When the Raleigh City Council offered an apology acknowledging the city’s past participation in slavery, segregation, and enforcement of Jim Crow it received headlines. But the attention soon faded because there was no follow-up on the most significant part of the resolution — to establish a Racial Equity and Reparative Justice Commission.
Some Raleigh people are showing up at Wake County Board of Elections trying to vote in Raleigh municipal elections. You could be excused for thinking Raleigh is holding city elections now. Every other municipality in Wake County is. And there has been a lot of media reporting about the process and the candidates. Some area cities held primaries so when they have the final election it will result in winning candidates gaining over 50% of the vote. Some allow for runoffs if no candidate does receive over 50% of the vote.
If their egregious zoning case, Z-92-22, gets a positive vote from City Council, it will usher in the worst kind of Urban Renewal. Affordable homes will be scraped off, to be replaced by luxury apartment buildings that only the affluent can afford to live in. Picture a stretched-out North Hills, replete with restaurants and bars – and parking decks – but with no room for the working-class.
Vote for Livable Raleigh as Best Local Activist Group in the Triangle
Growth isn’t bad; it’s inevitable. Untrammeled growth should not be the default. Another name for that kind of growth is Cancer.
As you weigh the merits of the options of this road project, please note the same parameters that increased land value are the same that have increased the tax revenues to the City. Perhaps it is time to invest some of that revenue back into the infrastructure needs of the community. Let’s continue this discussion in committee. After 12 years, the discussion is long overdue.