WEB EXCLUSIVE Get ready to throw up your wolf hands because Carter-Finley Stadium is officially allowing fans back into their stands after Governor Roy Cooper announced that stadium venues with more than 10,000 seats are allowed to open at 7 percent capacity beginning in early October. For Carter-Finley—a 57,583-seat stadium—that means they can allow up to 4,000 fans back for their next home game against Duke on October 17.
Athletics director Boo Corrigan released a statement following Cooper’s announcement explaining that NC State Athletics is working with Wake County and the state government on “the safest and most responsible conditions within our grounds.”
Director of Athletics @BooCorrigan with a statement following Governor Cooper’s announcement to allow stadiums in North Carolina to host at 7% capacity: pic.twitter.com/40DPijPaFD
However, no tickets will be sold for the NC State vs. Duke game, instead, they will be divided among students, student-athletes and team staff. NC State students will get 50 percent of available tickets, while the remainder of the 600 tickets will be allotted for guests of student-athletes and team staff. 2020 ticket holders who donated to Preserve the Pack will also have an opportunity to request tickets.
Tailgating is still not allowed for the time being.
“We have some of the most passionate students, alumni and fans in the country and we want to allow them to be a part of the Carter-Finley Stadium experience,” Corrigan said in a press release.
NC State will continue to update their protocols in accordance with Gov. Cooper’s regulations; follow them on social media for the most current updates.
WEB EXCLUSIVE North Hills is getting a huge makeover. Kane Realty Corporation released plans for a mixed-use revitalization project in North Hills Main District, which will include a 12-story high-rise residential building, 346,000 square feet of office space and 100,000 square feet of ground floor retail.
The master plan, drew up by Ci Design of Baltimore, features outdoor gathering spaces such as an active public plaza with a concierge center and event space, an expanded parking deck and improved access for cars, pedestrians, bikes and scooters to explore all of North Hills’ shops, restaurants, venues and community spaces. Kallie Walker, senior development manager for Kane Realty Corporation, says that one of the highlights of the project is to replace underutilized parking areas and replace them with a “more efficient and thoughtful use of space.”
“This is precisely how successful smart cities are growing today,” Walker adds. “And we are excited about what this means for the future of North Hills and all of Raleigh.”
One North Hills Tower
NHX Creative Office
Two office projects are also included in Kane’s North Hills revitalization project. One North Hills will be a 10-story tower designed by Durham’s Duda|Paine and will be one of Raleigh’s first post-COVID offices designed with touchless access points, enhanced air filtration and a 6,000-square-foot outdoor work space. NHX will be a five-story office creative office building designed by Ci Design that features flexible layout options, a walk bridge connection and a rooftop terrace. Both office spaces will include retail at the street level.
The Main District project’s 287-unit residential unit will offer both one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for rent. The apartment building, designed by Cline Design Associates, includes amenities such as a coworking lounge, eighth-floor deck with fire pits, second-floor pool deck and an indoor/outdoor fitness center.
Additionally, North Hills Main District will get Raleigh’s first Restoration Hardware gallery, dubbed RH Raleigh. A glass-encased rooftop restaurant and barista and wine bar that open onto a scenic park are highlights of the three-level indoor/outdoor gallery.
North Hills Main District street view
Sean Hill, senior construction manager for Kane Realty Corporation, says that they are working with the City of Raleigh and their tenants to ensure any disturbances from construction are as mitigated as possibly, given the scale of construction that the project calls for. “We are excited for the North Hills Main District project and what it will bring to the North Hills community as a whole,” Hill says. “We look forward to sharing our comprehensive plan with our tenants and the surrounding community once it has been finalized.”
Construction is set to begin in early 2021 with an opening date of summer 2023.
WEB EXCLUSIVE If you haven’t already registered to vote, Friday, October 9 is the last day to do so in North Carolina. If you just turned 18, recently moved or have yet to register before, registering to vote is crucial in making your voice heard in the 2020 election, perhaps one of the most important elections to date due to national unrest and the global pandemic.
There are three ways to register to vote in North Carolina before October 9:
Apply to register to vote online through the NC DMV website
Register to vote in person at your county board of elections office*
After October 9, you can register and vote on the same day at sites across your county during the early voting period from October 15–31 (bring your driver’s license or ID and proof of residence). However, you must register to vote before Election Day on November 3. For a list of Wake County’s early voting locations and hours, visit wakegov.com/elections.
You Can Vote, a group of volunteers who are adamant about educating, registering and empowering voters, has been doing a ton of outreach to ensure that all qualified North Carolina citizens are registered to vote, no matter their gender, sexual orientation or political affiliation. Their website features a step-by-step guide to voter registration and voting by mail, information on candidates running this year and other resources that are helpful to this year’s election. Visit their website for more information or sign up to be a volunteer.
