MOORE SQUARE REVAMP: Voice your opinions on the Moore Square redesign project at one of two public hearing sessions scheduled for Sept. 9 at Cobblestone Hall in downtown’s City Market. The first session is 1 to 4 p.m. The second is 7 to 9 p.m. The project, in its planning stages, aims to spruce up the downtown Raleigh square across the street from City Market. The city has awarded a consulting contract to an architect from Charlottesville, Va.

SPOTTED: A slogan on the side of a city recycling truck reads “Message in a bottle: Recycle.” The persuasive ad presumably targets the nonrecycling Nicholas Sparks types.

ART EVERYWHERE: Artspace, a non-profit organization on East Davie Street, has a slew of new exhibits this month, including a youth art exhibit Aug. 17 through 21.

COUNCIL: No meeting scheduled until Sept. 7.

WHERE’S MEEKER: The mayor’s schedule is clear for this week. Next week, he’s scheduled to meet with the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization on Aug. 18 and the City Council’s Budget and Economic Development Committee Aug. 24.

NO MORE LUNCH TAQUITOS: The Dos Taquitos restaurant on Creedmoor Road reportedly stopped serving lunch last week, not long after is started. The New Raleigh website reports the North Raleigh restaurant’s manager says the business isn’t there in the afternoon, and he isn’t interested in the work it would take to keep it open.

GOOD FOR SENIORS: Design is nearing completion for two new senior centers, 401 E. Whitaker Mill Road and 1905 Spring Forest Road, according to the city. Construction is expected to begin this fall and be complete by fall of 2011.

Raleigh's City Council unanimously approved temporary bike lanes along a revamped section of Hillsborough Street near the N.C. State campus earlier this afternoon.

The NC Dept. of Transportation, which maintains the road, gave the city approval to stripe the lanes. The city requested approval after a heated argument between bike advocates and business owners.

The city's Public Works Committee recommended the lanes, even after city staff suggested the issue be put on hold until after construction on Hillsborough was completed later this summer.

The nearly $10 million road construction project was vetted publicly a decade ago, and bike lanes were not part of those discussions. The master plan for the road, however, did include a shared space for bikes, pedestrians and traffic.

The cost of the temporary lanes is unknown. Permanent lanes are expected to cost about $40,000, which is to be taken out of left over construction funds. The city and state will evaluate the lanes for several months before determining whether or not they will become a permanent fixture.

Get a glimpse of the second phase of RDU's terminal 2, in a photo gallery by N&O photographer John Rottet.

The city launched its new website Sunday, and it includes a new stalking, er, information gathering feature that allows you to learn pretty much anything about anyone's property.

iMAPS is an interactive map, found here. Just enter an address, and it tells you the property value, when the home or building was sold and the selling price, who owns it now, and in most cases, shows photos. You also can pull up a Google street view of the area you zoom in on, and search by owner.

Eventually, there will be historical aerial photos of various city areas.

It's cool, if not creepy - especially for journalists who sometimes need such information.

Things are looking mighty different on the city of Raleigh’s website this week.

The city launched its redesigned page this week, at www.raleighnc.gov.  The jury is still out as to whether its better than the city’s old one, which was not always the easiest to navigate. But a first glance shows a clean design with an apparent focus on making sure information residents may need is easily accessible.

UPDATE: The Raleigh Report asked how much the redesign ending up costing  taxpayers. Over the last two years, $511,000 went to buying software and hiring contractors to work on the site, according to Gail Roper, the city's chief information officer.

The new website attempts to streamline information for consumers, with quick links to ways to pay water bills, look up property information and tune into the city council's meetings. Curious residents can also poke around an interactive map under the “city projects” section to see what projects are being planned in their neighborhoods.

Staff is looking for feedback from residents on the new design, and are asked to email public.affairs@raleighnc.gov with praise, criticism or suggestions.

The new site also features an interesting section called "The Beehive," a project from a Washington, D.C. nonprofit that aims to link improve Internet access for those in low-income communities. The Raleigh version is trying to connect people with services they need, including links to housing, money, health, jobs and school information in the local area. 

Or, did you miss it? You're in luck. Check out the N&O's photo gallery - more than 100 shots from the music festival that rocked downtown Saturday.

