The questions are worded with a bias intended to guide the respondents to answer the way the mayor prefers. So, the results of the survey will be meaningless because the questions weren’t inclusive and were engineered to lead to a predictable outcome.
If carried out, this effort will destroy established historic neighborhoods and community identities, it will displace residents from existing affordable housing with no realistic hope of replacement; generational wealth will evaporate. It threatens the city’s tree canopy; it is a sickening reboot of the 1960’s and 70’s Urban Renewal projects that decimated neighborhoods and cultural identities in downtown Raleigh.
I urge our city leadership – elected and employed – to review the website for the Network of Biophilic Cities and make decisions with these values in mind.
ALL voters should remember this betrayal when next year’s election comes around. All four of the councilors who voted to restrict the time of the speakers have made it known they plan to run for re-election. What the four of them all said at this meeting is that voters CANNOT TRUST them to honor the commitments they make to the people of Raleigh.
Listening sessions with no action eventually lead to lack of resident belief that resident needs are indeed being heeded which results in demoralization of residents, or perhaps that is the intent.