It's LGBTQ Pride Month. But, in Raleigh, we don't have as much to celebrate as we should have. As LGBTQ Pride Month comes to a close, we recall in January 2021 we reported about the lack of progress of the Raleigh City Council in enacting non-discrimination...
Budget Busting Bus Shelters
At-Large Councilor Melton is excited to spend an extra $720,000 on designer bus shelters. Bus rider Lenora Southerland just wants a place to sit while she waits. Instead of moving quickly to add bus benches and shelters at more than 1,000 bus stops with neither,...
At-Large Councilor Melton doesn’t think Citizen Engagement needs to be delivered in a year.
At Raleigh City Council's retreat, March 12-13, At-Large Councilor Jonathan Melton had this to say when categorizing priorities into two sets: "I think community engagement can move into the bottom set. I don't know that we need a one year deliverable in community...
Priorities All Wrong
There are three things that are drastically wrong with the path that is being taken by the Raleigh City Council and the GoRaleigh Public Bus System to address the urgent need for bus shelters: The real life needs of the majority of bus ridership, the structural and...
In Historic Victory, Hillsborough Becomes First North Carolina Municipality to Pass LGBTQ Nondiscrimination Protections Since Sunset of HB142. What About Raleigh?
Monday, Jan 11 the Board of Commissioners in Hillsborough, North Carolina voted to pass an ordinance broadly protecting members of the LGBTQ community from discrimination. The vote makes Hillsborough, a town with a population of 7,000 people, the first municipality in...
Disinformation in Local Elections
On Tuesday, October 20, Raleigh's News and Observer is hosting a webinar, "Disinformation in Local Elections: How to spot it and what you can do" I decided to write to the N&O on the eve of their webinar because I have three examples of the role disinformation has...
City Council “Acts” to Fix the Affordable Housing Bond. Their Action Was Little and Very Late.
“My quick analysis is that the recommendations are better than nothing, but they fall far short of what’s needed to help those in the greatest need. … Raleigh, we STILL have a problem.”
David Knight, Trying to Have it Both Ways on the Quarry, Fails His Constituents and His Convictions
As a candidate for City Council, David Knight campaigned on opposition to the RDU Quarry. He made his position clear in statements to both INDYWeek and the News & Observer. To INDYWeek he said: INDYWeek Candidate Questionnaire - David Knight To the...
Weasel Conditions: A Zoning Tool for False Council Promises
Weasel Conditions. This is a case study of how the Z-41-19 zoning applicant and complicit Councilors falsified the meaning of zoning condition #8 to create a misleading narrative, suggesting it offered significant environmental protections, when in fact, it did not.
Courtney Napier Weighs In on Forte Appointment and Gentrification
Posted here are some excerpts from Courtney Napier’s recent op-ed for INDY Week. Why did Raleigh City Council give Carmen Cauthen unanimous support, then turn around and vote six-to-one for Stormie Forte to take the District D seat vacated by Saige Martin?







