CITY COUNCIL RETREAT – JANUARY 26 & 27, 2024

CITY COUNCIL RETREAT – JANUARY 26 & 27, 2024

HIGHLIGHTS Typical issues with transparency. Meeting start time initially reported at 1pm, then 12noon, then livestream was supposed to start at 12:40. It actually started at 1:18pm. Apparently a panel discussion occurred when they weren’t filming and no details were...

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?

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.

New Bern BRT: Bait & Switch or Just Action?

New Bern BRT: Bait & Switch or Just Action?

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.

Raleigh issues meaningless apology for past racism as gentrification continues

Raleigh issues meaningless apology for past racism as gentrification continues

The irony of this council putting forth this apology at this time was not lost on the public. Speaker Jeremy Gilchrest asked, now that you have apologized for the city’s racist past, including urban renewal, who is going to apologize for the current racism that we see systemically gutting out the black community?

Rezoning Cases — A Look Behind the Numbers

Rezoning Cases — A Look Behind the Numbers

The graph below comes from a Triangle Business Journal article contending that developers are “flooding” the current council with rezoning requests because they are confident that their requests will be quickly and easily...

Profiles in Courage

Profiles in Courage

As the largest development proposal ever seen in Raleigh, John Kane’s Downtown South Project challenges all the normal processes for judging community impacts and benefits. The political pressure for quick approval is equally off the charts, so much so that the City...