And find yourself in galleries on the new Triangle.com.

CURING CRABTREE: City staff is expected to give council members a recommendation on Tuesday for how to best cure the traffic woes around congested Crabtree Valley. It quite possibly could be the long-awaited solution to the decades-old problem. Crabtree for years has been the Triangle’s busiest bottleneck. And several solutions for alleviating the traffic flow have been proposed throughout the past few decades. None, however, has materialized. City staff hosted workshops in the spring with neighbors and business owners who live or work near the mall, which sits at Glenwood Avenue’s intersection with the Beltline.

PIGSKIN FOR YOUNGSTERS: For those of you who have 5- and 6-year-old kids anxious to make their gridiron debut, the Lake Lynn Community Center will offer a youth touch football league this fall. It teaches the skills and fundamentals of America’s new favorite pastime, as well as sportsmanship. Games and practices will be at northwest Raleigh’s Williams Park, primarily on Saturdays starting in September and ending in November. Registration, which includes a shirt, is scheduled for Aug. 17 through 24 at the Lake Lynn Community Center. Cost is $36 for residents and $46 for nonresidents.

FOR PURPLE HEARTS: The Wake Forest Purple Heart Foundation is hosting a dinner Saturday at Tuxedo Junction in downtown Wake Forest for North Raleigh, Franklin County and Wake Forest Purple Heart recipients and their families. Reporter Chelsea Kellner tells a story in Wednesday’s paper about a mother of a slain Vietnam veteran attending this year for the first time. For more information on the dinner, contact Marty Coward at 919-556-3182.

WEB CHANGES: Raleigh’s new website is set to go live today. You’ll find a survey on the home page, and the city invites feedback by sending e-mails to public.affairs@raleighnc.gov. Among the changes: a more robust search engine, and a greater social media presence.

COUNCIL: The City Council is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers. The agenda.

WHERE'S MEEKER?: A light week for the mayor, at least in terms of his mayoral duties. The only events listed on Meeker's schedule are a radio show today and council meeting and public hearing tomorrow.

WIDE, WIDE OPEN: Thousands packed downtown Raleigh Saturday for the fifth annual Raleigh Wide Open concert and event series, which included three stages, more than 20 bands and a combined 20 hours of music (N&O).

ART GOES OVER, UNDER: An “exploration of human identity” is the theme of a new art exhibition on display Tuesday through Sept. 20 in the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex on Hargett Street. It’s sponsored by Raleigh’s Arts Commission and uses textures, layers and color to create canvasses that mirror the artist’s emotions. For more information, call the Arts Commission office at 919-996-3610.

Raleigh residents: shame on you.

You had a prime opportunity to hoist the trophy as the Capital City's "confectioner extraordinaire" and show up Durham and Cary at next week's Triangle take down. But you didn't even show up.

That's right. A scheduled ice-cream eating contest at Mayor Charles Meeker's press conference Wednesday to advance the upcoming Raleigh Wide Open concert series was cancelled because it had no contestants. Maybe it was a marketing malfunction. More likely, we can chalk it up to apathy.

All it took was three pints of ice cream - three pints! That's no Man v. Food challenge - it's a short-lived stomach ache.

Now, thousands of you Raleigh natives can watch Cary and Durham fight for the title on your soil.

I know you're used to watching other Triangle teams hoist basketball trophies, but this one was winnable.

Shawsheen Baker, a landscape architect with the city's Parks and Recreation Department, was the 2009 employee of the year.

Baker is a project manager who oversees new parks being built throughout Raleigh.

She received $750 and a plaque. Read more on the city's website.

Our twin weekly papers - North Raleigh News and Midtown Raleigh News - have hit social media.

Follow us on Twitter - @NRaleighNews. And "like" us on Facebook.

As noted in new editor Jason Foster's Wednesday column, some exciting changes are right around the corner for the North Raleigh and Midtown Raleigh News section. They'll be semi-weekly - Wednesday and Sundays - starting Aug. 1. And we've added four new staff members to cover the city more extensively.

Drop us an e-mail - nrnews@newsobserver.com - with any questions, comments or suggestions.