Warm Up The Moving Trucks

Since moving to my Fourth Street apartment in September 2004, I've had a front row seat to a couple of impressive construction projects. My apartment is in the back of the building, which gave my a bird's eye view of the expansion of the Cinergy--err, Duke Energy--Convention Center. One of the coolest things about that was that during the fall, they'd work past dark, and the glow of their welding torches (I don't know if they were plasma or something else) after sunset was spectacular to see. It's hard to describe....just the solitary, brilliant glow a few stories above street level (and often at eye-level with my windows)....eerily wonderful, somehow.

Now, Parker Flats, right across the street, is in its final construction stages. I thought it was worth a picture today:

Obviously, there's still a lot of interior work to be done before the place is inhabitable. Still, it's hard to believe that last summer, this was just a big hole in the ground.

We've already seen the benefits of the expansion of the Duke Energy Center (the unexpanded version simply couldn't have handled events like the NAACP convention or the upcoming National Baptist Convention). Parker Flats is sure to bring more residents downtown and further helps to revitalize the western end of Fourth Street. Seems like things are looking up. I just hope no one steals my catalytic converter.