I am here tonight to request that the City prepare a study to re-open the Jaycee Park Recycling Center at Wade Ave and to hold a referendum, at the next city-wide election, to allow Raleigh residents the opportunity to vote to re-open the Jayce Park to receive “Allowable Recyclable Items.”
John Kitto and his wife live in Raleigh’s Woodcrest neighborhood. He spoke to City Council about the unintended side effects his family will experience from the Missing Middle policies.
Well, as a labeled dissenter of the Mayor of Raleigh by a newspaper, I would like to congratulate the grassroots groups that worked hard to ensure a check in power on the way Raleigh grows going forward. It was disheartening to see journalists and certain nonprofit groups describe the fight to be included in development decisions as “anti-growth.” These anti-democratic statements came often from ostensibly progressive / liberal people who even called those demanding affordable housing NIMBYs.
This development illustrates, once again, the misapplication of the Missing Middle in Raleigh. It reflects the conclusion of the nonprofit Urban Institute that Missing Middle type zoning changes, in cities across the country, do nothing to increase the housing supply for middle, or lower-income citizens. Nor do they reduce rents. The changes have proven to have only a small effect, which is to increase housing supply for the most affluent.
We commend Councilor Branch for recognizing that the Missing Middle policy is not working as intended and that there are problems with it that need to be fixed. We challenge Branch’s fellow councilors to join with him to take positive action to stop these undesirable, incompatible projects.
In response to the 17,000 unit deficit I noted that between Dec 2019 and Mar 2023 Raleigh’s City Council approved zoning cases for over 70,000 residential units. Over 4 times the reported deficit. Unless those cases were speculative and only to raise the property values for resale purposes, Raleigh is NOT lacking the entitlement to build residential units.
I have been coming here since last year to talk about Glenwood South vandalism, brutal assaults, stabbings and gunfire. Raleigh citizens do not think you are doing anything about this issue. People in Raleigh want a safe place to live. In honor of what the city has let Glenwood South become I am wearing a t-shirt I had made. It reads ‘I went to Glenwood South and made it out Alive.’
This issue has been on City Council’s agenda for nearly two years now going back to Sept 2021. The Council has been very timid in their responses over this time. Council’s response to the latest wave of crime and neighborhood vandalism was all talk and no action, except to ask staff for another report in a month or two.
Preservation isn’t Nimbyism, it isn’t classist, it isn’t fossilization. It is care by design; it happens when people show up and participate.
Please do us all a favor, spare us from the dramatics of making us believe that 1) policy matters and 2) that community engagement is the key to a progressive, vibrant city for ALL if you are going to deliberately ignore the voices of SOME.