Downtown Raleigh Improves While Facing Pressure to Improve Safety

City leaders, business owners and residents gathered Wednesday afternoon at the Martin Marietta Center for the annual State of Downtown Raleigh meeting.

The wide-ranging discussion focused on how much downtown has changed in recent years, while also acknowledging the challenges that remain.

Bill King, president and CEO of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, opened the event by reflecting on how far the city center has come. He described downtown’s past as a “crisis,” with empty storefronts, a failed pedestrian mall and little activity after business hours.

“Downtown Raleigh had lost its place as well as heart,” King said. “We’ve gone from a sleepy town to a big city.”

According to the Alliance, more than 22 million people visited downtown last year, helping drive more activity and economic growth. King also pointed to the city’s free two-hour parking program in city-owned decks, saying it generated $3.8 million in economic impact. The program will now remain permanent.

But the meeting also highlighted some of the issues still facing downtown, including crime, safety concerns and the closure of the transit tunnel on Wilmington Street.

King said the current experience at the transit center “is failing both transit users and downtown.” He stressed that bus riders “are absolutely not to blame” and deserve a better experience.

Residents at the meeting shared many of those concerns.

“It needs to be a determination of what’s causing the problem, what’s causing the crime,” said Raleigh resident Steve Wagner, who has lived in the city for 30 years. He also called for better mass transit and more promotion of downtown attractions.

Debbie Callahan, another resident, said she would like to see a stronger connection between Dix Park and downtown.

“It’d be nice to have something connect to downtown pretty quick,” she said.

City leaders said work is underway to improve the connection between Dix Park and downtown and make the city center more accessible, though they did not provide specific timelines or details.

The future of the transit hub was also a major part of the conversation, along with the larger challenge of keeping pace with Raleigh’s growth while making downtown safe and accessible.

“There are many other complex issues here, including the design and function of our transit center,” King said. “I’m not going to pretend the answers are easy. They are not.”

Even with those challenges, King said Raleigh has plenty to celebrate — and plenty of work still ahead.

“We still have a lot to be proud of,” he said. “And we have a lot of work left to do.”