Livable Raleigh Chair Susan Maruyama recently sent this opinion piece to the News & Observer. They published an edited version and we wanted to share the complete version here. Fifty years ago, when Clarence Lightner, Raleigh’s first and only black mayor, created...
Voting begins. But, not for Raleigh City Council
Early voting has started in North Carolina. Many cities are electing their City Council representatives. BUT NOT RALEIGH. The citizens of Raleigh will have to wait until November to elect their City Council. A full year AFTER the current council's term was supposed to...
INDY Reader Misses the Point(s)
We previously wrote about INDY Daily's comments on Raleigh Council's undemocratic actions here: INDY Daily BLASTS City Council's Undemocratic Behavior. One of their readers disagrees with their take on it and writes: "This is not a good take with respect to the...
Experts say City Council is violating the Voting Rights Act
City Councilors believe they can violate the voting rights of minority communities in Raleigh without consequence. UNC School of Government begs to differ! On March 1, at a Public Hearing to comment on a redistricting proposal, Raleigh City Councilors...
City Council misstates law and mischaracterizes public input
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...
INDY Daily BLASTS City Council’s UNDEMOCRATIC behavior
Jane Porter, Editor-In-Chief of INDYWeek, writes a daily email newsletter, INDY Daily. The March 4, 2022 edition takes on Raleigh's City Council for their most recent undemocratic decision. She asks that we share the newsletter with our friends. So, we reprint it...
Bob Hall Comments on Raleigh City Council’s Abuse of Democracy
For more than 50 years, Bob Hall has been North Carolina's foremost advocate for the idea that government should be for the people, ALL the people and not for the corporations and the wealthy. Below are excerpts of what Bob had to say when he spoke at Livable...
It’s Never Too Late to do the Right Thing.
Bob Geary, resident of Raleigh’s District D and member of the Wake County Housing Justice Coalition, delivered the following remarks about this Council's move of the next City Election to Nov 2022 at the City Council meeting on August 17: Mayor and Council – I suspect...
What if Mayor Baldwin was a Republican?
I recently submitted a letter to the editor about Mayor Baldwin and her pattern of undemocratic behavior. The News & Observer deleted my main points (in red), and left just my partisan comments. With that heavy edit, the N&O should have titled my LTE “What if...
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Raleigh resident Larry Helfant submitted a response to a recent editorial by Gerry Cohen published in the N&O. An edited version was published on Aug 1, 2021. We are publishing the full, unedited response here. The True Cost of Delayed Elections I read a recent...