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.
I have lived in College Park all my life. On the corner of New Bern Avenue and Raleigh Boulevard it has flooded for over a decade. So you mean to tell me that over a decade you’re only going to fix this for Bus Rapid Transit. You talk about environmental justice. You know this council just celebrated Juneteenth and that is the most racist thing I’ve ever heard.
Rezoning proposals that violate the tenets of our carefully crafted and hard-won UDO including Neighborhood Character Overlays, Historic Districts and Landmarks protections should not be considered unless they support preservation of historic structures, vistas, character, affordability and generational wealth.
Highlights from July 5 Council Meetings. Council on hiatus until August 15.
To date, there hasn’t been any communication on project status unless specifically requested by residents. So again I ask, please direct this to the appropriate committee so there is a path forward. We may be achieving the objective of slowing motorists but I don’t think we are achieving that goal in the safest, most effective manner.
We had some grand architecture, but we have gradually lost most of it. We still have some interesting historic districts that tell the story of our City. But these historic districts will survive only if they are protected by a historic overlay. And in the last few years, City Council has allowed pieces to be taken out of several historic overlays.