If you watched the two City Council meetings on May 16, 2023, the Work Session discussing election reform at 11:30 followed by the City Council Afternoon Session at 1:00, we wonder if you noticed what we noticed. We were disappointed but not surprised at the way city survey data was perceived differently by some councilors at these two separate meetings.
Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin really stepped in it at the first City Council meeting of 2023. It was announced that Day One of the council’s retreat, an annual event of team-building and setting their collective direction for the year, will be held at an undisclosed location in Durham that has no ability to live stream the event for public access. Worse yet, the venue can’t even record the event for viewing after the fact. So much for improved community engagement!
I have lost count as to how many times I have spoken before you. I will say that over the last 18 months, I have learned how quiet you actually are. The excuses that have come out of you on a multitude of subjects is baffling. From community engagement, to affordable housing, to first responder pay! Your priorities are skewed and it’s led to placing anything and everything ABOVE the people you represent.
It is no secret that John Kane donates to anti-LGBT politicians, including our very own Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, who has taken to calling people like myself “filth.” And yet, we have council members and a mayor who refuse to return John Kane’s donations and to call him out on his anti-trans sentiments and funding.
72% of Raleigh voters say city government is too beholden to developers. City Council has tried to hide the corrupting influence of big money in a growing list of backroom decisions, but three out of four Raleigh voters see it and feel it every day – as rapid growth drives up their cost of living, drives down their quality of life and drives modest income families out of town.
Raleigh has revived our nation’s now despised legacy of explicitly race-biased policies aimed at destroying Black neighborhoods.
At the October 6 Raleigh City Council afternoon meeting, David Knight led a spurious, yet successful effort to destroy Azalea Falls, one of Raleigh’s designated National Historic sites. As usual, the development-driven Council majority voted 7 to 1 (David Cox being the lone dissenter) to perpetrate another environmental disaster in our community.
The steeply wooded hillsides above Azalea Falls are, as detailed in the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources designation of statewide ecological significance, INTEGRAL to Azalea Falls’ unique forest ecology and aquatic habitats. No wooded hillsides, no Azalea Falls.