Donna Bailey has lived in Raleigh for over 25 years and has been a neighborhood advocate for much of that time. She served as President of the University Park Neighborhood Association and has also been Chair of the Hillsborough-Wade Citizens Advisory Council (CAC). Donna has been very active in educating the public on what is going on within the city and making sure that resident’s voices are heard. Donna is currently a member of the city’s Community Engagement Board.
Donna spoke to City Council on October 10, 2023:
I’d like to talk to you tonight about how the city of Raleigh has declined under the leadership, or lack of leadership, with Mary-Ann Baldwin.
Since Mary-Ann took office, her primary goal was to service the development community and cut out citizen engagement. She raised almost a MILLION dollars from the developers with her last campaign.
One of her first moves was to disband the 50-year old Citizen Advisory Councils that was a process for citizens and council to interact with 2-way information. It has been over 3 ½ years since the past council tried to silence citizens. There is STILL NO replacement for the information that was provided through the CACs. Fortunately, 9 of the 18 CACs are still functioning and providing valuable information to their neighborhoods. But the 9 CACs that are no longer in existence are in the black and brown communities, making them MORE inequitable than before.
One of the gifts to her developer supporters was passing the unprecedented Missing Middle zoning, throughout the ENTIRE city.
This affected almost every resident in Raleigh, with almost NO INPUT from residents. Can you imagine how much better the Missing Middle changes could have been if the changes were vetted first through the 18 CACs throughout the city?
Mary-Ann lead a change in how Raleigh elects its leaders from a majority to a plurality and extended her term in office an extra year.
Mary-Ann did not win with a majority vote with any of her elections. Again, these changes had NO CITIZEN INPUT.
The homeless rate has greatly increased under the mayor’s tenure. There are over 6,000 individuals seeking shelter. 70% of those unhoused are from recent displacements.
Under the mayor’s helm, the city has LOST an unprecedented amount of NOAH, Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing. Almost all of the new development that was approved under the mayor’s leadership has been for “luxury” apartments and homes with almost no concessions for affordable housing. Larry Jarvis said that Raleigh is losing 4,000 NOAH units a year.
The crime rate has been continually increasing with areas like Glenwood South and parts of downtown becoming too dangerous for most residents. The increased crime rate has been detrimental to businesses in the downtown area and our downtown is suffering.
Mary-Ann campaigned on a vibrant downtown. I think her election campaign of Drunktown has been a success. With success like that, I think Raleigh would be served better with a new mayor.
Let’s all remember this next November.
If you appreciate the kind of reporting we bring to you
|
Please donate $10 or $20, Thanks for supporting |
 |