A Retrospective on The Raleigh City Council Election

A Retrospective on The Raleigh City Council Election

The election is over and people have spoken. Baldwin and Council have forced unpopular and failed policies on Raleigh. With very few financial resources, challengers pushed back and have taken back Council despite incumbents and candidates endorsed by, and heavily financed by, wealthy developers and realtors.

With this win, let the citizens of Raleigh look forward to better days as well as to more changes in 2024.

Mayor Baldwin & City Council have FAILED to hit their own targets for Affordable Housing!

Mayor Baldwin & City Council have FAILED to hit their own targets for Affordable Housing!

The mayor and other councilors SAY that Affordable Housing is their number one concern. Let’s take a look at the smoke and mirrors going on here. This first slide shows that in Fiscal year 21-22, council has FAILED, for the 3 rd year in a row, to meet the paltry goal of providing 570 affordable housing units. This council only accomplished providing 156 units, just 27% of their goal!

Allowing virtual public comments at in-person meetings would increase citizen participation

Allowing virtual public comments at in-person meetings would increase citizen participation

First, I would like to address a statement Councilor Stewart made at a recent meeting. She said that it’s the same people who participate in public comment time after time, but this simply is not true. I collected data from City Council minutes for September 4, 2018 to September 7, 2022 for a total of 64 meetings: 32 meetings before Council began meeting virtually and 32 meetings after. You can see this data displayed in the bar graph. During the virtual meetings, participation in public comments increased 17%, and the number of individuals that spoke only once before council increased 23%.

More Advocacy Groups Charge City Council with Misrepresenting Them

More Advocacy Groups Charge City Council with Misrepresenting Them

At the March 1 public hearing to review and approve new District Maps for Raleigh’s City Council, the City Attorney claimed Raleigh is not covered by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and City Staff claimed that the Advocacy Groups who reviewed the proposed maps...

A New Year’s Resolution: Engage with us! Negotiate for us!

A New Year’s Resolution: Engage with us! Negotiate for us!

Dear Mayor and City Council, As we start a new year, it is typical to make resolutions for self-betterment and better times in the upcoming year. I am no different. However my resolutions are for the Mayor and Council as we move forward in 2022. On behalf of the...

City Council, Community Engagement and the Code of Conduct

City Council, Community Engagement and the Code of Conduct

Tim Niles, a founding member of Livable Raleigh, delivered the following remarks to City Council during Public Comments on January 4, 2022:210 days ago, in a secret plot, with no public notice, no public input and no public vote, you moved your election by eight...