Livable Raleigh believes the City Council should do what the people told them they want. But, if they are hell-bent on moving to four-year terms despite the views of the people, it should ONLY be done if they implement a nonpartisan primary to go with it, thus getting rid of the current “plurality” election format and ensuring we elect the members of City Council by majority vote.
I think there is a lot of good we can do here. But, I also do want to take abundant caution when it comes to the upzoning pieces.
We are on notice from the City of Raleigh. If you haven’t had the opportunity to drive through Southeast Raleigh and notice the change in the place – you need to do so.
Generally affordable is defined as requiring no more than 30% of a household’s income being spent on housing. For the City of Raleigh, affordability is based on a percentage of the Area Median Income (AMI). Housing funded by the city is defined as affordable if it is in reach of those earning between 30% – 80% AMI. Without knowing what Raleigh’s AMI is or what local salaries are, there really is no way of knowing who affordable housing is affordable for. What we learn when we know the numbers is that to truly be affordable, Raleigh needs to focus its housing efforts at 60% AMI and BELOW.