HIGHLIGHTS Consent agenda items will be reviewed with council before meetings in future. Hearings that needed to be rescheduled due to insufficient notice will now be heard at a special council meeting on Tuesday, January 24, at 5pm. And staff has put in place...
Can Free Bus Fares Fix Raleigh’s Broken System?
Council’s upcoming decision to either keep or eliminate Raleigh’s COVID-era free bus fares has been framed as making an important statement about Raleigh’s commitment to high quality and equitable bus service. Maybe so, but if you listen to the Raleigh Transit Authority’s Nov 10 deliberations on the topic, you might conclude that reinstating fees will have little impact on a system that is in decline and without an effective plan to provide high quality and equitable transit services in post-COVID Raleigh.
Increasing density without building the support infrastructure serves only the development industry
Council’s sledgehammer efforts at planning have been both thoughtless and undisciplined. Density does not improve quality of life or lower housing prices.
Equitable Public Transit in Raleigh Begins With Workers’ Job Satisfaction
Raleigh City Council would do well to listen to the transit workers of GoRaleigh services who have made their concerns known, in terms of both wages and working conditions, particularly as Raleigh moves towards a transit-oriented approach to development.
Raleigh beware: how greed turns good intentions into urban disasters
Bob Mulder, former Chair Raleigh Planning Commission recently wrote to the City Council about density: The comments and photos below are from my brother in Portland, Oregon. Letter from Portland Three adjacent buildings with no parking. One slab sided with no windows:...
WRAL-TV’s News coverage of North Hills rezoning was more of a promotion than news coverage – And now for the rest of the story…
On April 26 WRAL-TV featured a story about a proposed North Hills Rezoning case (Z-67-21) that took place at the Planning Commission meeting earlier that day. WRAL’s coverage was effectively a promotion for the project, as compared to an accounting of what actually...
Former PC Chair on Parking Minimums
March 28, 2022 To Raleigh City Council & Raleigh Planning Commission Re: Eliminating parking minimums WRAL Reporter Matt Talhelm came over on March 25, 2022 to interview me about this issue. Unfortunately, my substantive comments were not included, and the one...
Raleigh, Get Transit On Track for the Future
Cailin Peterson is a long-time environmental justice activist recently gone professional as a Field Organizer at Climate Action NC. She is also a recent NC State Microbiology grad, cat mom, half-marathon runner, and guitar player! Her favorite NC brewery is...
City Council Work Session – February 8, 2022
Mayor Baldwin announced that a decision regarding Raleigh’s mask mandate will likely be made in a couple of more weeks after additional data is gathered. Staff presented some proposals on Tree Conservation options. Despite staff telling previous councils that NC...
January 16 2022 Letter to the Editor of the News & Observer
RALEIGH GROWTH The writer is former chair of the Raleigh Planning Commission In his Jan. 10 column, Ned Barnett argues that leaving growth management solutions to localities worsens the problems associated with rapid growth. An understatement for sure. Click on image...