by 0-UserSubmitted | Mar 27, 2026 | April 2026, Buzz
Dear DOT—again,
OK… last year I ranted about 440—or, as I call it, the Beltline. You gave me some
good answers, but I’ve still got a good rant left in me!
I’m glad we have three lanes open in each direction now, and I’m happy the graffiti has finally been cleaned up. But what is the deal with all of the lights in the median that don’t light up? And the trash—why is it still everywhere, lining the shoulders and clogging the drainage areas? And while we’re at it, what’s with the massive mounds of dirt just… sitting there?
And for God’s sake, the freaking traffic barrels all over Western Boulevard at the interchange? I thought the diamond was supposed to be easier and safer for all of us—but clearly people are struggling. Daily!
And don’t even get me started on the Hillsborough/Wade exit. How many of us have missed that Wade slideover more than once?
I just really want some answers dammit! Cut on the lights! Clean up the gutters and shoulders—and, oh, my God… Western Boulevard! Remember the Barrel Monster from back in the day? Can we just get this finished already?! Please!
—Beltline Bitcher
This rant has been lightly edited for style and space and is not endorsed by Raleigh Magazine.
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by 0-UserSubmitted | Mar 27, 2025 | April 2025, Buzz
This rant has been lightly edited for style and space and is not endorsed by Raleigh Magazine.
If you live in DTR and complain about noise, grow up. Or don’t live Downtown—period. I am tired of constantly reading about new noise ordinances among all the chatter of breathing new life into Downtown. Clearly some locals are all about revitalizing our city’s core until they are minorly inconvenienced. And it’s getting old.
We should want our city to grow and flourish. And living in a bustling city means not every neighborhood is going to cater to your exact sleep schedule. Stop whining and let Glenwood South stay fun. It’s an *entertainment* district—and no one is forcing you to live there.
A little extra noise means people are buying drinks, tipping our bartenders and getting food from vendors at night—and enjoying our restaurants, streets and small businesses during the day. We should be welcoming them with open arms and encouraging this support for our service and retail industries. And the “noise” under scrutiny is, most of the time, from our local bands, DJs and musicians. If we want to be taken seriously as a great city to live in and visit—on par with New Orleans and Nashville—then why are we threatening businesses and smothering culture? Glenwood South is nowhere close to Bourbon Street or Broadway—yet here we are silencing it.
Reviving Downtown and ensuring the area thrives means supporting all businesses and ventures, not just ones you feel cater to your individual lifestyle. Keep complaining and DTR will go back to being a ghost town—and then you killjoys will probably complain about that too.
So, to City Council: It’s time to stop pandering to a select few at the peril of many. Just let them be mad—or, better, let them leave. Noise is part of living in a cool city. If you want to “keep Raleigh boring,” please go to a neighborhood that is already boring and keep your complaints to yourselves.
–A fellow Glenwood resident
by 0-UserSubmitted | Feb 25, 2025 | Eat, March 2025
A request—nay, demand—for all bars to have undercounter hooks
Picture this: It’s a Friday night and you’re sidling up to one of your favorite bars—or a new one you’ve been dying to check out. You grab a seat, rest your jacket on your chair, and go to hang your purse underneath the bar, only to sadly discover there are no bar hooks.
A first-world problem for sure, but it’s been known to ruin an evening out (the girlies can testify I’m not just being dramatic). The rest of the night is notoriously spent getting up, bending over and picking up my purse from the ground after it repeatedly falls from the back of the chair. Even worse is when I’m so fed up I’m forced to just keep it on my lap—and in the iconic words of the Grinch, this I loathe entirely.
Here I am spending my hard-earned cash to come to an establishment that doesn’t have the decency to put a couple of hooks underneath the bar. I mean, honestly, how hard—or expensive—is that to do?! Give me a couple of screws and I’ll do it myself.
And don’t come at me with the excuse that they’re not “aesthetically pleasing” because I’ve seen some attractive bar hooks in my day. Also, relegating patrons to balance a bag on their knee (iykyk) or—god forbid—set it on the ground has got to be bad for brand image. NTM it’s so much easier for thieves to swat my goods.
