. I do think that that affordable housing should be a priority…with a catch. I think that they ought to be focusing on affordable housing for students! Now, this doesn’t mean that students should get reduced rental rates for exactly the same apartments in which others pay more. I think the city should find a way to work with students through more modest and affordable private dorms. If the city wants to use its muscle to do the right thing by people who can’t afford housing, it should do so for those “citizens” who are the very backbone of the reason the city exists in the first place. Students in dorm rooms “live” in their communities much in the same way that people in tiny apartments and studios in major cities “live” in their communities. That is to say that they get out of their homes and use their neighborhoods as a public living room. That behavior will create the sort of foot traffic that will ignite retail.

John,

By wealthy, I didn’t really mean rich/super-rich, but rather well off individuals who can spend money and move the local economy a little. The big money will mostly remain attracted to McMansions and established areas.

Also, and I didn’t clarify that, the focus on attractive well-off residents is a first step to revitalizing a downtown, not the ultimate goal. There will be multiple steps and the focus on affordability will return to the top of the agenda. You are correct about the students, and I hope to see some focus on affordable student [medium-to-high density] housing, too. Same holds true for Raleigh, of course.