Locals gather to hear Community Leaders discuss mass upzoning plans for New Bern Ave

Locals gather to hear Community Leaders discuss mass upzoning plans for New Bern Ave

by | Jan 22, 2024 |

An overflow crowd turned out Sunday afternoon for Livable Raleigh’s public forum to discuss a proposed upzoning of more than 700 properties along the New Bern Avenue corridor. The resounding message was to ask City Council to deny the rezoning request (Z-92-22) and to put the TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) into committee for modifications. Panelists and audience members alike expressed concern about the displacement of an entire minority community. Attendees were encouraged to attend the upcoming public hearing on January 30 at 7pm at the Raleigh Municipal Building.

Gun Violence Higher in Gentrifying Neighborhoods

Gun Violence Higher in Gentrifying Neighborhoods

by | Jan 7, 2024 |

One of the solutions to the problem proposed by the authors is to support policies to reduce the displacement of longtime residents, which would include affordable housing. Instead, along the New Bern Avenue BRT, our developer-friendly city planners have increased the height threshold for affordable units from three stories to five, which guarantees that no affordable units will be built because of the increase in cost of construction materials when height exceeds the five stories allowed under stick building.

Baldwin’s Council Cronies Erect Housing Hurdles

Baldwin’s Council Cronies Erect Housing Hurdles

by | Jan 2, 2024 |

This gentrification–cruelly forced to be funded by the council’s constituents through taxes and fees–is not done with respect to or value for the history, culture, and communities of Downtown. It’s for the investors; for the migratory wealthy who seek new investments for their capital in an expanding city.

Public Forum: Will New Bern’s Mass Upzoning Revitalize Neighborhoods or Eliminate Them?

Public Forum: Will New Bern’s Mass Upzoning Revitalize Neighborhoods or Eliminate Them?

by | Dec 28, 2023 |

Join us on Sunday, January 21st at 2pm at the Tarboro Road Community Center (121 N. Tarboro Street, Raleigh) to learn how you can help stop the city’s urban renewal of New Bern Avenue. Stand up for Raleigh’s Black history and for revitalizing existing neighborhoods and businesses along the New Bern Avenue Bus Rapid Transit line rather than forcing them out.

December 12, 2023 City Council Meeting

December 12, 2023 City Council Meeting

by | Dec 12, 2023 |

Highlights Despite previously guaranteeing 3 minutes per speaker at Public Comments and establishing a special meeting to accommodate that, Mayor Baldwin instituted a one-minute limit per speaker because 108 people had signed up to speak. Four councilors voted for...

New Bern BRT: Bait & Switch or Just Action?

New Bern BRT: Bait & Switch or Just Action?

by | Nov 5, 2023 |

In 2017, ‘The Color of Law’ landed like a bombshell in progressive housing policy circles. In Raleigh, powerful development interests saw the opportunity to adopt — some would say co-opt — Richard Rothstein’s anti-segregation message by promoting pro-density zoning rules that not only lifted exclusionary zoning rules, but went much further. By 2020, a new alliance of developer money, self-righteous Council aspirants and their white privileged adherents provided the lubrication to fast track pro-density zoning proposals. Novice Councilors were assured that pesky public input needn’t impede this sweet deal to meld profits and equity.

Don’t Break Raleigh’s Transit Promises

Don’t Break Raleigh’s Transit Promises

by | Oct 27, 2023 |

If their egregious zoning case, Z-92-22, gets a positive vote from City Council, it will usher in the worst kind of Urban Renewal. Affordable homes will be scraped off, to be replaced by luxury apartment buildings that only the affluent can afford to live in. Picture a stretched-out North Hills, replete with restaurants and bars – and parking decks – but with no room for the working-class.