As a new downtown(ish) property owner, I’ve been trying to keep track of all the downtown Raleigh projects (both good and bad.) I can’t help but notice the two directions that downtown is going in.

First, private developers seem to have recently become interested in the area and are building condominiums and apartments all of their own volition. It seems that even our General Assembly have noticed the trend – and are selling off land near Historic Oakwood to private developers.

At the same time, our Raleigh City Council has approved the “Livable Streets” plans for other areas downtown that take the opposite approach – complete and total central planning. They’re legislating almost every detail of the Fayetteville Street Mall project: the distance between storefront doors, specific species of trees that should be planted and the artistic value of storefront signage. And that’s far from a complete list.

It seems to me that downtown Raleigh was evolving fine on its own before the Central Planners got involved. Now, why can’t our city council notice it?