Please do us all a favor, spare us from the dramatics of making us believe that 1) policy matters and 2) that community engagement is the key to a progressive, vibrant city for ALL if you are going to deliberately ignore the voices of SOME.
Dist C – Successful CAC Comeback
May 4, 2023, SECAC held our first in person meeting since covid and it was a packed house. The interest is still there and CAC’s are needed. Why? Because it keeps you connected with City, RPD, Wake County Sheriff and everything that’s happening in y(OUR) community.
Bailey to Baldwin: “Your lack of leadership is an embarrassment.”
At the April 4th Council meeting Donna Bailey shared a video showing Mary-Ann Baldwin’s embarrassing style of governing. Bailey’s video shows Baldwin abusing her elected position to promote a big donor’s rezoning by suppressing fellow Councilor Jane Harrison’s participation in the rezoning discussion.
Shaw University belongs to all of us
Several council members have been totally non responsive to our meeting requests. Mary Ann Baldwin has blocked our emails and the City Attorney for the planning commission has not responded to our concerns about a serious conflict of interest issue regarding a commissioner and Shaw University Board of Trustee member. We need to remind City Council about the importance of true community engagement.
A framework for building affordable housing
In the More Homes, More Choices presentations, Patrick Young admits that the Missing Middle will not create housing that becomes affordable until at least one to two generations after it is built.
Tonight, I have given Council members a draft framework for creating housing that will be more affordable than what is being built under the guise of the Missing Middle.
Neighborhood Meetings, the Fox is Guarding the Hen House
First, the neighborhood meetings that are run by the applicant or their attorneys are not working. Since the developers run the meetings, the information that is being given is often very biased and not accurate coming from the applicant or their attorney. One attorney said in a neighborhood meeting that the Comprehensive Plan was no longer relevant. There was a city staffer there but they were silent.
3 Years Ago a Sneak Attack on Raleigh’s Community Engagement System took place: Residents Lost, Developers Won.
Three years ago on February 4, 2020 Mayor Baldwin and her City Council majority voted to stop supporting Raleigh’s Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs). Three years later that void still exists. There are no new community organizations run by Raleigh residents with City support. Fortunately for Raleigh residents there are quite a few Citizen Advisory Councils that survived the sneak attack on February 4, 2020. Even without City funding and support, these survivors have continued on with their mission of two-way communication between Raleigh residents and their City government.
Support the general welfare of the inhabitants of the city
I hope this new Council does more than Looking but not Seeing the poor and houseless, Listening but not Hearing those who advocate on their behalf, and remembers the words: “That what you do for the least of these, you do for me.”
Homelessness has doubled under Mayor Baldwin
The past council FAILED to protect our most vulnerable citizens in their efforts to give the developers free reign in their rezoning requests. Homelessness has DOUBLED in the last 2 years under the mayor’s leadership. We will be a better city when we take all of our residents into consideration and not just the wealthy donors that support the mayor. You councilors hold the power now and Raleigh is ready to see you get to work!
In Praise of outgoing Councilor David Cox
David Cox’s service to Raleigh will long live as an example for those that follow him for his research, his thoughtful synthesis, and his cogent and straight-forward statement of principled representation.