*Wake County Board of Elections
1200 N. New Hope Road Raleigh, NC 27610 (physical address)
WEB EXCLUSIVE For 31 years, the Foundation of Hope has been hosting Walk for Hope, one of the nonprofit’s biggests annual fundraisers, in an effort to raise money towards better understanding mental illness and promoting scientific research aimed at discovering the causes and potential cures for the likes of depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia and anorexia. The foundation, which was founded in 1984 by Thad and Alice Eure of the Angus Barn, held their first Walk for Hope in 1989 after their son Thad Eure, Jr., who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, unfortunately passed away. Almost 200 people participated, raising about $20,000.
This year, due to COVID, the 32nd annual Thad and Alice Eure Walk for Hope will take place as a drive-thru at the Angus Barn on Sunday, October 11, or as a virtual walk for those who don’t feel comfortable participating in the event in person. “While we can’t walk all together in person, we’re so excited to capture the heart and soul of our flagship event,” read a post on Walk for Hope’s Instagram page. “It’s more important than ever to support mental illness research right here in our own community.”
The family-friendly drive-thru event will include live music from local musicians, swag like t-shirts and armbands, boxed lunch to-go from Angus Barn and the chance to win fun prizes, all while staying safely in your car. Take pictures or videos at the event and tag Walk for Hope on social media using the hashtag #WalkforHope to be entered in the prize drawings. To minimize traffic issues on the day of the drive-thru, the foundation is staggering car arrival times by last name. Check your time slot online here.
The Walk for Hope virtual walk/run will also take place on October 11, but participants can choose what time they’ll walk, where and how far they’ll go; they’ll also get a t-shirt and an armband for registering. If you can’t participate in either the drive-thru or virtual walk, you can make a donation online at event.racereach.com/walk-for-hope/donate.
100 percent of the money raised by participants in Foundation of Hope’s annual Walk for Hope directly funds local mental illness research at the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Psychiatry. Since the nonprofit was founded, they’ve awarded 157 scientific research grants totaling more than $6.6 million and given more than $570,000 to 42 mental health initiatives in North Carolina.
When downtown underground cocktail bar Foundation had to shut down due to the pandemic in March, bar staffers took the first three months of quarantine as an opportunity to renovate and deep clean the bar. Then, with little else to do, they started playing around with drinks and brainstorming ways they could get something out there for their dedicated customers. Cocktail mixes—the results of some experimentation—were the natural answer, as exceptional cocktails are what Foundation has been known for during the 10 years the bar has been open in its location on Fayetteville Street.
Foundation launched its cocktail mixes in late July, with a line of classic Old Fashioned mixes as well as a series dubbed “Home Alone,” which encompasses more experimental and seasonal mixes made with shelf-stable syrups.
Photograph by Felicia Perry Trujillo
Foundation bartenders Garrett Waddell and Kyle Hankin say they were already using seasonal North Carolina fruits and other produce to create flavorful, shelf-stable syrups for cocktails; making mixes was the simple and logical next step. Because of the preservation techniques and processes used to extract flavor from the fruit, the mixes also have a longer shelf life, thus broadening their flavors and rendering them preservative-free.
The Home Alone mixes include Wet Bandits, made with fresh watermelon, cucumber and lime; Keep the Change, a fruity mix of blueberry, lemon and aromatic baking spice; and Eating Junk Food and Watching Rubbish, which contains strawberry, lemon, hibiscus and Peychaud’s bitters.
“All of the flavor profiles were predicated on previous cocktails,” says Waddell. “They’re a culmination of a lot of different things we’ve been working on for a while now, that we just happened to time right when we needed to do to-go stuff.”
The names of Foundation’s mixes are inspired by some of the bar staffers’ favorite old movies. Since we’re all stuck at home, Waddell says, “Home Alone” was a natural fit, and, as any “Home Alone” fan will quickly recognize, the names of the cocktail mixes come from memorable quotes or scenes from the classic film. So as not to spend too much on graphic design or branding, the Foundation team made all of the packaging and labels in-house. “A lot of our labels are kind of crooked,” Hankin jokes. “You can definitely tell we did them ourselves.”
Each of the Old Fashioned mixes are sold in a delicate 4-ounce bottle, which makes about 20 drinks, while the Home Alone mixes come in 8-ounce bottles and can make either four or eight cocktails, depending on how rich or sweet you prefer them to be.
Foundation co-owner Vincent Whitehurst says the Home Alone mixes work pretty universally with any neutral spirit, whether you prefer vodka, rum, gin, tequila or even bourbon. Besides cocktails, Hankin says the mixes would also be good in non-alcoholic sodas, smoothies or ice cream. As well as being a great way to support one of Raleigh’s best local bars, the mixes are handy for all of us who lack the tools and skills to make complex cocktails at home.
“People love them,” says co-owner Will Alphin of the mixes. “I don’t think we’ve had any negative feedback.”
Like the wet bandits themselves, you’ll surely be thirsty for more.
