Mayor Baldwin Gaveled Out!

Susan Maruyama has been active in civic matters all of her adult life. She is a former Raleigh resident and served as a Founder and Chair of Livable Raleigh from 2019 – 2022. Susan’s professional career of 40 years was in the Book Publishing Industry. She was Vice President of Time Life Books in Alexandria, VA and then served as President of Sunset Books at Sunset Publishing in Menlo Park, CA. For the last 22 years of Susan’s career, she was self-employed in her own business, Round Mountain Media, which was an independent publishing consulting business working with major brand-clients to create and publish books. Susan oversaw the publishing of numerous bestselling non-fiction, illustrated books throughout her career. Susan is married to Ken Maruyama. The Maruyamas have two daughters and three grandchildren. Susan and Ken currently reside in Wilmington, N.C.

An article like the one in the N&O (11/17/2024) about Mary-Ann Baldwin’s self-described “record of progress” is to be expected but there is a lot to unpack here that could help give the new mayor of Raleigh Janet Cowell some direction. Raleigh Mayor looks back.

A better title for Mary-Ann Baldwin would have been “Mayor of Development and Re-Zoning for New Residents.”

With this title, Mary-Ann Baldwin would get good marks. However, Raleigh is more than a developer’s dream. It is home to many people who have lived in Raleigh for generations. During the past 5 years, it seems as if the mayor wanted to create a new city to superimpose on the old city, fighting residents who felt their way of life threatened by invasive development.

It is not a secret that new development and re-zoning have driven many people to leave Raleigh because of the increase in the cost to live in Raleigh. Who are these people who have been forced to leave the city they loved and once called home? These are people of all ages and all types of careers. It is Raleigh’s loss.

Raleigh’s new Mayor needs to pivot away from a “Development agenda” and focus on a “Quality-of-Life agenda.” It is time to focus on the people who live in Raleigh now.

Working with people and listening to people is required.

It is really good advice to “work with people and listen” but how ironic is it that Mary-Ann Baldwin is passing along advice to the new mayor which she absolutely did not practice at the Raleigh City Council Meetings? Showing the public respect and genuinely listening to the public as they put their hearts and pleas on the table is definitely an important thing to do. A mayor works for the people. I am pretty sure the new incoming mayor understands public service so wouldn’t it be nice to see and hear a change of tone at these meetings?

Don’t cut off the public’s connection to government.

Working with the public is super important. Don’t do what Mary-Ann Baldwin did and eliminate the long standing, grassroots connection to the city government – Citizens Advisory Councils (CACs). Within six weeks of taking office, Mary-Ann Baldwin supported the abolishment of the neighborhood CACs which shocked residents and cut off the communication from the neighborhoods with the city.

While this threw the public into a state of confusion for almost four years, the move to abolish the CACs delighted developers because this move eliminated one of the hurdles in fast-tracking re-zoning and development projects. Don’t you want a 30-story building in your neighborhood?

Instead of trying to work with the people, Mary-Ann Baldwin silenced their voices.

It was a struggle but in 2024, Council voted to return CACs to their unique and historic role. Much remains to be done to turn the vote into a reality, especially for many CACs in Southeast Raleigh that disappeared when Council withdrew support. However, communication has slowly begun to improve on a number of fronts. In addition to zoning, the topics that had always been of interest such as crime and safety, updates on issues related to parks, parking, streets, utilities, sidewalks etc. all began to be talked about.

It’s very encouraging that the new Mayor has expressed support for bringing back CACs as a top priority.

“Don’t let a small group of people take over.”

I wonder what “small group of people” Mary-Ann Baldwin was talking about? Do you think maybe it was Livable Raleigh she was referencing? As one of the proud founders of Livable Raleigh, I helped manage this upstart grassroots organization which got its start in my living room. Our mission was to help educate people about local issues and by doing so, we hoped to improve the voter turnout for city elections. We were a handful of residents with a wide range of experience – some even previous City Council members. Our communication with the Mayor and City Council was cut off when the Citizens Advisory Councils were abolished.

Nevertheless, we went on to educate voters through recaps of Council meetings, through our public opinion polls, candidate questionnaires and voter guide as well as our weekly email, social media posts and public forums. We’ve given a platform for Raleigh residents to express their opinions through guest blogs on our website.

This “small group,” I can assure you, never wanted to “take over” – we just wanted to let voters understand the issues so they would be smarter voters. Maybe this idea of “smarter voters” was threatening to the Mayor? Livable Raleigh’s strength has been our genuinely honest intention to truthfully explain the local issues and to help inform voters. I think we’ve done some pretty amazing work. And my opinion seems to be shared by many people out there. For the past three out of four years, we have been voted the “Best Local Activist Group” in Wake County by Indy Week readers.

I hope Raleigh’s new mayor can see the positive benefits of tapping into what this grassroots organization offers. History and experience can be important influencers in governing. In fact, one could argue understanding history is more important today than ever.

Susan Maruyama,
Former Chair of Livable Raleigh

Editor’s Note: Baldwin closed out her tenure in a similar fashion to how she started it. Going from eliminating CACs as her opening shot to canceling the final dedicated Public Comment Session of her reign.

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