G iven the integration of Chapel Hill’s downtown area in student life, it is hard to miss a new business still displaying opening signs. West Franklin Street has been home to the bulk of the new dining and retail establishments, with a modern new strip across from University Square.
But I find these newer options detract from the quirk of downtown’s older staples.
I’ve noticed that niche businesses have sprung up that uncannily mirror the historic novelty less than a mile east. Gigi’s Cupcakes nods to Sugarland, Gentlemen’s Corner provides the same attire as Julian’s.
The new additions have a disjointed feel next to the rest of the pleasantly aged area, but may not have a proper home outside of the popular West Franklin stretch. To be fair, I was cynical towards the new West Franklin construction from the beginning.
The Exhale sculpture, the steaming expanse of metal perpendicular to Lime and Old Chicago, will never feel welcome to me. More appropriate in a Miami club strip, the sculpture sits low to the ground like a sleeping serpent hell-bent on pushing chain restaurants to be the new Saturday night hangouts. It blows vapor out over neon colors, hissing at the quirk and charm of downtown staples that still sit sleepily on Franklin’s early addresses.
Sometimes it hurts to be from this town.
Revamping downtown makes sense. The area will be growing as it should, and people love a reliable chain. The wide new sidewalk teasingly kisses Rosemary Street, feeling like the work of an evil corporation from a children’s chapter book.
I recently went to Chapel Hill’s spiritual sister Charlottesville, Va., to do research on the best ways to revamp an area so defined by a university. Just kidding. I was on vacation.
Nevertheless, Charlottesville has a beautiful, pedestrian-only historic downtown area with the same type of kitschy stores that have been thriving on East Franklin for decades. Facing the University of Virginia is the more central downtown area and yet nothing feels new.
