At the April 4th Council meeting Donna Bailey shared a video showing Mary-Ann Baldwin’s embarrassing style of governing. Bailey’s video shows Baldwin abusing her elected position to promote a big donor’s rezoning by suppressing fellow Councilor Jane Harrison’s participation in the rezoning discussion.
Please, City Council, save our historic treasures. Save our affordable housing. Save our old neighborhoods. We contribute a lot to this City. We are not ready to be sent to the landfill! Please leave us out of the T.O.D
An email dated March 1, 2023, shows communication from the Raleigh City Clerk to the Raleigh City Manager detailing a timeline of events that resulted in two speakers being removed from public comment at Mayor Baldwin’s request. On June 6, 2022 Mayor Baldwin asked a deputy city clerk to remove two speakers signed up to speak about community reparative justice, under the guise that the city would schedule a public hearing on the matter “soon.” During the March 21, 2023 afternoon council meeting, Councilor Jones directly asked Mayor Baldwin if she had indeed authorized the removal of two individuals from public comment with the promise of a public hearing that, to this day, had yet to occur or be scheduled. Mayor Baldwin simply stated “no,” which is in direct contradiction to the email authored by the city clerk.
Missing Middle will not repair our history of racist redlining. With all the discussion of zoning’s racist past, there is surprisingly no discussion to ensure that zoning changes will result in more equitable and truly affordable housing choices. It appears that our racist past has been weaponized to support changes that in the end may do nothing to repair it other than providing more opportunities for the building industry.