What Raleigh needs: friendly ambassadors, parade communications and a safer downtown
Something happened at 9:22 a.m. Tuesday that warmed me on a chilly morning.
Someone wearing a Downtown Ambassadors coat said hello.
It wasn’t the standard head-nod hello.
It was a wide-smile-bright-eyes “HI THERE!” with a definite exclamation point.
The Downtown Raleigh Ambassadors Program describes its community and engagement ambassadors as “on the job seven days a week and are trained to ensure all who are in Downtown Raleigh have a world-class experience …”
I’ve been on the job, too, for more than two years in downtown Raleigh. I recognize a lot of faces, especially on Fayetteville Street, where I often walk from The News & Observer’s office — by the way, we remain in the same place — to the historic State Capitol grounds and back
It’s thinking, organization and observation time for me since the old adage — news is what editors see (and think) on their way to/from work — hasn’t changed.
‘You just made my day’
What happened Tuesday morning caught me off guard. I should have stopped this Downtown Ambassador, asked for her name, and thanked her.
I thought enough of the moment to look at my watch and note the time (because, like an experienced journalist, you never know when a detail might enhance a future story).
I likely would have shared one other detail with my favorite Downtown Ambassador.
“Thank you for saying hello with such enthusiasm. You just made my day,” I would have said to her. “You’re the first Downtown Ambassador in two years of working downtown who has said hello to me, much less made eye contact.”
I appreciate her for making the effort.
But she’s the exception to downtown’s so-called effort to create a world-class experience.
Anyone who works or visits downtown Raleigh knows you can’t even get a Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill or Apex experience here. World-class experience? Which world are we talking about?
The New York Times recently did a “36 Hours in Durham” travel feature. The Raleigh version could be headlined “20 Minutes To RDU (With No Parade Routes Along The Way).”
‘Why did they wait until three days before?’
You probably read that the Veterans Day Parade has been canceled because of the city’s parade ban on motor vehicles after the death of an 11-year-old girl in the Christmas Parade last year.
Terry Chatfield, one of the Veterans Day Parade organizers, said they began working with the city in early August. Then on Tuesday, someone from the city asked how many vehicles were planned for the parade. You know the rest.
“My disappointment in all this is why did they wait until three days before?” Richard Spyrison, president of the Wake County Council of Veterans, told The N&O’s Anna Johnson.
Good question, Richard.
The city’s communications staff directory lists 28 employees. In the past six weeks, two parades were canceled and one resurrected with the public’s bafflement reaching a world-class level. (Finally! Downtown Raleigh is world class in something.)
Couldn’t city leaders have appointed one of those 28 award-winning communications experts to the seasonal role of Interim Parade Strategic Communications Director And Cheerleading Whisperer In Charge of Not Irritating The Public, Families, Children, Veterans and Puppies?
Anna has reported often about the city’s recent push to make downtown safe and more tourist-friendly, especially with big-ticket expansion plans for the convention center.
Something needs to be done.
I get panhandled often on my walks.
I ate at Moore Square just days before a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed near the Moore Square Magnet School. I saw the police and EMT vehicles that raced to the scene.
I feel safer in crowded Manhattan or Nashville on a weekend night than I do on weekday mornings or afternoons in downtown Raleigh.
So I’ll take one world-class greeting and smile. It’s a start.
Bill Church is executive editor of The News & Observer.
This story was originally published November 4, 2023 at 10:00 AM.