Raleigh wide shut?

The Capital City's leaders are throwing Raleigh Wide Open 3 this weekend to celebrate the new downtown convention center's completion.

Enjoy it while you can.

In a decade or so, we might be calling the party Raleigh Wide Shut.

That's because the vaunted view of Fayetteville Street from the state Capitol to Memorial Auditorium will become at least partly obscured by the trees the city has planted along it.

As part of a $9 million makeover two years ago of North Carolina's Cul-de-Sac, dozens of Highbeam overcup oak trees were planted on both sides of the street.

They look pretty when they're small, and they soften the commercial canyon of concrete, asphalt, stone and glass.

But those trees are going to get tall, brother. And wide, mother.

So much for our multi-million-dollar vista, sistah.

We had trees there before, and that was part of the problem.

So your hard-earned tax dollars were spent taking them out of a dull downtown park, ripping up fountains and benches, and putting a street back where it belonged.

Now we're opening a $221 million public convention center. And the city spent another $20 million of your money to subsidize a Marriott hotel next door.

So why hide them?

The intention was to beautify the street while giving a nod to Raleigh's proud oakiness.

"With Raleigh being the City of Oaks, it's important to maintain trees in the downtown area," said Sally Thigpen, the city's urban forester. "They also look good. And they help with pollution absorption, oxygen production, storm-water uptake and cooling."

All true. But that doesn't make them right for our main street.

According to the trees' grower, we should expect them to reach 45 feet high and 35 feet wide.

Up the road a piece, Durham has landscape guidelines for city residents and developers. The city recommends the overcup oak as a canopy tree for suburban areas -- but not for downtown. The guidelines warns that the tree "should be used only where there is sufficient room for such a large tree."

I asked Mayor Charles Meeker about this last week on his way to cut the hotel's ribbon.

"There wasn't a lot of discussion about the trees that I recall," Meeker said. "They're supposed to be tall and narrow, with no acorns. You really don't want them coming beyond the light poles. We don't want to get back to where we were before, when you couldn't see Fayetteville Street. "

Firewood, anyone?