The election is over and people have spoken. Baldwin and Council have forced unpopular and failed policies on Raleigh. With very few financial resources, challengers pushed back and have taken back Council despite incumbents and candidates endorsed by, and heavily financed by, wealthy developers and realtors.
With this win, let the citizens of Raleigh look forward to better days as well as to more changes in 2024.
After Raleigh’s City Council election was completed, Ned Barnett, Associate Opinion Editor, The News & Observer, contacted us to ask how we saw the results and what we expect from the next City Council. Here is our response:
This is all pretty gross. As Peeler wrote to me in an email, “it’s astonishing that certain candidates can get by with claiming they are for more affordable rental housing, for less displacement, and for supporting low income tenants, when they are being funded heavily by an organization, which is essentially a landlord lobbying firm, who is vested in ensuring none of those things occur.
If you were asked what lessons you have learned from the Missing Middle, as a mayor and council, I have no idea what you would say. Never mind, here are the lessons for a new mayor and council
WATCH our videos. LEARN about the candidates. Then GO VOTE!
The first camp favors letting the market work without regulation, arguing that it will serve rich and poor alike – but knowing that it won’t – while the second camp favors using the powers of city zoning to assure that growth occurs and serves the interests of all.
Remember – if you want to flip the council, you must flip your ballot!
In the mid-1990’s (more than 30 years ago) developers renovated the old cotton mill on Capital Blvd. A tax break was available at that time to incentivize the preservation of the cotton mill rather than demolishing it. In exchange for officially listing the cotton...
Mayor Baldwin and her City Council majority including Jonathan Melton, Stormie Forte, Corey Branch and David Knight, who are all running for re-election, implemented a tax break policy for developers known as a “Tax Increment Grant” or TIG. Despite Baldwin’s claim otherwise, it can cost the City of Raleigh 5 million dollars in tax rebates every year FOREVER.