Make preservation a core value
A good planning process starts with defining a planning area and noting its features. We’ve got that —in a Comprehensive Plan whose interpretation and use should remain stable through the update cycle.
Questions about Shaw University deserve answers
When public funds, private interests, and historic institutions intersect—transparency is not optional. Neutrality is not optional. Accountability is not optional. And right now, the public deserves answers—not silence, not side conversations, and not decisions made in whispers.
APRIL 21 CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
Highlights from the April 21 work session and afternoon council meeting
Raleigh needs an Internal Audit
Before any attempt is made to raise taxes you need to have an independent arm’s length audit/efficiency study of all city departments to make sure taxpayer money is being properly spent. Given the financial headwinds the city is facing, not doing an audit would be the height of financial irresponsibility.
It’s time to step back and evaluate if Raleigh’s growth framework is being applied as intended.
Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts were adopted as legislative tools to guide growth while preserving established neighborhood patterns. If the City believes these overlays require revision, that conversation should occur through a comprehensive, citywide process—not through the incremental removal of protections on individual parcels.
Developer Welfare
Raleigh adopted a carefully thought-out and comprehensive rezoning of the entire City just 10 years ago which was and is designed to handle the growth we are now experiencing. But, Raleigh incentivizes speculators and hustlers to find cheaper and less densely zoned land not in the core of downtown and then rezone it because the city will rezone almost anything so long as you commit to building more density whether affordable or not.