"When you can get that extra push of foot traffic coming through, it really makes a good day a really good day."
"There is no plan to ease the entry into the AI era," Gates writes in an essay.
Downtown Raleigh Alliance says that more than 22 million people visited downtown last year.
Several Fayetteville customers say they paid a local blind company for window treatments but were left waiting months, and in some cases, years, for the work to be completed.
Event organizers and small businesses say public safety is a major concern as Raleigh heads into the busy fall festival season.
"We just took a leap of faith."