There’s so much females get robbed of, this is literally the least bars/restaurants could do. It’s really all about the little things, and I can almost guarantee it’ll earn major bonus points. We’re not asking for much!
—Not Hooked
This rant has been lightly edited for style and space and is not endorsed by Raleigh Magazine.
by 0-UserSubmitted | Oct 28, 2024 | Buzz, November 2024
This rant has been lightly edited for style and space and is not endorsed by Raleigh Magazine.
Dear DOT,
What is the deal with the freaking Beltline? I mean come on!
How and why does this construction project continue to take so long— and look so terrible?! It’s just an endless freaking loop. Pun intended.
Is this some kind of a sick never-ending cycle DOT gets off on torturing weary travelers with? Just go ahead and change the construction signs to “will. never. stop.”; “will close lanes during rush hour and not overnight—sorry not sorry”; “we’re working—on getting hammered.” Add a constant catcall while you’re at it.
And for as many people as are moving here on the daily, by the time construction could be complete, the roads will already be outdated again. I know some of this was built in the ’60s, but is that where your old-fashioned slow-life approach comes from too? And don’t even get me started on Wade Avenue.
Seriously. I’ve been driving this lackluster loop for what feels like six or seven years now. Terribly unsafe. Overgrown. Trash everywhere. Graffiti. Behind schedule. Drainage grates clogged. Uneven roads. Potholes. Constant wrecks caused by terrible pavement. Traffic cones still on the Western Boulevard exchange. What a shit show.
My patience is way gone with this project. Someone needs to be held accountable. I just don’t get why it has taken so long and why it is so screwed up and ugly. You had one job. Dammit all.
—Disgruntled Driver
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by 0-UserSubmitted | Aug 1, 2024 | Do, July 2024/August 2024, Sponsored Content
Sponsored Content
Let’s play ball! For the first time ever, Bull Durham, A New Musical will be performed in Durham at the Reynolds Theater at Duke University from Sept. 10–22! Produced by Theatre Raleigh, the musical is based on the famously fronted Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon 1988 movie written and directed by Ron Shelton.
Theatre Raleigh’s production will be helmed by Broadway director Marc Bruni, along with Broadway choreographer Josh Bergas, with songs by Susan Werner and Tony Nominee Carmen Cusack as Annie.
Theatre Raleigh Executive Director Lauren Kennedy Brady (also a former Broadway veteran with such credits as Sunset Boulevard, Side Show, Les Miserables and Spamalot) was first approached almost a decade ago by Jack Viertel, Bull Durham lead producer at the time, while still working as an actress in New York City. Impressed with the creators and the show’s great potential, she invested some early development money, “then really just watched as a cheerleader from the sidelines,” she says.
After a pandemic pause, Shelton and Werner approached Kennedy to pick the show back up, and, because the original producers had to forego commercial rights, she was able to secure them and run with the production as her own.
“So, here we are—about to produce this show in Durham, where it all started!” she says. “I’m hopeful this will be only the beginning. We have our sights set on taking it all the way to Broadway!”
Brady continues to use her connections to bring in top talent for all of the company’s shows and concerts, including Broadway stars like Tony Award nominees and winners Norm Lewis, Stephanie J. Block and Norbert Leo Butz, as well as Academy Award winner Ariana DeBose.
She also moved the theater company to North Raleigh in 2020, overseeing the million-dollar capital campaign to convert an 18,000-square-foot space into a hub for performing arts. The centerpiece of the new location is the De Ann S. Jones Theatre, a 3,600-square-foot space that opened in 2022 with technical balconies, a sprung floor and flexible seating.
The 580-seat Reynolds Theatre at Duke was chosen for this particular production due to its history of Broadway producer Emanuel Azenberg using it to test new Neil Simon plays on the way to Broadway—and will surely play into the excitement and enthusiasm for the Bulls and the movie in which the musical is based on.
Learn more about Theatre Raleigh and get tickets to Bull Durham, A New Musical at theatreraleigh.com. For questions or concerns, contact [email protected].
Bull Durham, A New Musical will be performed at Duke University in Reynolds Industries Theater.
All ticketing for Bull Durham, A New Musical will be managed by the Duke University Box Office. For questions or concerns regarding this show, please email [email protected] or call 919-684-4444
