Our citywide poll of registered Raleigh voters conducted by Public Policy Polling was published Tuesday, July 23. At publication time we included contact information at PPP for questions about the methodology. For anyone who is hesitant to contact PPP, we have put together this quick primer on polling and the accuracy levels of polls. Our poll was conducted by PPP using a database of Raleigh Registered voters. It is NOT a poll of self-selected followers of Livable Raleigh.
Livable Raleigh’s new 2024 citywide poll of registered Raleigh voters highlights continuing trends and significant changes since our 2022 poll. Two key changes include a declining confidence in Council, coupled with the perception that Council isn’t doing enough to protect Raleigh voters’ quality of life from growth impacts.
I stand before you today as a concerned citizen deeply troubled by recent actions taken by this Council. I refer to the rising crime in our city under your watch, but specifically, decisions to increase your own salaries, extend your terms from two to four years, and reject additional representatives on this Council—all without allowing the citizens of Raleigh to vote on the matter.
What you may not know is the City Council could have repealed the ordinance that changed council term lengths from 2 years to 4 years and completed a NEW resolution to place the question on the November ballot as originally promised to the voters. We shared all of the necessary data with the councilors and there were five of them committed to repeal and implement another resolution for the referendum starting at the June 4th City Council meeting.
Council’s record of taking major votes without listening to stakeholders continues to disappoint. Now, having ignored stakeholders in the Blue Ridge Corridor, they stand on the verge of losing their taxing authority. With the Council elections coming in November, don’t make the same mistake again: engage stakeholders and act according to their wishes or prepare to be voted out of office.
Although we were not successful in getting the required 5,000 signatures for the petition to put a referendum on the November 2024 ballot for City Council Term Lengths we got over halfway there and we were successful in creating city-wide awareness of the issue.
Highlights from Work Session on Downtown and from Public Comments
As part of our preparation for the upcoming City Council elections, we have been having conversations with City Council Candidates. One of the biggest issues facing Raleigh right now is the public’s desire to have reforms made to Raleigh’s Missing Middle policies that were implemented in 2021 and 2022. We have listed several previously published blogs related to Missing Middle for your review that explain our position about the Missing Middle policies.
The N&O has twice [April 15 & May 30] quoted Livable Raleigh describing council candidate Mitchell Silver as a “development lobbyist.” Raleigh residents have every right to question where Silver’s allegiances lie. Just ask the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighbors who were hit twice with his trendy but false pitch for 30-40 story towers next door.
The UNC School of Government advised us: “If they’ve already formally adopted the ordinance, a member will need to make a motion to repeal. That motion would need to pass by a majority vote to repeal the ordinance.”