This issue has been on City Council’s agenda for nearly two years now going back to Sept 2021. The Council has been very timid in their responses over this time. Council’s response to the latest wave of crime and neighborhood vandalism was all talk and no action, except to ask staff for another report in a month or two.
Preservation isn’t Nimbyism, it isn’t classist, it isn’t fossilization. It is care by design; it happens when people show up and participate.
Actions speak louder than words, and the action city council took on the Shaw University was one that allows religious discrimination to continue, and the enabling of an administration looking to avoid the consequences of their own actions. Government is supposed to protect the community, not to create investment opportunities for the wealthy. And Raleigh City Council chose the latter. It’s a disgrace to democracy.
Please do us all a favor, spare us from the dramatics of making us believe that 1) policy matters and 2) that community engagement is the key to a progressive, vibrant city for ALL if you are going to deliberately ignore the voices of SOME.
I have lived in College Park all my life. On the corner of New Bern Avenue and Raleigh Boulevard it has flooded for over a decade. So you mean to tell me that over a decade you’re only going to fix this for Bus Rapid Transit. You talk about environmental justice. You know this council just celebrated Juneteenth and that is the most racist thing I’ve ever heard.
The irony of this council putting forth this apology at this time was not lost on the public. Speaker Jeremy Gilchrest asked, now that you have apologized for the city’s racist past, including urban renewal, who is going to apologize for the current racism that we see systemically gutting out the black community?