Upcoming Raleigh Events
CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Neighborhood Rezoning Meeting — 120 Rush Street
Neighborhood Rezoning Meeting — 120 Rush Street
Pregunte Al Doc: Reunion Comunitaria Del Condado de Wake
Pregunte Al Doc: Reunion Comunitaria Del Condado de Wake
Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities Meeting
Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities Meeting
Downtown South Quarterly Public Meeting
Downtown South Quarterly Public Meeting
Biltmore Hills Park Tennis Improvements Open House
Biltmore Hills Park Tennis Improvements Open House
Read up on our latest news…
UPDATE – City Council Retreat – Still No Details
it’s possible the details for the Council Retreat may NOT be published until Thursday, January 18, 8 days before the first day of the Council Retreat. We believe the fact that the Council Retreat has been published on the City’s Events Calendar with the dates and identified as both the City Council Annual Retreat and a City Council Meeting qualifies as formal notice of the meeting and it is past time for the details of time of day, location and virtual attendance opportunities to be given to the public so interested parties can have adequate time to make plans.
Follow Planning Best Practices: Use BRT to Revitalize Neighborhoods, Not Remove Them.
Livable Raleigh’s position is that while adding density along BRT corridors is a desirable goal, the impact of the $97M New Bern Avenue BRT project alone will create a tremendous incentive for dense organic redevelopment that incentivizes economically viable affordable housing height bonuses up to 5 stories – and not above. The effect of the proposed 744 parcel upzoning, Z-92-22 (which ironically leaves out the zero-density Raleigh Country Club) will not only eliminate most opportunities to incentivize and negotiate affordable housing units, but will also accelerate the displacement of all low wealth and Black households in the corridor – in direct conflict with the city’s adopted ETOD vision to reverse displacement.
Gun Violence Higher in Gentrifying Neighborhoods
One of the solutions to the problem proposed by the authors is to support policies to reduce the displacement of longtime residents, which would include affordable housing. Instead, along the New Bern Avenue BRT, our developer-friendly city planners have increased the height threshold for affordable units from three stories to five, which guarantees that no affordable units will be built because of the increase in cost of construction materials when height exceeds the five stories allowed under stick building.
Raleigh City Council Retreat, who knows where, who knows when?
We’ve been waiting patiently for the details to appear on the City’s Events Calendar so we can add the information to our calendar and publicize this important event. With less than three weeks to go before the retreat is scheduled to occur, the City’s Events Calendar still does not give us the time, the place, the agenda or even an indication as to if the event will be live-streamed or recorded for those who cannot make it to the undisclosed location.
Create an Area Plan for New Bern Avenue
The solution is simple. You are half way there. You have exempted one and two story homes from the TOD. Well done! Now, fix the core of the problem by amending TC-17A-20 so that NCODs, HODs and residential properties take precedence over the TOD! You amended this ordinance once. Let’s send it back to the drawing board, amend it again, and put equity and neighborhood protection back in.
January 2, 2024 City Council Meeting Highlights
Highlights from the January 2, 2024 City Council afternoon and evening meetings
Baldwin’s Council Cronies Erect Housing Hurdles
This gentrification–cruelly forced to be funded by the council’s constituents through taxes and fees–is not done with respect to or value for the history, culture, and communities of Downtown. It’s for the investors; for the migratory wealthy who seek new investments for their capital in an expanding city.
BRT, New Bern Ave, & Z-92-22 – some quick facts
Livable Raleigh supports BRT. We do NOT support proactively upzoning 744 properties on New Bern Ave in a giveaway of the city’s only bargaining chip to negotiate for affordable housing. BRT can be built without the upzoning.
Public Forum: Will New Bern’s Mass Upzoning Revitalize Neighborhoods or Eliminate Them?
Join us on Sunday, January 21st at 2pm at the Tarboro Road Community Center (121 N. Tarboro Street, Raleigh) to learn how you can help stop the city’s urban renewal of New Bern Avenue. Stand up for Raleigh’s Black history and for revitalizing existing neighborhoods and businesses along the New Bern Avenue Bus Rapid Transit line rather than forcing them out.
Livable Raleigh’s Vision for Raleigh’s Sustainable and Equitable Growth
Raleigh is growing rapidly. Where are we headed? Most Raleighites like the idea of growth that is more economical, environmental and equitable. To succeed, we’ll have to grow in ways and in locations that bring fewer cars, more trees and more equitable prosperity.
Guidelines for Deciding Rezoning Cases
Livable Raleigh calls on City Council to reform their approach to rezoning applications. Raleigh’s Comprehensive Plan, if followed, offers a clear path to sustainable, equitable growth.
‘Twas the night before Council
‘Twas the night before council, and all through the city, Affordable units demolished, oh what a pity. The ADU pilot awaited support with care, In hopes that affordable units soon would be there. The developers nestled all snug in their beds, With visions of profits and luxury spreads.
City Council’s Election Survey is so biased, it’s useless
The questions are worded with a bias intended to guide the respondents to answer the way the mayor prefers. So, the results of the survey will be meaningless because the questions weren’t inclusive and were engineered to lead to a predictable outcome.
Don’t make the Urban Renewal mistake again. History will tell on you.
If carried out, this effort will destroy established historic neighborhoods and community identities, it will displace residents from existing affordable housing with no realistic hope of replacement; generational wealth will evaporate. It threatens the city’s tree canopy; it is a sickening reboot of the 1960’s and 70’s Urban Renewal projects that decimated neighborhoods and cultural identities in downtown Raleigh.
INDYWeek Best of the Triangle 2023
In this time of unprecedented attacks on fundamental human rights and bodily autonomy, we believe INDY’s readers have made an excellent choice, naming Planned Parenthood – Orange / Chatham “BEST LOCAL ACTIVIST GROUP” in the Triangle.
Raleigh is North Carolina’s first city to join the Network of Biophilic Cities
I urge our city leadership – elected and employed – to review the website for the Network of Biophilic Cities and make decisions with these values in mind.
Councilors Melton, Forte & Branch betray the people to serve Baldwin
ALL voters should remember this betrayal when next year’s election comes around. All four of the councilors who voted to restrict the time of the speakers have made it known they plan to run for re-election. What the four of them all said at this meeting is that voters CANNOT TRUST them to honor the commitments they make to the people of Raleigh.
December 12, 2023 City Council Meeting
Highlights Despite previously guaranteeing 3 minutes per speaker at Public Comments and establishing a special meeting to accommodate that, Mayor Baldwin instituted a one-minute limit per speaker because 108 people had signed up to speak. Four councilors voted for...
Meaningful engagement involves listening, hearing & taking action
Listening sessions with no action eventually lead to lack of resident belief that resident needs are indeed being heeded which results in demoralization of residents, or perhaps that is the intent.
Raleigh City Manager quietly receives whopping 10% pay increase
As an over 50 year resident of Raleigh, I write in opposition to the action taken yesterday afternoon by the council to give a mid-year raise to the city manager of a whopping 10% to her already $323,977 annual salary. As a taxpayer and Raleigh resident, this huge mid-fiscal year raise, while our city’s public safety and first responder workforce are in critical need of human resources and competitive compensation, along with the embarrassing lack of action for a year on the highly public and negatively media focused parade permitting process is embarrassing at the very least while sending very negative, questionable signals to city employees and the public of what the Mayor, City Manager and Council value most.