dwntwnboy: ""Who in Raleigh or the State is going to travel to that part of Raleigh to sit on the ground under a tree?" - who is going to go to the other parks around the state?"

You know who. The people who live in the neighborhood unless it's a State park with camping and/or fishing facilities.

Do you drive across the city to walk around Shelly Lake? No. You walk to the Dix property because it's in YOUR neighborhood.

Nobody from Wilmington is going to drive 3 hours to sit in a park. Nobody from North Raleigh's going to drive across town to sit in a park.

The people in THAT neighborhood are - by far - the only ones that would ever set foot in that park.

And you expected the Dems to keep control of Government and slide you a taxpayer-funded neighborhood park for years.

And now 10 years later you're panicking and starting a "fund" after the people of the State of NC voted out your cronies in Government.

Shame on you for stealing a needed special space for healing the mentally-ill

dwntwnboy - "It will revitalize that corner of downtown and make the homes and businesses around there even more valuable in the tax base."

No it won't. Not until you run the poor people out too like you did the mentally-ill.

It's been basically an open park for years already and it hasn't revitalized anything except Boylan Heights where people have been buying up old houses because they expected the Democrats to give them a huge private park at taxpayer expense.

A income-generating green-focused development with homes and businesses is what's needed to revitalize that area.

After you finish kicking out the rest of the people you don't want sullying your new liberal enclave.

" the main reason we have parks in the mountains and at the coast is because it is IN THE MOUNTAIN AND AT THE COAST"- by some of the comments posted, then the people of the MOUNTAINS and the COAST should pay for those parks then- everyone wants Raleigh citizens to pay. IF Raleigh citizens can't have a park, why should any other part of the state? And yes, a "bunch of oak trees"- we ARE the City of Oaks and the grand old trees at Dix are some of the few left in this city. You can't just go out to Lowes and buy some new 100+yr old trees.

Let me add to comment below about appropriate rental rate. I understand that the State is now seeking proposals from private developors to lease office space to house the staff of this agency. So now the State of NC is not only going to subsidize a city park, the citizens of the state will also have to pay a developer for office space to house the staff (which I imagine will be greater than $500k per year

"Who in Raleigh or the State is going to travel to that part of Raleigh to sit on the ground under a tree?"- who is going to go to the other parks around the state? Let's not forget that this property is also a historical site relevant to the Civil War, it is where the Union troops camped when they took the city. Not to mention the fact that a good deal of space can't be built on because it was a dump and the ground isn't stable. Park seems the ideal fit for this particular parcel of land. It will revitalize that corner of downtown and make the homes and businesses around there even more valuable in the tax base.

"Why? Why must we sell EVERYTHING? Do you want to sell ALL the parks in the state or just the one in Raleigh? Why can we have big parks in the mountains and at the coast but not in the middle of the state?" - dwntwnboy

Yes. The government should NOT be landowners. But, the main reason we have parks in the mountains and at the coast is because it is IN THE MOUNTAIN AND AT THE COAST. A bunch of oak trees and a field in the middle of the city is not needed when you already have 200+ parks in that city.

"Someone has to reign in this spiteful insane clown lady. She's mad at US because SHE'S incompetent"- this is a deal that was LONG in the works before Bev came into office. To try and blame HER for this is just a sign that people are scared of a woman in power. She didn't start this process but she happens to be the one in the position to get it done. The people of NC subsidize parks all over the state. Why is Raleigh any different? With THAT thinking, we should just sell off all the parks all over the state. Why should residents of the beach or mountains get parks paid for by people in Raleigh? See how silly that whole thought process sounds? It's like being agains a national park at the Grand Canyon because you live in Vermont. It's just an excuse to be "against" something rather than FOR something that is for the good of us all.

NOW they start to come up with a "plan" for "private" funds?

After nearly 10 years of work to kick the mentally-ill out of their hospital - so that they could have essentially a massive private park for themselves - that the taxpayers all over the State would pay for?

Apparently the Democrat political elite never expected the citizens of N.C. to vote for fiscal responsibility.

Who in Raleigh or the State is going to travel to that part of Raleigh to sit on the ground under a tree? Raleigh and North Carolina isn't like New York where no one has a yard.

You can see now that they've planned all along to have all of North Carolina subsidize their private playground.

And you can see that they worked to get the State to get rid of the mentally-ill "undesirables" in order to have their private park.

I have no problem with the State renting the property to the City but it should be at an appropriate value so the rest of the citizens of the State are not subsidizing the rent.

But apparently that is not the case.

Understand that the appraised value of the property is between $60 million and $85 million.

Typical rental rates are 10% of the property value; therefore, the rental rate should be more in the neighborhood of at least $6 million per year in lieu of $500k per year.

So it appears that Perdue is caving to her political buddies in Raleigh and screwing the rest of the state population.

As a Raleigh resident, this seems to be another case of focusing on downtown and make others in the City pay for it.

With the State of North Carolina needing money, why should citizens from the whole State of North Carolina be forced to chip in so the City of Raleigh can have another park? The State should sell the property to the highest bidder and let private industary do whatever they want to with the land and the State smile all the way to the bank and use the money to benefit all citizens of the State.

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