Highlights from June 17 City Council Work Session and Afternoon Session
Raleigh OKs budget without separation pay for Firefighters
The Raleigh Fire Department (RFD) is at least 200 firefighter positions short. When including the current 50 known vacancies, they are 250 firefighters short of the manpower needed to fully protect this City today. Raleigh has not added any new firefighter positions since 2014, while experiencing rapid population growth and development. Let’s be clear. RFD is requesting the same benefit paid between retirement and age 62 that RPD officers have been receiving since 1987.
June 9 & 10 City Council Meetings
Highlights from June 9 Budget work session, June 10 work session, and June 10 public comments section
Anderson Forest Neighbors Oppose All Options for Big Branch Greenway Connector
Anderson Forest residents would like to join with Crabtree Heights residents in opposing all three proposed routes for the Big Branch Greenway Connector. Both neighborhoods share concerns about safety, privacy and environmental impact.
Vote for Streamside Option by 6/11
The “streamside” option along the Big Branch creek would route the connector across city and little used private pieces of land. It already looks like a greenway and avoids car and truck traffic. The two other options the city lists would bring greenway users into regular contact with cars, trucks and service vehicles. If the city selects either of the two options going through this neighborhood, it will be devastating for a long surviving Raleigh neighborhood and it will be a radical, very un-greenway greenway project. Either of these two options would be more of an urban path than actual greenway as the trail would move along roads, across one street, and require the cutting down of many of the currently surviving trees and bushes in the neighborhood, leaving a pavement-centric greenery-bare trail.
June 3 Afternoon and Evening City Council Meetings
Summary of June 3 Council meeting, including the fact that leaf collection will transition to a weekly year-round enhanced yard waste collection service beginning in Fall 2026.
The Duty of City Council
The late great James West served on this Council from District C for ten years. Dr. West said “It is not the duty of City Council to ensure developer profits. The duty of City Council is to serve all the citizens of Raleigh, to improve their quality of life.”
Firefighters’ Separation Allowance is the right thing to do
Livable Raleigh supports the separation pay for firefighters and we’re disappointed the City Manager chose to leave it out of her proposed budget; Council should correct this mistake.
Noise Terrorism
There needs to be a moratorium on amplified sound from Raleigh businesses until you can come up with a solution to this never ending citywide problem.
Trust and Transparency
The 2030 Comp Plan was planning for a population of 600,000 when it was envisioned. We are not close to that. Mitchell Silver was hired to see the Comp Plan and UDO completed. Mitchell said that this would streamline development and get rid of “spot” zoning. Councilor Silver, how many times did you say, “just follow the plan”?